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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Twice upon a time, I tore through the first four X-Wing books and picked up the fifth with complete faith and trust that it would continue in the same pattern of awesome. Twice upon a time, I put Wraith Squadron down with a heavy sigh after the first half dozen chapters.
Once, in 1999, I was too bored to ever continue and it sat on my "unfinished" shelf for over a dozen years. The second time was this year, and if it hadn't been for my alphabetical challenge (this was the book for X), my commitment to review it, and my desire to get to the Stackpole book I've never read, it would have gone right back on the unfinished list as a permanent resident. I actually am sorry I didn't like it, since Allston died back in February and I've kind of used his death as a rallying point for realcanon (the man dies and suddenly his books get thrown out the window?).
But it was not a good book. It was about 150 pages too long, and it was also abundantly clear that the author made video games for a living, with page after page of clunky space battles that felt like reading the player's guide to Flight Space Fighter Sim 3000xe IV: More Splodey.
Here's something Aaron Allston really, really wants you to understand as you read this book: it is NOT [b:Rogue Squadron|513176|Rogue Squadron (Star Wars X-Wing, #1)|Michael A. Stackpole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327860341l/513176._SY75_.jpg|987443]. Okay, it's called Something Squadron and it's about Wedge putting together an eccentric group of pilots to the chagrin of a disgruntled admiralty. BUT there are two quirky nonhumans instead of one. And his second isn't under suspicion from the New Republic; one of their pilots wants to kill him. Oh, and the guy who TOTALLY isn't Corran because he's not even Corellian, see, he gets with his chick in the first book, which is different. And the chick who makes him analyze his feelings and stuff isn't Mirax and there isn't a triangle, so, it's different. So, just to be clear, this is totally not a slower-paced, more boring version of Rogue Squadron. And Allston made me aware of this on every page he possibly could.
I did like the plot. It's too bad the plot couldn't hang out for more of the book, because I really liked what it had to offer: the re-form of Rogue Squadron is so successful that they've lost their effectiveness in the covert ops department. Wedge decides to take some commandos who also happen to be pilots and make an undercover team, the dagger in the boot to compliment Rogue Squadron's more direct sword. Janson, Wedge's gunner from the Battle of Hoth, reappears as the second in command, which I was very excited about, and I was also extremely hopeful about finally getting to see Warlord Zsinj after hearing his name so much. I even appreciated the hints about [b:The Courtship of Princess Leia|161540|The Courtship of Princess Leia (Star Wars)|Dave Wolverton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326717007l/161540._SY75_.jpg|806845], because I love it when the books reference each other to tighten up their connections.
Unfortunately, the plot had to duck out early because it had a thing at a place, and the 403-page book tried to make up for its absence with lots of explosions, relationship stuff, and, um, paragraphs. For awhile, I thought the relationship stuff might get some positive points, because the girl shuts him down for not actually loving her but only wanting to be in love with someone like her; however, predictably, she gives her personality the boot and decides to suck face with him in the concluding chapters.
More embarrassing than his treatment of people with ovaries were Allston's racial stereotypes. Wedge and two of the pilots literally go undercover as Mexican desperadoes with ponchos, sombreros, and terrible haircuts/mustaches. And let me just say now that if a racial stereotype is so overt that I notice it, it is bad, because 9 times out of 10, that kind of thing sails straight over my head. And, because I'm an equal opportunity equal opportunist, I also got extremely upset over his treatment of nonhumans. Aaron Allston was completely oblivious to the fact that Gamorrean are not literal pigs and gives us a character like Rocket the Raccoon -- not only is he called Piggy (something I cringed every time I read it -- how does this galaxy even have pigs? -- how is it ever okay to call someone Piggy unless her first name is Miss and she has golden curls and is voiced by Frank Oz?), but he also had to be totally genetically modified and crammed with cybernetic hardware in order to function as not a brainless animal. I thought it was sick.
