My book reviews for the Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron Trilogy by Alexander Freed: Alphabet Squadron and Shadowfall.

The first novel in a new trilogy starring veteran New Republic pilots!

On the brink of victory in a brutal war, five New Republic pilots transform from hunted to hunters in this epic Star Wars adventure. Set after Return of the Jedi, Alphabet Squadron follows a unique team, each flying a different class of starfighter as they struggle to end their war once and for all.
 
The Emperor is dead. His final weapon has been destroyed. The Imperial Army is in disarray. In the aftermath, Yrica Quell is just one of thousands of defectors from her former cause living in a deserters’ shantytown—until she is selected to join Alphabet Squadron.
 
Cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of pilots and starfighters, the five members of Alphabet are tasked by New Republic general Hera Syndulla herself. Like Yrica, each is a talented pilot struggling to find their place in a changing galaxy. Their mission: to track down and destroy the mysterious Shadow Wing, a lethal force of TIE fighters exacting bloody, reckless vengeance in the twilight of their reign.
 
The newly formed unit embodies the heart and soul of the Rebellion: ragtag, resourceful, scrappy, and emboldened by their most audacious victory in decades. But going from underdog rebels to celebrated heroes isn’t as easy as it seems, and their inner demons threaten them as much as their enemies among the stars. The wayward warriors of Alphabet Squadron will have to learn to fly together if they want to protect the new era of peace they’ve fought so hard to achieve.

Part of a Marvel and Del Rey crossover event, Alphabet Squadron is the counterpart to Marvel’s TIE Fighter miniseries, which follows the exploits of Shadow Wing as they scheme to thwart the New Republic.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

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I’ve been eying up the Alphabet Squadron series for a while, so after being approved to review the second book on NetGalley, I picked up this one. I thought it would be interesting to review both, so you could see whether my opinions changed as the series progressed.

Spoiler Warning

I stick to a strict spoiler-free policy with my book reviews, however, I am breaking it slightly with this review because I feel it’s essential to review this book for potential readers. It is a very minor spoiler that calls out a blatant lie in the book synopsis that is designed to draw in readers. It doesn’t ruin the book for anyone, it just sets a fact straight, which I feel readers deserve to know before picking this title up.

I went into Alphabet Squadron with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I had really high hopes for a new Starfighter series, and on the other, in the back of my mind was the only new canon novel I had read (Aftermath by Chuck Wendig), which had been extremely disappointing. I clung to the link to the TIE Fighter comic series and reminded myself that one novel didn’t necessarily mean that all the new canon novels were going to be disappointing. The new comics have been absolutely brilliant. And so, I went into this book with an open mind…

… and I was thoroughly disappointed.

Let me start with the blatant lie I mentioned in the synopsis and go from there.

 In the aftermath, Yrica Quell is just one of thousands of defectors from her former cause living in a deserters’ shantytown–until she is selected to join Alphabet Squadron. Cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of pilots and starfighters, the five members of Alphabet are tasked by New Republic general Hera Syndulla herself.

As I mentioned, I’m a big fan of Hera, so the idea of a new squadron run by her sounded awesome. In hindsight, the synopsis only makes it sound like she is running the show, so I’ll give them that; it’s careful wordplay. However, it’s still a lie because Hera isn’t the one who gives them the task in the first place. She is involved, and it’s fantastic to see her, but in a much smaller capacity than the synopsis makes out. It’s a name-drop to draw in fans of Star Wars Rebels.

Other than Hera, the book is made up of brand-new characters, and there are a lot of them. Too many, to be honest. Four separate narratives are happening at the same time: Alphabet Squadron, Shadowing Squadron, the Imperial commanders and a group of New Republic Military. The last group seems quite random at the start, and as the novel progresses, their identity becomes evident. What confused me was how much effort was put into their narratives. The role they play in Alphabet Squadron didn’t require the amount of characterisation and detail that the author chose to go into, and many scenes regarding those characters seemed to be fluff to just bulk out the novel. Even when I realised who these characters were, I didn’t feel the need to know anywhere near as much detail about them as I now do.

