Books Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed

Me too! I heard somewhere it would be a task force. One thought is that's about the size of each group carrying out Operative Cinder. Maybe we'll see more of that campaign? It is before Rax takes over and we've only seen on battle of Cinder. Alphabet Squadron could be chasing them to prevent the Imperials causing more.destruction. Or start with Cinder and the extend beyond.

Alternatively, the task force could be under the command of a warlord independent from Rax. I like the idea of it being under the command of the Ruling Council. The council could be using the task force to hide and wait out the post Endor chaos. Or a new grand admiral trying to use hit an run tactics against the New Republic to rally more support. This could play into the battles of Nabboo.

I do suspect this taskforce will meet up with a larger fleet, at some point, for a final battle

 

From the novel Wraith Squadron. End of Chapter 9.
2 full grown beings saying the above.
How is Alphabet Squadron any worse than that?

 

That quote is why I love the name. As soon as I heard it, I thought of the Wraith books.

 

**** yes! This is the kind of thing we need more of. Freed is excellent, easily the best of the new authors post Disney-buy out (or at least one of the 2 including Gray). Also found the weird. Assumed it was some toddler learning book or something.

Anyway this is great. Really hope it becomes a series, but not holding out hope because I thought the same thing with his Battlefront novel but nothing ever came of that.

 

I wonder if they use five new pilots or decide to expand the history of a background pilot from the films:
Candidates (both Canon and Legends names):
- Wes Janson
- Dorovio Bold
- Kin Kian
- Karie Neth
- Jake Farrell
- Ten Numb
- Palso Thern
- Tarrin Datch
- Tarn Mison
- Tycho Celchu
- Keyan Farlander *

* B-wing pilot in ROTJ only now.

 

Weird title, but interesting premise.

With this and some of the other stuff coming up in the post-ROTJ era, it looks like there will be more Imperial remnant present around the galaxy post-Jakku than originally portrayed in previous media.

 

I can quite assure everyone that the cover and copy for this book will make it abundantly clear it is NOT a child's learning book. Also the trim size, price point, length, and about a half dozen other features.

Ive mentioned a few times "we're working on cool stuff. Good books take time etc.This is one of those projects...." Glad it is finally out in the world.

 

I hope that Freed includes some cool aliens as main characters. I absolutely loved his use of the Besalisk character in Twilight... New canon feels really human-centric (moreso than the EU, it feels to me), so I am hoping to see more aliens in main roles, both in the films and the books...

 

Who knows maybe Alphabet squadron will start out being considered a joke by the fandom and actually evolve into a team of fully realised characters with a following worthy of Rogue Squadron...sort of like the opposite of what happened with Inferno Squad (Badum Tshh)

 

Super pumped for this, love the concept and Freed is a great author, Twilight Company is one of my favorite books in the NU.

 

Inferno Squad is pretty great.

 

If we're going to throw out pointlessly wild speculation about familiar pilots appearing, let's go full hog and hope this book retcons the pointless death of Hobbie. I mean, if you can bring back Darth Maul anything can happen.

 

Instantaneous In-Sin-neration?

 

After seeing the first few episodes of Resistance, I REALLY hope Yeager is in this book.

 

THIS. We know he was an active duty pilot with the NRDF through Jakku. I suspect he didn't retire right when the war ended. Maybe he stuck around for a bit in the service...

--Adm. Nick

 

Because they didn't name the series Dinner Squadron? No one's suggesting there shouldn't be humour, I think the title has largely been discussed from the perspective of it not drawing in new readers, or causing people to misunderstand what it's about.

 

Maybe we'll do a con edition with a little spot of the cover made of whiteboard material and people can fill in their own squadron name.

Anecdotally I'll share that in the 3 days of NYCC we discussed the book with people not a single person questioned whether it was a child's alphabet book or something other than what it is. Because books exist in context. (And we didnt even have a picture of the cover not final at the booth).

Ps if you hate the title that's cool. I'm not trying to convince you to like it. If we do our jobs and create a good story the title is meaningless.

 

I don't hate the title, I'm just concerned about the fact it won't attract casual readers, when really the aim should always be to get as many people reading the book as possible, no? I don't mean that should lead to all books being called "Super Fun Happy Slide goes to Coruscant" etc. but surely it should at least mean giving books interesting titles that will draw in the casual reader. I think it's why the Rogue Squadron books did so well despite featuring such a peripheral (in the context of the movies) cast. Because Rogue Squadron as a concept was THE main character in a way. Wraith Squadron was able to leverage off that because the Rogue Squadron books had done well.

Who knows, if the final cover featured Wedge or something similar then it might alleviate the problem anyway.

 

That's an interesting attitude. I would have thought that in literature the title is massively important from a marketing standpoint. Or do you mean that marketing isn't your concern because that's someone else's job?

 

I would imagine that the STAR WARS in the title will be enough to pull in casual readers. Also knowing that “Squadron” usually equals pilots.