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Summary: The Next Generation of X-Wing pilots!
Review: Wraith Squadron was the first Star Wars book written by Aaron Allston and the first to feature an all new X-Wing squadron. Featuring a more focussed role on Wedge Anitlles, Wraith Squadron picks up right where the Bacta War left off. Instead of searching for elite pilots, Antilles wants a bunch of already trained screw ups to fight under his command. From a failed Jedi to a mechanic who gets stage fright to a former child star, these characters are both unique and hysterical. Wraith Squadron is among the freshest of the Star Wars books. The characters Phanan and Face make the book totally worth it. I recommend highly!
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Summary: A new look at the Starfigher ranks!
Review: Aaron Alliston's first edition into the Star Wars field, Wraith Squadron brings a new look at the series that was created by Michael A. Stackpole.
In this book, Wedge Antilles decides to form a new type of starfigher squadron. This squadron would do anything from spying to disrupting imperial or rogue-imperial functions. He also wants to do it with pilots that flunked out of flight school or were trouble makers.
Despite all of the oppostision from his superiours, Wedge forms the squadron and begins training them. But soon after their training begins, they are attacked by a rogue imperial warlord and take over the ship. Now they must complete the ship's origenal mission without revealing themselves and take down the warlord's operation as best they can.
I have a lot of fun reading Alliston's books. First, he does a great job with his characters. Where Stackpole has some characters normal, Alliston has his characters act out. Wes Janson is immature for example. He does this without losing the character's feel and believabliity.
Wraith Squadron also felt like a good action novel. It wasn't all in starfighers, but with the Wraiths on the ground fighting and blowing things up and infiltrating into enemy posts. It is really great to read and enjoy!
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Summary: Best of the X-Wing series
Review: This book is, in my opinion, the best of all nine X-Wing books. I was interested to see what a new author and squadron would do to this series- now I believe the changes revitalised it. Transition to new characters is admirably smooth, the plot is tight and storyline convincing. Allston also manages to combine wicked dogfights with genuinely funny humour and slapstick - vital elements other X-Wing books sometimes lack. Most notable is the excellent character development: you'll never ask "who was that..?" when a pilot dies- you'll cry. Wraith Squadron will blow you away.
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Summary: Allston's X-wing to Stackpole's Z-95 Headhunter
Review: After reading the Wraith Squadron trilogy (of which this is the first book), I THEN set out to read Stackpole's X wing set - to be able to better understand Allston's fuller picture. My opinion? No competition! While Stackpole is quite enjoyable, Allston is just the rip-roaring master of 'em all. His book is a real STORY, not just a flight manual telling space battles in great detail ("...he juked to port and thumbed his weapons to quad lasers, stitching the eyeball down the dorsal solar panel. Pulling up in a tight maneuver the initial compensators couldn't quite prevent from bringing grayness to the edges of his vision, he then set his sights on the second TIE's tail...". I've read enough of this to write that whole bit from plain familiarity and bored repetition.), and you care, deeply care, about the incredibly real, richly textured characters. They're so alive...and you see yourself in them.
An X-wing book, make me think? Make my throat tight? Yes, indeed...(Kell taught me a lesson for life; whenever I fear failure, I comfort myself by knowing I have KTS- Kell Tainer Syndrome...) An X-wing novel make me shriek with laughter until I actually had tears in my eyes? You bet - and how.
When Wedge decided to make a squadron of misfits, he didn't quite realize what he was getting into. You won't, either, until you've waded in and been swept away.Yub, yub, commander!
