| Title | : | Wraith Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #5) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0553578944 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780553578942 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 |
| Publication | : | First published February 1, 1998 |
It is Wedge Antilles’ boldest creation: a covert-action unit of X-wing fighters, its pilots drawn from the dregs of other units, castoffs and rejects given one last chance. But before the new pilots can complete their training, the squadron’s base is attacked by former Imperial Admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action—taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew. The mission: to gain vital intelligence about Trigit’s secret weapons, to sabotage the admiral’s plans, and to lure him into an Alliance trap. But the high-stakes gamble pits Wraith Squadron’s ragtag renegades against the Empire’s most brilliant master of guile and deception.
Are they up to the challenge?
If not, the penalty is instant death.
Wraith Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #5) Reviews
-
The X-Wing series is among the most beloved facets of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and books like this make it easy to see why. Full of everything you've come to expect from Lucas' space opera, this is how post-Return of the Jedi stories should be done, not like the mess that was The Last Jedi.
-
Much better. A solid 4.
Better characterization, better conflict, better connection between reader and story than the original X-Wing books.
Given the constraints of fan fiction, Wraith Squadron would be a decent stand-alone space opera. Oh, there are the obligatory cameos by SW heavies and all the constraints of the SW universe, but that's why these books were written, not to please the greater universe of SF readers.
Good job.
(The low-tech nature of the SW universe bothers me. That an Imperial star destroyer would require a crew of 35,000 argues for non-automation/computer-aid on many functions. The other curious aspect of that universe is the apparent static state of its technology. Nothing seems to be developed or improved--despite the occasional comment about old-designs--over hundreds of years. Assumedly some of this orthodoxy is imposed to keep the stories consistent, but so much seems to be rooted in 1970s earth technology, which of course was the basis upon which Lucas wrote the original Star Wars.) -
I've put off reading this book for about 18 years now. And with there being a notable lack of Star Wars novels coming out since Disney took over and said none of that ever happened, I figured I'd go back and try to finish the X-wing series.
I really liked the first four books by Michael A. Stackpole. Mostly because I was already a fan of Stackpole's other non-Star Wars books at the time, and because the idea of the X-wing series intrigued me. Star Wars books, in the Star Wars universe, but NOT about the Star Wars characters. It was a great series. Stackpole is a great writer, and he had some very good ideas for the X-wing series. It turned out pretty well. All new characters that were great, all new villains that were great, side characters from the movies returning in leading roles. And then the series ended. It was a pretty great ending. I really liked it. And I wasn't the only one. The X-wing series sold a ridiculous number of books. Fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe looking for something fresh and new in the series they loved ate it up. So, with the story told, and the creator of the series moving on to other things, they decided to keep going for another five books with another author. Aaron Allston who is like the Stephenie Meyer of the Star Wars authors, took over and said, hey, you like all those new characters in the X-wing series? Yeah, sorry, they're gone, and I'm going to replace them all with stereotypes and jokes... bad jokes... jokes that will make your soul hurt. Seriously, replacing Michael A. Stackpole with Aaron Allston is like replacing Harrison Ford with Ben Afleck... oh... right... that happened... uh, it's like replacing Harrison Ford with Chris Pine... oh... right... that happened too... Fuck Hollywood!
Anyway, back in the day, I read about 3 chapters of this book and was like, yeah, no, you're tossing out everything I liked about the first four books, namely the new characters and villains, and replacing them with characters I don't really like, and vague villains that are just sort of mentioned, but never really seen to be doing anything villainous. Plus, like I said. Aaron Allston is like the Stephenie Meyer of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. He's an absolutely terrible writer. Hhis books are amongst the worst of the SWEU. He technobables more than an episode of Star Trek Voyager, knows nothing about characterization, and he thinks that the definition of humor is having his cardboard cutouts of characters repeating lines from the movies completely out of context.
Anyway, I figured I bought the book, it's been sitting on my shelf for 18 years, I don't have any other Star Wars Books left to read, eh, I might as well. I'm not really reading it because I'm interested in what it's about. I'm more reading it in the same way someone would watch M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. If you haven't seen it, please do. That movie is one of the greatest unintentional comedies ever made. It's freaking hilarious.
Anyway, I'm about 25% through, and so far this book is like a herald of all the bland mediocrity, terrible writing, lack of characterization, technobabble, and just plain dumb, boring or lacking plotlines that was to come with the formation of Lucasbooks a year after its release.
50% through... oh my god... this book is actually WORSE than I remember it being. Back when it came out, I was not the crotchety asshole about writing and storytelling I am today, and even my younger, stupider self was smart enough to stop reading this crap after a few chapters. This is really slow going. There is not a single character in this book. Like not one. There is no one with a personality. No one. The "characters" in this book barely even qualify as stage props used by the author to move events along. You notice I didn't say "move the STORY along" there. Well, that would be because there is no story. Things happen, usually because reasons, but there's nothing really stringing them together into a coherent narrative. There's no driving force behind them. THERE'S NO REASON FOR ANY OF THIS TO BE HAPPENING EXCEPT TO CON A FEW MORE BUCKS OUT OF LOYAL FANS OF THE FIRST FOUR BOOKS. It's almost as if the author made it up as he went along. This is not the fun space adventures of the first four books, that knew when to be light-hearted, when to be serious, when and how to develop characters, and how to tell a cohesive narrative with it all. No wonder I never finished this book. It's absolute garbage. I always feel bad thrashing a book by an author who has recently passed away, but good GOD. I've read more interesting college textbooks! This task I've set myself, finishing this book that I bought but never read, has really just reaffirmed why I've never liked Aaron Allston's books. He's absolutely terrible at telling a story, creating interesting and sympathetic characters, and generally doing ANYTHING to keep the interest of the readers. This book is a perfect example of how corporate greed can absolutely ruin a good thing. It's proof that the series should have ended at book four.
