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A review by thepancreas11
Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed
4.0
I love me some fighter pilots. I love their troubled, cartoonish backstories. I love their impossible to follow maneuvers. I love their missions which aren't so much about the characters or the themes as about how crazy the mission objectives are. I don't care that novels like this are probably bloated and filled with unnecessary detail. I don't care about the weird pacing or the clichés or the repetition that every fighter story inevitably has. It really doesn't matter. I want to see a team assembled, and I want to see them face impossible odds, and I want them to come out unscathed but transformed.
Star Wars has its beach reads too. They're fun, they're silly, and you can read them in a day or two, if you concentrate. Sure, this novel isn't really adding to the depth of the lore or examining the deeper meaning of the universe. But as far as lighter reads go, you could do a lot worse. There's a lot said on PTSD and the effects that the war at large has on its individuals. There's a lot said on vulnerability and toxic masculinity. There are elements to this story that I haven't seen in any other Star Wars story, canon or legends. I think very highly of the old X-wing series, and I think "Alphabet Squadron" would fit right in. It might even be better.
Still, I do wish that Star Wars had the guts to not just touch on deeper subjects. It's one thing to say, "Hey, these people have PTSD," and it's another to say, "This is what their PTSD is doing to them." If anything holds this novel back, it's that some of the room given to the candy coating of
action could have--and probably should have--been given over to the creamy nougat of theme.
Star Wars has its beach reads too. They're fun, they're silly, and you can read them in a day or two, if you concentrate. Sure, this novel isn't really adding to the depth of the lore or examining the deeper meaning of the universe. But as far as lighter reads go, you could do a lot worse. There's a lot said on PTSD and the effects that the war at large has on its individuals. There's a lot said on vulnerability and toxic masculinity. There are elements to this story that I haven't seen in any other Star Wars story, canon or legends. I think very highly of the old X-wing series, and I think "Alphabet Squadron" would fit right in. It might even be better.
Still, I do wish that Star Wars had the guts to not just touch on deeper subjects. It's one thing to say, "Hey, these people have PTSD," and it's another to say, "This is what their PTSD is doing to them." If anything holds this novel back, it's that some of the room given to the candy coating of
action could have--and probably should have--been given over to the creamy nougat of theme.