Hello friends, so after tearing through the Legends trilogy of Darth Bane, I decided to read some canon books. I’ve been avoiding the “pilot” stories because I don’t really care for those–I thought. But there are only a handful of canon novels left that I haven’t read, lol, so I had to broaden my view. I decided to start with Battlefront II: Inferno Squad. Of course, I haven’t played the game, but I’m always willing to give video game books a try if it’s good storytelling.

SPOILERS!!!!

So not only is this one a pilot story and a video game story, but it also has Imperial characters as the protagonists. Those are a lot of strikes for me, lol. I can’t completely root for Imperials to succeed, but I will concede that it’s interesting to get their point of view once in a while. Plus, this one’s written by Christie Golden, and I loved her Star Wars novel Dark Disciple, so off I went.

And you know what? It was a great read! I was pulled in from the very beginning as Iden Versio, a star Imperial TIE pilot, goes deep undercover with her comrades (called Inferno Squad) in the remnants of Saw Guerrera’s Partisans after his death, who call themselves The Dreamers (Save the Dream!). Their job is to find out who is leaking information to them and to eliminate the threat. Iden has to publicly “defect” from and denounce the Empire, citing the destruction of Alderaan as the inciting incident that turned her. This is painful for her, as she doesn’t believe that at all (which is why it’s so hard for me to root for Imperials, who see the destruction of an entire planet full of civilians a military necessity, while the destruction of the Death Star is a “terrorist” act, ugh.)

Anyway, she’s recruited by the Dreamers, while her comrades are playing parts that caused them to become members as well. They have to take part in a few missions where their fellow Imperials are killed, but they maintain their act. They get to know the members of the group, and while some aren’t that likeable (such as their leader Staven), most of them are just people who hate the Empire and want to see justice done. The group is led by Staven, but they have a “Mentor,” who advises and guides them, and is actually the person who is giving them the Imperial intel for their missions. Turns out this is Lux Bonterri, the son of Mina Bonterri from the Clone Wars, who was an Onderonian Senator for the Separatists. I vaguely remember Lux from a few Clone Wars episodes–I remember he kind of had a thing for Ahsoka?–but the rest of his history I’m not familiar with.

Anyway, Inferno Squad figures this out and routes the Dreamers, but not without some personal cost. They lose a member of their squad and have to commit acts against the Empire. And most of them also become, if not friends with, then friendly with some members of the Dreamers, giving them a different perspective of the war.

I think it was clever to have Inferno Squad go up against the remnants of Saw’s Partisans, because they were considered extremists and not an official part of the Alliance. I’m not a fan of Saw’s methods, so I didn’t particularly care what happened to them, even though I did like most of their members. And I wasn’t that sad when one of Inferno Squad’s members died because–well, Imperial. I felt oddly detached from all of the characters, lol. Despite this, it was a good, fast, entertaining read. Iden’s struggle to please her cold, perfectionist Admiral father made her a bit more sympathetic for me, and learning that she later defected to the Alliance after Operation Cinder redeemed her a bit in my eyes.

3.5 out of 5 lightsabers

Let’s switch sides and go with a Rebel/New Republic pilot story. Although this one, Alphabet Squadron, features an Imperial defector named Yrica Quell. Quell leaves the Empire after Operation Cinder, supposedly in protest against its extreme cruelty. She spends some time at Traitor’s Remorse, a camp for Imperial Defectors, where she’s assigned a “therapy droid”–actually, an old reprogrammed Imperial torture droid called IT-O. But then Caern Adan, from New Republic Intelligence, recruits her to lead a squadron to find the Imperial TIE squadron Shadow Wing, which happens to be Yrica’s old squadron.

Together with an alphabet soup of ships and their pilots–Wyl Lark with his A-Wing, Chass na Chadic with her B-Wing, Nath Tensent with his Y-Wing, and Kairos with her U-Wing–Yrica must lead the squad in search of Shadow Wing. But Yrica must prove her loyalty and ability to lead, and it seems she’s got some secrets. Every member of Alphabet Squadron is damaged in some way and it takes some time–most of the book, in fact–for the squadron to form any semblence of a team. I found myself losing patience with all of them, especially Yrica, at some point or another, but it just means the author (Alexander Freed) did a great job writing them as flawed human beings who have been through a devastating war.

I tried reading this book some time ago on my Kindle, but after a few chapters I just couldn’t get into it. More than likely, I was distracted by other books, but this is a slow burn and a fairly dense read. I was determined to get through it, and once I slowed down and took it all in, I found that it’s a great book. For a “pilot book” it’s got a lot going on as far as characterization. While Inferno Squad was a fast, intense read about an Imperial pretending to be a defector, this one deals with an actual Imperial defector, who has to reconcile so many conflicting feelings and ideas about who she’s loyal to now. She desperately wants to prove herself so she can fly again, but her superiors don’t fully trust her yet, and her teammates don’t understand her. Yrica doesn’t make it easy for them, either, as she still thinks like an Imperial much of the time.

It was fun to see Hera Syndulla in the story, as Alphabet Squadron comes to be aboard her ship, the Lodestar. She leads an attack, along with Alphabet Squadron, on a planet called Pandem Nai, in the hopes of routing some Imperial Remnants, as well as destroying Shadow Wing. They manage to do the former, but not the latter–Shadow Wing gets away.

So I’ll be plodding my way through the next two books–Shadow Fall and Victory’s Price–to see how this team can actually come together and defeat Shadow Wing once and for all. Stay tuned.

3 out of 5 lightsabers