When reading books that I, personally, don't enjoy all that much, I can usually see in it what other people may find enjoyable, even if I don't really care for it. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, for instance. I find it to be one of the most pretentious, arrogant pieces of garbage I've ever had the displeasure to read. But I understand why so many people enjoy it. I can see in it all of the things that people point out as good, and I can say to myself, well yeah, that makes sense. I can see why someone would like this book because of that. I can't see anything in this book that justifies the 4 star rating it has here on Goodreads, and the hundreds of positive reviews from people who can't give it enough praise. I honestly cannot understand why anyone would find this book, in any way, to be good, enjoyable, or entertaining in the slightest bit.
70% done... I can't do it. I keep trying to force myself to finish this book, but it's so unappealing in every single way that I can't bring myself to continue. I actually started reading Rogue Squadron, book 1 of the x-wing series instead before I realized what I was doing. Yeah, in one chapter, Michael A. Stackpole did what Aaron Allston could not in 300 pages. He made me give a crap about the characters and what was happening to them. He made me feel dramatic tension, and as if something was at stake. He gave me a likeable and sympathetic character with goals, dreams, and difficulties to overcome. The contrast is so great that I can clearly see why I read a few chapters of this book when it came out then set it on my self and forgot about it for twenty years. Because Wraith Squadron is absolute garbage compared to the four books that came before it.
I sometimes look on the Star Wars Expanded Universe post New Jedi Order and think to myself, where did it all go wrong. Well, my friends, I think it went wrong when Lucasbooks trusted Aaron Allston with so much of it. It descended into bland mediocrity, and bland mediocrity is Aaron' Allston's specialty. He wrote six of the volumes between Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi if I remember correctly, and played a large part in series planning for both series. Every single Star Wars book I have read from him has been absolute crap. So is it any wonder that there was a steep decline in quality when he became one of those responsible for shaping the future of the series? I've not read any of his non-Star Wars books, but frankly, I don't think I want to. I really don't care to see the new heights of ineptitude he might soar to when he doesn't have the backbone of an established series and characters to fall back upon.
So yeah. I'm done. I think I'll take this one my local second hand bookstore, because I sure as hell am never picking it up again. -
Twice upon a time, I tore through the first four X-Wing books and picked up the fifth with complete faith and trust that it would continue in the same pattern of awesome. Twice upon a time, I put Wraith Squadron down with a heavy sigh after the first half dozen chapters.
Once, in 1999, I was too bored to ever continue and it sat on my "unfinished" shelf for over a dozen years. The second time was this year, and if it hadn't been for my alphabetical challenge (this was the book for X), my commitment to review it, and my desire to get to the Stackpole book I've never read, it would have gone right back on the unfinished list as a permanent resident. I actually am sorry I didn't like it, since Allston died back in February and I've kind of used his death as a rallying point for realcanon (the man dies and suddenly his books get thrown out the window?).
But it was not a good book. It was about 150 pages too long, and it was also abundantly clear that the author made video games for a living, with page after page of clunky space battles that felt like reading the player's guide to Flight Space Fighter Sim 3000xe IV: More Splodey.
Here's something Aaron Allston really, really wants you to understand as you read this book: it is NOT
Rogue Squadron. Okay, it's called Something Squadron and it's about Wedge putting together an eccentric group of pilots to the chagrin of a disgruntled admiralty. BUT there are two quirky nonhumans instead of one. And his second isn't under suspicion from the New Republic; one of their pilots wants to kill him. Oh, and the guy who TOTALLY isn't Corran because he's not even Corellian, see, he gets with his chick in the first book, which is different. And the chick who makes him analyze his feelings and stuff isn't Mirax and there isn't a triangle, so, it's different. So, just to be clear, this is totally not a slower-paced, more boring version of Rogue Squadron. And Allston made me aware of this on every page he possibly could.
I did like the plot. It's too bad the plot couldn't hang out for more of the book, because I really liked what it had to offer: the re-form of Rogue Squadron is so successful that they've lost their effectiveness in the covert ops department. Wedge decides to take some commandos who also happen to be pilots and make an undercover team, the dagger in the boot to compliment Rogue Squadron's more direct sword. Janson, Wedge's gunner from the Battle of Hoth, reappears as the second in command, which I was very excited about, and I was also extremely hopeful about finally getting to see Warlord Zsinj after hearing his name so much. I even appreciated the hints about
The Courtship of Princess Leia, because I love it when the books reference each other to tighten up their connections.
Unfortunately, the plot had to duck out early because it had a thing at a place, and the 403-page book tried to make up for its absence with lots of explosions, relationship stuff, and, um, paragraphs. For awhile, I thought the relationship stuff might get some positive points, because the girl shuts him down for not actually loving her but only wanting to be in love with someone like her; however, predictably, she gives her personality the boot and decides to suck face with him in the concluding chapters.
More embarrassing than his treatment of people with ovaries were Allston's racial stereotypes. Wedge and two of the pilots literally go undercover as Mexican desperadoes with ponchos, sombreros, and terrible haircuts/mustaches. And let me just say now that if a racial stereotype is so overt that I notice it, it is bad, because 9 times out of 10, that kind of thing sails straight over my head. And, because I'm an equal opportunity equal opportunist, I also got extremely upset over his treatment of nonhumans. Aaron Allston was completely oblivious to the fact that Gamorrean are not literal pigs and gives us a character like Rocket the Raccoon -- not only is he called Piggy (something I cringed every time I read it -- how does this galaxy even have pigs? -- how is it ever okay to call someone Piggy unless her first name is Miss and she has golden curls and is voiced by Frank Oz?), but he also had to be totally genetically modified and crammed with cybernetic hardware in order to function as not a brainless animal. I thought it was sick.
