Tag: fiction

Canon Contemplation: Finishing up Alphabet Squadron

Some Spoilers Ahead!!!

Hello friends! With a few books in between, I’ve finally finished the Alphabet Squadron trilogy by Alexander Freed, with Shadowfall and Victory’s Price. I did a little review of its first book, Alphabet Squadron, along with the book Inferno Squad, in an earlier post.

The feel of this whole series reminds me of of the show Andor: no Jedi or Force or larger-than-life heroes or villains; just regular people doing their best and trying to end this war. Gritty, complex, no easy answers, the toll war takes on people. A slow burn at first, and then ramping up until I couldn’t stop reading. The Rebels may have won the war at Endor, but it didn’t officially end until a year later at Jakku, as the New Republic sought out renegade Imperials. In this trilogy in particular, Alphabet Squadron–along with General Syndulla and her New Republic crew–are after Shadow Wing, the Empire’s 204th TIE squadron.

I won’t go into plot details of these two books, but suffice to say there are many battles between the two groups, with losses on both sides. My eyes usually glaze over long battle scenes, whether it’s in a book or on the screen, and if these books were only about the battles, I wouldn’t be interested at all. For me, it’s the characters that made these books stand out. In the first book, I didn’t really like any of them (except Hera, of course), lol. But they were interesting and complex; and over the course of the books they grew on me. I became extremely invested in their welfare and what would eventually happen to them. I’ll just describe a few of them here:

Alphabet Squadron:

Wyl Lark is an A-Wing pilot from the planet Polyneus. His people are pacifists at heart, but felt the need to send 120 of their people to fight against the injustices of the Empire. Wyl is an excellent fighter pilot, but the constant killing wears down his soul. After Endor, he was getting ready to go home, but he was needed for more, and so he stayed. His extreme empathy–toward his enemies, as well as his allies-frequently puzzle and discomfit his team. In other words, he’s not jaded–not yet–and he tries several times to reach out to the enemy and end the killing. Wyl acts as the moral center of the story. He makes mistakes, but they’re always for the right reasons.

Chass na Chadic is a Theelin who flies a B-Wing. Chass is an angry young woman–she idolizes Jyn Erso, who died a glorious death to stop the first Death Star–and she very much wants a glorious death herself. But she wasn’t at Endor, and she keeps surviving battles while her comrades die around her. Mostly, she’s afraid if she survives, there will be no place for her in the New Republic. Fighting is all she knows. So she takes reckless risks, and Wyl Lark keeps saving her, and it enrages her. She has a difficult relationship with Wyl, as well as Yrica Quell. Well, with most everyone, lol.

Nath Tensent is a bit older than these two, an Ex-Imperial who pilots a Y-Wing. He left the Empire early on and became a sort of pirate, but lost his crew to the Empire; the Rebels recruited him after that. Mostly, he wanted revenge against the 204th, who killed his crew. Nath is an odd one–he isn’t particularly loyal to the New Republic per se. He’s in it for revenge, and also because he was being paid by Caern Adan, the guy who cobbled Alphabet Squadron together. Yet, he’s brave to a fault, saves countless lives, and gets several medals. He likes the attention and acclaim, but not the responsibility. He’s got a soft spot for Wyl and looks out for him, but he becomes attached to the whole squad. When pushed, he’ll do the right thing.

Kairos flies the U-Wing, and is a bit of a mystey at first. She’s non-human, but no one really knows anything about her or her people; in the first book she’s wrapped in robes and a masked helmet, and rarely spoke. But she’s intense, a terrifying killer if it comes to it. Turns out the Empire took control of her planet, and she, as the “shaman” was taken by them, interrogated, and imprisoned. Her people, however, were isolationists; their culture denies mingling with any other beings of the galaxy in order to stay “pure.” Kairos was not pure anymore, and she had no place with her people. So she was highly motivated to end the Empire. Her squadmates barely understand who she is, but trust her.

