Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed

Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed

     This book finished with a bang that gave me legit goosebumps. Although the opening to the novel took some time to get moving and suck me in, once it fell into its rhythm I was hooked. In fact I would’ve read it a lot faster than I did if I hadn’t had a lot of personal stuff going on in my life. So the fact that I read this in spurts is by no means indicative of the book’s readability and can’t-put-it-down-ness. Once I refocused on allowing myself to be absorbed by it, I flew through to the end which led to those crazy actual goosebumps...I’m talking it was good! I knew there was going to be some sort of awesome connection to the rest of the book that was going to be a huge reveal and goodness gracious was I right! 

     As for the slow beginning that I mentioned, the problem was mainly the vast breadth of characters. There were just so many different people of so many different species that it was extremely difficult getting a handle on what exactly was going on. And deaths that occurred didn’t really mean all that much because most of the time you had no clue who it was that just died. Now I will say that the pilots were written as deeply feeling the effects of the deaths and this was heartfelt and very real. The anger, the blaming, the sadness, the fear were all written with aplomb and I could deeply feel what the characters themselves were feeling. A+ for writing that manages to do such a thing! 

     One interesting bit of formatting in the story was the use of “This is the story she/he told.” followed by a story with occasional bits of onlooker interaction but mostly just the story being told from the teller’s point of view as if it is happening in real time. Turns out, these stories are framed this way because they may or may not be actually true… I won’t give away the most obvious example of the story not actually being true but you find out toward the end of the book that one of the stories you had simply assumed to be true because you grew to trust and care for the narrator was patently false and completely changes the character’s motivations, reasoning, and backstory--some really surprising stuff.

     Main characters include Yrica Quell (a human defected Imperial pilot who is the main protagonist of the book and ends up flying an X-wing), Caern Adan (a Balosar New Republic Intelligence officer who has a lot of screen time in the beginning but his importance in the plot dwindles away at the midpoint), IT-O (a hovering, spherical torture droid reprogrammed to be a therapist--love how ridiculous this is!!), Wyl Lark (a human member of Riot Squadron who flies an A-wing and is constantly trying to make up for his imagined wrong doings against Chass), Chass na Chadic (a mixed Theelin member of Hound Squadron who flies a B-wing and holds a major grudge against Wyl), Nath Tensent (a human last remaining survivor of a squadron destroyed by Shadow Wing who took to piracy after leaving the Alliance, flies a Y-wing), and Kairos (her species is not revealed, but she is described in detail as “a humanoid figure wrapped in strips of graying fabric like bandages beneath a coarse cloak. Heavy leather straps and other swaths of cloth--perhaps once colorful and patterned but now murky--completed the patchwork ensemble, obscuring the tall figure’s musculature. [...] Her garment smelled inoffensively of iron and spices and something floral.” She does not speak and communicates when flying through electronic noises. She flies my favorite ship...a U-wing!!). There is also one other sort of main character who I’ll not give away here because you don’t realize he’s a main character (at least in the sense of the trilogy as a whole) until the very end of the book--I mean you know the side story is about him but you don’t know who he actually is until the very last paragraph! And that’s another point, the side story was fairly difficult to follow as it was included so sporadically throughout the book until the very end when the narrative honed in on it. I wish the side story had been more prominent throughout to help keep the storylines straight in my head.

     The book connects quite well with the adjoining short-run comic series called “TIE Fighter.” Although the comic series includes an entirely different group of Shadow Wing pilots than Quell’s squad, they are all a part of the 204th Fighter Wing or Shadow Wing. We do get to see “Grandmother” or Colonel Shakara Nuress in both this book and the comic series and her character flows seamlessly between mediums. She continues calling the New Republic “Separatists” and is stern and emboldened to the end. I will say though that Yrica Quell does make a brief appearance in the back up story for issue #1. So she is there, although for a blink and you miss it length of time.

     Jyn Erso is mentioned surprisingly frequently starting about halfway through the book courtesy of Chass na Chadic who idolizes the woman. I was SO happy for this book to have such a deep connection with my favorite movie!! Chass even flew with Saw’s Cavern Angels at one point!! Her first mention of Jyn goes like this, “You know Jyn Erso? The woman who started it all and destroyed the Death Star?” To which Nath replies, “General Skywalker and Red Squadron destroyed the Death Star.” And Chass beautifully responds with, “Skywalker fired the last shot, was all. Jyn did everything that mattered. I met her once.” And she proceeds to tell a story about meeting and being saved by Jyn on Uchinao in the Five Points system (more on that below). 

