"Conqueror's Pride" by Timothy Zahn is a good, solid space opera. It's a good read for fans of the genre.By "space opera", I mean a science fiction book that doesn't really explore any hard scientific themes, but instead focuses on plot and adventure. Maybe there will be some character development, but you definitely won't have a lot of scientific explanations as to how people can travel huge differences without the relativistic time dilation effect, and the aliens encountered won't be really weird and incomprehensible like they probably would be in actuality."Conqueror's Pride" is the first in a trilogy and it introduces the characters and universal setting for the series. The PlotThrough good, old-fashioned imperialism, humanity is pretty much the top of the food chain in the far future. Instead of the United Federation of Planets, we have the Commonwealth. Instead of Star Fleet, we have the Peacekeepers. This is certainly no shiny politically correct universe like in Star Trek, so it's a little more realistic, in my opinion.The book starts during a long period of peace. In the recent past, the Commonwealth "pacified" an alien race using their secret super-weapon called CIRCE. With the threat of this super weapon, the alien worlds in the Commonwealth don't dare rebel against the Commonwealth for fear of having the weapon used against them.The plot starts with a Peacekeeper task force meeting up with a new, unidentified alien fleet. Without provocation, this new fleet opens fire on the peacekeeper fleet, completely decimating them. The only survivor, Pheylan Cavanaugh, is captured by these new aliens.It just so happens that Pheylan is from a rich and influential family, who proceed to mount a rescue operation for him. The action proceeds from there, switching between Pheylan in captivity and his family's struggle to rescue him. There are a couple of interesting subplots regarding the Cavanaugh's struggles investigating the aliens, and getting involved in guerrilla warfare on a planet under siege by the aliens. There are even a couple of interesting twists and turns that are nice surprises within the plot. The GoodI liked the universal setting, with humanity possibly being the bad guys, or at least very imperialistic to a fault. This seems realistic and in keeping with history. In the past, humans have moved into the territory occupied by other, less technologically advanced humans and killed and subjugated them. Why wouldn't we do the same, if not more so, with non humans?The aliens were more "alien" than the average Star Trek alien; possessing motivations and methods that were not necessarily human.The main characters were written well enough that I could tell them apart and I wasn't confused as to who was who. I really got the impression that they were a family and that they loved each other enough to make the kind of sacrifices and effort that they did.The plot twists were great. They were rather unexpected (to me anyway) and greatly increased my attention and interest in the book. The Not-So-GoodThis is probably Monday morning quarterbacking, but I really felt there were some missed opportunities here.Maybe it's our current economic client, but I found it really hard to feel any kind of pathos or pity towards Pheylan, the son of super rich and super influential father. Not only was the family super rich and super powerful, it was a family that was so in love with each other that they'd make the Brady Bunch look like a daytime soap opera. This is not to say that I don't think rich people love their kids. It's just hard for me to feel sorry for rich people right now. I just thought that the novel would be better if the separate plot threads had separate characters. For example, why not make the Pheylan character a run-of-the-mill line officer from a regular middle class family? The struggles of his family and his comrades to lie, cheat, and steal a rescue operation would be more compelling for me. They wouldn't be able to buy themselves super advanced equipment, they'd have to cheat for it and steal it. The investigation of these new aggressive aliens and the guerrilla operations on the colony planet could be separate threads with separate characters. Having these threads meet up later in the series would be cool and clever.Perhaps having regular people steal and cheat for advanced military and technological equipment might be less realistic, though. However, I think it would depend on how it was written. Conclusion"Conqueror's Pride" is a good, solid read. It was good enough that I'm interested in seeing how it turns out. The plot twists made the book for me. If you like space operas, it's not the best out there, but you should check it out if you've read all the "leading" space operas and you're looking for something new.