And finally, far more distressing than his treatment of females and nonhumans, the much-touted "humor" that was the first thing out of everyone's mouth the moment I mention Wraith Squadron. Here's the thing: I have laughed out loud often throughout every one of Michael A. Stackpole's books. He's wry and clever and can suggest humor with the twitch of a character's eyebrow, an unexpected meeting, or the consequence of a character's action. Humor in this book was more like getting aggressively beaten with a Three Stooges Box set. He might as well have written in the pratfalls. A laugh track would have been more subtle. There were only three jokes, which were repeated an average of, oh, well, every 10 or 15 pages for a total of some 30 times. They weren't funny the first time, and by the 20th, I was wanting to beat my head on the desk just to feel better.
I was so weary by the time I finished this book. But I did try. Realcanon, obviously, but far from readable. Yub, yub, or whatever. -
3,5 stars
First of all, WOW, did this beat Stackpole's sorry excuse for writing down in the dust.
I am so relieved.
Not only has Allston written several more books in the X-Wing series, he has also written many of the other SW books. Now I can look forward to them with pleasure.
So, "Wraith Squadron" is definitely my favourite in the X-Wing series so far. It has an exciting, fast-paced plot, engaging and multi-faceted characters with believable backstories and emotional responses (take notes, Stackpole), dialogue the likes of which actual human beings might engage in, often interspersed with humorous banter that feels natural and spontaneous rather than painfully contrived (take more notes, Stackpole), aliens that have more than one body part that can react to situations (keep the notepad up, Michael "brain tails" Stackpole), and the writing itself flows smoothly (... alright, the joke has run its course, but you get the point, Stackpole).
I have two main issues that take this down from four to three stars. First of all, the justification for the creation of Wraith Squadron, is a bit weak. I would have liked Allston to spend more time on this, to make it more believable. As it is, it reads like a hastily contrived plot tool to get him where he needs to go. That being said, you forgive him pretty quickly, because the group of characters he puts together for Wraith Squadron is varied and interesting.
My second point, however, pertains to the females, and this seems to be a shared problem for this entire series. I swear, not one single female character (except for the Mon Calamari crew mate) is introduced without being described as beautiful, whereas the men come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and degrees of attractiveness. As a female reader, this irks me. It seems unlikely that flight/commando skills and attractiveness need to be part of the same bargain. However, unlike Stackpole, Allston doesn't focus too much on the beauty of the female characters once said beauty has been established, and their worth isn't as centered around whether the male characters want to have sex with them or not. This makes it a little less irritating, but still, try to change it up a little, OK? Male SW authors? Women come in different shapes and sizes. Just fyi.
Anyway, I still really liked this. The plot is engaging, and the fight scenes aren't too contrived or filled with technical jargon, so they're essentially pretty readable, as well as extremely exciting. I actually felt my pulse heighten during some parts. You really feel it when a character is in a dangerous situation, and the descriptions are never too clinical to get your emotional responses going.
So I'm actually really looking forward to reading the next installment. Way to go, Allston! -
The squadron of misfit pilots
Wedge Antilles has a new idea: take all the pilots that are a hair's breadth away from being kicked out of the Alliance and regroup the best and most talented into a commando-type squadron. Thus is born Wraith Squadron, with newcomers Kell, Tyria, and "Piggy".
NOTE: Based on audiobook and novel.
I Liked:
It would be all too easy to stick in a rut, keep having Rogue Squadron do the same 'ol. But Aaron Allston (understandably) wants to branch out, explore something new. So he has Wedge and Wes Jansen (another SW minor character alumni) start up what will be Wraith Squadron. The concept is interesting, and the characters are pretty different from the pilots in Rogue Squadron.
Probably my favorite character is "Face" Lorn. He is amusing, I love how he was a child star, and yet at the same time, conflicted. Donos is also another interesting character, a man who was the only survivor of his squadron. His breakdown felt very realistic.
While Rogue got to tear down Coruscant and Isard, Wraith gets to attack Zsinj. It's a fairly interesting story. My favorite part, though, was when the Wraiths went undercover to penetrate the planet. That was amusing!
Speaking of amusing, I think there is far more humor in Allston's X-Wing books than in Stackpole's (and far less "hammy" writing).
I Didn't Like:
Some of the characters never really connected to me. Kell felt like a weak Luke/Corran/fill*in*the*blank pilot. Tyria is yet another Force-Sensitive pilot. When one character (who didn't make the cut) was said to be from Tatooine, I groaned. For being such an out-of-the-way world, it sure does have a lot of people to send Core-ward.
Another thing that plagued the book was the fact it was another "first" novel. We have to be introduced to all the characters, all the scenarios, all the training we've already done before.
Lastly, I found myself struggling to figure out where the story was going. I don't know if that's because I listened on audiobook, but I kept hearing all these battles and wondering where the story was going, what was the whole point.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Da** & he** creep in.
A few of the pilots couple up.
Space battles, of course, dogfights, and the like. Typical Star Wars affair.
