★★★★ (3.9 of 5)

• Full Title: Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron
• Author: Alexander Freed
• Year: 2019 (mine was library hardcover)
• Pages: 408
• Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy
• Publisher: Del Rey
• ISBN 978-1-9848-2198-0 (hardcover)
• Wookieepedia page (novel)
• Wookieepedia page (author)

 

Summary

After being so pleased with Freed’s 2016 novelization (see my review) of the film Rogue One, I jumped at my chance to read another Star Wars novel by him. Alphabet Squadron is the first book in a not-yet-complete trilogy (also called Alphabet Squadron). Its story begins just weeks after the destruction of the second Death Star (as depicted in the 1983 film Return Of The Jedi), as Rebel forces attempt to round up the remains of the Empire’s defeated forces.

It begins with Yrica Quell explaining to a droid how and why she defected from the Empire — she was an Imperial TIE fighter pilot with the elite 204th Squadron and is now in a detention center. The droid belongs to Caern Adan, an intelligence officer who hopes to track down and defeat the still-elusive 204th. Adan recruits not only Quell, but four other pilots, into his “working group” — which is eventually named Alphabet Squadron (because each pilot brings a different letter-designation ship: an A-wing interceptor, a B-wing fighter, a U-wing support craft, an X-wing starfighter, and a Y-wing bomber).

Adan, his droid, and Quell collect the pilots and train the squadron. Then they go after the 204th — the Shadow Wing.

 

Praise

Freed brings us an entirely new cast of Star Wars characters (to my knowledge, only one character in this book was previously known — Hera Syndulla) and each of them gets an origin story of sorts. They have different personalities, different motivations, and different skill sets, and Freed does a decent job of using and describing all of these. The battles are well-described, as is the state of the post-Endor universe.

I think what I liked best is that it all takes place outside the worlds and people I’m familiar with from older Star Wars stories. Given the purported scope of human civilization in the Star Wars universe, the movies and most canon novels have a strange focus on a small number of people and places. This, like the older Han Solo novels and the more recent Rogue One novel/movie, gives the reader a chance to see more of the universe and its people.

I also tend to enjoy Star Wars novels where “The Force” is in the background rather than part of the primary plot.

It is also full of observations about how governing is different than resisting — the Rebel Alliance spent years hiding, resisting, and rebelling, but now that they’ve won they’re finding it difficult to transition into an effective government.

 

Points Off For...

This one starts off slow. After Quell’s initial introduction, the author introduces dozens of new character — and it takes a while for the reader to determine which of those characters are going to be important later.

It also felt like Freed was trying too hard to obscure certain secrets — Quell’s initial lie, the background of some of the other pilots, and the guy who’s going to (apparently) play a big role in the sequel. I don’t think I’m alone in this, as a reader, but I can take some measure of “just wait till you find out this big secret at the end” — that’s half the fun of reading, but too much of it starts to get irritating. It’s one thing when a character doesn’t know something and is trying to figure it out, or when the entire story revolves around some hidden past. But here, several of the characters have dark backgrounds that Freed hints at — repeatedly — even when the story is being told from that character’s viewpoint. Not all of them are eventually revealed, which is even more irritating than the regular hints.

 

Conclusion

On the whole, I enjoyed this as much as any Star Wars book, and perhaps a little more. But it fell short of the nearly-perfect Rogue One, which remains both my favorite book and film of the Star Wars franchise.

 

 

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