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Summary: Now We're Talkin'
Review: The first X-Wing series was a very strong set of novels in the Star Wars universe. Mike Stackpole proved that an entirely new cast of characters could not only carry an entire novel with very little support from the mains, but also that it could, in some ways, actually make the books more interesting than previous novels in the series. However, despite the excellent execution, those novels still never quite managed to be 'great' Star Wars books. The fifth entry into the X-Wing series shifts authors to newcomer Aaron Allston, and also leaves the Rogues in favor of a new squadron. This time around, Wedge founds his squadron, not on the best of the best, but on the washouts and trouble makers of the New Republic's star fighter forces. Sounds like a somewhat iffy premise, eh? However, Allston takes this motly collection of pilots and uses them to build what I consider the finest Star Wars book short of Zahn's (and the follow ups are even better). One of the best things about Wraith Squadron is the excellent cast. Unlike the four books focusing on Rogue Squadron, this series works hard to give each member of the cast equal character devolpment. While Stackpole's X-Wing books spent too much time with some characters (Corran) and not enough time with others, Allston does a very good job giving each character his or her own personality. Granted, some characters get more attention than others, but the balance is still much better than what came before it. Another plus with this series is the humor. Allston does an excellent job injecting this series with a few laughs. The jokes can be a bit corney sometimes, but its all fun and many will even have you laughing out loud. Be on the lookout for Lieutenant Kettch. He is definatly one of the series best laugh grabbers. Of course, to balance the humor, the Wraith series also has a dark side, stemming primarily from the fact that the Wraiths, unlike the Rogues, aren't invencible. These people are humans (or aliens in some cases), and they make mistakes, and they can die. Some may consider the mortality of the Wraiths to be a bit too depressing, but I found it to be a nice change of pace from books where we know everyone is going to come out all right. Another plus comes in the characters of the villians. Allston tips his cap to Dave Wolverton in his usage of Warlord Zsinj as the main antagonist. Some may complain, but I was glad to see Zsinj rescued from the fate of being a one-time character who didn't really do too much. And Allston manages to give Zsinj, as well as Admiral Trigit, a true sense of threat, something Stackpole never quite achieved with Ysanne Isard and Kirtan Loor. Zsinj is still no Thrawn, but he generally seems to be a competant tactician. Overall I highly reccomend this series. It's not quite of the caliber of Zahn's work, but it's easily the next best thing. One of the few truly essential reads in the world of Star Wars literature.
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Summary: A new threat needs a new squadron.
Review: With Rogue Squadron's success in knocking Isaard from power and restoring the flow of Bacta to the New Republic behind him Wedge Antilles now focuses on a new threat, the Warlord Zsinj. He also has a crazy plan for a new squadron. One made up of the worst of the best, or is it that the best of the worst? His idea is to make a commando team that can dog fight in an X-Wing (instead of trying to make ace pilots into commandoes), but can he do it? Not too hard to figure out that he does and soon the Wraith Squadron is in fierce action. A nice introduction to a new storyline within the X-Wing subseries and the added humor is a welcome ingredient. Recommended.
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Summary: Good, not quite like Stackpole though
Review: This takes place shortly after The Bacta War. Wedge is setting up a new X-wing squadron, that is instead of Pilots that have commando capability, this squadron is comprised entirely of commandos that have pilot capability (they still do more flying than commando things, but act more as commandos. This is a really good book, if you can get over the fact that Wedge is the only person on this squadron that was mentioned in the previous four books. I think Mr. Allston showed a greater sense of humor and jovialness within his book, as opposed to Mr. Stackpole's subtle jokes. He also explores the trauma of being a pilot- losing friends in battle, and the mental struggles to overcome that. This is really a good book, and at 403 pages lasts a little longer than most Star Wars books.
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Summary: YAY WRAITHS!!!
Review: I was a little bit disappointed when I first spotted the newest X-Wing book and saw it wasn't written by Mike Stackpole. That didn't last. Wraith Squadron is one of the THE best and I LOVE the Wraiths. Face Loran and Ton Phanan are the best SW EU characters ever, and I am completely in love with Face. YAY!!!
Yub Yub, Commander!
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Summary: Star Wars, Xwing
Review: This book is part of the interesting xwing series. However, it is different from all the others in the series. It introduces a whole new cast of characters. It actually has a lot of funny momments. These new characters like to joke around sometimes.
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Summary: Yub, yub!
Review: I was a little dismayed that Micheal Stackpole wasn't going to be writing this series all the way to the end. I don't think I have ever read anything from Aaron Allston until this book. But I must say I am impressed. The first thing Allston does in this book is to shake up the established status quo. Allston starts moving characters around and gives us a whole new set of characters to focus on in this book. Normally in an established series this can be a disaster (how many people would have been happy if they had introduced Yoda for the first time, then immediately cut him out of the story and focused instead on some distant relative of his?!). But in this instance it worked. Allston keeps Rogue Squadron in the background, but takes Wedge out of Rogue Squadron and gives him a new adventure and a new squadron to play with. Wedge also brings along Wes Janson for this adventure, Janson was in the movies and I think this is the first series face time this character gets in this franchise. The best part about Allston's writing isn't that fact that the established characters stay in character. The best part is that the new characters and old characters interacting in this book are HILARIOUS! I damn near fell out of my chair laughing when I read the Ewok joke (no I am not going to spoil it here, read it yourself)! Throughout the book Allston just randomly decides to take silly breaks and has the characters bantering and cracking jokes with abandon -- it works VERY, VERY well! Read it, you will like it -- unless the dark side has already claimed you!
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