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Blackcollar #1
The Blackcollar
Allen Caine was too young to remember when the Earth had not been a conquered planet, one of many such in the huge and sprawling Rygril empire, but he knew of the legendary blackcollars, guerilla warriors trained to the limit of human speed and skill, then turned into nearly superhuman combatants by use of the now-lost backlash drug. Earth and its former colony worlds had been overwhelmed, but sparks of rebellion still smoldered, and the rebel underground on Earth had sent Caine on an undercover mission to the former Earth colony of Plinry, where there was a faint hope that a blackcollar unit still existed. The underground alone knew of a secret that might be humanity's ace in the hole. And if a remnant of blackcollar fighters still existed on Plinry, they were the only hope of playing that ace in a final bid for the freedom of humanity.
This book has appeared in parts as The Blackcollar and Blackcollar: The Backlash Mission. This is the first unified appearance of the complete book.
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1983
237 people are currently reading
1173 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Zahn
488 books8,598 followersTimothy Zahn attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and died. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
December 27, 2023
Anachronisms aside, this was more fun than I thought it would be. Essentially a story with futuristic ninjas battling loyalty conditioned alien collaborators in order to obtain a stash of game changing space ships. Yep, it's like that.
Zahn is probably more famous as a Star Wars writer these days, but this showcases he had some writing chops way back when already.
For me, the best part in all of this was the way the story twisted and kinked and offered up all kinds of pleasant surprises as our enigmatic heroes stay one step ahead of the baddies. Fun ending included at no extra cost.
4 Shuriken.
Zahn is probably more famous as a Star Wars writer these days, but this showcases he had some writing chops way back when already.
For me, the best part in all of this was the way the story twisted and kinked and offered up all kinds of pleasant surprises as our enigmatic heroes stay one step ahead of the baddies. Fun ending included at no extra cost.
4 Shuriken.
July 15, 2014
The Blackcollar marks the beginning of Timothy Zahn's career that would culminate in the creation of the best Star Wars trilogy on the market. As he is my favorite author, I couldn't miss out on this one.
ETA 06/09/14: After reading more books and thinking back on my feelings for this book, I have revised the rating on this book and bumped it down to 3 stars. This was a good book, but not great, like some of Zahn's later books. That said, 3 stars still means I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Plot:
Allen Caine is a part of a rebellious faction that wants to unseat the Ryqril from the Terran Democratic Empire. He is sent to Plinry to uncover the location of 5 starships and recruit a select group of former warriors, the Blackcollars, to help him in his mission.
Good:
If you want action, this is definitely your book. Not ten pages into the book, Allen Caine must flee Earth because his cell has been compromised. From there, he goes to Plinry and is quickly involved in a Blackcollar plan to escape from the Plinry system. Escapes, attacks, reconnaissance, this book holds your attention (especially during the explosive spy revelation at the end!).
Timothy Zahn clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the blackcollars, their fighting style, and their culture. This effort is well-placed as the blackcollars are a convincing military unit.
Some of Zahn's characters, most notably Prefect Galway, are well-fleshed out and given unusual and unique perspectives. Also, Caine's reaction to his birth is very interesting.
Lastly, I was intrigued by Zahn's brief mention of the loyalty conditioning. I was amazed that the characters that possessed it remembered it and wished Zahn had spent more time on this concept.
Bad:
While a great action/adventure novel, this lacks Zahn's depth of character seen in later novels. Allen Caine, Damon Lathe, and others are 1- or 2-D. Further, there is some confusion as the novel starts out from Caine's perspective and quickly moves to Lathe's. This is not bad, but I was led to believe that Caine was the protagonist, not Lathe. As I continued to read, Caine moved to unimportance and Lathe returned to the forefront. When the view returns to Caine, the transition seems clunky and irrelevant.
Some of the situations that the blackcollars are able to pull themselves out of with minimal or no casualties is beyond belief--even with their chemical-induced youth and strength. Zahn also fails to detail exactly what makes the Ryqril bad. I get the impression that they kill others for not listening, but what exactly did they change about the government (besides that humans no longer govern themselves)? And the conclusion is decidedly lackluster--especially after the breakneck pace of the chapters prior.
Finally, and this is more the publishers fault that Zahn's, the back of my book insinuated that the whole book would detail Caine's attempt to find the blackcollars. In the actual book, he does this in about 50 pages. The rest details finding the spaceships.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Dialogue includes da**, he**, b****. A woman tries to seduce Lathe. Violence includes the use of martial arts, kicks to the head, the use of nunchaku, paralysis darts, and the like. Some mentioning of beheading, disarming, and the like (not for the squeamish).
Overall:
A good first start at the one who would launch the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Once you start, you won't be able to put it down. If you want science fiction action/adventure, this is your book. If you are looking for deep characters, go to Zahn's later novels.
ETA 06/09/14: After reading more books and thinking back on my feelings for this book, I have revised the rating on this book and bumped it down to 3 stars. This was a good book, but not great, like some of Zahn's later books. That said, 3 stars still means I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Plot:
Allen Caine is a part of a rebellious faction that wants to unseat the Ryqril from the Terran Democratic Empire. He is sent to Plinry to uncover the location of 5 starships and recruit a select group of former warriors, the Blackcollars, to help him in his mission.