And finally, far more distressing than his treatment of females and nonhumans, the much-touted "humor" that was the first thing out of everyone's mouth the moment I mention Wraith Squadron. Here's the thing: I have laughed out loud often throughout every one of Michael A. Stackpole's books. He's wry and clever and can suggest humor with the twitch of a character's eyebrow, an unexpected meeting, or the consequence of a character's action. Humor in this book was more like getting aggressively beaten with a Three Stooges Box set. He might as well have written in the pratfalls. A laugh track would have been more subtle. There were only three jokes, which were repeated an average of, oh, well, every 10 or 15 pages for a total of some 30 times. They weren't funny the first time, and by the 20th, I was wanting to beat my head on the desk just to feel better.
I was so weary by the time I finished this book. But I did try. Realcanon, obviously, but far from readable. Yub, yub, or whatever.
Once, in 1999, I was too bored to ever continue and it sat on my "unfinished" shelf for over a dozen years. The second time was this year, and if it hadn't been for my alphabetical challenge (this was the book for X), my commitment to review it, and my desire to get to the Stackpole book I've never read, it would have gone right back on the unfinished list as a permanent resident. I actually am sorry I didn't like it, since Allston died back in February and I've kind of used his death as a rallying point for realcanon (the man dies and suddenly his books get thrown out the window?).
But it was not a good book. It was about 150 pages too long, and it was also abundantly clear that the author made video games for a living, with page after page of clunky space battles that felt like reading the player's guide to Flight Space Fighter Sim 3000xe IV: More Splodey.
Here's something Aaron Allston really, really wants you to understand as you read this book: it is NOT [b:Rogue Squadron|513176|Rogue Squadron (Star Wars X-Wing, #1)|Michael A. Stackpole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327860341l/513176._SY75_.jpg|987443]. Okay, it's called Something Squadron and it's about Wedge putting together an eccentric group of pilots to the chagrin of a disgruntled admiralty. BUT there are two quirky nonhumans instead of one. And his second isn't under suspicion from the New Republic; one of their pilots wants to kill him. Oh, and the guy who TOTALLY isn't Corran because he's not even Corellian, see, he gets with his chick in the first book, which is different. And the chick who makes him analyze his feelings and stuff isn't Mirax and there isn't a triangle, so, it's different. So, just to be clear, this is totally not a slower-paced, more boring version of Rogue Squadron. And Allston made me aware of this on every page he possibly could.
I did like the plot. It's too bad the plot couldn't hang out for more of the book, because I really liked what it had to offer: the re-form of Rogue Squadron is so successful that they've lost their effectiveness in the covert ops department. Wedge decides to take some commandos who also happen to be pilots and make an undercover team, the dagger in the boot to compliment Rogue Squadron's more direct sword. Janson, Wedge's gunner from the Battle of Hoth, reappears as the second in command, which I was very excited about, and I was also extremely hopeful about finally getting to see Warlord Zsinj after hearing his name so much. I even appreciated the hints about [b:The Courtship of Princess Leia|161540|The Courtship of Princess Leia (Star Wars)|Dave Wolverton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326717007l/161540._SY75_.jpg|806845], because I love it when the books reference each other to tighten up their connections.
Unfortunately, the plot had to duck out early because it had a thing at a place, and the 403-page book tried to make up for its absence with lots of explosions, relationship stuff, and, um, paragraphs. For awhile, I thought the relationship stuff might get some positive points, because the girl shuts him down for not actually loving her but only wanting to be in love with someone like her; however, predictably, she gives her personality the boot and decides to suck face with him in the concluding chapters.
More embarrassing than his treatment of people with ovaries were Allston's racial stereotypes. Wedge and two of the pilots literally go undercover as Mexican desperadoes with ponchos, sombreros, and terrible haircuts/mustaches. And let me just say now that if a racial stereotype is so overt that I notice it, it is bad, because 9 times out of 10, that kind of thing sails straight over my head. And, because I'm an equal opportunity equal opportunist, I also got extremely upset over his treatment of nonhumans. Aaron Allston was completely oblivious to the fact that Gamorrean are not literal pigs and gives us a character like Rocket the Raccoon -- not only is he called Piggy (something I cringed every time I read it -- how does this galaxy even have pigs? -- how is it ever okay to call someone Piggy unless her first name is Miss and she has golden curls and is voiced by Frank Oz?), but he also had to be totally genetically modified and crammed with cybernetic hardware in order to function as not a brainless animal. I thought it was sick.
