STORY: Fourteen-year-old orphan Jack Morgan,is on the run and finds himself hiding out on an unoccupied planet, his only companion an artificial intelligence programmed with the personality of his con man uncle Virge. Jack unexpectedly meets Draycos, a dragon-like K'da, sole survivor of an advance team of K'da and due to circumstance the two must form a symbiotic relationship in order to survive and find out how to clear Jack's name and get the police off his back.

MY FEEDBACK:
1) SETTING - The title of the book brought expectations of a fantasy novel to mind so I was nicely surprised to see it was a sci-fi story. We get little peeks into an alien planet (it doesn't feel too alien though), space station/community, and a luxury space yacht (made me think of Fifth Element). The world is given very little detail but what is given is functional and entertaining. I look forward to the rest of the series fleshing the universe out a lot more.

2) CHARACTERS - I like our three protagonists a lot. Each one has thier separate voice and brings along individual strengths to the story. What is the appeal of the book is the growing friendship between Jack and Draycos. Nicely done.
My only complaint is that Draycos seems overly powerful to the point that it becomes almost too much to believe...even for an alien race.

3) PLOT - Here is where I knock things down from a 5 star to a 4 star. First of all, the story read fast and easy and before you know it you are done with all 250 pages. That is good. What is bad is that it feels like one big prologue (which it kind of is) to a much larger story, thus it leaves very little (almost nothing) resolved. How much longer do we have to wait till the next book comes out to hopefully resolve some of the story??? I hope not too long.
Also, Jack at one point goes on a "mission" on a space yacht...he and Draycos seem to do the "impossible" way too easy.
I did like the descent plot twists and turns. It was enough to keep me turning the pages.

OVERALL: This is my first Timothy Zahn book. It was a fun fast read, just perfect for summer when it is too hot to go outside. The story makes you want more but who knows how long you'll have to wait. Thus, if you think you'll forget everything before the next book comes out, then wait until the next book comes out and read them both back-to-back.

Draycos is a warrior poet of the K'da - a dragon on a scouting mission in the hopes of saving his entire species from certai demise at the hands of the Valahgua, an alien race bent on their destruction.

Jack is a 14 year old on the run from the law for a crime he did not commit. He does have a shady past, but wants to clean up and make a better life for himself. When the stories of these two collide, a fun and fast paced story (albeit one lacking a little bit in substance) results.

Jack becomes Draycos' "host", a symbiotic process where Jack gives Draycos the life force he needs, and Draycos helps Jack fight his way out of some sticky situations on the way to clearing his name and ultimately defeating the evil foes we get a brief glimpse of at the beginning of this book. They have some rip roaring adventures along the way.

The ending is an enormous cliffhanger (not to worry, as Zahn plans on making this a 6 book series).

Don't read this if you're looking for "serious" sci-fi. But if you don't mind a sometimes confusing, but upbeat narrative, choose this.

Science fiction has become one of two things: licensed property such as Star Trek or Star Wars or over-long, overwrought "epics." (400 pages of novel had better be brilliant...sadly most aren't...even Timothy Zahn)

Thank God Zahn remembers the fun of SciFi with THIS book.

Supposedly written for young adults...okay but it is a ripping good yarn, solid characters and fast. The reading equivilent to the Saturday matinee. Don't let the prospect that this is the first of six books daunt you...if all are this much fun, I hope they come monthly.

Manta's Gift blew me away when I read it. It exceeds my expectations of Zahn. The worst part was when it ended.

Thankyou Timothy Zahn for such a wonderful book!

One of his most original stories in years, Manta's Gift is about a young man, Matt Raimey (that's the name, right?), who, through an unfortunate skiing accident, becomes paralyzed. He thinks his life is over, until a mysterious man offers him a second chance: be born again as a manta ray-like Qanska.

It follows Raimey being born in an alien womb, all through his younger years, and into adulthood, when he finds out that he was really put there by Earth to spy on the Qanska for some reason (I won't give it away).

