Blackcollar: The Judas Solution

The Judas Solution (2006) is the long awaited conclusion to the Blackcollar trilogy, following The Backlash Mission. In the previous volume, thirty years after the Ryqril conquest, the blackcollars were getting old and searching for the secret of making others of their kind. Blackcollars were trained in various martial arts and other armed and unarmed combat methods, but they were also treated with Backlash, a drug that enhanced their reflexes. A blackcollar team from Plinry came to Earth to find the secret. They found a way to enter the locked Aegis Mountain stronghold where they found the Whiplash formula. But it was not what they were seeking. Instead, it was a drug to break down Ryqril loyalty conditioning. In this novel, Damon Lathe is a commando commander -- comsquare -- of blackcollars. He has been looking for an effective weapon against the Ryqril conquerors. The discovery of Whiplash appears promising. Rafe Skyler is an enhanced blackcollar in Lathe's team. He is basically second in command of the group. Chelsey Jensen is an enhanced blackcollar. He is their best pilot, but the team is worried about his depression over the loss of his friend Novak during the recovery of three TDE Nova-class warships. Allen Caine is a trained blackcollar, but he has never been treated with Backlash. He is a clone of Alain Rienzi and was prepared by the Resistance for a ploy that was never used. He later joined Lathe's blackcollar team. Will Flynn is a blackcollar trainee. He has learned a lot of tricks from Mordecai, the best martial artist on the team. Jamus Galway is the loyalty conditioned Security Prefect on Plinry. By now, he is fully aware that a coterie of blackcollars are dwelling on his planet. He comes up with a scheme to trap the team. Karl Judas is another clone of Alain Rienzi. He is tracked down and recruited by Galway to impersonate Allen Caine as part of the scheme. Sam Foxleigh lives in a hermit's cabin in the foothills near Aegis Mountain. He had observed the Resistance group that developed Whiplash and then the blackcollar raid on the mountain. By the time that he had made up his mind, the Resistance group and blackcollars were gone. In this story, Galway confronts Judas and takes him away for training. It will take at least eight months to obtain sufficient proficiency to pose as an unenhanced blackcollar. Meanwhile, Judas will receive loyalty conditioning. Lathe is still training young volunteers as blackcollars. While they will not have the reflexes of the enhanced blackcollars, they will be fully trained small unit commandos. After Flynn passes his final test, Lethe receives a call from General Lepkowski, commander of the Novak. He has learned that the Ryqril have built a tactical coordination center on Khala. Lethe knows that it is probably a trap, but decides to reconnoiter the site. There is already a group of blackcollars on Khala lead by tactor Shaw. Tactors are senior officers who command se

Timothy Zahn is best known for his Star Wars books. He has written other Science Fiction books. My favorite Timothy Zahn story is "Pawn's Gambit" published in Analog in 1982. It was a Hugo nominee and was republished in Distant Friends and Others. The Blackcollar stories were in a universe where humans were conquered by the Ryqril. Once conquered it is hard for humans to rebel. The Ryqril were able to develop a drug which turns humans into slaves. The Judas Solution is the third in the series. The heroes in the story are Blackcollars, men who have been given a special drug which makes them excellent fighters. Their reflexes are twice as fast as the average human. They also have extensive training. There is a lot of martial arts fighting. In The Judas Solution the heroes travel back to Earth and to Khala. On Earth the Blackcollars are trying to strengthen the resistance. They have a drug which counteracts the Ryqril slave drug. But the resistance has stayed very passive. It takes some time before the Blackcollars understand why the resistance hasn't done more. On Khala the Blackcollars are trying to destroy a Ryqril complex, but the Blackcollars have their own hidden agendas. The Judas Solution is the third book in the series. It could be the conclusion, but it does open up new plot lines. If you enjoyed the earlier Blackcollar stories, this is worth reading. If you haven't read the first two, my suggestion is you read the earlier two books before reading this one.

Despite the fact that there's a 20-year gap between The Backlash Mission and this book, it is truly a seamless transition. It's amazing how seamless it really is. I read all three Blackcollar books a row and it didn't feel like there was any break at all. This book starts up like book 2 came out last year. Zahn wraps up the Blackcollar series in an interesting way. The writing is solid. He does a great job of balancing all the different points of view. And he does a commendable job with the action scenes, as usual. There aren't too many of his cool trademarked phrases this time ("he cocked an eyebrow," "pursed his lips," "Point"), but it still feels like pure Zahn. The Ryqril dialogue is an interesting touch. I struggled with it initially. But if you read it slowly and figure out the pattern, you'll do fine. It gives the book a unique flavor and really distinguishes the aliens. The book itself is pretty good. I liked the font size. The paper quality isn't the best but it's satisfactory. I would certainly advise reading the first two Blackcollar books before this one. You'll get a lot more out of it this way. And if you've read those two, definitely read this one. It's very close to the first Blackcollar book in terms of its high quality. Excellent work.

Timothy Zahn is one of my favorite sci-fi authors, but his quality has been decreasing somewhat as of late (Manta's Gift and Angelmass for instance). But this new edition to the Blackcollar series was superb! "The Judas Solution" would be an enjoyable read without reading the previous Blackcollars. However, the story is fairly complicated and it continues right where the others left off, so I would highly recommend that you read them first - they are great! It had been awhile since I had read them and it took me a few chapters to remember what had gone on and who was who. This book had lots of twists and a deep plot, it also wrapped up the series nicely. I would recommend it to anyone who likes action sci-fi.

I read this book and enjoyed it. It strained the "suspension of disbelief" a few times and used a couple of the subplots from the previous book. That being said I enjoyed reading the book and that is what its all about.