I'll come out right out and say it: Timothy Zahn is easily the best Star Wars writer. It's not just because he writes the movie characters in a very authentic way, it's not just because he creates excellent new characters, and it's not even just because he writes excellent stories. Other writers in the SW EU also do these things, and mean, for instance, that the X-Wing series is probably my favorite set of books in the SW universe. However, I say Zahn is the best "Star Wars" writer in that he is by far the best at capturing the spirit and feeling of the movies, making his novels feel quintessentially Star Wars-y, beyond just having droids and the Force and all that.
Therefore I was very pleased to hear he was releasing a new SW book, and not only that, but one set during the original trilogy era, specifically between New Hope and Empire. A while back he released Allegiance, another book set in the same time period, and I thought at the time it was a one-off. This it technically still true, but I discovered Choices of One takes place immediately after Allegiance and features much of the same cast of characters; the lack of an overarching plot between the two prevents me from calling it a true sequel.
A big problem that arises when you work in a time period in between already established events (in this case, destruction of the first Death Star and the attack on Hoth) you're obviously limited in some ways: any pre-established character isn't only unkillable but also immune to anything permanent, lots of events just cannot happen, and you have to move towards a certain goal. Another big tendency in SW is to make every event involving Han, Luke, and Leia into the biggest crisis since yesterday. Fortunately, Zahn manages to avoid both problems in Choices; they're definitely doing stuff, and it's important for the Alliance, but it's not critical to the survival of the everything ever or anything like that.
Alongside the main trio, we also get the triumphant return of Mara Jade, longtime fan favorite, as well as Thrawn, my personal favorite Imperial of all time (sadly he did not get as much screentime as I would have liked). Additionally, the Hand a Judgement, a rogue stormtrooper squad introduced in Allegiance, makes another appearance. Many other characters make brief appearances, such as Palpatine, Darth Vader, Generals Cracken and Rieekan, and so on.
Overall the book goes very smoothly and drew me in quite quickly, which resulted in me finishing the book surprisingly fast. There was only one glaring issue that bugged me, namely that in past books it was firmly established that Mara Jade had never seen Skywalker prior to Jabba's Palace, and they end up very briefly meeting towards the end of Choices. It's a relatively minor detail, and it's definitely debatable, but all signs point to that Mara would not randomly forget a guy with a lightsaber.
Beyond that, Zahn does a good job of telling his story and filling in small details that factor in to the later books chronologically. I don't think it's the best book he's written for the universe, but it's still a very enjoyable read, especially if you're looking for a book that very closely emulates the feel of the original trilogy. I don't think it's necessarily the best Zahn book to start with, since the important of a lot of characters and events will be lost otherwise. With that said, it's an excellent addition to the Star Wars library, especially compared to some of the other recent works.
-HTMC