Good:
If you want action, this is definitely your book. Not ten pages into the book, Allen Caine must flee Earth because his cell has been compromised. From there, he goes to Plinry and is quickly involved in a Blackcollar plan to escape from the Plinry system. Escapes, attacks, reconnaissance, this book holds your attention (especially during the explosive spy revelation at the end!).
Timothy Zahn clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the blackcollars, their fighting style, and their culture. This effort is well-placed as the blackcollars are a convincing military unit.
Some of Zahn's characters, most notably Prefect Galway, are well-fleshed out and given unusual and unique perspectives. Also, Caine's reaction to his birth is very interesting.
Lastly, I was intrigued by Zahn's brief mention of the loyalty conditioning. I was amazed that the characters that possessed it remembered it and wished Zahn had spent more time on this concept.
Bad:
While a great action/adventure novel, this lacks Zahn's depth of character seen in later novels. Allen Caine, Damon Lathe, and others are 1- or 2-D. Further, there is some confusion as the novel starts out from Caine's perspective and quickly moves to Lathe's. This is not bad, but I was led to believe that Caine was the protagonist, not Lathe. As I continued to read, Caine moved to unimportance and Lathe returned to the forefront. When the view returns to Caine, the transition seems clunky and irrelevant.
Some of the situations that the blackcollars are able to pull themselves out of with minimal or no casualties is beyond belief--even with their chemical-induced youth and strength. Zahn also fails to detail exactly what makes the Ryqril bad. I get the impression that they kill others for not listening, but what exactly did they change about the government (besides that humans no longer govern themselves)? And the conclusion is decidedly lackluster--especially after the breakneck pace of the chapters prior.
Finally, and this is more the publishers fault that Zahn's, the back of my book insinuated that the whole book would detail Caine's attempt to find the blackcollars. In the actual book, he does this in about 50 pages. The rest details finding the spaceships.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Dialogue includes da**, he**, b****. A woman tries to seduce Lathe. Violence includes the use of martial arts, kicks to the head, the use of nunchaku, paralysis darts, and the like. Some mentioning of beheading, disarming, and the like (not for the squeamish).
Overall:
A good first start at the one who would launch the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Once you start, you won't be able to put it down. If you want science fiction action/adventure, this is your book. If you are looking for deep characters, go to Zahn's later novels.
December 11, 2017
I'm afraid it will be another few minutes--one of the city's computers broke down yesterday and the other two are under a heavy load.
Humanity had settled several planets when they first encountered these aliens. In the beginning they seemed ok, then war broke out and--after decades of space war--humanity lost and the aliens took over by brainwashing humanity's leadership. But there's a resistance! Some people on Earth are still trying to get back at the aliens. They are sending Caine--the protagonist!--to another planet to retrieve secret information about something that might possibly give them an edge against the aliens. Also there used to be a bunch of high-tech ninja warriors called Blackcollars who were the elites in the fight against the aliens and the protagonist is also supposed to figure out if there still are any left on that other planet.
The customs check was little more than a formality. Besides his clothing, Caine had brought only a pocket videorecorder, a few spare cassettes, and the pills he'd been given at the New Geneva 'port. Everything was quickly cleared, and minutes later Caine and Galway were riding in the back seat of a Security patrol car toward the city of Capstone. Ragusin, who seemed to be the strong silent type, was driving.
This was written in the early-ish 80s (1983) and that just shows too much. When a "pocket video recorder with cassettes" is the high-tech device... I am just having trouble seeing this as anything but dated and dusty.
Also, I totally get the 80s fascination with all things Japanese but decades later high-tech ninjas just aren't interesting enough to carry a whole world. Back then the whole setup with the aliens and their conditioning of the human leadership might have connected to some political issue of the day but I just don't see that.
The plot seems to take a few unexpected turns at the start just to swing back to straight-forward very quickly when it turns out the old Blackcollars anticipated Galway's every move and... they really only faked their senility.
For me the biggest put-off is the language. Jolting, unsubtle, too often telling... genre has evolved a few levels since then.
Galway gave a smile that was well on its way to becoming a simper, and that smile told Caine more than anything the prefect could have said. It was not the kind of smile given by a Security head to a suspected rebel, but rather the kind given by a rank-conscious politician to an official whose influence was likely greater than his own. Cain's cover was still intact.
This shows once again that if the worldbuilding isn't interesting and I don't connect with the characters, the plot doesn't matter. Also I don't think I have seen a named female character that said more than a single sentence. The language is just the final straw... I'll keep it at 2 stars because this book just bored me, it didn't actually make me mad for wasting my time.
Humanity had settled several planets when they first encountered these aliens. In the beginning they seemed ok, then war broke out and--after decades of space war--humanity lost and the aliens took over by brainwashing humanity's leadership. But there's a resistance! Some people on Earth are still trying to get back at the aliens. They are sending Caine--the protagonist!--to another planet to retrieve secret information about something that might possibly give them an edge against the aliens. Also there used to be a bunch of high-tech ninja warriors called Blackcollars who were the elites in the fight against the aliens and the protagonist is also supposed to figure out if there still are any left on that other planet.