Mr. Zahn has created a unique alien species here, even more than in Conquerors' Heritage. What makes it more difficult is that they are so less advanced, and bear no resemblance to humans at all. He had to invent how they moved, what food they ate, their social structure, and their interdependence with their natural predators. It has nothing to do with technology, and a lot more to do with biology. It all seems amazing to me that he did it at all, let alone make it so interesting. Though slightly longer than I expected (in pages), it is very fast-paced, much more than Angelmass. Although that book had its flaws (few as they were), Manta's Gift comes to near perfection.

If I have anything bad to say about this book, it would be that Mr. Zahn left the book open for a possible sequel, then went off to write the Dragonback series (which I am very much looking forward to). Will there ever be a sequel to this excellent book? Even if there isn't, Manta's Gift is a book that should be on any self-respecting sci-fi fan's shelf.

The Story: Jakob Faraday and his partner descend in a tethered bathysphere in the atmosphere of Jupiter, and discover intelligent life, despite decades of Mankind observing Jupiter without a hint of these creatures. The Qanska look like a cross between manta rays and dolphin and, despite handling the language barrier fairly easily, Man and Qanska are not understanding each other's culture two decades after first contact. Faraday approaches Matthew Raimey, a shallow but intelligent, determined but arrogant young man about to graduate from business school -- who has a skiing accident leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. The plan, if Raimey accepts, is to transplant his brain and an artificial spinal cord into a Qanskan embryo, creating a hybrid being who could act as cultural bridge. But, is that all that Man is after? Is that all that the Qanska are after? Raimey renames himself "Manta" after becoming Qanskan, and the science-fiction mystery blends with a coming-of-age story to create quite an adventure.

This is a fast-paced, well-written novel with three-dimensional characters, a moderately complex plot, and an intriguing alien culture swimming in Jupiter's atmosphere. This is a real page-turner!

The only flaw I caught is that Mr. Zahn needed a technical consultant regarding quadriplegia. I am a quadriplegic, and there were a few errors in the description of Raimey's condition, post-injury and pre-Qanska, while he was paralyzed. However, that piece of the story is very small, and this flaw did not detract from the story for me. Most people will not even know that the description has inaccuracies.

I read this book when it first came out some time back. It's one of the few books that I can't seem to be able to keep out of my mind. It's so unique in the plot and story line, that I put it up there with the Uplift Wars saga. An excellent book. Read it, if you can find it. Get it if you can.

Triplet was found by ancient star farers, and they later found out that triplet was three worlds in one. The first world, thresh hold is normal, except its real dreary. The second world, Shamsheer, has such high techknowledgey that it is like magic the wierd thing is, no one knows about how it started. Then there is Karyx, with demons galore. My point being BUY THIS BOOK IT IS THE COOLEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ!

Actually i don\t want to write about this book. I just wanted to ask, why T. Zahn does not write some more stuff about the Blackcollars? I am waiting for a third Volume since years. That is no way to treat your fans! By the way, is there any possibility to get in touch with Zahn personally to ask him about that ?

The Star Wars Encyclopedia is a must for any SW fan out there. Inside, it details the places, people, aliens, technology and much more, all drawn from the numerous books, movies, comics, video games and anything else that is out there. It brings it all together in one, nice easy volume to look it all up in. It includes color pictures and diagrams among other things, and is all alphabeticalized for easy referense. It certainly comes in handy when you're reading a book and find that you MIGHT know this character, but not sure from where. This book'll tell you.
There is one major problem with this book however. It was written in 1997 and published in 1998, and since that period of time, there has been many more books and a movie out since then, and there is no reference to them. This includes The Phantom Menace, X-Wing Series Two, The Thrawn Duo, the New Jedi Order and a couple other stand-a-lones. But, that happens with any reference book and is still very helpful nonetheless.

If you're a big geekin' fanboy who needs to occasionally bone up on your general knowledge of that "Galaxy Far, Far Away", then the Star Wars Encyclopedia is the best A-to-Z quick reference guide to get. Not only does this giant tome cover subjects from the original trilogy, it also includes tidbits of info from the various Dark Horse comic books, the novels (including the Timothy Zahn trilogy), the Droids and Ewoks cartoon shows, and even the Ewoks TV movies and the infamous 'Star Wars Holiday Special'! There's all sorts of characters, weaponry, ships, equipment, planets, and much more between the covers! It's also a wonderful resource that'll help put an end to many of those knockdown-dragout Star Wars fanboy arguments you're always having with your buds! Well, maybe not that Greedo-firing-first debacle in 'Star Wars: The Special Edition', but you can't have everything! Also included: a quick-reference timeline so you can see which when each particular story- be it a movie, comic-book story arc, novel, or otherwise- happened in relation to the 'first' Star Wars flick, which is designated point zero in the timeline.