And finally, far more distressing than his treatment of females and nonhumans, the much-touted "humor" that was the first thing out of everyone's mouth the moment I mention Wraith Squadron. Here's the thing: I have laughed out loud often throughout every one of Michael A. Stackpole's books. He's wry and clever and can suggest humor with the twitch of a character's eyebrow, an unexpected meeting, or the consequence of a character's action. Humor in this book was more like getting aggressively beaten with a Three Stooges Box set. He might as well have written in the pratfalls. A laugh track would have been more subtle. There were only three jokes, which were repeated an average of, oh, well, every 10 or 15 pages for a total of some 30 times. They weren't funny the first time, and by the 20th, I was wanting to beat my head on the desk just to feel better.
I was so weary by the time I finished this book. But I did try. Realcanon, obviously, but far from readable. Yub, yub, or whatever.
For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.
This week’s focus: the first of Aaron Allston’s X-Wing books, Wraith Squadron.
SOME HISTORY:
In 1996, Bantam asked if Michael A. Stackpole could write a new four-book set of X-Wing books, but Stackpole had previous time commitments and could only agree to one book. He recommended Aaron Allston instead for three of the books, because he thought Allston’s style was similar to his own. Allston was a game designer of role playing games, and by 1998 had published six science fiction and fantasy novels. Wraith Squadron made it to number ten on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of March 1, 1998, and was on the NYT list for two weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I loved Allston’s X-Wing books, but I usually skipped ahead to [b:Iron Fist|35449|Iron Fist (Star Wars X-Wing, #6)|Aaron Allston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327941995l/35449._SY75_.jpg|976853] or [b:Solo Command|773547|Solo Command (Star Wars X-Wing, #7)|Aaron Allston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327942075l/773547._SY75_.jpg|352704]. So it was fun to jump back into Wraith Squadron, and see what I remembered (the origins of Lieutenant Kettch!) and what I hadn’t (most of the plot).
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Wedge Antilles has a bold new idea: take all the pilots that are castoffs and rejects, and form a covert-action unit of X-Wing fighters. Before the new pilots can complete their training, though, the squadron's base is attacked by Admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action—taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew.
THE CHARACTERS:
Having accomplished amazing feats with the revamped Rogue Squadron, Wedge Antilles isn’t willing to rest on his laurels and instead jumps right into another huge project. Most of his plotline involves Wedge having to be the adult among a bunch of...younger adults? (As Wedge complains, he’s only 28!) Poor Wedge feels somewhat distanced from the Wraiths because unlike with the Rogues, here he is very much The Boss. I really liked how Allston depicted Wedge’s letter to Admiral Ackbar after Jesmin’s death: it’s a task only he can complete, but he struggles to compose something that is both professional and kind.
We get the return of another canon character: in this case, Wedge’s gunner from the Battle of Hoth. Wes Janson joins as the squadron’s Executive Officer, but he’s mostly here as comic relief. His main issue is his past history with Kell Tainor’s father, and Kell’s subsequent fear/hatred of him. Wes doesn’t seem to take this animosity seriously, and his constant reaffirmation that Kell knew how to make bombs felt like a running joke.
Amid the swirl of new Wraiths, four of them stood out from the crowd, so I thought I’d touch on them briefly. Tyria Sarkin is Force sensitive, but not to any powerful degree. Luke Skywalker tested her and deemed her not worthy of teaching, so she’s reluctant to embrace her talents in that area at all. But similar to Zahn’s point in the Hand of Thrawn duology, Tyria’s intuition proves super helpful to the Wraiths at various times in the story. She might not have sheer power, but the Force does offer her convenient insights.
