Bomber Command by Jason Fry
Bomber Command written by Jason Fry, illustrated by Cyril Nouvel
This was an informative replica journal that delved a little deeper into Paige Tico's thoughts and a lot deeper into her day-to-day reality as part of a bomber crew. It ties in very nicely to Cobalt Squadron (a junior reader) and Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter (Rose's replica journal). Some of the information is identical while some of it builds on what is told in the other two books. I think it's quite symbiotic and makes for an integrated and enjoyable reading experience.
We find out that Rose is 5 years younger than Paige and that Paige used to could not stand her little sister but they grew inseparable as they aged. This bond found later in life is immensely clear in the other two books.
I won't go too much into their backstory as I've covered that in my reviews of Cobalt Squadron and especially Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter. But I do want to pass on some bits of new information. Hays Major (their homeworld of Hays Minor's sister planet) is "a gloomy, stormy world that's busy with trade and heavy industry." Additionally, "Hays Major and Minor relied on each other for decades, with Minor sending ore and minerals to Major in return for food, water, and machinery." This book heavily details how the First Order slowly but surely infiltrated the industries of both planets and made living on either unbearable. See a First Order recruitment poster below.
At the time of this journal, Paige works as the ball turret gunner and backup pilot while Rose works as the flight engineer of the Cobalt Hammer, an MG-100 StarFortress SF-17. Paige describes the ship like so, "There's the flight deck, which is a tube connecting the cockpit, the engines, and the tail-gunner's turret. Then there's the bomb bay, which is a long stalk sticking out from the bottom of the flight deck, with the ball turret hanging off the end." The bomb bay can hold 1,048 magno-charges at once! The rest of the crew consists of Nix Jerd (the bombardier), Finch Dallow (the pilot from Aduba in Wild Space), and Spennie (the tail-gunner from Coruscant who listens to ancient broadcasts of space-yacht races). Then you've of course got the entire Cobalt Squadron of StarFortresses and the general squadron personnel: Fossil (a Martigrade from Martaus VI who acts as commanding officer), Hadeen Bissel (the crew chief who is too kind and caring for his own good it seems), Vober Dand (the Tarsunt Resistance Base Controller in charge of ground operations on D'Qar), and Tiggs Kaiga (the Faust flight surgeon who puts mental/emotional health on par with physical health).
The Resistance fleet consists of the Raddus (Leia's flaghsip Mon Calamari cruiser), the Ninka (Holdo's bunkerbuster), the Anodyne (a medical frigate), and the Vigil (a Mon Calamari cargo frigate).
Each StarFortress has in the way of weaponry: the ball turret, the rear turret, the remotely controlled topside turret, dual stern guns, "chin" guns beneath the cockpit, and laser canons. Although the book explains that starfighters are more maneuverable than bombers and that is why they are usually used to escort the StarFortresses, this still doesn't explain to me (in regards to how much fire power they have regardless) why they were so incredibly easy for the First Order to gun down in The Last Jedi. Of course, Paige then goes on to say, "A StarFortress is big, slow, and awkward. It can't outrun or outmaneuver starfighters." Which leaves me wondering what the point of all the heavy weaponry is in the first place if they need starfighters as escorts to stay safe. I guess as double protection...or just in case?
This book also goes into great detail about how missions are run, the particulars of bomber squadron formations, magno-charge safety measures, and more, making for some very thorough technical reading that takes some re-reads to fully grasp. In addition, we get a re-hashing of the Cobalt Squadron story, an adorable aside about Paige deeply respecting Finn's ability to turn against the First Order and her hope that more people are out there like him, an address from Leia to the New Republic Senate, a fascinating description of Paige and Rose's living quarters on Hays Minor (see their observation dome below), a sweet story about their Grandpa Storm and Grandma Etta striking lucky with gold smelt on their first try (the tear drop medallions are actually representative of snowgrape leaves), and the details of Rose and Paige's very first mission to oust pirates backed by the First Order from the Cassander Sector in the Borderlands. I'm telling you, this book is absolutely packed full of fun tidbits.
