A review by nerfherder86
Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed

4.0

It takes a little while to keep all of the characters straight in your head, there are a lot of them, but it was worth sticking with. A story set soon after the events of the movie Return of the Jedi, or "The Battle of Endor" in SW novelspeak :-) it's all about the forming of a new group of pilots for the New Republic, the government that has formed from the victorious Rebel Alliance. The Empire may have fallen, but there are still many Imperial forces still out there, wreaking damage on New Republic planets and ships, trying to keep the Empire alive. We start with an Intelligence officer who recruits Yrica Quell, a former Imperial pilot, who used to be in the "Shadow Wing," a particularly ruthless and effective squadron of TIE Fighter pilots, to help him form a new squadron to go after the Shadow Wing. They end up five pilots with very different backgrounds, all flying five different kinds of ships, which is very unique in fighter squadrons--usually you have all X-Wings or all B-Wings, etc. And they all have lots of personality quirks and issues, and personal baggage, each desiring revenge against Shadow Wing or justice for fallen comrades killed by Shadow Wing. It's really interesting to see how they all eventually coalesce into a working unit and establish rapport with each other, despite their differences. Lots of flying scenes, of course, and battles both with starships and with inner demons. Good book. As always, I wish there was just one Jedi in it somewhere, but that's a different kind of SW book. :-) Sets up nicely for a sequel too, of course, but major plotlines are all brought to a close.