The customs check was little more than a formality. Besides his clothing, Caine had brought only a pocket videorecorder, a few spare cassettes, and the pills he'd been given at the New Geneva 'port. Everything was quickly cleared, and minutes later Caine and Galway were riding in the back seat of a Security patrol car toward the city of Capstone. Ragusin, who seemed to be the strong silent type, was driving.
This was written in the early-ish 80s (1983) and that just shows too much. When a "pocket video recorder with cassettes" is the high-tech device... I am just having trouble seeing this as anything but dated and dusty.
Also, I totally get the 80s fascination with all things Japanese but decades later high-tech ninjas just aren't interesting enough to carry a whole world. Back then the whole setup with the aliens and their conditioning of the human leadership might have connected to some political issue of the day but I just don't see that.
The plot seems to take a few unexpected turns at the start just to swing back to straight-forward very quickly when it turns out the old Blackcollars anticipated Galway's every move and... they really only faked their senility.
For me the biggest put-off is the language. Jolting, unsubtle, too often telling... genre has evolved a few levels since then.
Galway gave a smile that was well on its way to becoming a simper, and that smile told Caine more than anything the prefect could have said. It was not the kind of smile given by a Security head to a suspected rebel, but rather the kind given by a rank-conscious politician to an official whose influence was likely greater than his own. Cain's cover was still intact.
This shows once again that if the worldbuilding isn't interesting and I don't connect with the characters, the plot doesn't matter. Also I don't think I have seen a named female character that said more than a single sentence. The language is just the final straw... I'll keep it at 2 stars because this book just bored me, it didn't actually make me mad for wasting my time.
June 17, 2024
This was Zahn's first novel, and oh boy it shows.
First, the good: the plot moved at a nice clip, and there were a number of Zahn's requisite twists right up until the end.
But the meh:
--The POVs jump not very smoothly from Allen Caine (the young Earth operative) to Lathe the head Blackcollar to other Blackcollars to the villainous human collaborators.
--Despite being set in the 25th century, the tech is very 1980s--think an archive filled with tapes.
--I had thought that the Blackcollars were like genetically-modified marines (maybe confusing these books with the Cobra novels?), but they're ninjas complete with nunchaku and throwing stars.
--There are four named women in the whole book, and one tries to seduce Lathe, two are middle-aged married ladies who say very little, and the fourth is a resistance fighter who Allen does not find attractive. I just can't buy that if Earth was conquered by an alien race, the resistance movement would be 99.9% men. (For instance: why are the Blackcollars on Plinry solely recruiting teenage boys when teenage girls are much scarier?)
As a side note: I think this ebook was an OCR conversion that didn't get proofread, because there were a ton of little punctuation and word errors.
I don't think I'm going to read book #2, The Backlash Mission. I think that jumping ahead ten years in Zahn's bibliography to the Conquerors Saga (start with Conquerors' Pride) shows Zahn had improved exponentially in his prose and plotting, and his characters are likewise deeper and more complex.
First, the good: the plot moved at a nice clip, and there were a number of Zahn's requisite twists right up until the end.
But the meh:
--The POVs jump not very smoothly from Allen Caine (the young Earth operative) to Lathe the head Blackcollar to other Blackcollars to the villainous human collaborators.
--Despite being set in the 25th century, the tech is very 1980s--think an archive filled with tapes.
--I had thought that the Blackcollars were like genetically-modified marines (maybe confusing these books with the Cobra novels?), but they're ninjas complete with nunchaku and throwing stars.
--There are four named women in the whole book, and one tries to seduce Lathe, two are middle-aged married ladies who say very little, and the fourth is a resistance fighter who Allen does not find attractive. I just can't buy that if Earth was conquered by an alien race, the resistance movement would be 99.9% men. (For instance: why are the Blackcollars on Plinry solely recruiting teenage boys when teenage girls are much scarier?)
As a side note: I think this ebook was an OCR conversion that didn't get proofread, because there were a ton of little punctuation and word errors.
I don't think I'm going to read book #2, The Backlash Mission. I think that jumping ahead ten years in Zahn's bibliography to the Conquerors Saga (start with Conquerors' Pride) shows Zahn had improved exponentially in his prose and plotting, and his characters are likewise deeper and more complex.
May 2, 2022
Meh. This was written in the early 1980s and it shows. I enjoyed Zahn's Star Wars books, which is probably why I put this series on my TBR, but I won't be continuing with it.
The Blackcollar reads like a classic kung-fu movie, rather than a novel. Characters aren't developed at all, and a bunch of the Blackcollars are given so little personality they are basically interchangeable. The action sequences are written well, and there a lot of action sequences, but the plot is basic. In the future, humans have been conquered by an alien species. The resistance sends a young operative, Allen Caine, to another planet on a secret mission. He is to contact whatever is left of the resistance on that planet and gain access to the government archives to find a secret that was hidden away by the resistance. Despite there being no intel about the situation on that planet, he makes contact with zero difficulty (super easy, barely an inconvenience). Caine finds the famed Blackcollars, the most elite human fighting force, and together they embark on a mission to yet another planet, where they hope to find five Nova class starships that were hidden away before the aliens won. Apparently, just five of these ships would be enough to possibly overthrow the aliens. Yeah, that's flimsy.