A few interesting bomber slang terms (just a small sample of what is included):
-Edge = an A-wing fighter
-Eyeball = a TIE fighter
-Pointer = an X-wing fighter
-Wishbone = a Y-wing fighter
We get fold-outs of the following: 1) a StarFortress schematic, 2) Breath Mask Instructions (for Oxygen Breathers), 3) Bombers Through Time (Y-wing, TIE bomber, Hyena bomber, and StarFortresses), 4) Crash Procedure Manual, 5) a sparse galactic map, and 6) a very general map of the Otomok System.
Several species are introduced or further detailed with sketches:
-Sonar Swallows (live on D'Qar and were the first real animals Paige ever saw)
-Gorgs (Hutts eat these alive)
-Narglatch (snow cats from Orto Plutonia)
There was SO much information in this book that I barely scratched the surface. It is well worth the read just for trivia info alone. But it does a great job, too, of framing and deepening Paige's story with background both recent and distant as well as descriptions of her Resistance daily life. She really is a powerful character despite her dearth of screen time and these books most certainly do her justice.
We find out that Rose is 5 years younger than Paige and that Paige used to could not stand her little sister but they grew inseparable as they aged. This bond found later in life is immensely clear in the other two books.
I won't go too much into their backstory as I've covered that in my reviews of Cobalt Squadron and especially Rose Tico: Resistance Fighter. But I do want to pass on some bits of new information. Hays Major (their homeworld of Hays Minor's sister planet) is "a gloomy, stormy world that's busy with trade and heavy industry." Additionally, "Hays Major and Minor relied on each other for decades, with Minor sending ore and minerals to Major in return for food, water, and machinery." This book heavily details how the First Order slowly but surely infiltrated the industries of both planets and made living on either unbearable. See a First Order recruitment poster below.
The Resistance fleet consists of the Raddus (Leia's flaghsip Mon Calamari cruiser), the Ninka (Holdo's bunkerbuster), the Anodyne (a medical frigate), and the Vigil (a Mon Calamari cargo frigate).
Each StarFortress has in the way of weaponry: the ball turret, the rear turret, the remotely controlled topside turret, dual stern guns, "chin" guns beneath the cockpit, and laser canons. Although the book explains that starfighters are more maneuverable than bombers and that is why they are usually used to escort the StarFortresses, this still doesn't explain to me (in regards to how much fire power they have regardless) why they were so incredibly easy for the First Order to gun down in The Last Jedi. Of course, Paige then goes on to say, "A StarFortress is big, slow, and awkward. It can't outrun or outmaneuver starfighters." Which leaves me wondering what the point of all the heavy weaponry is in the first place if they need starfighters as escorts to stay safe. I guess as double protection...or just in case?
This book also goes into great detail about how missions are run, the particulars of bomber squadron formations, magno-charge safety measures, and more, making for some very thorough technical reading that takes some re-reads to fully grasp. In addition, we get a re-hashing of the Cobalt Squadron story, an adorable aside about Paige deeply respecting Finn's ability to turn against the First Order and her hope that more people are out there like him, an address from Leia to the New Republic Senate, a fascinating description of Paige and Rose's living quarters on Hays Minor (see their observation dome below), a sweet story about their Grandpa Storm and Grandma Etta striking lucky with gold smelt on their first try (the tear drop medallions are actually representative of snowgrape leaves), and the details of Rose and Paige's very first mission to oust pirates backed by the First Order from the Cassander Sector in the Borderlands. I'm telling you, this book is absolutely packed full of fun tidbits.
-Edge = an A-wing fighter
-Eyeball = a TIE fighter
-Pointer = an X-wing fighter
-Wishbone = a Y-wing fighter
We get fold-outs of the following: 1) a StarFortress schematic, 2) Breath Mask Instructions (for Oxygen Breathers), 3) Bombers Through Time (Y-wing, TIE bomber, Hyena bomber, and StarFortresses), 4) Crash Procedure Manual, 5) a sparse galactic map, and 6) a very general map of the Otomok System.
Several species are introduced or further detailed with sketches:
-Sonar Swallows (live on D'Qar and were the first real animals Paige ever saw)
-Gorgs (Hutts eat these alive)
-Narglatch (snow cats from Orto Plutonia)
There was SO much information in this book that I barely scratched the surface. It is well worth the read just for trivia info alone. But it does a great job, too, of framing and deepening Paige's story with background both recent and distant as well as descriptions of her Resistance daily life. She really is a powerful character despite her dearth of screen time and these books most certainly do her justice.
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