Garik Loran (“the Face”) was an Imperial child actor who defected and joined the Rebels. In Wraith Squadron, he has to put his acting skills to the test over and over again, and it’s a toss up whether his improvisations are successful or not. He’s another comic character, like Wes, but even at this early stage, he’s appealing to read about.
Myn Donos is the sole survivor of Talon Squadron, and has a lot of bad mental stuff going on. (I mean, who wouldn’t after the loss of everyone under your command?) He goes catatonic after his astromech is destroyed (“the last Talon,” Tyria realizes), but he’s able to snap out of it thanks to some of the Wraiths. Like with Face, he’ll get further development in the next two books, but I liked his arc thus far.
Kell Tainer fills the role that Corran Horn did in the Rogue Squadron books: the viewpoint character that Allston focuses on most. He views Wes Janson as this evil malicious bogeyman who killed his father and will kill him if he messes up, but obviously the situation was more nuanced than that. Like his father, he also seems to suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder--during action sequences, he gets so nervous and shaky that he wants to flee the situation, and during the final battle he does run off for a brief time. I really liked that he struggled with anxiety, but was less fond of him being able to dismiss it with the power of positive thinking. That is not how anxiety works! Anxiety is a real problem for a lot of people, but Kell overcomes it far too easily and permanently.
The other Wraiths are less fleshed out than their counterparts that Allston chooses to focus on, and are more archetypes than complete characters. Falynn has trouble with respecting authority and mouthing off. Grinder is a slicer, and while he claims to not like pranks, he ends up behind all the practical jokes on the others. Jesmin is nice, but dies early on. Ton Phanan is mostly a sarcastic walking disaster at this point, but will see more development in book 2. Runt has multiple personalities. Piggy has a very unfortunate nickname (seriously, maybe don’t call the pig alien that guys!!) and will play a larger role in the next two books.
Warlord Zsinj fills the Iceheart role in this book: masterminding events, but mainly from behind the scenes. That makes our primary villain Admiral Trigit. Trigit is imminently selfish, as depicted in his decision to abandon the 35,000 crewmen aboard the Implacable to sudden death, so I’m glad that General Crespin and Myn Donos were able to take him out. We also meet Lieutenant Gara Petothel, the agent behind the destruction of Talon Squadron; she escapes the Implacable’s destruction and will play a larger role in books 2 and 3.
ISSUES:
More so than Stackpole, Allston uses a lot of humor in his books. Sometimes it’s stupid; sometimes it made me laugh out loud (ie, Phanan’s statement after he had his spleen removed, that during the final battle that he got so angry he had to vent his spleen). Your mileage may vary whether you also click with his sense of humor, but it usually works for me.
During battle scenes, Allston defaults to referring to the Wraiths by call sign. I’m sure that’s how a squadron would actually operate, and there IS a dramatis personae in the beginning of the book, but by the end I still didn’t consistently remember which Wraith corresponded to which number. Wedge is Leader, Kell and Runt are Five and Six, but I am less good with the other nine of them.
I was excited by the idea of the Wraiths masquerading as the Night Caller, but I found that it lost a little oomph in the actual execution. To avoid detection, they kept to the itinerary that Captain Darillian had set, so it became a bit formulaic: the Night Caller enters the designated system, Face as Darillian or Lieutenant Narol speaks to people, then either New Republic Intelligence or the Wraiths themselves re-enter the system and sabotage stuff. I was expecting a little more variety here, but you could argue that the Wraiths were locked into this routine.
Despite knowing little about her, Jesmin Ackbar’s death was an emotional experience. It helped that we got to see a conversation between her uncle and her about how she’d been coddled in her previous assignments because of her name. I think the reason her death connected with me more than Lujayne or any of the Rogues was because the Wraiths (and Kell especially) tried so hard to save her, so we really got the complete picture this time.
But while I liked how Allston dealt with Jesmin Ackbar’s death, I felt like the later deaths of Falynn and Grinder lacked the poignance of that earlier scene. Wedge told them not to go into the Star Destroyer; they went into it anyway. Grinder died, then Falynn died immediately afterwards. And since they hadn’t been fleshed out much beyond their character type, there wasn’t any emotion there for me.