I'm not even bothered by the dated technology and complete lack of women (ok, there were a few women but one was a honey pot and the other was so plain that Caine's only thought was disappointment). I expect that from sci-fi this old. But I want more depth to my characters and a little more effort put into a believable plot. The narrative also jumps around from Caine and Lathe (the head Blackcollar) to random POVs of the humans working for the aliens, which is jarring at times because there is no break in the kindle version between the POVs. Because we get the POVs of the enemy, we lose a lot of suspense. The major twist, a spy in the resistance organization, is overused to the point where I laughed when the final spy was revealed. But not as hard as I laughed at the character named Tardy Spadafora.
The Blackcollar reads like a classic kung-fu movie, rather than a novel. Characters aren't developed at all, and a bunch of the Blackcollars are given so little personality they are basically interchangeable. The action sequences are written well, and there a lot of action sequences, but the plot is basic. In the future, humans have been conquered by an alien species. The resistance sends a young operative, Allen Caine, to another planet on a secret mission. He is to contact whatever is left of the resistance on that planet and gain access to the government archives to find a secret that was hidden away by the resistance. Despite there being no intel about the situation on that planet, he makes contact with zero difficulty (super easy, barely an inconvenience). Caine finds the famed Blackcollars, the most elite human fighting force, and together they embark on a mission to yet another planet, where they hope to find five Nova class starships that were hidden away before the aliens won. Apparently, just five of these ships would be enough to possibly overthrow the aliens. Yeah, that's flimsy.
I'm not even bothered by the dated technology and complete lack of women (ok, there were a few women but one was a honey pot and the other was so plain that Caine's only thought was disappointment). I expect that from sci-fi this old. But I want more depth to my characters and a little more effort put into a believable plot. The narrative also jumps around from Caine and Lathe (the head Blackcollar) to random POVs of the humans working for the aliens, which is jarring at times because there is no break in the kindle version between the POVs. Because we get the POVs of the enemy, we lose a lot of suspense. The major twist, a spy in the resistance organization, is overused to the point where I laughed when the final spy was revealed. But not as hard as I laughed at the character named Tardy Spadafora.
February 17, 2026
Mediocre, plot driven, clunky military sci-fi, with drug-enhanced middle aged ninja guerilla warriors, aliens and alien collaborators, planets, spies, missing starships and flat cardboard characters.
December 31, 2016
For some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to track down a book I'd had when I was a kid. But all I remembered was the cover image - couldn't remember the author, title, character names, nothing. So I went to the Reddit forum What's That Book?, and wrote this:
And within 24 hours, someone came back at me with the title of this series. (!) I looked it up on Amazon, and there's the cover I was thinking of! Amazing!
So of course, I had to read it. But when I get my hands on it, I realize it's the second book in a series. As a kid, I did not know this - I'd just read that second book and walked away. 'Cause I was, y'know, not too bright.
So I track down the other two books in the series, and this one was first.
This is typical '80's sci-fi: Space ninjas versus aliens.
It's not great. But it's, surprisingly, not terrible, either.
Hey there, Gang.
I'm trying to track down the title of a book I read as a kid; it would have been published in the 1980's (maybe late '70's, but more likely mid-'80's). I am working off a long-buried memory here, but here's what I've got for details:
The main characters are soldiers who get some sort of serum, plus they have some cool black outfits with headpiece/helmets, goggles, maybe built-in wings (like modern wingsuits).
There are a few scenes where they are jumping out of planes.
The cover art of the paperback I had mostly featured one of these soldiers, with a few others in the background; the dude in front looked a bit like Batman.
That's about all I have to go on, which I realize is not much. Any help would be appreciated!
And within 24 hours, someone came back at me with the title of this series. (!) I looked it up on Amazon, and there's the cover I was thinking of! Amazing!
So of course, I had to read it. But when I get my hands on it, I realize it's the second book in a series. As a kid, I did not know this - I'd just read that second book and walked away. 'Cause I was, y'know, not too bright.
So I track down the other two books in the series, and this one was first.
This is typical '80's sci-fi: Space ninjas versus aliens.
It's not great. But it's, surprisingly, not terrible, either.
April 21, 2013
If you are a Star Wars fan (book type), you probably know Timothy Zahn quite well. I first read him when he wrote the Thrawn Trilogy. I still hope Disney decides to make those into movies.
I recently ran across The Blackcollar by Mr Zahn. There is a whole series of related books that he wrote that are military sci-fi. Some are related as in prequel/sequel and some are related only by universe and time. I hadn't read any of these.
I would give the Thrawn trilogy 5 stars. Blackcollars, not so much. Don't get me wrong. It is a rip-roaring read. Constant action and it is hard to put down. It's also kind of simplistic with stereotypes and shockers that fail to shock.