Overall:
Allston does a decent job pulling off a new Squadron and continuing the series. And since it's a first book, setting up the characters, I expect subsequent books to be stronger. Ultimately, it was enjoyable, the characters were, for the most part, different, and the missions were unique. A worthwhile read. -
I was wondering where the series was headed after the last book. "The Bacta War" was a satisfying end to the Rogue Squadron's saga and so when the next novel started, under the direction of new writer Aaron Allston, what stories could be mined from Wedge Antilles and his X-wing fighters? It turns out that Allston knew that continuing with the members of Rogue Squadron as the principle protagonists wasn't going to cut it if he was going to make his own mark on the series and instead opted to create a new group of rag-tags to exploit. This new group, code-named Wraith Squadron, is essentially the Dirty Dozen or the Inglourious Basterds of the Rebel Alliance. Cultivated from the washouts and lost causes of other units, Wedge Antilles puts together a team of commandos to fly X-Wings, turning Rogue Squadron's initiative of pilots who do commando work on its ear.
The action picks up not long after the last book ended, with the primary focus of the New Republic fleet being the destruction of Warlord Zsinj, a portly renegade admiral who has slowly been consolidating his power away from the control of the now defeated Ysanne Isard. The novel moves at a brisk pace beginning with the formation of the squadron and along its missions where they end up in control of an Imperial ship and pose as its crew to get close to their enemy. The novel is thoroughly entertaining in its progression because of the sort of pilots who make up the group. The most interesting characters are the ones that are flawed and here everyone is vying for the title of most dysfunctional with only Wedge and his second in command Wes Janson truly having their game together, which makes for some interesting scenarios when the group has to work together to accomplish their goals.
I have to admit that while it was a really good novel, it took a while to get acclimated to the new cast of characters, because the flaws that are designed to make them interesting at times makes them come off as unlikeable. Kell Tainor, for example, is stepping up to take the place of Corran Horn who was the lead protagonist in the previous four novels. Much like Corran he has some issues with his father's death, but Corran didn't come off as emotionally crippled as Kell does. Corran had a tangible ability for revenge for what happened to his father whereas Tainor refuses to understand the circumstances that led to his father's death and it takes a while to take him seriously as a character and not an archetype.
Overall, it's an enjoyable read that does well to get it's major flaws resolved by the end of the book so that they don't take up any time in the following installments. Or at least I hope that's the case. -
After I read this book I had to go back and change my rating of Stackpole's books. Because this new arc showed me exactly what I hadn't liked about the Rogue Squadron characterwise but had in a way dismissed, because the story was so good.
Granted, it was much more difficult to really get into X Wing #1, because the team already existed, but I was always at least slightly annoyed, because there wasn't much team so to speak of.
Interestingly this team spirit was very well captured in the comics done by the same author which also interestingly didn't feature Corran as a Rogue. I like him, but Wraith Squadron managed to be more team in less time than Rogue Squadron ever did (in the novels), because even a big POV like Kell didn't draw too much attention away from the fact that it's about a team, not some lone player.
And I don't even mind that Tycho is barely in this, because all the characters were instant likeable and interesting. I love how they slowly became first comrades and later friends, the way they solved their problems and most of all the humour. Oh boy, there were so many times were I had to stop reading because I had to laugh to much. Allston created some awesome punchlines. -
Yup, I read this series, too. I pick this one to review because I think Aaron Allston's part of the series was clearly the best part. Allston is a /funny/ writer. I mean, in a giggly juvenile kind of way, but who doesn't love that? It's done quite cleverly. He manages to introduce some good slapstick comedy into the books and spoof on things a little. I mean, it's still a serious storyline (sort of) for the most part, but he has so much fun with it. Plus it's an interesting plotline that's being developed over this series. Pretty good villains. The ones before this that Michael Stackpole wrote are good too. But they take themselves waaaaaay too seriously. Aaron Allston has all the fun. :)
-
This book is a lot of fun and has some great action scenes and big plot points, but it's hard to read it without comparing it to the other X-Wing books. Characters like Wedge suddenly have different personalities, and I really miss Corran Horn as a protagonist, even if he's a bit of a Mary Sue. I kept going back and forth between "liked it" and "really liked it" and I think in the end it wins me over with real stakes and a lot of fun moments.
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Wraith squadron is one of the worst Star Wars books in the series. Allston is one of the least original authors currently writing books. It is a shame he is still writing star wars books.
A good author tries to continue a series, adding to the overall narrative. Allston tries to rework the series to be his own.
A lot of his characters and stories are flimsy reworkings of characters from tv shows or movies. A particularly obvious example that I like is his latest books and the almost scenario to scenario similarities to Doctor Who episodes.
I still read his books but I consider them at the same level as good fan fiction and not part of the official Star Wars cannon.
This author is what killed my obsession with Star Wars. I used to buy anything and everything Star Wars. I had a collection of over 45 thousand pieces. Now I maybe have 100 pieces left, and no longer buy things. -
After being disappointed by the story in both the first Alphabet Squadron novel and the Squadrons campaign, I was curious to go back and compare them to how Legends handled this topic. Having read I, Jedi recently I was wary of Stackpole's Rogue Squadron novels. Trying the comics (which he also wrote) quickly emphasized that was a good decision. Just an atrocious writer. Anyway, that left Wraith Squadron as the only reasonable place to start. I read these books (and Stackpole's) as a very young boy, probably not as soon as they came out but within a few years at least. I have a very dim memory of them from that time and certainly no reliable sense of what they'd be like to read now.
It turns out that while Allston is much-praised and these books are very fondly remembered, this first one at least is barely a novel and I'd say probably stakes out the lowest rung of quality a Star Wars story can hit without becoming unenjoyable (not to say unreadable; I've finished many SW books that were in fact unenjoyable). It really does read more like a screenplay, or a summary of game scenarios (both X-Wing and tabletop roleplaying), than a novel. There's a dozen characters with shallow to non-existent internal monologue; scenes are often extremely short, lacking context and ending abruptly; most of the book takes place is bracketed within the assumption that stakes, motivations, and politics are well known to the reader and no longer interesting material to explore; the settings are borderline irrelevant, etc. It's outclassed by many other SW novels and comics.
