Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron Is An Exciting Review Of The Cost Of War

When I was in high school, I read all the catalog back from Star wars novels, one after the other, and finishes with Michael A. Stackpole and the X-Wing series. I love this subseries of nine books. He presented a different angle on the Star wars the universe, following a new generation of non-cinematic characters as they attempted to regain the galaxy of the Empire.

Fast forward a quarter century and the conclusion of a new Star wars the trilogy is about to be released in cinemas. There is an independent film that fits perfectly with the spirit of the X-Wing series. And now, there's a new novel about another squadron of rebel pilots taking over the galaxy – Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed. Star wars has grown over the past two decades and that's a good thing.

Alphabet Squadron is the first of a new trilogy of Freed, the author of Battlefront: Twilight Company and the Thief A Romanization. This is part of the collaboration between Random House and Marvel Comics, which released the mini-series in five issues. TIE Fighter earlier this spring.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Endor, Alphabet Squadron This is an Imperial defender named Yrica Quell, who is striving to find and destroy Shadow Wing, a particularly skilful TIE fighter squadron that is a thorn in the foot of the Rebel Alliance.

Image: Del Rey

Quell was a member of Shadow Wing and faces a considerable amount of suspicion from rebel commanders. But even though the Alliance has dealt a major blow to the empire over Endor, it has little to gain as the Imperial Navy launches its own genocidal retaliation campaign. Quell is one of the few people who knows enough about unity to find them.

Along the way, Freed introduces rebel pilots from all over the galaxy, recruited by intelligence agent Caern Adan. There is Kairos, a mysterious U-wing pilot; Wyl, an experienced pilot of Wing A who lost his entire squadron; Nath, a bitter veteran and a pilot of the Y wing; and Chass, a B-Wing squadron pilot who feels he does not have enough to live on after the destruction of his squadron. (Quell finds herself in an X-Wing fighter.) The members of the team each have their own reason for wanting to fight back against the Empire. It is sometimes a revenge, sometimes a feeling of duty and sometimes they simply can not think of anything else to do with their lives.

On his face, Alphabet Squadron looks like a refreshed version of Stackpole and Allston X-Wing novels. They all have a distribution that was not seen in the main series (with the exception of General Hera Syndulla of the animated series). Star Wars Rebels), they are set as a result of the Battle of Endor, and they speak of a squadron that just keeps together while moving from mission to mission.

But since Disney has basically relaunched the Star wars frankly, he emphasized the sense of realism in his stories, especially the Cost that would accompany a massive galactic war. The Original and Prequel trilogies have their share of nuances, but they largely delineate a dividing line between empirical good and evil, with the two sides fighting each other accordingly.

The autonomous film Thief A is a great example of how this has changed. It's a bitter war movie that leaves no survivors and shows a darker side of the Rebel Alliance: characters like Cassian Andor and Saw Gerrera talk about the efforts they will make to win, even if it means murder, kill or torture imperial personnel and civilians. Christie Golden, author of Star wars novel Inferno Squad, Told The edge that this reflects how our world has changed since the original trilogy. "We now have a better chance than ever to know people who do not like us," she said. "It's not as easy to demonize people and make them one-dimensional, because we can look at them as people."

This approach is exposed here, through Quell's eyes. The book opens with his resignation from the Imperial Navy, his passage in a rebel camp and his return to his service. It's not a simple change of heart. Quell was not a fanatic of the imperial cause, but she streamlined his service as an imperial pilot by deciding that the emperor was preventing at least the galaxy from dissolving into chaos. She is frustrated with the Alliance's way of doing things and, as a result, needs some time to master the organization of the squadron into an effective combat unit.

The oldest X-Wing This series was one of the first tests of Lucasfilm's multimedia synergy between books, comics and video games – a practice that is quite common today in society. But although Stackpole and Allston have injected a little sand into the Lucas galaxy, far away, it still reminds a time when the empire was bad and the alliance good. The various imperial opponents that the Rogue squadron faced – such as Ysanne Isard, Kirtan Loor, or Warlord Zsinj – were essentially motivated in the quest to restore the empire to something that looked like his past glory or to gain power by themselves.

Alphabet Squadron is informed by a more nuanced view of the world. The extensive universe of Star Wars has often emphasized how much the Empire placed great importance on the effectiveness of its forces, especially by stripping its TIE fighters of shields and hyperdrives to win. weight and money. But Alphabet Squadron shows how much this approach cost his soldiers and how Quell fights it.

"Quell wondered if the detachment that the Empire had inculcated him would allow him to draw more easily on his comrades in the 204th. If learning to treat pilots as disposable, it is easier to defect. If she could shoot with her cannons without thinking of the names and faces she had learned over the years. She doubted it.

But Freed does not confuse the fuzzy gray areas of war with equal points of view. Of course, we see the motivations that drive pilots and imperial officers to get noticed – but they continue to engage in acts of genocide, such as a misplaced sense of fighting for the least offending side, or because They live in a world where their vision of the world is strongly shaped by imperial censors and media. And although the Rebellion is less organized and effective, they are still fighting against a fascist leader who wants to control everyone in the galaxy.

Alphabet Squadron does what a few stories in the Star wars the universe actually: show the impact of the war on the galaxy and the people who lead it. Military science fiction has a long tradition in the genre that explores this concept, but Star wars he himself largely avoided these tropes.

In many ways, books like Alphabet Squadron and games like Battlefront II The cumulative cultural experience of recent and real conflicts has surfaced. When the book – and presumably its aftermath – examines the experiences of their characters, they represent a good opportunity to reinforce a key lesson: the war is horrible for everyone, even the victors.

When authors or filmmakers have plunged into this proverbial, the results can be spectacular: Karen Traviss's Republic Commando The novels are excellent looks at the cost of the war for his fighters (in this case, the soldiers of the elite commando of the Republic), Freed's previous novel in Star Wars Battlefield: Twilight Companyand the above X-Wing novels. Alphabet Squadron joins this tradition and tells a story centered on the character that brings nuances and depth to the conflict that drives the whole franchise. Rather than abandoning the fight of the good towards evil, it shows that even if the line is blurred, it is still there.