Would you like to read about someone dying slowly over a matter of pages? Now you can. When it comes to both pace and emotional content, this book is grueling. But sometimes scenes cross the line from deliberate to slow, even moreso than in the very deliberate Alphabet Squadron. Every character is a wreck in their own way. But overall, the structure is tight and competent, the observations of even one-off characters and settings typically sharp. This classic Star Wars in medias res structure doesn’t always work, muddling some of the action. In several cases, the pilots only reveal their mission several pages after it begins. Instead, Freed’s carefully chosen observations and story structure usually enhance the characters’ confusion.

People are motivated primarily by “frustration and anxiety.” All of this rarely translates into chaos for the reader. People fight for absolutely no reason, determined to carry themselves forward on the strength of the imaginary narrative or losing team to which they’ve devoted themselves. People fight to achieve goals that the reader knows are already out of their grasps.

This is the opposite of Timothy Zahn’s keystone Star Wars novels, where the fantasy of Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of near-omniscient powers of perception. Characters in Freed’s Star Wars tend not to know whether their friends or foes are alive. When a battle on the planet Troithe strands both sides, they’ll have to fight their way out.Īuthor Alexander Freed’s signature style mixes precision and chaos. The motley starfighter squadron, led by General Hera Syndulla and former Imperial pilot Yrica Quell, is still chasing the elite Imperial remnant TIE Fighter squad, Shadow Wing. Shadow Fall, the sequel to the novel Alphabet Squadron, yet again throws its original Star Warscharacters into the fire in a grueling, well-constructed tale of war.

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