(Update July 2013: The Conqueror's series is one of the most impressive stories I have ever read (I've read 2000). Although not all the books earned an A grade on first read because of the complexity, the overall series is a strong grade A. I suspect each story will earn a grade A on second read. The story includes more characters, situations, interactions, species, and concepts than most authors deal with in a lifetime. Yet the author manages to keep it all straight for the reader, an impressive major accomplishment. In all this there are only two major villains, both politicians - very interesting. This definitely deserves a second read.)2013 grade A. The book is easy to read, very enjoyable, and a very good length. I ordered the other two novels as soon as I finished this one.Book one in a series of three. The story is not fully resolved at the end. The specific purpose of the characters in this episode is meet, although they don't all know it, but the long story arc is just starting. At least one member is in jeopardy at the end, so make sure you have access to the next novels.The story takes place at the start of a space war and is told from the point of view of four members of a family as they separate. Occasionally I forgot which member was which but it was rare and usually only after I had missed reading the book for a couple of days. I also only once skipped intervening chapters and read ahead to find out what happened to a specific character.
Do You like book Conquerors' Pride (1994)?
The first in a trilogy about a vicious war between humanity and an alien race who attacked the humans' first-contact fleet without warning, stooping even to destroying helpless escape pods.This novel is written from humanity's point of view. It focuses only on a few characters, but describes the conflict very well. This one mostly deals with tension and build-up, leaving out epic space battles and things of that nature.I'm not being very descriptive, but it's a fairly complicated plot below the surface. Suffice it to say that the small sections of the conflict this book focuses on, and their characters, are worth reading about. Zahn makes nearly everything fun and interesting.
—Foomy
I read some of Zahn's Star Wars books as a teenager and they were better than most. When I spotted this in the local second hand shop I picked it up in a mood of pure curiosity.As the two star review should indicate 'it was ok'. It's a basic Space Opera world with touches of science, mainly difficulties of interstellar communication but not much else. The plethora of made up names and new words are meant to add colour, sometimes this works. At times they are plain irritating. What would have been wrong with 'representative' or 'senator' for a government official. Did we have to have the new word 'Parliminn' to show that this was exotic sci-fi?The basic plot is terribly simple, a first contact situation goes horribly wrong, the known galaxy faces a new unstoppable threat. A lone human is captured by the aliens and his family band together to plan a rescue when the state refuse. The characters are generic, the plot 'twists' at the end are hardly that unusual and I'm pretty sure after book one how the trilogy is going to resolve itself. That's the bad.What rescues the book for me, and made it interesting enough to read through is the universe Zahn has imagined and the way it is presented. There is no lengthy exposition chapters setting the scene, no rolling Star Wars style 'State of the Galaxy' intro. He just drops us in and leaves us to sink or swim. The gradual reveal of details and recent history was the most rewarding part of the book for me. What was this commonwealth? Why does everyone else resent NorCoords? What is a Copperhead? None of these are great mysteries but we come across the terms first, and their meanings appear later. Somehow far more rewarding than several series I have read that spend the first five chapters giving us all the details and then turn into story mode.I also enjoyed the fact that the Universe reflects so strongly the time that these books were published 1990s. A stellar commonwealth dominated by one faction (who are a very loosely disguised descendent of NATO) possess a superweapon and use the threat of it to dictate to other planets and races that they all live in harmony. This is the cause of much resentment. I believe that this gives the book an extra charm that it would not have possessed had I read it back in 1995.Having bashed it thoroughly, I have to admit that I've checked ebay to find the next volume. I'm not particularly interested in the characters, but I am curious about the alien race. I want to know what the White Pyramids are.
—John Sugden
This book had a similar feel to the Thrawn Star Wars trilogy that Zahn also wrote. In my opinion, that's a good thing. Conquerers' Pride really sucked me in, and I had a hard time putting it down until I had read all 389 pages of it.Part of the reason I liked the book is that as far as I can tell it was written solely to be entertaining, and that's what I was looking for when I checked it out at the library. It didn't try to teach me a lesson, it didn't have deep hidden symbolisms, etc. Great book to read if you enjoy Star Wars-type scifi.
—John