IN CONCLUSION:
On the whole, Wraith Squadron is exciting and surprisingly funny, and I liked getting to know the Wraiths again. Even though there was yet more setup, it’s setup that I hope will pay off in two books, so I could suffer through it--especially for some intricate undercover missions and space battles in the end.
Next up: the third book in the Han Solo prequel trilogy, [b:Rebel Dawn|111019|Rebel Dawn (Star Wars The Han Solo Trilogy, #3)|A.C. Crispin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328111850l/111019._SY75_.jpg|2112719] by A.C. Crispin.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/keKrRHK9r14
Interview with Aaron Allston on theForce.net: http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/allston.asp
This week’s focus: the first of Aaron Allston’s X-Wing books, Wraith Squadron.
SOME HISTORY:
In 1996, Bantam asked if Michael A. Stackpole could write a new four-book set of X-Wing books, but Stackpole had previous time commitments and could only agree to one book. He recommended Aaron Allston instead for three of the books, because he thought Allston’s style was similar to his own. Allston was a game designer of role playing games, and by 1998 had published six science fiction and fantasy novels. Wraith Squadron made it to number ten on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of March 1, 1998, and was on the NYT list for two weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I loved Allston’s X-Wing books, but I usually skipped ahead to [b:Iron Fist|35449|Iron Fist (Star Wars X-Wing, #6)|Aaron Allston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327941995l/35449._SY75_.jpg|976853] or [b:Solo Command|773547|Solo Command (Star Wars X-Wing, #7)|Aaron Allston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327942075l/773547._SY75_.jpg|352704]. So it was fun to jump back into Wraith Squadron, and see what I remembered (the origins of Lieutenant Kettch!) and what I hadn’t (most of the plot).
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Wedge Antilles has a bold new idea: take all the pilots that are castoffs and rejects, and form a covert-action unit of X-Wing fighters. Before the new pilots can complete their training, though, the squadron's base is attacked by Admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action—taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew.
THE CHARACTERS:
Having accomplished amazing feats with the revamped Rogue Squadron, Wedge Antilles isn’t willing to rest on his laurels and instead jumps right into another huge project. Most of his plotline involves Wedge having to be the adult among a bunch of...younger adults? (As Wedge complains, he’s only 28!) Poor Wedge feels somewhat distanced from the Wraiths because unlike with the Rogues, here he is very much The Boss. I really liked how Allston depicted Wedge’s letter to Admiral Ackbar after Jesmin’s death: it’s a task only he can complete, but he struggles to compose something that is both professional and kind.
We get the return of another canon character: in this case, Wedge’s gunner from the Battle of Hoth. Wes Janson joins as the squadron’s Executive Officer, but he’s mostly here as comic relief. His main issue is his past history with Kell Tainor’s father, and Kell’s subsequent fear/hatred of him. Wes doesn’t seem to take this animosity seriously, and his constant reaffirmation that Kell knew how to make bombs felt like a running joke.
Amid the swirl of new Wraiths, four of them stood out from the crowd, so I thought I’d touch on them briefly. Tyria Sarkin is Force sensitive, but not to any powerful degree. Luke Skywalker tested her and deemed her not worthy of teaching, so she’s reluctant to embrace her talents in that area at all. But similar to Zahn’s point in the Hand of Thrawn duology, Tyria’s intuition proves super helpful to the Wraiths at various times in the story. She might not have sheer power, but the Force does offer her convenient insights.
Garik Loran (“the Face”) was an Imperial child actor who defected and joined the Rebels. In Wraith Squadron, he has to put his acting skills to the test over and over again, and it’s a toss up whether his improvisations are successful or not. He’s another comic character, like Wes, but even at this early stage, he’s appealing to read about.
Myn Donos is the sole survivor of Talon Squadron, and has a lot of bad mental stuff going on. (I mean, who wouldn’t after the loss of everyone under your command?) He goes catatonic after his astromech is destroyed (“the last Talon,” Tyria realizes), but he’s able to snap out of it thanks to some of the Wraiths. Like with Face, he’ll get further development in the next two books, but I liked his arc thus far.