Having said that though, Timothy Zahn is an excellent writer and the pacing is terrific. His description of a post conquered universe is well done. It is an interesting place. There wasn't much time spent on our alien conquerors but when they do show up, they are an intense race. Some of the related books have more info on them and I plan to read at least some of them.
If you are a hard core sci-fi reader like I am, this book and the related books are a good addition to your "want to read" list. If you like lighter fare or are of the literary type, I don't think this book would do much for you. If you are a sci-fi military reader, you've probably already read this one, but if not, you should.
I recently ran across The Blackcollar by Mr Zahn. There is a whole series of related books that he wrote that are military sci-fi. Some are related as in prequel/sequel and some are related only by universe and time. I hadn't read any of these.
I would give the Thrawn trilogy 5 stars. Blackcollars, not so much. Don't get me wrong. It is a rip-roaring read. Constant action and it is hard to put down. It's also kind of simplistic with stereotypes and shockers that fail to shock.
Having said that though, Timothy Zahn is an excellent writer and the pacing is terrific. His description of a post conquered universe is well done. It is an interesting place. There wasn't much time spent on our alien conquerors but when they do show up, they are an intense race. Some of the related books have more info on them and I plan to read at least some of them.
If you are a hard core sci-fi reader like I am, this book and the related books are a good addition to your "want to read" list. If you like lighter fare or are of the literary type, I don't think this book would do much for you. If you are a sci-fi military reader, you've probably already read this one, but if not, you should.
February 25, 2013
I remember reading this back when it first came out in 1986 so when I saw it on my "daily kindle deals" for 1.99 I couldn't resist a re-read.
Allen Caine is a rebel, born and trained by the resistance on an earth subjugated by the alien Ryqril, he is 26 years old and about to embark on a mission that could change the face of the occupation and the balance of power as it exists in the known worlds. The book opens with Caine being given his next to last information for the mission he is to travel to the world Plinry as Alain Rienzi, an aide to a Senator serving for the Ryqril. Although things go bad for his compatriots on earth he makes it to Plinry where he manages to meet up with what is left of the legendary Blackcollars - men who were specially trained with martial arts and drugs to be super fighters and who have been able to get a small trickle of the longitivity drug to keep them in fighting shape. What follows is a strongly written story with good intrigue - who can Caine really trust even if they are blackcollars - action and characters. I will be picking up the second book sometime (Backlash Mission)which was written right after Blackcollar, and the third (The Judas Solution) which was written 20 years after Blackcollar
Allen Caine is a rebel, born and trained by the resistance on an earth subjugated by the alien Ryqril, he is 26 years old and about to embark on a mission that could change the face of the occupation and the balance of power as it exists in the known worlds. The book opens with Caine being given his next to last information for the mission he is to travel to the world Plinry as Alain Rienzi, an aide to a Senator serving for the Ryqril. Although things go bad for his compatriots on earth he makes it to Plinry where he manages to meet up with what is left of the legendary Blackcollars - men who were specially trained with martial arts and drugs to be super fighters and who have been able to get a small trickle of the longitivity drug to keep them in fighting shape. What follows is a strongly written story with good intrigue - who can Caine really trust even if they are blackcollars - action and characters. I will be picking up the second book sometime (Backlash Mission)which was written right after Blackcollar, and the third (The Judas Solution) which was written 20 years after Blackcollar
December 10, 2025
Thrilling and action packed, this debut novel by (my favorite author) Timothy Zahn centers on the “Blackcollars”—military special forces agents created to take down an oppressive alien government that now rules Earth and its colony wars after an invasion several decades prior.
Despite the sci-fi setting, the vibes it gives are a mix of the French resistance in WW2 and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, with the Blackcollar agents essentially Jason Bourne but with ninja martial arts skills.
It’s rating on Goodreads is lower than I’d expect. The worldbuilding is less fleshed out than his Cobra novels (which have a similar premise), and it does show its age (it was written in the 1980s) in places, e.g with the use of cassette tapes. Other reviews had valid critiques of the character development etc.
Overall though, I personally enjoyed this more than several of Zahn’s other early works. The book is nothing especially deep, but the plot was fast paced and the action was well written.
Despite the sci-fi setting, the vibes it gives are a mix of the French resistance in WW2 and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, with the Blackcollar agents essentially Jason Bourne but with ninja martial arts skills.
It’s rating on Goodreads is lower than I’d expect. The worldbuilding is less fleshed out than his Cobra novels (which have a similar premise), and it does show its age (it was written in the 1980s) in places, e.g with the use of cassette tapes. Other reviews had valid critiques of the character development etc.
Overall though, I personally enjoyed this more than several of Zahn’s other early works. The book is nothing especially deep, but the plot was fast paced and the action was well written.
August 28, 2015
Timothy Zahn's debut novel, Blackcollar, is a sci-fi military novel packed with action and a few plot twists. The basic premise is a special ops agent from Earth is trying to overthrow the rule of an alien race through the enlistment of an enhanced group of soldiers called Blackcollars. The book started out very fast-paced and exciting, but the middle sagged considerably for me. There were several points in the plot where things got muddy and hard to decipher which character was doing what. Multiple POVs didn't help sort out the confusion. Despite that, the book was entertaining and things picked up in the third act. I'm a huge fan of Zahn's Star Wars work, so this was a nice intro to his other sci-fi work. I hope the next book in the series is better though.
