Rating: 
Summary: Star Wars
Review: This is an interesting series of books. Even though most of the time Luke, Leia, and Han are not a big part of the books. This series introduces a lot of new characters, including Corron Horn, who go on to become important to other Star Wars books.
Rating: 
Summary: X-wings, Star-Destroyers and dog-fights, oh my!
Review: I bought the entire set of the x-wing series when I ran out of my current obsession, "The New Jedi Order." I had actually skipped this series when it first came out because it didn't seem like something I would want to read. However, when one is high on Star Wars reading, and needs a fix, one will read anything they can get their hands on.Needless to say I was surprised by this book. I have always enjoyed Stackpole's writing, but I just didn't think he had much to work with in this particular sub-genre of the Star Wars universe. I mean come on, no Jedi, no c3PO, no R2D2?! Just x-wings flying around and shooting Imperial forces? I thought the book was going to be ... well, boring. The funny thing is that I had read "I, Jedi," by the time I picked up this book, so I know what Corran Horn's future holds in store for him. But that spoiler knowledge hasn't ruined the series for me. The plot line is well developed, and pulls a couple of nice twists and turns that leave you with a satisfied experience in the thinking department. The fighting scenes are descriptive without being "Tolkien-like," in as much as you get description, but not description that would put even ever patient Yoda to sleep. The character development is interesting and doesn't seem forced at all. Then you have the most important piece of these stories, the HISTORY! You won't realize it until you have read these stories, but a lot of the stories that are staged after these stories are supposed to have taken place, refer to incidences in these stories! The other authors do a good job of giving you clues as to what they are talking about, but reading these stories helps flesh out some back history for anyone that has missed these. Read them, you will like them.
Rating:
Summary: It's Away!!!
Review: Fans have long said there were 3 great writers of Star Wars: Zahn, Anderson & Stackpole. While I wasn't sure about the X-Wing books, I now have to concur with them. This was immediately an enjoyable book & if the others are as good I'll be happy for a few weeks. The action's as fast as the hot-shot pilots & the relationship between them is equally enjoyable. The characters fit right in the SW galaxy especially Corran Horn. If you're a Wedge fan this book's a must have. Stackpole's writing style is very readable, the chapter average about 10 pages each. You'll have 6 chapters read before you know it. The next 3 books are by him as well, almost guaranting more enjoyable reading.
Rating:
Summary: One awsome series
Review: I just finished the 9th book in this series and i have to say, this is they greatest star wars series out there. You think you know exactly whats going to happen and then all of a sudden something completely unpredictable happens. One thing different from most stories is that there arnt the same main characters (same 12 fighters in rouge squadron) they DO die. Sometimes its people you wanted to die and some you just cant believe are gone.
Like i said i finished the 9th book and im REALLY hoping they hurry and make a 10th. This series deserves 6 stars and everyone needs to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Th eLegacy Begins
Review: This is not your typical Star War serise. You know what i'm talking about, good always overcomes because its good and for that reason only I can kill the Enemy ten to one. Main charecters DIE in this book and you will find the further you go that this only adds to the overall effectiveness of this story. If you want to feel good read "Planet of the Twlight"(gurh). If you `want realism pick your up a copy of "Rogue Squadron".
Rating:
Summary: Book #1 is Top Gun, Star Wars style.
Review: Michael Stackpole's first X-Wing book beats strongly with the pulse of the serial and/or pulp adventures that spawned the source trilogy and is a whale of a good read for it. Wedge Antilles, the famous X-Wing pilot who flew in both Death Star missions, has to whip a group of recruits into a fierce fighting team or else. What follows is a lot of action and some nice character introduction. The book seemed a little cluttered at first, but I reminded myself that there were NINE books in the series, plenty of time to get to know them all quite well. The story itself is fairly standard stuff (i.e. Top Gun, An Officer and a Gentleman, et al), a group of individuals need to overcome their personal problems (both within themselves as well as with each other) and learn to work as a team, of course there is a fierce battle that will act as the final bonding agent for the team's unity. Stackpole peppers the yarn with plenty of action and strikes a tone that is the closest to that of the original movies than any of the other spin-off novels I have read to date. A great start to what I hope is a great series.
Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorite Star Wars Series
Review: I was never much for the technical part of science fiction. Robots and spaceships never really grabbed my interest. To put it bluntly, I'm not a science fiction fan and I only enjoyed Star Wars as much as I did because of the fantasy element so heavily played. Needless to say I wasn't prepared to be impressed by the Rogue Squadron series. It was mechanics and not lightsabers, but I figured I'd slog my way through them for the sake of saying I'd read them. Thankfully for me, and thanks to very good writing by Stackpole, I can say that I didn't slog through anything, I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter of the book. Main plot is that Wedge Antilles has rebuilt Rogue Squadron to intimidate Imperial forces. What happens afterward is several different dogfights that all manage to actually LOOK different. It's never replays of one fight over and over only in different locations. Character wise, there are a lot, so development takes place over the series instead of just this book. Wedge has always sort of been a favorite of mine, just because he was a normal everyday soldier. Tycho is a genuinely nice XO who no one except Wedge trusts. Corran Horn is by far the most developed character and really has become one of my favorites right behind Kyp Durron and Obi-Wan. He's cocky, respectful and dedicated. Now here are the reasons for the missing star on my review. Number one, the female characters are basically love interests for the male pilots. Number two, the villain did nothing to inspire terror. She just glowers a lot and executes her own people. Her main agent in the book is an idiot. Those problems aside, this is a great book. Shall I say Top Gun in space?