Although it's fairly pricey, the book is printed on semi-slick paper, and includes full-color photos & illustrations. Because of these two things, and other stuff that makes this trade-size tome a higher-quality Star Wars book than usual, I think it's more than worth the asking price!

'Late

I bought this book the first day it hit the shelf. It is amazing! It gives the definition to every Star Wars term possible. It's huge too. It's like a reference book you'd use in a library for research. You can learn so much about all of the characters, starships, planets, weapons, technology, etc.. It covers all Star Wars mediums from the movies themselves to books to role-playing games to card games to cartoons to T.V. shows to the lesser known Ewok movies to comics to whatever else you can think of. It has everything! I'm not kidding. I commend Stephen J. Sansweet for his willingness to create this helpful Star Wars recource that must have been so diificult to make. I've waited forever for this book. It has a timeline of all of the major events in the Star Wars universe to top it off! Wonderful! It's got hundreds of color photos too! Exciting!

Two big downsides, though. 1) I noticed a few errors in the book the first time I browsed through it. There are probably a good handful of mistakes in terms of accuracy of definitions in the book. For instance, in the front index where it gives the sources that the book got its information from, it says that "Wedge's Gamble" is volume 1 of the X-Wing series when it is really volume 2. But this is so minor. 2) The book will be outdated very, very soon. Actually, it already is because I noticed it does not have any reference to the recent book, "I, Jedi." And when the prequals come out, you can bet there will be a lot of material it will not have. Maybe there will be a second edition after the prequals.

Yet all in all, the book is something no Star Wars fan should pass up. Nobody. Not even you!

The Force is with us!

My first exposure to the writing of Timothy Zahn was his collection of Star Wars novels, which I was considerably impressed by. To this date, his are the only Star Wars books I have read multiple times. Naturally, I was eager to sample his work outside the realm of Star Wars.

Enter the Conquerors Trilogy. The crux of the plot centers around the humans contacting a new race of aliens with superior military strength that could very well bring about the destruction of the human race. Some of the subplots include a doomsday weapon which the humans must decide whether or not to use, the barriers the humans must overcome to communicate with the aliens, various political conspiracies and cover-ups, and a plethora of battle scenes.

Sound like about ten sci-fi novels you've already read?

It should, and this is where the entire Conquerors Trilogy becomes problematic. While ostensibly it is well written, it doesn't give us anything we haven't seen numerous times before. Overall, I found Zahn's plot devices and characters rather lackluster, and even cliched at times. Still, Zahn has a talent for telling a story with multi-faceted plots while keeping the pacing steady, and the Conquerors Trilogy is no exception. But it could have been so much more.

So if you haven't been down the "alien invasion" road before, or wouldn't mind going down it again, you may find Conquerors' Pride an enjoyable read. But with so many other (and often better) sci-fi novels out there....

Zahn has showed his readers what he can do, and now he's pushing it to the limits. Zahn did a commendable job on the Star Wars Trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn trilogy and not to mention all his other books, but in Conquerers' Series, he pushes it to the limits, and it all starts in this little book:

In Conquerers' Pride, the humans come across an alien race of unkown origin. The battle ends within six minutes and it turns out to be a slaughtering. The authorities calim there were no survivors of this terrible loss. Yet Lord Stewart Cavanagh finds out one may have survived, his son: Commander Pheylan Cavanagh. Invasion is on the Peacekeeper's mind as they push secuirty to it's highest. Lord Cavanagh recruits Adam Quinn to help rescue Pheylan. Quinn assembles a force of Copperheads and steals the fighters out of Commonwealth secuirty zones to rush to Pheylan's rescue. But Pheylan has a plan of his own. Outside his glass cell he hears a Mrach ship landing and he plays sick. Once Pheylan got outside his plan went on from there . . .