January 27, 2015
I picked this book up as part of a Humble Bundle ages ago. I tend to choose these books at random off my Kindle (and some are really, really not very good) so when I started reading this one and the writing was actually good I was super excited (I actually exclaimed the fact to my husband, startling him.)
I don't know if I'll go on to read the next two books in this series - but I might! And that's pretty much some of the highest praise I can give a serial novel I got in a bulk sale.
In short: good writing, good story, good twists, decent dialogue, and I didn't feel like anything was too contrived. Thumbs up from me!
I don't know if I'll go on to read the next two books in this series - but I might! And that's pretty much some of the highest praise I can give a serial novel I got in a bulk sale.
In short: good writing, good story, good twists, decent dialogue, and I didn't feel like anything was too contrived. Thumbs up from me!
February 23, 2013
An early Timothy Zahn SF novel. Well done. The reader can see the strong characterization, tight plot and even humor which characterizes later, even better, works.
Ebook quibble: apparently scanned without being closely proofread, this edition has a number of word and punctuation errors.
A very good read.
Ebook quibble: apparently scanned without being closely proofread, this edition has a number of word and punctuation errors.
A very good read.
February 2, 2026
Great read even though military battles aren't in my line of interest.
March 19, 2018
While I must have read the Thrawn trilogy dozens of times, I never once dared to pick up any of the other books by Timothy Zahn I saw at the library. Would that I had! Now that I have started to dive into Zahn's back catalogue, I am getting an idea of what his preferred style is. Military [ish] scifi with a heavy dose of intrigue. You never know who anyone really is, or who they are really working for, until the end.
The Blackcollar was published in 1983, but I can detect similarities with The Icarus Hunt, from 1999. The Icarus Hunt was more of a whodunit in space, whereas The Blackcollar is mostly an adventure story with a military theme. I can also see how Zahn worked these kind of ideas into his Thrawn books and Starcraft: Evolution. Each of these books features a military campaign of some import with the fictional universe, but the real action lies in figuring out who wants what and why, and seeing how the characters respond to the wilderness of mirrors they find themselves in.
In this book, Earth has been long since conquered by the Ryquil, an aggressive and warlike species that prefer to rule through local proxies. The Ryquil use loyalty conditioning to ensure that their human collaborators cannot betray them, although there are some hints that Jesuitical cleverness about what constitutes "betrayal", exactly, may allow for some leeway in those who are sufficient motivated.
Allen Caine, our young protagonist, receives a mission from the Resistance on Earth to go find a hidden record on the world of Plinry. That record, encrypted into a rather mundane manifest, contains the location of hidden weapons that will alter the balance of power within occupied human space.
While searching for the record, or any signs of an underground on Plinry, which has been cut off from Earth for nearly thirty years, Caine stumbles on a few elite commandos, the Blackcollars, who have been hiding their light under a bushel since the Ryquil used a devastating orbital bombardment to reduce the defense of Plinry, killing three-quarters of the population in the process.
During the lopsided war against the Ryquil, the humans developed drugs and training that would allow for a human fighter to have a more equal chance against the bigger, faster, and stronger Ryquil. The result of that program were the Blackcollars. Zahn's commandos are ninjas by another name, backed up with enhanced reflexes and laser-ablative armor.
Sometimes the tactics of the Blackcollars stretch my credulity a bit. This is an early book, but it seemed silly to me when two of the highly-trained and drug-enhanced Blackcollars sacrifice themselves to shoot down six patrol ships with shoulder-fired missiles. Couldn't they have just used more launchers, and destroyed the aircraft without the loss of soldiers whose experience and enhancements were irreplaceable? At the very least, we could have used some color text about how the missile launchers were actually more difficult to come by than the soldiers themselves, which doesn't fit the rest of the story.
Zahn seems on much firmer ground when it comes to devising complicated schemes of betrayal and counter-betrayal. I seriously didn't know who was on what side until the end, and there is at least the possibility that some of that may change in future volumes. While the Blackcollars' tactics offend my logistical sensibilities, their over-the-top natures match up with the adventure genre pretty well. No swordsman bests Solomon Kane or Conan either. I really enjoyed The Blackcollars, and I look forward to the two sequels.
The Blackcollar was published in 1983, but I can detect similarities with The Icarus Hunt, from 1999. The Icarus Hunt was more of a whodunit in space, whereas The Blackcollar is mostly an adventure story with a military theme. I can also see how Zahn worked these kind of ideas into his Thrawn books and Starcraft: Evolution. Each of these books features a military campaign of some import with the fictional universe, but the real action lies in figuring out who wants what and why, and seeing how the characters respond to the wilderness of mirrors they find themselves in.
In this book, Earth has been long since conquered by the Ryquil, an aggressive and warlike species that prefer to rule through local proxies. The Ryquil use loyalty conditioning to ensure that their human collaborators cannot betray them, although there are some hints that Jesuitical cleverness about what constitutes "betrayal", exactly, may allow for some leeway in those who are sufficient motivated.