Kell Tainer fills the role that Corran Horn did in the Rogue Squadron books: the viewpoint character that Allston focuses on most. He views Wes Janson as this evil malicious bogeyman who killed his father and will kill him if he messes up, but obviously the situation was more nuanced than that. Like his father, he also seems to suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder--during action sequences, he gets so nervous and shaky that he wants to flee the situation, and during the final battle he does run off for a brief time. I really liked that he struggled with anxiety, but was less fond of him being able to dismiss it with the power of positive thinking. That is not how anxiety works! Anxiety is a real problem for a lot of people, but Kell overcomes it far too easily and permanently.
The other Wraiths are less fleshed out than their counterparts that Allston chooses to focus on, and are more archetypes than complete characters. Falynn has trouble with respecting authority and mouthing off. Grinder is a slicer, and while he claims to not like pranks, he ends up behind all the practical jokes on the others. Jesmin is nice, but dies early on. Ton Phanan is mostly a sarcastic walking disaster at this point, but will see more development in book 2. Runt has multiple personalities. Piggy has a very unfortunate nickname (seriously, maybe don’t call the pig alien that guys!!) and will play a larger role in the next two books.
Warlord Zsinj fills the Iceheart role in this book: masterminding events, but mainly from behind the scenes. That makes our primary villain Admiral Trigit. Trigit is imminently selfish, as depicted in his decision to abandon the 35,000 crewmen aboard the Implacable to sudden death, so I’m glad that General Crespin and Myn Donos were able to take him out. We also meet Lieutenant Gara Petothel, the agent behind the destruction of Talon Squadron; she escapes the Implacable’s destruction and will play a larger role in books 2 and 3.
ISSUES:
More so than Stackpole, Allston uses a lot of humor in his books. Sometimes it’s stupid; sometimes it made me laugh out loud (ie, Phanan’s statement after he had his spleen removed, that during the final battle that he got so angry he had to vent his spleen). Your mileage may vary whether you also click with his sense of humor, but it usually works for me.
During battle scenes, Allston defaults to referring to the Wraiths by call sign. I’m sure that’s how a squadron would actually operate, and there IS a dramatis personae in the beginning of the book, but by the end I still didn’t consistently remember which Wraith corresponded to which number. Wedge is Leader, Kell and Runt are Five and Six, but I am less good with the other nine of them.
I was excited by the idea of the Wraiths masquerading as the Night Caller, but I found that it lost a little oomph in the actual execution. To avoid detection, they kept to the itinerary that Captain Darillian had set, so it became a bit formulaic: the Night Caller enters the designated system, Face as Darillian or Lieutenant Narol speaks to people, then either New Republic Intelligence or the Wraiths themselves re-enter the system and sabotage stuff. I was expecting a little more variety here, but you could argue that the Wraiths were locked into this routine.
Despite knowing little about her, Jesmin Ackbar’s death was an emotional experience. It helped that we got to see a conversation between her uncle and her about how she’d been coddled in her previous assignments because of her name. I think the reason her death connected with me more than Lujayne or any of the Rogues was because the Wraiths (and Kell especially) tried so hard to save her, so we really got the complete picture this time.
But while I liked how Allston dealt with Jesmin Ackbar’s death, I felt like the later deaths of Falynn and Grinder lacked the poignance of that earlier scene. Wedge told them not to go into the Star Destroyer; they went into it anyway. Grinder died, then Falynn died immediately afterwards. And since they hadn’t been fleshed out much beyond their character type, there wasn’t any emotion there for me.
IN CONCLUSION:
On the whole, Wraith Squadron is exciting and surprisingly funny, and I liked getting to know the Wraiths again. Even though there was yet more setup, it’s setup that I hope will pay off in two books, so I could suffer through it--especially for some intricate undercover missions and space battles in the end.