As for the person who fell asleep while reading this book, don't read it at 11:00 and you won't fall asleep :-)

I read these books when they first came out, the whole trilogy, based on the fact that I loved Zahn's Star Wars set so well. I think no other SF writer has contrived such cool aliens or such a great misunderstanding between humans and ET's. I loaned this particular book to someone who did not return it (shame on them), and so now I am buying it again so I can reread the series over and over.

When I read this book, I have to say that it reminded me of the first book in this trilogy. Like the first book, it was one of the best books I have ever read. The author held the true personalities of the characters while adding new characters, ships, and aliens that almost every other Star Wars author used at least one thing that Timothy Zahn added{Does not include original trilogy or Splintor of the Mind's eye.} The authors don't relate to other Star Wars books except Barbara Hambly and Kevin J. Anderson. And Timothey Zahn and Michael Stackpole. Most of the people who did not like this book had to say something about how small the Imperial Fleet was. Any leader knows that the main bulk of your force should be to defending your territory. Zahn does not need to paint a picture for us about that. It is obvious that those 5 Destroyers are Thrawn's personal fleet for the most important missions. Like the Executer, the Super Star Destroyer was to Darth Vader. And by now, the Empire is broken up in fractions, with most of the Imperial fleet with individual warlords. I kind of remember that after Thrawn lost a Destroyer in Dark Force Rising, that he still had 5 destroyer in the Last Command. A great read for Star Wars fans and non-Star Wars fans!

Dark Force Rising is the second book in the Thrawn trilogy. Rumors once circulated that the Thrawn trilogy was Star Wars Episodes 7, 8, and 9. Well, if the rumors weren't true, then they should have been. Though I believe Empire Strikes Back to be the ultimate Star Wars film, Dark Force Rising could easily be comparable in character, plot, pace, mood, and overall quality.

Through the voice of the narrative, the rich design of the worlds, and the intensity of the characters, Timothy Zahn recreates the Star Wars universe to absolute perfection. The character of the evil Grand Admiral Thrawn is drawn to show that he is quite distinct from Darth Vader, and could even possible rival Vader as a leader. Where Vader ruled with fear, Thrawn ruled with intellect.

Besides Thrawn, two of the best characters in Dark Force Rising are Talon Karde and Mara Jade. Talon Karde's struggle to escape the clutches of the Empire is shown right at the very beginning of the novel. With Mara Jade at his side, they watched his home in Heir to the Empire be taken away. Mara Jade continues to contain her inner struggle with wanting to kill Luke Skywalker. But, it seems she becomes more of a transitional character, as she begins to look to Luke for help to free Karde from Thrawn. The struggle to free Karde would remind anyone of the scenes in A New Hope when Luke tried to save Leia from the Death Star.

Dark Force Rising is the darkest of the trilogy. The term 'Dark Force' has two meanings. The first meaning represents the fleet of 200 abandoned Clone Wars Destroyers out in the middle of the universe, and the one who possesses the fleet has the chance to win the overall war. The second meaning is Thrawn's power rising in the universe.

The book carries three separate storylines. The first storyline deals with the moral conflicts of Luke and the insane Master C'baoth. The second deals with Leia trying to convince the loyal imperial Noghri to turn away from the Empire and join the new republic. Finally, the third storyline deals with Han and Lando, as they deal with the internal political uprising led by Councilor Fey'lya.

The end of the book contains a surprise that would compell the reader to grab for the last book in the series as soon as the second book is complete.