In comparison, I knew almost nothing about the main characters, the actual Alphabet Squadron. Being cagey and mysterious about your characters is one thing, but there’s a problem when you’re giving the reader a full character history of minor characters they’ll never meet again. I felt no empathy or bond with any of the main characters, and that’s a big issue. The only interest I had in them by the end of the book was to unravel their mysteries, and that will only go so far for me.

For a novel built around a space fighter squadron, there were not that many space battles, at least for the Alphabet Squadron itself. Most of the space battle scenes didn’t involve them, and for most of the book, they were out of the cockpit. It felt more like a spy novel than a space pilot one, and as I found in Wendig’s Aftermath, there is Disney’s obsession with featuring terrorism in a universe where it doesn’t exist. Both sides throw the words “terrorist attack” around multiple times throughout the novel. Rather than the Rebel Alliance being just a rebellion, they’re referred to as terrorists, the destruction of the Death Star is called a terror attack by the Imperials, and the destruction of Alderaan is referred to as justification for it and further attacks.

While I don’t disagree with showing the Imperial point of view, no universe is black and white, not even a fictional one like Star Wars. I abhor the way real-world events have been drawn into a fantasy world that is many people’s escape from reality. I don’t want to, nor expect to, read about terrorism in a work of fiction unless I purposely go looking for it. It’s also the incorrect use of the term terrorism:

 the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims

The entire point of the Rebellion is that the Senate was dissolved by Palpatine. While the Rebellion was originally started by politicians (Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, etc.), it developed into a full-on rebellion because no political avenue was available to them. The Rebellion’s aims were not to cause violence or intimidation, and their targets were primarily military or members of the Empire, not civilians.

While it’s obvious that an Imperial would not care for the exact definition of the terminology, a writer should. Injecting words into a narrative that has no place and is incorrect is something that an editor should pick up on. The fact that this has been present in two new Star Wars novels makes me believe that this is a decision by Disney rather than by both authors. I’ll be interested to see if other new post-Original Trilogy novels continue this pattern.

The series has potential, although this does depend on what happens in the next novel, Shadowfall. You can read my book review for Shadowfall here. The members of Alphabet Squadron have enough personality, quirks and history that could be the foundation for an excellent series. The problem is all the other junk in between. There is so much political rubbish in Alphabet Squadron, whereas all I wanted was for them to get in their ships and do what star pilots do best. I feel like the author completely misunderstood what he was getting himself into when he signed up to write a series called Alphabet Squadron. If you want to go write a military novel, fine, but don’t label it a Starfighter novel and drop a name like Hera Syndulla just so people will pick it up!

Alphabet Squadron’s hunt for the deadliest TIE fighters in the galaxy continues in this Star Wars adventure!

News of the New Republic’s victory still reverberates through the galaxy. In its wake, the capital ships of the newly legitimized galactic government journey to the farthest stars, seeking out and crushing the remnants of imperial tyranny. But some old ghosts are harder to banish than others. And none are more dangerous than Shadow Wing.

Yrica Quell’s ragtag Alphabet Squadron still leads the search for Shadow Wing, but they’re no closer to their goal—and the pressure to find their quarry before it’s too late has begun to shake them apart. Determined to finish the fight once and for all, Quell works with New Republic Intelligence’s contentious Caern Adan and the legendary General Hera Syndulla to prepare the riskiest gambit of her starfighting career—a trap for Shadow Wing that could finish the chase once and for all.

But in the darkness, their enemy has evolved. Soran Keize, last of the Imperial aces, has stepped into the power vacuum at the head of Shadow Wing, reinvigorating the faltering unit in their hour of need. Once adrift in the aftershocks of the war, Keize has found meaning again, leading the lost soldiers of his unit through to safety. The only thing standing in his way? The most mismatched squadron in the New Republic Navy, led by his former mentee: the traitor Yrica Quell.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Unlike book one, Shadow Fall starts right in the middle of the action. I wondered if the pace would end up slowing down and dwindling into endless politics, and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t. If anything, it kept ramping up. From start to finish, Alphabet Squadron are in the thick of it as they lay a trap for their Imperial nemesis, and like any good plan, there are always bumps along the way. These bumps allow us to get to know the characters, to watch them grow and work through what’s happening.