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Battle Scenes
Review: Stackpole deserves a great deal of credit for his writing of battle scenes. Not many readers think well in 3-space, and Stackpole has made complex space battles understandable to those of us who have never left the two-dimensional world of the surface. Ooryl and Corrin Horn are great characters, and the analysis of politics are helpful if not especially insightful. Thanks to the author! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: When I first found this book several years ago, when it came out, I was delighted someone had finally written about the starfighter pilots.
However, I was very disappointed. Not only that Wedge wasn't the main character (he's so cool, for some reason), but the writing is terrible.
First off are the characters. Corran Horn is the protagonist, and he's the most static, uninteresting character I've ever read. He's uptight, way too proud, and a jerk. Maybe he's meant to be like Luke and Han combined, but he's got none of their charm.
Then there's Bror Jace, a Rogue Squadron pilot who Corran vehemently dislikes. Unfortunately, Stackpole seems to assume that we won't like him either, but he doesn't show us why. He's an okay guy, Bror is; everyone else likes him, and he's never anything but friendly to Corran.
Then there's everyone else. They're pretty much all the same - the guys are just guys, and the women are potential love interests for Corran or Wedge or whoever.
Then there's a villain, Isarde, who never does much except yak yak yak.
Another big problem is the writing itself. Stackpole has his characters all talking with exactly the same voice. There are too many scenes where Corran and someone else are talking, and instead of actually speaking to each other, they spend the entire scene describing something that just happened, as if the other one doesn't know his own actions. These scenes would be easier if Stackpole actually SHOWED what they were talking about, which usually happened a few minutes ago anyway.
The space battles and dogfights are okay(I like the cover), but too many times I got bored because our intrepid heroes were never in any danger. It became sort of like watching someone play a video game. The point of original characters is that they can kick the bucket, whereas Luke and Co. can't without all the Star Wars geeks in the world having a revolution.
The book also gets way too technical at times, while the movies were intentionally vague about all the technology they used.
I actually read the next several books in the series, hoping something interesting would happen, but nothing did.
Rating:
Summary: Shrug
Review: The action of the shrug pretty much sums up this book. It was okay, but it wasn't great, and like most SW books, it had a lot of potential that wasn't entirely utilizied. It did do the most obvious thing, which was finally satisfy the desires of fans who wanted to read a series about X-wing pilots, so kudos for that. While this book is somewhat enjoyable (such as the steamy romance scenes, the first, really, in a SW book), there are many minor problems that prevent complete enjoyment. For example, the plethora of exotic alien pilots, while allowing for unique personalities, don't seem true to Star Wars in that in all three movies the X-wing pilots are all human. While perhaps Stackpole was using alien pilots to emphasis the multi-racial aspect of the Rebellion, I found it still inconsistent, especially given that some of the aliens include a Gand (the chunky insectoid bounty hunter from Empire Strikes Back) and a hulking Wolfman (from the cantina in A New Hope), aliens that by all rights shouldn't be able to fit in an X-wing cockpit. The same goes for Emtrey, who I found a pale reconstruction of Threepio (Whistler, however, I did find myself enjoying), and Mirax Terrik, who reminded me of what would happen if Talon Karrde and Mara Jade (from the Thrawn trilogy) had a baby. In addition, I found his new human characters the most interesting, such as Corran, Tycho, General Salm, and Gavin, so the alien characters added very little and thus were unnecessary. I was also somewhat peeved that Janson and Hobbie weren't in this series. Also, Stackpole's main villains--Kirtan Loor and Yssane Isard--I simply don't find really that villainous; they seem more like they are from a SW short story than a full-blown series. I will give Stackpole credit for not emphasising how Isard is a woman in a male-dominated military (unlike a certain other SW author), but her background history of a sexual relationship and her unique all-red uniform I find not particularly interesting. My biggest peeve with Stackpole is his writing style, specifically his scenes involving dialogue. Stackpole, in all his books, has WAY too much emotional analysis and "buddy talk" among characters, especially given that such conversations were rare in the SW movies. When reading these scenes I can't help but roll my eyes as I feel as if I am reading a romance written by a 14-year-old. To his credit, though, Stackpole writes excellent fighter action scenes, especially the first chapter and the final battle. Though I could do without some of his details, such as talking about left and right rudders (in a X-wing?!?), I still enjoyed these sequences. And since this is what the series is essentially all about, these scenes saved the book. Was this a great book? No. Did it make me want to read the whole series? No. But I eventually did, and it wasn't a complete waste of time. If you're looking for a really good X-wing story, try to pick up a copy of the X-wing Strategy Guide by Russel De Maria (which is now sadly out of print), which gives the nice background story of Keyan Farlander and other X-wing pilots from the X-wing game and which I found much more enjoyable and Star Wars-ish than this series. Or bide your time until you get to Wraith Squadron, which I believe starts a superior series to the Rogue Squadron one.
|