While this book isn't as exciting as Heir to the Empire, and not as immensly well written as The Last Command, it's still an excellent book that is essential to understanding the whole trilogy. Since I consider this trilogy to be the cornerstone of Star Wars fiction, I would therefor recommend it to anyone, even the casual fan who would just kind of like to know what happened next. I would defenitely also recommend reading Heir to the Empire first, since otherwise this book will make no sense what so ever. For those of you just getting into Star Wars fiction, this is a very good place to start. In fact, I would even recommend reading this series before the ones set before it, since that way it will give a better general perspective of the overall story. Several important things happen in this series that have a profound effect on everything that comes after it, Han and Leia have their first children, Jacen and Jaina, the New Republic meets it's match (once again) and for that matter so does Luke. Anyway, the story of this book in particular basically revolved around a bunch of space battles in which everyone is fighting over the Katana Fleet, or the Dark Force, which is a fleet of dreadknots (or however that's spelled) that was lost some time ago. The smuggler Talon Karrde and his second in command Mara Jade know where it is, and promise to give it to the New Republic, something that makes Mara Jade (a former imperial assasin/spy with an intense hatred of Luke, and also happens to be highly force sensitive) very displeased. Meanwhile, a pregnant Leia is on Honoghor trying to consolidate the Noghri into joining the New Republic. Though, while this book is full to the brim with vivid battles of all kinds, there is plenty of character stuff to satisfy also. Original and new characters alike are portrayed magnificently, both in their personalities and in their interactions with the other characters. Another excellent thing about this series is that it is the official introduction of Mara Jade, who is possibly the coolest and most interesting character in Star Wars. Her interactions with Luke especially were superb, very fun and interesting. When I read this book for the first time I found it hard to believe those two were going to end up together, even if it does happen ten years later, but now the second time around I can see the subtle attraction developing between them. I think this will be a relationship I will enjoy for once, much better than Luke's other relationships (Gaeriel, Callista(gagging noises)) Anyway, this is an excellent book that I would definitely recommend to any Star Wars fan, child or adult.

(First off to that reviewer who all but said anyone who loved Mara Jade had a mud-for-brains mentality: grow up. I don't care if you dislike Mara or not, but if you're going to flame those who do like her- at least justify your opinion somewhat, like the other anti-Mara reviewer did, or you're just as guilty of being as stupid as you say we apparently are.) Anyway: I adored this series; it's what turned me on to the comic series side of SW. The art was wonderful: almost exactly how I pictured Mara-- beautiful yet deadly and *not* a Pamela Lee-esque bimbo, and the other characters were done well too-- the artist's style fits in very well with Star Wars, IMO. The storyline gave a very good look at Mara's character, probably what I loved best about this series, and you can very easily see this woman developing into the woman we see in the books later on-- this probably in part to her own creator being one of the writers. It was well-developed and worthy of the previous work I've seen from Zahn and Stackpole-- oh heck, I'll just say it. I *loved* this series! :)

Star Wars comics can range from exhilerating to, well, extremely disappointing. But it's hard to go wrong with Mara Jade. She is such a good addition to the SW universe -- first of all, a strong female character, and we all know that the SW universe is short on those. But what I love about Mara is that she defies the Star Wars clear-cut good vs. evil dichotomy which makes for great movies but can sometimes be too simplistic in novels and comics. In this graphic novel, Mara is on the side of the baddies, but she always has integrity, and we somehow end up liking her despite her flaws. And she is the perfect force to temper Luke's farmboy blond-haired unwavering *goodness!*

The artwork is absolutely beautiful as well. Nice color, too. The only better Star Wars art, imho, is Star Wars Union which is also not to be missed!

I was a fan of Zahn's novels, but this gave me a different approach to Mara. Her character is portrayed well in this comic. The art is great, combined with the direction of Zahn, it has made it one of my favorite comics of all time. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Mara Jade, the Star Wars series, or someone who just wants to get a taste of this world.

After Zahn's great start to this series, the middle book suffers from the usual "middle book" syndrome of trilogies. It's not awful, but it just doesn't live up to the previous book. The aliens all talk like they just escaped from a bad melodrama compared to the sparkling dialogue of the humans in the first novel. Also Zahn makes a few goofs hither and yon, and showed that he didn't do a whole lot of research. For example, an alien drug that he made up for this book he gives the name "premarin" which had me laughing out loud. (Premarin is an estrogen replacement drug currently on the market.) Soooo, male aliens suffer from menopause? This book was so lukewarm that I doubt I'll even bother with the third novel in the series.

This book is terrific. The alien viewpoint puts the reader in the aliens shoes, showing (near the end of the book) exacly what started this war. It tyrns the bloodthirsty barabarians agressors (The typical view for the enemy alien in Sci-fi) and turns them into a real species, with their own histories, customs and oddities. The stugle for power by some, and the political backstabbing is so similar to our own, it sometimes made me laugh out loud! In short, I reccomend the entire series to anyone who likes sci-fi.

