In Conquerors' Pride, Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars(r) trilogy, unfurled an epic tale of drama and courage as the interstallar Commonwealth faced savage invasion by alien starships of unknown origin. Now he probes deeply into the world of the invaders themselves in one of the most powerful evocations of an alien society ever created.
The Zhirrzh have won a temporary respite in their war with the barbarians. But the Human captive Pheylan Cavanaugh has escaped, and for that Thrr-gilag, the young Searcher, finds himself disgraced, his bond-engagement to a female of a rival clan imperilled. Soon he becomes a target of hidden and powerful forces seeking to remake Zhirrzh society in their own merciless image. His only hope is to prove that the overclan authorities are wrong: that it was not the Humans who started the war.
But time is short. The forces of the Zhirrzh are overextended and face swift retaliation. The Zhirrzh have learned to conquer death itself -- but even that awesome power will be no match for the devastating might of the Human Conqueror armadas. Thrr-gilag soon comes to realize that his people face a two-fold threat: destruction by Human technology. . . or destruction from within.
From Booklist
The second novel in Zahn's new trilogy is another finely wrought space adventure. Its theme is interstellar war, as a society faces a new, mysterious, insensate, and deadly race--humans. The whole story is told from the viewpoint of the conquerors of the title--the aliens who call themselves the Zhirrzh--as they desperately try to figure out what hit them and to hit back before the humans unleash a rumored superweapon. Matters are further complicated because the Zhirrzh exist in two states, as biological bodies and, after the bodies die, as incorporeal entities called Elders. Both states are involved in every sort of social, political, and emotional complication, all of which Zahn treats with his usual skill. You may wish the characters' names did not contain so many consonants but, otherwise, hardly fault the book. Roland Green
From the Publisher
"This novel takes place from the alien Zhirrzh perspective, as we see the "conquerors" from inside their own culture -- one that believes humans to be the "conquerors without reason." Thrr-gilag and his fellow Alien Specialists face an audience with the Zhirrzh ruling body, the Overclan Seating. The confrontation is politically charged, since a human captive has escaped and the blame falls to Thrr-gilag. But the Zhirrzh race has even greater fears. The information they possess about a Human Conqueror superweapon called Circe makes many Zhirrzh leaders believe they may finally have met an opponent beyond their abilities to withstand. Others have a simple solution: destroy the Human Conquerors and add their worlds to Zhirrzh control.
Description:
In Conquerors' Pride, Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars(r) trilogy, unfurled an epic tale of drama and courage as the interstallar Commonwealth faced savage invasion by alien starships of unknown origin. Now he probes deeply into the world of the invaders themselves in one of the most powerful evocations of an alien society ever created.
The Zhirrzh have won a temporary respite in their war with the barbarians. But the Human captive Pheylan Cavanaugh has escaped, and for that Thrr-gilag, the young Searcher, finds himself disgraced, his bond-engagement to a female of a rival clan imperilled. Soon he becomes a target of hidden and powerful forces seeking to remake Zhirrzh society in their own merciless image. His only hope is to prove that the overclan authorities are wrong: that it was not the
Humans who started the war.
But time is short. The forces of the Zhirrzh are overextended and face swift retaliation. The Zhirrzh have learned to conquer death itself -- but even that awesome power will be no match for the devastating might of the Human Conqueror armadas. Thrr-gilag soon comes to realize that his people face a two-fold
threat: destruction by Human technology. . . or destruction from within.
From Booklist
The second novel in Zahn's new trilogy is another finely wrought space adventure. Its theme is interstellar war, as a society faces a new, mysterious, insensate, and deadly race--humans. The whole story is told from the viewpoint of the conquerors of the title--the aliens who call themselves the Zhirrzh--as they desperately try to figure out what hit them and to hit back before the humans unleash a rumored superweapon. Matters are further complicated because the Zhirrzh exist in two states, as biological bodies and, after the bodies die, as incorporeal entities called Elders. Both states are involved in every sort of social, political, and emotional complication, all of which Zahn treats with his usual skill. You may wish the characters' names did not contain so many consonants but, otherwise, hardly fault the book. Roland Green
From the Publisher
"This novel takes place from the alien Zhirrzh perspective, as we see the "conquerors" from inside their own culture -- one that believes humans to be the "conquerors without reason." Thrr-gilag and his fellow Alien Specialists face an audience with the Zhirrzh ruling body, the Overclan Seating. The confrontation is politically charged, since a human captive has escaped and the blame falls to Thrr-gilag. But the Zhirrzh race has even greater fears. The information they possess about a Human Conqueror superweapon called Circe makes many Zhirrzh leaders believe they may finally have met an opponent beyond their abilities to withstand. Others have a simple solution: destroy the Human Conquerors and add their worlds to Zhirrzh control.