Aside from all that, it's decent. The fact that it does almost none of the things I find actively annoying in so many other SW books counts for a lot on its own. The stakes are modest and entirely character-based. The scope is reasonable. There are no ridiculous gimmicks, no superweapons or other indulgent genre plot cliches, no egregious references to the OT or obsessive focus on fan-favorite characters. It's just the stuff I want it to be. It may not give much emotional development via internal monologue, but there are some decent character dynamics and even something you might call an arc. Donos and Tainer both have stories that touch on some reasonably dark stuff for the Rebellion. The action scenes aren't spectacular but they're creative enough. The political dynamics of Trigit and Zsinj and Darillian aren't mined very deeply, but they're there. There's squad bonding and droids and post-Endor Imperial infighting and transitions from rebellion to government in the New Republic and while I wouldn't say there's a lot of any of those things, that is pretty much what I set out to find. I'm not blown away by any stretch and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't experiencing this precise itch at the moment they read it, but it's fine. -
Of all books in the X-Wing series, this one is my favorite. 4.5 to 5 Stars from me! Coming from a continuity that nowadays categorized as non-canon (Star Wars Legends), the story of this book is good and decent enough to have a stand-alone movie like Rogue One : The Star Wars Story in my opinion.
Wraith Squadron told you the exploits of a squadron of misfits among the Rebel Alliance. Wedge Antilles of Rogue Squadron got a brilliant idea of gathering troublesome misfits into one suicide squad style squadron, thus the infamous Wraith Squadron was born!
Overall I like the writing style of Aaron Allston, in this book he succeeded in giving both the Rogue Squadron and the Wraith Squadron branching story line, each squadrons got their own missions and targets. How Allston characterized the Wraith Squadron is also really good. As fellow X-Wing series readers know, Rogue Squadron is one of if not the best starfighter squadrons among the Rebel Alliance but the members are professional soldiers. This Wraith Squadron, you would know that they're troublemakers with some serious skills. The characterization of some characters did feel a little weak, but it's a whole new squadron with their own unique mission, great addition for the X-Wing series!
I'd recommend this not only for Star Wars fanboys/girls but also for sci-fi readers in general. -
It's not terrible, but it's far from the best Star Wars book out there. For starters, its distinct lack of Boba Fett is a mark against it. I mean really... You have a universe that includes the most badass bounty hunter ever, and you don't even mention him? Fail.
In all seriousness, and my personal Fettish aside, there's some pretty good and well-loved characters present here (Wedge Antilles and admiral Akbar spring to mind), and though the new characters are all a bit cardboard-cutoutish, they don't stand in the way of some rollicking good space battles.
There are worse things you could consider reading for Star Wars day in a couple of weeks, though I'm personally leaning towards reading
Bloodlines... ;) -
Star Wars Book Club read for July - I enjoyed the 'found family' vibe and the putting together of a new squadron. The switching back and forth between name and call number was a bit confusing, but I've learned that I like WATCHING space battles more than READING about them, so I was able to move along. ;)
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I'm never going to love the "Rogue Squadron" series, but I found this to be very pleasant in terms of introducing new characters, and new personality quirks...as well as a great long-running Ewok joke. For me, the battle scenes just get in the way.
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I miss the Rogues. I'm not a fan of when a series or book starts following all new characters like this one does, but it's still so darn good.
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If you ever watched "The A-Team" and ever thought, "You know, this premise would be perfect set in the Star Wars Universe", then do I have a book for you....
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Aaron Allston does a terrific job of carrying on the series with these three Wraith Squadron books. If you liked the first books, you won't be missing anything in this one.
The premise is that Wedge Antilles, after experiencing the success of the commando like operations of a pro fighter squadron, decides to take the idea further, by making a squadron designed to specialize in commando missions, but also be thoroughly trained in flying. The source of pilots? Washouts and rejects, who can only manage one last chance to get into a squadron.
The main difference between these and other X-Wing books is the characters. Rogue Squadron isn't here, except for Wedge, and you get to meet a bunch of new people, who are even more off-beat than the Rogues. Aaron Allston brings excellent humor, that you can't help but love the books for.
The central plot, revolving around a campaign against Warlord Zsinj, is really great, and Zsinj is well developed.
Don't be afraid of the new squadron and new author. Everything awesome from the first books are there, and you won't be disappointed.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
The M*A*S*H of Star Wars!
By The Daphne Blue Strat on July 9, 2004
Format: Mass Market Paperback
I won't bother to compare this book to the Stackpole cycle, except to say that it blows it away in every category.
This book is, to quote a previous reviewer, "a novel about people in war, not just war", which is how so many Star Wars novels strike me. In all of the novels from Zahn's Thrawn trilogy to Stackpole's Rogue Squadron cycle, I have never been so attatched to the characters as I am in Allston's Wraith Squadron trilogy.
Overall, the best comparison I can give is to say that Allston's trilogy is like the M*A*S*H of Star Wars; the characters have life, depth, and personality, with conflicts and friendships forming every step of the way. They aren't superhuman, invincible and emotionally distant like so many other characters. Again, this is "a novel about people in war, not just war", and as such WILL make you laugh, cry, and occasionally cheer out loud.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Exciting and funny. A must-read for X-wing fans.
