Timothy Zahn writes the very best Star Wars books, and now he has a new one, “Star Wars: Allegiance”.

There are dozens of Star Wars books, expanding the universe of the six films. But none of them are as good as Timothy Zahn’s. The genre really launched with Timothy Zahn’s original sequels following on “Return of the Jedi”, “Heir to the Empire”, “Dark Force Rising”, and “The Last Command”.

In those books he expanded the Star Wars universe with characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (who tried to lead a resurgent empire after the death of the Emperor), Mara Jade (who became Luke Skywalker’s wife after a rocky decade), and Talon Karrde (master smuggler/information broker).

The same characters returned in the the follow-up “Hand of Thrawn” books, “Spectre of the Past” and “Vision of the Future”.

Zahn later returned to the themes he had created in “Survivor’s Quest” in which Luke and Mara travel to the crash site of an Old Republic mission intended to explore another galaxy, and “Outbound Flight” about the fate of that mission.

Originally George Lucas said he was going to make nine Star Wars films. He later revised it to six, with three prequels to the original three films. It may be that after Timothy Zahn mapped out the continuation from “Return of the Jedi”, Lucas could no longer create his own future, and perhaps there are reasons why the initial Zahn trilogy can’t be filmed.

The new book is placed in the period between the films “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back”. When the former film ends, Han has barely aligned himself with the rebels and Luke is just starting to learn Jedi skills. By the beginning of the latter, Han has basically joined up (even if he has plans to leave), he and Luke are much more of a team, and Luke’s skills have grown. The new book explores the transition. Han is asking himself about joining the rebels, he and Luke are starting to work together, preparing for the moment at the beginning of “The Empire Strikes Back” when Luke says “Han, old buddy”.

We meet characters from the first film, obviously Leia and Darth Vader, as well as General Rieekan, from Hoth base in “The Empire Strikes Back”. We have an early introduction to Mon Mothma, who otherwise first appears in “Return of the Jedi”. We also meet a very young Mara Jade, just beginning her service as the Emperor’s Hand, honing her skills and with a naive image of the empire is supposed to be.

Zahn also repeats his homage to the fans in “Survivor’s Quest” and introduces us to the 501st legion, named after the fans who dress up in armor and drill as storm troopers. In the ultimate homage, he makes them Vader’s personal troops. (Then again, the Acknowledgments thank the founder of the fan 501st for inspiring one of the best parts of the book, the five renegade do-gooder stormtroopers of the “Hand of Judgement”.

We know from Zahn’s previous books that Mara and Luke do not meet in this timeframe: Mara sees Luke in Jabba’s Palace, and the two actually meet one another much later. One of the fun things about this book is the way the various characters almost meet, all in the same place at the same time, but just missing.

We also gain an insight into why Vader was so quick to kill Admiral Ozzel at the beginning of “The Empire Strikes Back”. Ozzel’s actions as a captain in this book set the stage, and Vader comes off less horrific. A nice touch now that we know it is Anakin inside that black suit.

Zahn also introduces us to one of the characters we will see in the “Hand of Thrawn” books, the corrupt administrator Disra.

It would have been nice if Talon Karrde had wandered through, and where were the droids? C-3PO and R2-D2 are completely missing, which seems a bit strange, although I really didn’t think about it until after I finished reading the book.

But the person I really would have liked to have had the Zahn fill-in treatment is Jorj Car’das. Zahn created this kingpin of crime and told us about his recent history in the “Hand of Thrawn” books, then gave us a glimpse into his very early life in “Outbound Flight”, which was very satisfying. But this book would have been a nice opportunity to experience Car’das at the height of his criminal powers.

Zahn tends to space his creations out, so a direct sequel to “Allegiance” is probably not going to happen. But I would sure love to follow the adventures of those renegade stormtroopers.