Yrica Quell is the defecting Imperial TIE fighter pilot who flies an X-Wing. She took part in Operation Cinder (Nacronis) in the 204th, but afterward defected to the New Republic, claiming Cinder as her reason and that she didn’t, in fact, take part. Turns out it was her mentor, Soran Keize, who pushed her to defect. He could see that Cinder was eating away at her but knew she wouldn’t go on her own. So she did, and Caern Adan put her in Alphabet Squadron to find and destroy the 204th, because of her knowledge of her former squadron. Just when it seems Alphabet is coming together, they find out that she did, in fact, take part in Cinder, and are appalled. Feeling she has no future in the New Republic, she goes back to the 204th, but not to really rejoin them; rather, to let the New Republic know where they were. She was part of neither, but wanted to do what was right, and to save as many lives as possible, as it seemed the 204th were operating a second Cinder. Towards the end of Victory’s Price, she goes up against her former mentor, Soran Keize, a man she likes and respects, but feels she must stop to save even more lives.

All of these people have tough character arcs, and I mean they really go through it. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, they go through the wringer; they come out the other side damaged, but wiser, I think, at least concerning themselves: who they are and what they want.

The 204th:

Soran Keize is the only character from the Empire I’ll get into, as he’s the most important to know and understand. After Cinder, and after he pushes Quell to defect, he leaves the Empire himself for a while. He takes on the name Devon, and tries to make an honest living in the galaxy for a time. He does this because he knows the Empire truly lost the war and there was no coming back; he also had issues with Cinder and what the Empire had become. But eventually, New Republic Intelligence catches up with him and tries to arrest and/or kill him. He gets away, but decides there is no life for him in the New Republic, not as long as they keep coming after him. So he goes back to the 204th. He doesn’t do it for the Empire. He does it for his squadron, the 204th. He does it out of loyalty to them, the people he had worked with and were responsible for. He still knows the Empire is done. But he wants to give the people of the 204th a purpose. If that means constantly engaging with the New Republic, then so be it, to whatever end comes. Eventually, though, he has to regroup with the larger Imperial Remnant fleet, and they take part in the battle of Jakku. Well, his people do, but he goes on a solo mission to Coruscant to try to destroy a vast Imperial database that holds every single horrible thing every member of the Empire had ever done; the New Republic could use it to harry and harass any ex-Imperials after the war. He wants to wipe the slate clean and give them a chance to live new lives. But in doing so, in bombing the database, it could kill thousands living nearby in Coruscant, and Quell tries to stop him for this reason (there are other reasons, too, which are interesting).

Soran is probably the only Imperial character I’ve encountered that I actually like. Except perhaps Leo Partagaz from Andor, but that’s mostly because of his disposition; he’s still a ruthless Imperial, lol. But Soran is a philosophical man, and truly believes that he’s helping the people he’s leading. He doesn’t care about the Empire at large; that’s over. Without many other options, all he can do is give them purpose, and he’s laser-focused on this plan. I think he’s doing it to give himself purpose, as well, in a galaxy that has irrevocably changed, and not in his favor. I respect him at least for that.

I want to mention the Emperor’s Messenger Droid, as well. This is one of many droids that announced Operation Cinder to the fleet commanders, with the eerie faceplate that held Sidious’ hologram face inside it. After Cinder, it went dark, and floated around Soran’s ship like a ghost. And I think that’s the point: it’s a symbol. The Emperor haunts them all, even in death. He’s a constant shadow looming over them, reminding them of their former glory, and of all the horrible things they did in his name. The crew at one point make a shrine out of it, praying to it for guidance. It’s frustratingly silent, giving no hint of what they’re supposed to do now. They have no idea the Emperor is punishing them for allowing the Rebels to win (typical that he doesn’t want to take any responsibility himself). It’s inside the droid that Soran finds out about the database, that the Emperor was keeping a mind-boggling account of every crime, big and small, of every Imperial out there. Because that was the point: making everyone in the Empire accountable and responsible, no matter how small a role they played. A petty and cruel bastard he was, lol.

Anyway, these books are as rich and complex, as dark and gritty as Andor, and asks a lot of the same thorny questions. When the story is about Jedi and Sith, good and bad tend to be clearly delineated. Here, as in Andor, we mere mortals have a harder time of it. We’re just people, caught up in terrible violence, with unending cycles of revenge. War is hell, and there are no winners, not really, not when the violence rips you to pieces, physically and emotionally and spiritually. These books are about the toll war takes on regular people, the scars left, the ambiguous moral decisions that have to be made. I’ll be thinking about these characters for a long time.

As a whole, I give this trilogy 4.5 out of 5 Lightsabers (the slow burn build-up requires a lot of patience, but the payoff is worth it; and they’re BIG books–500 or more pages each).

Have you read the Alphabet Squadron trilogy? What did you think? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Canon Contemplation: Inferno Squad and Alphabet Squadron

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