By A Customer on December 9, 1998
Format: Mass Market Paperback
In the original four books from the X-Wing series we got a fresh story with completely new characters to whom we soon felt attached. Wraith Squadron continues that tradition by presenting us an unusual group of upstarts who have to battle their own personal problems at the same time they help in the fight against the Empire, proving their true worth. Being a silly guy myself, I especially loved the duo of Ton Phanan and Face. Don't overlook this book, you'll find yourself laughing and maybe even feeling a knot forming in your throat as you enjoy this story.
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Aaron Allston's "Wraith Squadron" is actually a nice change of pace...
The 5th book in the X-Wing series, Aaron Allston's "Wraith Squadron" is actually a nice change of pace from what has been a rather dull run of stories lately. Read more
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Wraith Squadron - the Rogues have serious competition!
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Published 9 months ago by Skip Wiley
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Published 9 months ago by Jason H Redden
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Published 10 months ago by mike
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Published 11 months ago by Read A Book
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Published 12 months ago by Douglas L. Roorda
Great book
Although different than the rest of the x-wing series (sense it's written by another author) the book is an amazing example early of starwars litature.
Published 20 months ago by Reed I Kaliher
Fantastic
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Wraith Squadron was always one of my least favorite novels in the X-wing series. I wanted badly to like it, since the concept is cool: Wraith Squadron is basically the Dirty Dozen of the Star Wars universe. But the novel always felt bland, unrealistic, and rushed, a feeling that persists in my most recent rereading.
Allston's major problem is with characterization: he doesn't develop enough of an attachment to any of his characters. This is mostly evident in the fact that it's difficult to keep them straight, especially when their call signs are being used instead of their names. They mostly feel like stock characters: they literally fill a role within the squadron itself (demolitions, communications, sniper support, and so on), and their individual personalities are mostly templates or standard archetypes. Kell Tainer is the big strong military muscle, Tyria Sarkin is the pretty damsel, Ton Phanan is the class clown…you get the idea. The problem with archetypes is while they're recognizable, the reader never really knows them.
Certainly Stackpole's first four X-wing novels had issues with characterization. Many of his background characters were stock (and tended to die quickly), Corran Horn was a Mary Sue, and Mirax Terrik was probably his vision of the ideal space babe. But they at least had some defining personality characteristics -- Corran, for example, had issues surrounding his father's death, as well as his own ego. In Wraith Squadron, all the characters are pretty flat and bland.
More over, all the characters are screw-ups, and Allston tries way too hard to push the fact that they're failures, to the point that what little distinctive personality traits they have become farcical, or at least melodramatic. There's the ridiculous storyline in which Kell's father was killed by Wes Janson -- which is, in and of itself, unrealistic, but what's more realistic is that Kell turns out to have the same tendency, almost as if it's genetic. And even though he knows he doesn't handle stress and fear well, at key moments he just happens to go off the deep end without realizing anything is amiss. Kell's fear seems forced, and isn't dealt with consistently throughout the book. It's a plot device, when it should be a defining character trait.
And most of the other characters' flaws are equally unrealistic. Ton Phanan gets shot down in almost every engagement, and yet he's still a pilot? Why? It's not established that he's a great doctor, the Doogie Houser of Star Wars, either, so why keep him around? Because he's funny? Because someone feels bad for him? That's not how the military works.
As a result, even the handful of deaths in the book are more melodramatic than gut-wrenching. Falynn dies because she's arrogant…big deal. Grinder's death is thrown in right afterwards, almost as an afterthought. No one mourns either of the deceased, because we didn't really know or even like them.
In fact, that's true of almost the entire cast (save for the big names, like Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson). Most of the time, the characters are so emotionally stunted that we don't feel like we're dealing with adults, but rather middle school kids learning to fly X-wings. Look, I get that they're failures, but they don't have to handle it like they're twelve years old.
Even the action of Wraith Squadron was a bit lackluster. It feels like Allston never settled on one character, so he jumps around quite a bit -- often times within a single scene, making the prose choppy and taking the reader out of the element. Stackpole's novels certainly featured several characters, but he mostly focused on Corran Horn, and Kirtan Loor to a lesser extent. Allston tells his story alternately from the perspectives of Wedge Antilles, Kell Tainer, and Face Loran, and even throws in perspectives from Falynn, Grinder, and a couple other Wraiths, as well as an Imperial Intelligence operative, making the entire story muddled. There's not really a single main character or protagonist to root for, nor is there a single antagonist to root against.
I'd suggest skipping this novel, but you can't since it's part of the series, and sets up the next two novels. And if I recall from earlier readings,
Iron Fist, the next novel in the series, is much more readable than Wraith Squadron. -
For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.
This week’s focus: the first of Aaron Allston’s X-Wing books, Wraith Squadron.
SOME HISTORY:
In 1996, Bantam asked if Michael A. Stackpole could write a new four-book set of X-Wing books, but Stackpole had previous time commitments and could only agree to one book. He recommended Aaron Allston instead for three of the books, because he thought Allston’s style was similar to his own. Allston was a game designer of role playing games, and by 1998 had published six science fiction and fantasy novels. Wraith Squadron made it to number ten on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of March 1, 1998, and was on the NYT list for two weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I loved Allston’s X-Wing books, but I usually skipped ahead to
Iron Fist or
Solo Command. So it was fun to jump back into Wraith Squadron, and see what I remembered (the origins of Lieutenant Kettch!) and what I hadn’t (most of the plot).
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Wedge Antilles has a bold new idea: take all the pilots that are castoffs and rejects, and form a covert-action unit of X-Wing fighters. Before the new pilots can complete their training, though, the squadron's base is attacked by Admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action—taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew.
