181st Imperial Discussion Group: X-Wing: Wraith Squadron!

Hey guys! This month we're X-Wing: Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston. Here's a link to the TF.n Staff Reviews.

So, per tradition, some discussion points!

- This novel kicks off the second X-Wing series, so it seems fitting to take a moment to compare/contrast the two. It's a new squadron, new characters, arguably even further removed from the movies and with a focus on espionage shenanigans as much as tricksy barrel rolls. What do you make of the change in tone and style? Would you have preferred to continue watching the adventures of the Rogues or did you love the Wraiths from the start?

- Along the same lines, the X-Wing novels are still fairly unusual in the EU in that they take a more militaristic point of view. While there are a few other similar series (such as the RepCom novels), it's still a POV that's a little outside the regular EU fare. As such, how do you think Allston handles it? Broad opinion seems to be that Allston's strengths are humour and character versus Stackpole's precision and plot, but do you think that's actually so?

- On to the actual novel! Kell Tainer takes over from Corran Horn as our defacto lead, and he certainly has an interesting backstory and set of issues - struggling with fear on such a profound level isn't something we usually see in heroic leads. Was the attempt to provide him with flaws realistic or was it taken too far? To an extent this is also a question that can be raised regarding the rest of the squadron, who were all introduced as wash-outs from other groups.

- Speaking of the other characters, let's talk about the atmosphere of the novel and how they're used. I remember way back when we discussed the Rogue Squadron novels that Wedge mentioned something about the statistics of how many of the Rogues would be dead within the next number of missions and how that actually really struck me, but ultimately, the only death was later retconned anyway. In this novel, we do actually see pilots dying. For me, at least, that leant a level of gravity to the situation that I was genuinely not expecting. I believed until the last minute that Tainer would save Jesmin. How did you respond? Do you think it marks a shift in direction and atmosphere?

- Not forgetting the villains, we now mark a shift from Isard to Zsinj as chief antagonist. Isard was a tough act to follow, but again drawing from my perhaps biased view of general board opinion, while Allston's Wraith novels are held in high regard, Zsinj himself is not really seen as a paragon of EU villains. What did you think?

TAKE IT AWAY!

Next month we will be discussing X-Wing: Iron Fist by Aaron Allston.

 

Once I have a bit more time I can probably compose my thoughts better, but a couple quick hits on Wraith Squadron

- While I think Kell has a fairly important role in WS and the rest of the series, I wouldn't quite put him up there with Corran Horn. In my mind Allston is significantly better and divvying up page time than Stackpole was. In the first four X-Wing novels it felt like there was almost a 60/40 split with Corran getting a majority of the page time and the rest being divvied up amongst Wedge, Gavin, Loor, and a few much smaller bit players.

Allston in my mind handles a larger ensemble with more grace than MAS did.

- As far as character offings go, Jesmin's death gave us a far better look into Wedge's mind than Corran's "death" did. The scene where he's trying to compose a dreaded Next of Kin letter to Admiral Ackbar was handled so much better than his reflections of Corran at the end of Wedge's Gamble and the info-dump at the beginning of Krytos Trap that. Wedge's speech at Corran's funeral didn't sound like Wedge at all, it sounded like Michael Stackpole.

This gets back to my biggest complaint with the Stackpole novels, though. As interesting a character as Corran might have been (and in the interest of self disclosure, I will say that I was not a fan of him in the X-Wing novels), it just felt like we were getting an overload of him. There were only so many times I could read about him relating another CorSec story, having women falling over him, flaunting his superior flying skills, and (worst of all) endless internal self-narration. Allston didn't bludgeon us over the head with that, he gave his characters flaws and a bit of humility that was really refreshing to see. More importantly he didn't lock on to one character to make them the larger focus of the book.

Wraith Squadron and the subsequent Allston novels allowed the readers to get into the heads of a larger cast of interesting characters that, to me anyways, felt a lot more relate-able and believable. It was fascinating to take the Rogue Squadron dynamic and flip it upside-down.

- Honestly I thought the tone shift worked astoundingly well. He didn't try to force humor into inappropriate places but rather let it crop up in settings where you could see these kinds of conversations happening. It did a marvelous job of breaking up what otherwise could have been a really, really angsty book.

- One thing I have noticed about AA is that he seems to let the story dictate who's POV we're seeing things from. I always got the impression that Stackpole had a set-list of characters (Corran, Wedge, Corran, Gavin, Corran, Loor, Corran) and he tried to sort of shoehorn the story around them. Allston seems to have the story worked out and selects the best character to tell certain parts of it, if that makes any sense. I guess you could say his writing seems less forced.

 

Hmm, the 'lead role' always felt more like Wedge to me here.

I'll comment more when I have time. Thanks for the thread!

 

Before I explain how this is one of the BEST BOOKS EVER, I'll go ahead and state its one and only flaw: it borrows too heavily from Rogue Squadron. The book. Allston effectively ported over the starting framework from Rogue Squadron with only minor tweaks. We've got Wedge building a new squadron, with a longtime friend as XO. We've got a handsome male human protagonist who becomes a flight leader right away and is one of the better pilots in the squadron. He's got a weird alien wingman who uses pronouns oddly. The squadron trains on Folor, where Wedge is opposed by the grumpy general who's commanding the base and training a unit that uses a rival starfighter. It quickly pulls away from the Rogue Squadron narrative, and a lot of the setup is not necessarily avoidable, but it's just weird, and feels like it's consciously aping Rogue Squadron for no perceptible reason. If Allston had just used Salm instead of Crespin, or had Crespin be a colonel commanding a different base than Folor, or used both Hobbie and Janson instead of having just one veteran XO -- something to shift the paradigm a little -- it would have come off better.