By far better than the first, this chapter of the Conquerors Series shows us the other side of the epic battle--the alien. The alien viewpoint, almost unheard of, turns these barbarians-like aliens into fully relaized charcters with emotions just like humans. They are good and bad, some you wish would die because they are so self serving. Anyone familliar with Washington area politics will get a laugh at the back-stabbing manipulating that takes place within the alien senate. These aliens are just like humans in that regard: lust for power clouds every species' judgement. With the entire book written from the alien point of view, Zahn has truly annonuced that he is one of sci-fi's top writers.

I was surprised to read some negative reviews about one or more book of the trilogy: Conquerors' Pride, Heritage and Legacy. The first book is narrated from an almost exclusively human viewpoint. The second book shows things from the alien viewpoint and Zahn uses it to develop on the alien culture, and you realize in the end that they have worries and interests just like us. In the third book humans and aliens finally make contact and so Zahn goes back and forth between aliens and humans. I think that Zahn did a very good job at developing the story in this way. It's tough to write an entire book only on an alien species' viewpoint, and Zahn should be given credit for this. I think he did such a good job because while I was reading I often built such a clear mental picture of the scenes that I felt as if I were there myself! (And sometimes wished I HAD been). When I finished the first book, I had to wait for months - and suffered terribly - before the second one came out, and so it went for the third. The bottom line is this: in the science fiction genre, if you like suspense, adventure, space battles, and if you like to read about aliens, "good" or "bad" as they may be, then you won't be disappointed.

I was thouroughly impressed with Zahn's three Star Wars novels, so I went looking for more of his work on sci-fi. I found "Conquerors' Pride" and enjoyed it. I had to wait an eternity for the next book "Conquerors' Heritage" but it was worth the wait. I had to wait another eternity for "Conquerors' Legacy" to come out, but it was even better than the first two books in the series. Zahn is a master at writing from different points of view. The subtle little things that make a day go wrong or go right are explored from both sides. Sometimes luck is a factor, and sometimes naivete is a greater factor. I look forward to more of Zahn's works, and I recomend that anyone into sci-fi read his books. (and Mr. Zahn, if you read this, thank you for the many hours of enjoyment you have given me) : )

I really liked this book. I beat my mom to reading it luckily, and it was really great. The first one I really liked and same with the seconed, but this might just be the best of the three. It includes all of the characters from both books, so instead of just haaving one species P.O.V. on the story, you get both, and everyone you want from both. I found the story exciting, and parts of it funny, and I would recommend it to people, especially if they are sciencefiction lovers.

Both these stories are pretty easy and quick to read, Zahn's Cascade Point being the easier one. Like most of Zahn's stories it takes a single sf idea - the "cascade point" at which you see all possible alternate realities at once - and explores it. I found the idea kind of interesting, but a little contrived.
The other story, Greg Bear's Hardfought, blew my mind. At first the narrative is a little confusing, but once you get used to that it's okay. It deals with an interstellar war in the extreme future of humanity, and the ways our species has evolved and adapted to the war's requirements. I read this a few years ago, so I don't remember specific points too clearly, but I can remember the way Bear wrote it. Bear has never been interested in making his narratives straightforward or simple, either in the complexity of the plot or in the prose he uses, and this is no exception. Some people are probably put off by the narrative not being totally clear, but I loved it (and I'm sure that if you read it a little slower and think a little more, it will all make sense).

Seems some of the previous reviwers overlooked the fact that there were two authors involved in this work. Although I like Timothy Zahn a lot, I'm a dyed in the wool Bear fan, and Hardfought is one of the few shorts (of any author) I re-read over and over again. Shoehorned into this story are commentaries on the consequences of total war, cloning, social changes over vast periods of time, political back-handedness, speciesism, and manipulation of popular culture. Plus ripping action and even some tepid sex! The open-ended ending appeals to me too...I'm sure the editors hated it. Another example of Bear's mastery. Oh, and Zahn's story was good too.

Just Superb! The way Mr. Zahn writes as usual makes me wish for more. Now, the cascade point idea is one of the best in Sci Fi, clever and original. I only regret that the book is not as big as I would wanted it to be, but it makes for an excelent reading for those Sci Fi readers. Highly reccomended!