THE CHARACTERS:
Having accomplished amazing feats with the revamped Rogue Squadron, Wedge Antilles isn’t willing to rest on his laurels and instead jumps right into another huge project. Most of his plotline involves Wedge having to be the adult among a bunch of...younger adults? (As Wedge complains, he’s only 28!) Poor Wedge feels somewhat distanced from the Wraiths because unlike with the Rogues, here he is very much The Boss. I really liked how Allston depicted Wedge’s letter to Admiral Ackbar after Jesmin’s death: it’s a task only he can complete, but he struggles to compose something that is both professional and kind.
We get the return of another canon character: in this case, Wedge’s gunner from the Battle of Hoth. Wes Janson joins as the squadron’s Executive Officer, but he’s mostly here as comic relief. His main issue is his past history with Kell Tainor’s father, and Kell’s subsequent fear/hatred of him. Wes doesn’t seem to take this animosity seriously, and his constant reaffirmation that Kell knew how to make bombs felt like a running joke.
Amid the swirl of new Wraiths, four of them stood out from the crowd, so I thought I’d touch on them briefly. Tyria Sarkin is Force sensitive, but not to any powerful degree. Luke Skywalker tested her and deemed her not worthy of teaching, so she’s reluctant to embrace her talents in that area at all. But similar to Zahn’s point in the Hand of Thrawn duology, Tyria’s intuition proves super helpful to the Wraiths at various times in the story. She might not have sheer power, but the Force does offer her convenient insights.
Garik Loran (“the Face”) was an Imperial child actor who defected and joined the Rebels. In Wraith Squadron, he has to put his acting skills to the test over and over again, and it’s a toss up whether his improvisations are successful or not. He’s another comic character, like Wes, but even at this early stage, he’s appealing to read about.
Myn Donos is the sole survivor of Talon Squadron, and has a lot of bad mental stuff going on. (I mean, who wouldn’t after the loss of everyone under your command?) He goes catatonic after his astromech is destroyed (“the last Talon,” Tyria realizes), but he’s able to snap out of it thanks to some of the Wraiths. Like with Face, he’ll get further development in the next two books, but I liked his arc thus far.
Kell Tainer fills the role that Corran Horn did in the Rogue Squadron books: the viewpoint character that Allston focuses on most. He views Wes Janson as this evil malicious bogeyman who killed his father and will kill him if he messes up, but obviously the situation was more nuanced than that. Like his father, he also seems to suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder--during action sequences, he gets so nervous and shaky that he wants to flee the situation, and during the final battle he does run off for a brief time. I really liked that he struggled with anxiety, but was less fond of him being able to dismiss it with the power of positive thinking. That is not how anxiety works! Anxiety is a real problem for a lot of people, but Kell overcomes it far too easily and permanently.
The other Wraiths are less fleshed out than their counterparts that Allston chooses to focus on, and are more archetypes than complete characters. Falynn has trouble with respecting authority and mouthing off. Grinder is a slicer, and while he claims to not like pranks, he ends up behind all the practical jokes on the others. Jesmin is nice, but dies early on. Ton Phanan is mostly a sarcastic walking disaster at this point, but will see more development in book 2. Runt has multiple personalities. Piggy has a very unfortunate nickname (seriously, maybe don’t call the pig alien that guys!!) and will play a larger role in the next two books.
Warlord Zsinj fills the Iceheart role in this book: masterminding events, but mainly from behind the scenes. That makes our primary villain Admiral Trigit. Trigit is imminently selfish, as depicted in his decision to abandon the 35,000 crewmen aboard the Implacable to sudden death, so I’m glad that General Crespin and Myn Donos were able to take him out. We also meet Lieutenant Gara Petothel, the agent behind the destruction of Talon Squadron; she escapes the Implacable’s destruction and will play a larger role in books 2 and 3.
ISSUES:
More so than Stackpole, Allston uses a lot of humor in his books. Sometimes it’s stupid; sometimes it made me laugh out loud (ie, Phanan’s statement after he had his spleen removed, that during the final battle that he got so angry he had to vent his spleen). Your mileage may vary whether you also click with his sense of humor, but it usually works for me.
During battle scenes, Allston defaults to referring to the Wraiths by call sign. I’m sure that’s how a squadron would actually operate, and there IS a dramatis personae in the beginning of the book, but by the end I still didn’t consistently remember which Wraith corresponded to which number. Wedge is Leader, Kell and Runt are Five and Six, but I am less good with the other nine of them.
I was excited by the idea of the Wraiths masquerading as the Night Caller, but I found that it lost a little oomph in the actual execution. To avoid detection, they kept to the itinerary that Captain Darillian had set, so it became a bit formulaic: the Night Caller enters the designated system, Face as Darillian or Lieutenant Narol speaks to people, then either New Republic Intelligence or the Wraiths themselves re-enter the system and sabotage stuff. I was expecting a little more variety here, but you could argue that the Wraiths were locked into this routine.
Despite knowing little about her, Jesmin Ackbar’s death was an emotional experience. It helped that we got to see a conversation between her uncle and her about how she’d been coddled in her previous assignments because of her name. I think the reason her death connected with me more than Lujayne or any of the Rogues was because the Wraiths (and Kell especially) tried so hard to save her, so we really got the complete picture this time.
But while I liked how Allston dealt with Jesmin Ackbar’s death, I felt like the later deaths of Falynn and Grinder lacked the poignance of that earlier scene. Wedge told them not to go into the Star Destroyer; they went into it anyway. Grinder died, then Falynn died immediately afterwards. And since they hadn’t been fleshed out much beyond their character type, there wasn’t any emotion there for me.