     Another thing this book does very well is include queerness in a very normalized, off-handed way. In fact it is so subtle that going back through the book, I’m having a really hard time finding the specific spots where queerness was alluded to. While this is a great tact, making queerness normal, the fact that it gets lost in the story as a whole is a bit disheartening. I’d like to be fully aware of a character’s queerness and not have it pass by my notice since the goal is to have characters that one can relate to. Now I’m not saying that all queer characters need to have a partner. I personally am a queer person who is not in a relationship and I am very happy with my current state of being. But at least reference it a couple or a few times so that the queer connection can be solidified and held on to. I’m hoping these things will become more clear in the next two books because as it stands right now, it gets lost in all the details. There is one moment where Yrica, in reference to her therapy with the IT-O droid, is willing to discuss her first girlfriend and last boyfriend to convince the droid she’s fit for leading the squadron--so here is an indication that this character is bisexual. There’s also a passage about a very minor character, “Got a lad he fancies, next town over. Catches the shuttle once a week.” I love how this statement is presented in such an offhand way, as if it just isn’t a big deal that the guy is with another guy! The people having the conversation say that this man might not make it into work on time one day because of his venturings and downtalk him for that, but not for being with another man. So the subtlety of the queerness in this book is quite lovely, I just wish the main characters who are queer were more obviously delineated as such--because I know I’m missing something in this recap…

     And finally, the chapter titles are absolutely wonderful and super unique. They provide an almost humorous lilt to a very serious novel. Examples include, “Inertial Velocity,” ‘Spontaneous Ethical Reconfiguration,” and “Redefinition of Victory Conditions.” Some of them are very military-esque but in a seemingly tongue-in-cheek sort of way and all of them do a great job of prepping you for what’s to come in the chapter. Also, each chapter is divided into parts labeled by Roman numerals that allow for a page-turning motivation to just keep reading one more section--very smart set up with that!

Interesting tidbits:

-”The stars warped as the laws of conventional physics--of light and velocity and mass--ceased to exist and the ship’s hyperdrive urged the vessel through a gap in reality.” This discussion has come up on Twitter before as to what lightspeed actually is. I’ve argued for it being another dimension and that appears to be supported by this quote...

-Crimson Dawn gets a mention!! (as gangsters that Yrica as part of Shadow Wing had killed on security enforcement missions) Interestingly enough, it says, “They’d known there was no place for their cartels under the Empire.” Yet we know that Imperial officers were on Dryden Vos’s yacht in Solo...hmmm…

-Feared Imperial pilots: Vult Skerris, Baron Rudor (from “Rebels”!), Neosephine Calorda

-Adelhard’s faction in the Anoat Sector is mentioned!!! This is from the MMORPG I used to play called “Star Wars: Uprising”!!! It was such a fun game that unfortunately got progressively more unwieldy and so finally shut down a few years ago. 

-”There were the mobile prisons like Accresker, built to discourage rescue attempts.” Ahhh!!!! A mention of a location from the “Dr. Aphra” comic series!!!!

-The following planets/locations that have also appeared in other source material are mentioned: Blacktar Cyst (Battlefront: Twilight Company), Mimban (Solo), Mygeeto (“The Clone Wars”), The Ring of Kafrene (Rogue One!!), Mennar-Daye (Before the Awakening), Kalarba (The Force Awakens Beginner Game), the Paqualis system (The Force Awakens Beginner Game, “Star Wars Adventures: Powered Down”), Telerath (“Age of Republic: Jango Fett”), Phorsa Gedd (Battlefront: Twilight Company), Corulag (multiple sources), and Mon Gazza (multiple sources). An actual mission takes place on Abednedo to capture Imperial prisoners (apparently a local resistance and New Republic special forces team kept the Empire from carrying out Operation Cinder there), and as they arrive we get a lovely description--“Neshorino rose out of a mountain range of endless rust-brown rock. Jagged natural spires stood tipped by ornamental towers, and great cliff faces were carved with painted statuary.” This sounds so incredibly beautiful to me!