There are also delayed reactions to what happened in the first book for Lark and Chass, who are coming to terms with being the only survivors of Shadow Wing’s attack on the Hellion’s Dare and the choices they have made. In my opinion, this is as much to do with the circumstances as it is to do with the better characterisation in this novel. Despite there being action, the author has made space for the characters to get retrospective with themselves and each other. The main cast isn’t fighting over space in the novel with twenty other characters, and as I’d hoped, the line between minor and major characters is much clearer. The minor characters pop in and out like scenery, adding to the story, adjacent to Alphabet Squadron, but never taking the attention away from them as they did in the first novel.

There is so much improvement in this novel that I honestly wondered at one point if it was written by a ghostwriter. However, as I continued to work my way through the book, I began to see familiar patterns in the writing style that dispelled that idea. For one, the author continues to write as though striving to impress someone way too hard. This is particularly noticeable through long, rambling sentence structures, which would probably make J.R. Tolkien proud. In a science fiction novel that is already filled to the hilt with jargon, it just feels out of place and clunky. I ended up skimming quite a few sections of the description due to the long sentence instruction because I lost interest in the lacklustre description which essentially wasn’t telling me anything I needed to know. It became even more difficult to read when the author used words that the average reader is unlikely to recognise.

For example;

“But Vanguard’s on a mission to try to ameliorate the shortage of starships going around.”

With multiple degrees under my belt, one of which is in English Literature, I have a wide and varied vocabulary (I’ve read old English, for goodness’ sake). The use of the word “ameliorate” was unknown to me, and I had to look it up. Even if I had been familiar with it (it means ‘make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better’), it felt completely out of place in the sentence. It’s a complicated word thrown in there just for the sake of being there, and while the character in question, Adan, speaks well, his speech is not usually filled with overly specific jargon. It would have felt more in keeping with his usual dialogue to just say ‘fix’ or even ‘alleviate‘ if a slightly less common word was really necessary.

One thing that struck me as odd was the use of the terms navy and army throughout the novel. These felt too pedestrian for a Star Wars novel, and I don’t recall them being used elsewhere in the franchise. According to Wookiepedia, however, they are the correct terminology. I think previously it has been ‘armed forces’ rather than the ‘army’ and ‘Starfleet’ (or similar terminology) instead of the navy. So while this is correct, it doesn’t feel like it’s typically done, and a part of me is a little… irked at this break from tradition.

These may seem like small nitpicking things, but all of them prevent Shadow Fall from being a 5-star book for me. At least compared to the first book, the obsession with terrorism has dropped considerably, with it only being mentioned twice compared to the seven times previously.  In the end, the characters and the plot shone through, and I was pulled into the action, eager to find out what would happen to the Squadron as I became emotionally attached to them at last. There were highs and lows, and there were finally moments where they said things to each other that had me laughing or made my heart squeeze with emotion.

The aces of the New Republic have one final chance to defeat the darkness of Shadow Wing in this thrilling conclusion to the Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron trilogy!

In the wake of Yrica Quell's shocking decision-and one of the fiercest battles of their lives-the remnants of Alphabet Squadron seek answers and closure across a galaxy whose old war scars are threatening to reopen.

Soran Keize has returned to the tip of Shadow Wing's spear. Operation Cinder, the terrifying protocol of planetary extermination that began in the twilight of the Imperial era, burns throughout the galaxy. Shadow Wing is no longer wounded prey fleeing the hunters of the New Republic. With its leader, its strength has returned, and its Star Destroyers and TIE squadrons lurk in the darkness between stars, carrying out the fallen Emperor's final edict of destruction-as well as another, stranger mission, one Keize has championed not for the dying Empire, but for its loyal soldiers.

Alphabet Squadron's ships are as ramshackle and damaged as their spirits, but they've always had one another. Now, as they face the might of Keize's reborn juggernaut, they aren't sure they even have that. How do you catch a shadow? How do you kill it? And when you're finally victorious, who pays the price?

Coming in the future!

Thanks for reading my review for the Alphabet Squadron trilogy by Alexander Freed.

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