IN CONCLUSION:
On the whole, Wraith Squadron is exciting and surprisingly funny, and I liked getting to know the Wraiths again. Even though there was yet more setup, it’s setup that I hope will pay off in two books, so I could suffer through it--especially for some intricate undercover missions and space battles in the end.
Next up: the third book in the Han Solo prequel trilogy,
Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin.
My YouTube review:
https://youtu.be/keKrRHK9r14
Interview with Aaron Allston on theForce.net:
http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/i... -
A refreshingly good book, where all the characters are clearly defined and well-introduced. This format benefits from the squadron starting out formed, rather than already being formed and having us jumping into the middle of the party, as happened in the Rogue Squadron books. I can actually give 1-2 lines about each character now, just from seeing the name.
Furthermore, because this happens, there is emotional impact from when character's die. Captain Hrakness from Agamar (the yokel planet), Grinder the hacker who also creates pranks and has one turned on himself rather memorably, Falynn the self-doubting woman with an inferiority complex...these are all characters. Not like Rouge Squadron 1, where Peesk dies and I go "Pessk"? I checked, he's mentioned about 1 time before his death. Once. No emotional impact for us, which is why, when Corran is suddenly weepy, I experience a large emotional disconnect.
In addition, it is no longer the Wedge, Tycho, and Corran adventures. The main characters in Wraith Squadron may be Wedge and Kell, but there is so much time spent in the other character's shoes, not merely seeing the other characters through the other people's eyes. For example, the first chapter does nothing but introduce us to Myn Donos, a character who isn't even one of the 5 most important characters in the book! Instead, he is used to bring the other squadron mates together. That's character development.
Finally, though Kell gets the girl, he fails at first, miserably, when he says he loves her, and she refutes that claim. A unique turn.
Two detriments The author learned, the publisher didn't. -
Aaron Allston joins as the second writer of the X-Wing series... a very welcome addition.
Wraith Squadron almost feels like a reboot (yes, in the middle of the series). It's as if Allston was like, "Okay, that was cool, Mr. Stackpole, but this is where X-Wing should've gone."
And he's right.
Every single thing about this book is improved from the first four books in the series. The biggest, most welcome difference is in the characters. Everyone feels much more real and fleshed out. In fact, near the beginning, there's a passage that blatantly points out the major problem with the first four books: what makes for a good story--relatable heroes with flaws, and their growth as people.
Kell makes for a great main character. He's unsure about himself, a little angsty (but not too much), and deals with pressure in a very realistic manner (not very well). On the other hand, he's very relatable and likeable. There's a bit of romance once again, but this one feels so much more developed than in the earlier books. It's not perfect, but we're talking major improvement.
Also joining us are the hilarious Wes Janson (and Hobbie too, briefly), Wedge with an actual personality, the multi-minded alien Hohass Ekwash, the smart-yet-unsure Tyria, and so forth. Furthermore, there are pranks, jokes, and all-around camaraderie, something that greatly benefits a squadron of fighter pilots.
I could go on... the dialog finally works (I laughed out loud many times), this feels perfectly like Star Wars, fun space battles, etc.
There are a few issues. Mainly, often I wasn't clear what goals of missions were. Allston constantly mentions the types of smiles people are giving (not terrible, and lots of authors have their "style tics", but still). The plot isn't anything new, though that doesn't hurt it too much since the events are still fun.
Basically, this book is an absolute blast. It's hilarious, and has great characters. You should read the X-Wing series for this book. I definitely recommend it. -
I've read most of the Star Wars expanded universe novels, some were great, others good, and some of them not so much. But this books remains one of my favorites.
First, let me start this review by explaining that I'm not writing it after reading it for the first time. I've literally read it a hundred times; that's how much I love it.
Aaron Allston is one of my favorite authors who contributed to the Star Wars universe and I think this was his first novel in this universe. Coming after
Michael Stackpole's Rogue Squadron Serie was no easy task but Allston really did a great job and created a story that I think was even better than that of Rogue Squadron.
What's not to like ? The story keeps close to the original SW spirit : a squadron fighting against the imperial threat with some less than adequate means but a lots of imagination. It's really a nice break from some other novels that stick to the "new bad bad Sith comes out from nowhere" to be redeamed by "selfless mighty but nice" Jedi.
So the squadron novel thing isn't new but where Stackpole really focused on Corran (who once again turns to be a Jedi), Wraith Squadron gives us 12 very different personnalities to follow, and trust me you will never be bored with them! This is one of the funniest SW book written (the funniest being also written by Aaron Allston).
Want yet an added benefit ? It's good to work your memory! Reading the ebook version, I found myself often jogging my memory to associate the right flight number to its pilot. In the paper version, I had added it to the dramatis personae page, not so easy with an e-reader. Well my memory need all the work it can get :D ! -
It's always tough when you're introducing a totally new cast of original characters, and the leading/governing characters in this book only had very minor roles in the original films (with very brief cameos by the Big Three). Still, it just didn't have the same human-oriented feel as Michael Stackpole's Rogue Squadron books. I could be biased, though, because I think Stackpole wrote THE most human book in the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe: "I, Jedi," set in the first-person, which is also among my favorite EU stories.
It also threw me off that Wedge is 28 in this book, since I'm currently around that age and he sounds much, much older and more "stale" than any 28-year-old I know. And I didn't feel that any of the female characters were handled realistically--Allston has a far better grasp of the male voice. (Tyria throughout the book made me roll my eyes for some reason. And it seems like every human female in the book was described as "tall, slender, and beautiful." Seriously?)
This was still a fun and light read, though. I'd actually started it numerous times over the years but kept giving up or losing track of it about halfway through for some reason. It was nice to actually finish it off. And I have read WAY, WAY worse as far as Expanded Universe novels go.