Allen Caine, our young protagonist, receives a mission from the Resistance on Earth to go find a hidden record on the world of Plinry. That record, encrypted into a rather mundane manifest, contains the location of hidden weapons that will alter the balance of power within occupied human space.
While searching for the record, or any signs of an underground on Plinry, which has been cut off from Earth for nearly thirty years, Caine stumbles on a few elite commandos, the Blackcollars, who have been hiding their light under a bushel since the Ryquil used a devastating orbital bombardment to reduce the defense of Plinry, killing three-quarters of the population in the process.
During the lopsided war against the Ryquil, the humans developed drugs and training that would allow for a human fighter to have a more equal chance against the bigger, faster, and stronger Ryquil. The result of that program were the Blackcollars. Zahn's commandos are ninjas by another name, backed up with enhanced reflexes and laser-ablative armor.
Sometimes the tactics of the Blackcollars stretch my credulity a bit. This is an early book, but it seemed silly to me when two of the highly-trained and drug-enhanced Blackcollars sacrifice themselves to shoot down six patrol ships with shoulder-fired missiles. Couldn't they have just used more launchers, and destroyed the aircraft without the loss of soldiers whose experience and enhancements were irreplaceable? At the very least, we could have used some color text about how the missile launchers were actually more difficult to come by than the soldiers themselves, which doesn't fit the rest of the story.
Zahn seems on much firmer ground when it comes to devising complicated schemes of betrayal and counter-betrayal. I seriously didn't know who was on what side until the end, and there is at least the possibility that some of that may change in future volumes. While the Blackcollars' tactics offend my logistical sensibilities, their over-the-top natures match up with the adventure genre pretty well. No swordsman bests Solomon Kane or Conan either. I really enjoyed The Blackcollars, and I look forward to the two sequels.
November 29, 2022
I'll start off with a reminder that I use the tooltips for Goodreads ratings and 2 stars is "it was ok". It may possibly have hurt that this was my first Zahn novel and I've heard so much about him because of the Thrawn Star Wars novels. But I think it's really more that the novel reads like it was written in the 1980s (which it was). It's full of that "karate stuff is cool " feeling from the 80s that culminated in films like The Karate Kid. I tend to do alright with Golden Age SF because I like the philosophical aspect behind most of the characters' dialogue. But the 1980s seems to just fall into an uncanny valley - it's almost like the modern SF I read, but just full of enough older tropes to feel a bit clunky. This story also seemed to revolve a bit too much on the one character in the know always having a bunch of gambits going on at once and refusing to reveal anything to the main character. So sometimes the wins felt a bit cheap. I also think the idea of training super karate soldiers to fight aliens just doesn't make sense in the context of an interspecies war.
So, your mileage may vary with this one. Maybe you like 1980s SF tropes or maybe you just like Zahn's style. It wasn't really for me - but I'm not put off from Zahn as a writer; I'll definitely give one of his newer novels a shot.
So, your mileage may vary with this one. Maybe you like 1980s SF tropes or maybe you just like Zahn's style. It wasn't really for me - but I'm not put off from Zahn as a writer; I'll definitely give one of his newer novels a shot.
December 31, 2024
I absolutely loved this book and the rest of this trilogy! I wish Zahn would return to the Blackcollars and either write prequels or sequels or both! I first read this series back in middle school and have reread the trilogy multiple times.
This story sets the stage for the forgotten hero's to rise again. There's secrets, intrigue, betrayal, trust, action, and comedy!
The Blackcollars are a special division of the military that while kept young and in shape through the same drugs everyone else have, were made super soldiers through the Backlash Drug which enhanced their natural speed and reflexes. This formula is similar to Captain America's super soldier drug but instead of fighting with the normal soldiers are trained in guerilla warfare and martial arts. They're given low tech weapons because their alien enemy can detect High Tech equipment.
Again i loved this trilogy and wish Zahn would write more!
This story sets the stage for the forgotten hero's to rise again. There's secrets, intrigue, betrayal, trust, action, and comedy!
The Blackcollars are a special division of the military that while kept young and in shape through the same drugs everyone else have, were made super soldiers through the Backlash Drug which enhanced their natural speed and reflexes. This formula is similar to Captain America's super soldier drug but instead of fighting with the normal soldiers are trained in guerilla warfare and martial arts. They're given low tech weapons because their alien enemy can detect High Tech equipment.
Again i loved this trilogy and wish Zahn would write more!
October 5, 2025
Thirty years of war against the Rygril only to lose. That was the equation Allen Caine was trying to erase when he left Earth on a last gasp resistance mission to find 5 Nova class battleships and hopefully turn the tide against the aliens. The location of the ships was on the planet Plinry where a remnant group of legendary Blackcollar soldiers were in semi-retirement as the Ryqril had eliminated the Backlash drug that created supercharged soldiers but the old ninja skills were still intact. After meeting up with the local Blackcollars and some suspiciously forthcoming home-grown resistance fighters, Caine and the Blackcollars must break out a large captive population of Blackcollars from prison while discovering that both the groups had been infiltrated by spies. Space ninja military SF from Timothy Zahn with plenty of action and 'splosions and while it has no great undying message to impart it is reasonably satisfying. First of a series.