New planets/locations--get ready because there is a ridiculous amount here!! Once again, I'm left wishing that more of the same planets were mentioned across mediums rather than coming up with 20 new ones for each new story...:

-Nacronis: silt storms containing blue and yellow mud can be kicked up to rage in the atmosphere, destroyed by Operation Cinder, the location of Yrica’s last flight with Shadow Wing

-Beauchen: Shadow Wing was potentially involved in a raid here

-Jiruus: where we first meet Wyl and Riot Squadron and Chass and Hound Squadron, a beautiful old-timey village type of planet with plazas and gardens and fountains, also a bit backwater since most of the locals can’t speak Basic

-The Oridol Cluster: where the Hellion’s Dare meets its demise and Riot and Hound squadrons are annihilated. Only Wyl and Chass get away. “a glittering fog--a crystalline, scintillating field of dust, like a blizzard frozen in time and space.” The Tangrada-Nii people believed the cluster was the face of one of their gods--their descendants were the Tagra-Tel. 

-The Entropian Hive: “an asteroid studded with silver spacedocks and swaddled in great organic meshes like webbing.” Where we first meet Nath who has been working as security under the supposed auspices of the New Republic.

-Polyneus: Wyl’s home planet which he refers to as Home and where the people fly on large creatures called sur-avkas that have feathers and leathery skin. The Sun-Lamas of this planet had issued an edict that the best flier of each community was to leave Home and fight with the Rebel Alliance against the Empire that had befouled their atmosphere and ruined their planet.

-Gavana Orbital: where Yrica grew up. A place filled with all manner of different sentient species.

-The Shalam system: contains a crimson sun

-The Jendorn system: contains great grey dust clouds with a unique electromagnetic phenomenon that reflects impressions of past events

-Mek’tradi: a “jewel of a planet” with “amber seas and pearl spires climbing into orbit”

-Harrikos-Fifteen Research Station: an Imperial outpost, the system has a vast ring of frozen methane and a burning blue sun

-Mrinzebon: part of the side story mentioned below in conjunction with Vernid, one of the main cities is Greater Xnapolis

-Cousault: produces weather-orchestras

-Pandem Nai: the main planetary focus of the book where Imperials are holding out and holding down resources such as tibanna gas that the New Republic wants to get their hands on. Induchron is a settlement on the surface

-Kerkoidia: a blue-gray planet liberated by the New Republic (species from this planet where in a couple episodes of “The Clone Wars” TV series)

-The Harkrova system: Harkrova I was “a barren, sulfurous wasteland illuminated by a dim yellow sun that looked small and distant even from space. Its single moon was more hospitable, covered in mountains and lush forests [...] Needle-leafed cyan trees completely obscured the ground.” A beautiful Jedi temple is located here in the midst of the forest carved into natural stone and wood.

-Argai Minor: a mission taking place for several pages in the book occurs here

-Rentaxius VIII: a very brief mission occurs here

-The Skangravi-Mestun Hyperlane: a route to Pandem Nai

-Vernid: where a side story within the novel takes place concerning a character I’m assuming will have a greater presence in the second book. In regards to the weather, “The drops came swift and heavy, brutalizing bare skin and flooding every crack and crevice in the landscape. A person could drown in Vernid’s rains before growing used to them.”

-Hetnagaro: presumably a planet that had been affected by Operation Cinder

-Trenchenovu shipyard: where Nath’s squadron was annihilated by Shadow Wing

-Indu San: a Shadow Wing mission took place here, potentially Operation Cinder related

-Uchinao: found in the Five Points system and apparently made an appearance in Rebel Rising although I looked and couldn’t find it. I found mention of other planets in the Five Points system in that novel but not this one. It is described as “a decaying orb specked with massive metal rigs plugged into bergs floating on a liquid surface. The liquid wasn’t water, and neither were the bergs--their ice was dark and veined with yellow, like a bruise on pale skin. [...] on top it wasn’t so different from any other city-world, with a thousand cramped streets filled with garbage and inhabitants treated worse than the waste.” Regardless, Chass tells a story about how she actually met Jyn Erso on Uchinao back when she was working in the system and how she saved her life that day. And then goes on to recall when she saw a clip of Jyn giving her speech before the Battle at Scarif and how it changed her. She says, “That’s when I knew. That’s when I knew if--I thought, I met her. I could be like that, too. Crawl out of the gutter to do something great.” It would have been super cool if the story had actually been in Rebel Rising also, but I’ll take any mention and lauding of Jyn that I can get! Phew!! So much to say because there was so much packed into these 408 pages!! Tons of new planets/locations, a swath of new characters, and a super engaging plot line. This book was definitely a win for me although it did have to grown on me over time. I can't wait to see where the rest of the trilogy goes from here!!