Next up: the third book in the Han Solo prequel trilogy, [b:Rebel Dawn|111019|Rebel Dawn (Star Wars The Han Solo Trilogy, #3)|A.C. Crispin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328111850l/111019._SY75_.jpg|2112719] by A.C. Crispin.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/keKrRHK9r14
Interview with Aaron Allston on theForce.net: http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/allston.asp
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not only does this book have a different author than the first four in the X-Wings series, but it also focuses on an almost entirely new cast of characters. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but after reading the book, I think it was a great change. While I greatly enjoyed the characters in the first four books and did miss them a bit, I loved the characters in this book. They were fantastic. They have much more interesting pasts, then the majority of the characters in the first four books. I think they are more complex characters, and that helped make me feel more invested in them. During the first four books, I liked all of the characters but really only became attached to a couple. In this book, I became invested in the story of almost all of the characters, and I cared what happened to them. There's still a small bit of me that somewhat misses Rogue Squadron, but I'm perfectly okay with reading about Wraith Squadron.
The story was also interesting, with Wraith Squadron pretending to be the crew of an Imperial warship. I wasn't sure how they would successfully do that, but I really enjoyed reading about it. I thought it was a really interesting story.
http://hmweasley-blog.blogspot.com/2013/08/book-review-wraith-squadron-by-aaron.html
The story was also interesting, with Wraith Squadron pretending to be the crew of an Imperial warship. I wasn't sure how they would successfully do that, but I really enjoyed reading about it. I thought it was a really interesting story.
http://hmweasley-blog.blogspot.com/2013/08/book-review-wraith-squadron-by-aaron.html
If you ever watched "The A-Team" and ever thought, "You know, this premise would be perfect set in the Star Wars Universe", then do I have a book for you....
I thought Stackpole’s X-Wing books were good, but Aaron Allston’s very first one blows them all out of them out of the water. You definitely don’t have to read those books before this one, though I would recommend it. I loved everything about this book. I didn’t think I would enjoy having to get to know a new squadron, but you instantly fall in love with these characters. They’re very different from Rogue Squadron, and surprisingly well fleshed-out too. The space battles are much easier to understand. The humor is absolutely on point, this is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. One of my absolute favorite part was the creative and unorthodox tactics the Wraiths were constantly using. It’s so good. A Gamorrean flies an X-Wing. If that doesn’t sell you on it I don’t know what will. Yub, yub, Commander.
It's always tough when you're introducing a totally new cast of original characters, and the leading/governing characters in this book only had very minor roles in the original films (with very brief cameos by the Big Three). Still, it just didn't have the same human-oriented feel as Michael Stackpole's Rogue Squadron books. I could be biased, though, because I think Stackpole wrote THE most human book in the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe: "I, Jedi," set in the first-person, which is also among my favorite EU stories.
It also threw me off that Wedge is 28 in this book, since I'm currently around that age and he sounds much, much older and more "stale" than any 28-year-old I know. And I didn't feel that any of the female characters were handled realistically--Allston has a far better grasp of the male voice. (Tyria throughout the book made me roll my eyes for some reason. And it seems like every human female in the book was described as "tall, slender, and beautiful." Seriously?)
This was still a fun and light read, though. I'd actually started it numerous times over the years but kept giving up or losing track of it about halfway through for some reason. It was nice to actually finish it off. And I have read WAY, WAY worse as far as Expanded Universe novels go.
It also threw me off that Wedge is 28 in this book, since I'm currently around that age and he sounds much, much older and more "stale" than any 28-year-old I know. And I didn't feel that any of the female characters were handled realistically--Allston has a far better grasp of the male voice. (Tyria throughout the book made me roll my eyes for some reason. And it seems like every human female in the book was described as "tall, slender, and beautiful." Seriously?)
This was still a fun and light read, though. I'd actually started it numerous times over the years but kept giving up or losing track of it about halfway through for some reason. It was nice to actually finish it off. And I have read WAY, WAY worse as far as Expanded Universe novels go.
The pacing feels off at times, but the Wraiths have a solid debut from an integral contributer to the EU.
4/5 Let the banter flow through you!
4/5 Let the banter flow through you!