September 4, 2023
Understand this: I consciously sought and read some of the finest sci-fi available last year. This is my first pulp read in the genre since then. I may be suffering from whiplash.
Good: light read
Bad: The Kindle edition needs proofreading badly. Missing quotes and homophone errors abound. I suspect there are also missing paragraph breaks.
Ugly: It’s an 80s ninja trope-fest set in space with a grey bearded white guy and his buddies who can take out entire battalions of spies, laser wielding soldiers and brilliant generals with nothing but nunchucks, shuriken, wits, laser armour (the blackcollar) and drugs. It would make a better game. Every character is their job, and only their job. I don’t know their favourite foods, hobbies, dreams, backgrounds (other than the one guy who turns out to be a clone - surprise to him, and also part of his job)
Good: light read
Bad: The Kindle edition needs proofreading badly. Missing quotes and homophone errors abound. I suspect there are also missing paragraph breaks.
Ugly: It’s an 80s ninja trope-fest set in space with a grey bearded white guy and his buddies who can take out entire battalions of spies, laser wielding soldiers and brilliant generals with nothing but nunchucks, shuriken, wits, laser armour (the blackcollar) and drugs. It would make a better game. Every character is their job, and only their job. I don’t know their favourite foods, hobbies, dreams, backgrounds (other than the one guy who turns out to be a clone - surprise to him, and also part of his job)
January 5, 2021
My second time reading this. I love the second in this series, Backlash, but this one is really good too. I know Timothy Zahn is known for his Star Wars series but I love a lot of his older series like this one and Cobra. Now to just get enough courage to read the third in this series. I love the main character Allan Caine so much that I am worried about him when I read the description of the third book.
August 24, 2025
Being the start of a three book series, I hit the inevitable lull where the story needed to be fleshed out in spots, but once I got through that the story picked up the pace once again. I am not a big military SF reader and that is another strike, this novel read like a Bruce Lee movie. Many martial arts references yet Timothy Zahn's writing helped smooth that out. I'm still debating whether to continue on with the series or take a break.
December 27, 2016
A pretty good science fiction book--written in 1983, it is a bit more dated than a truly great scifi book would be (Asimov: Foundation trilogy, for example). However, as a novel of government control versus deducting who might be a traitor or not, it seems much better. Given the ratings of later books, could be worth following a bit.
August 31, 2018
An interesting concept worth at least one read. The plot was a bit drawn out, but the action-level was fairly well maintained throughout.
Well-written by someone who seems to know something about martial arts, although I couldn't find anything about that in his brief public biographies. The author has won at least one Hugo award.
Well-written by someone who seems to know something about martial arts, although I couldn't find anything about that in his brief public biographies. The author has won at least one Hugo award.
June 14, 2020
Not a bad premise and as usual his character development is great but I walked away thinking good but not great. Maybe it was the barely believable fight scenes where the good guys always game out on top that just didn’t sit as well with me and suspended my immersion into the story. But a quick fun read I don’t regret.
November 9, 2023
Good book for its time
I feel duped--I thought this was a newer release. Sci-fi written in the early 80s tends to miss a lot of technology and this book is no exception. Plus there is a lot of ninja style fighting which is not my taste.
With all of the above, the book still got rolling and I'm not unhappy I bought. I'm buying the rest of the series.
I feel duped--I thought this was a newer release. Sci-fi written in the early 80s tends to miss a lot of technology and this book is no exception. Plus there is a lot of ninja style fighting which is not my taste.
With all of the above, the book still got rolling and I'm not unhappy I bought. I'm buying the rest of the series.
May 30, 2017
Good book. Suffers from some unlikely plot holes.
1. How can human create such good elite soldier in such desperate time (Blackcollar)?
2. When Caine is killing Lathe, the pacing feels too fast and unnatural.
But good twist and overall enjoyable read.
1. How can human create such good elite soldier in such desperate time (Blackcollar)?
2. When Caine is killing Lathe, the pacing feels too fast and unnatural.
But good twist and overall enjoyable read.
September 2, 2017
I've read a couple of Timothy Zahn books, but this one just isn't doing it for me, so I'm calling it at ~70%. Some old ninjas (they seriously use nunchaku and shuriken) rebanding to expel alien occupiers.
September 30, 2018
Cleverly put together SF thriller about guerrillas fighting years after aliens have conquered Earth. A bit on the sexist side, but it was his first book and it was 1983, so it's kind of understandable. Even the early work shows Zahn's signature tight plotting.
June 22, 2022
I don’t read a lot of military science fiction, but I really enjoyed this one. It had a strong concept. It took a while to figure out who was who- just a few too many similar characters to keep track of.
August 4, 2025
Perfectly serviceable science fiction. I read it all on a plane. I liked the idea of the setting but am hoping for some more world building.
Much of the plot felt very “convenient” and the Blackcollars felt a lot like deus ex machina on repeat. We’ll see if it gets any better in book 2.
Much of the plot felt very “convenient” and the Blackcollars felt a lot like deus ex machina on repeat. We’ll see if it gets any better in book 2.
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