I loved the Wraiths from the start. I think it might have helped that I may have read the Wraith books before the Rogue ones. I don't remember. I do love the Rogue characters, and I like to see as much of them as I can, but I also love the Wraith characters and want to see as much of them as I can, and I wouldn't trade these adventures for a hundred stories about Corran and Gavin and Tycho.

On the military POV, I think Allston definitely takes a different angle on it. Stackpole was all about the military as everymen and about military cool; about slick pilots suiting up and flying around blowing up bad guys and pulling off missions. There's a little bit of Top Gun to it. It was about cool, relatable soldiers doing cool soldier stuff. Allston is telling a military story, too, but the emphasis isn't quite the same. For Stackpole, friendship in the military is slapping your buddy on the back after a mission, getting a beer, telling him what a good guy he is, and dating his sister. For Allston, friendship in the military is getting through the insanity of combat together by goofing off in your downtime, getting a beer with all your buddies and giving them crap, not talking about your feelings, developing awkward romantic feelings for other people in the unit -- it's a bit more of a realistic, modernistic take than Stackpole's sort of iconic World War II-movie conception of war.

As for strengths, I think Allston is as strong in plot as Stackpole is, and Stackpole is great at character but in a different way. Stackpole's strengths, I'd say, are in creating a small core cast of fully realized and immensely enjoyable characters, in creating great plots, and in completely nailing the feel of the Star Wars universe while simultaneously fleshing it out and expanding it and making it feel like a real place. Allston's strengths are in creating a full and immersive cast of characters efficiently, in managing that cast of characters, in crafting great plots, in infusing an emotional punch into the story, and certainly in comedy.

I like Kell's flaws. He couldn't be just another Corran. The fact that all the characters are screwups, are oddballs, makes for great drama, and Kell has a great hook in that he's this guy who looks like and seems like he ought to be the man, the big hero, and he wants to be that guy, but he's undermined by the fact that he gets these panic attacks, and that he's actually not all that mature a guy. And I love his arc over the rest of the Wraith books, too. Allston does some really great stuff with psychology in these books. Not just the psychology of combat in general, but in really exploring these people's minds and not having people who are all fine and normal. Kell has anxiety. Donos is suffering from bad, bad PTSD. Falynn is constantly acting out because she feels underrespected, always second-best. Runt literally has multiple minds. Piggy is artificially enhanced, and has to strug

 

In retrospect, Wraith Squadron (and the rest of the second series) strengthens Courtship of Princess Leia. When I first read the book, Zsinj's status as the NR's Top Menace was more of an "informed attribute" than anything else; it was difficult to believe that they would prioritize him over the Empire (which really wasn't mention much at all in COPL). Even the brief appearance in the original RS series just highlighted his "second banana" status to the Empire as a threat. Wraith Squadron actually showed him as a legitimate target, a masterful schemer and even made a team-up with the Empire against him seem reasonable.

 

It's really rather disappointing that we couldn't escape having the resolution of the Zsinj story in COPL. Allston steals his setup and characters from obscure nothingness in a second-rate novel, and then spins them into complete gold, and is stuck with the story ending as a footnote in a second-rate novel.

 

I didn't take to any of them until the Wraiths helped the NR forces give Trigit the slip at Commenor.

I disagree with you about the militaristic POV being outside regular EU fare. Think of the parts in the Thrawn Trilogy, Hand of Thrawn duology, and Black Fleet Crisis where we see the battle from Wedge's or a pilot's POV. As for Allston vs. Stackpole, both seemed equal in terms of plot. But I find myself agree with you when it comes to Allston's strengths. Allston spent time to develop each of the Wraiths characters. As for Stackpole, in the first four books, he seemed to focus on Corran, Mirax, Gavin, Isard, and to a lesser extent Nawara, Erisi, Wedge, and Tycho.

Kell Tainer taking over from Corran Horn as our de-facto lead? If you mean getting into his mind and seeing how he sees things, then yes. Kell establishing himself as a leader of sorts - or at least someone who has leadership potential - not really. And that's because of his issues. From his portrayal, I'm left believing he never received counseling after his father was killed. He seemed obsessed with trying to make up for his father's failure, yet he seemed absolutely certain he's going to fail as well. Now he had good, justifiable reasons to hate Wes Janson. I don't think anyone can disagree with me on that. But I think it was more a case of Kell being more concerned about his welfare than the welfare of the others. I base that on his thoughts as he was fleeing from the final battle in the novel, yet when he thought about the others and how they might be affected by his actions, he finished "growing up", so as to speak. This also applied to Jesmin Ackbar, Falynn Sandskimmer, and to some extent Hohass Ekwessh and Piggy in this book. It'll apply to the others in the remaining books.

 

Okay, thinking about it, yes, I agree, Wedge is the leading character here. I think my mind immediately wants to measure up Corran and Kell though, because of Havac's comments that there is something so similar about the set ups (I'd even say that beyond having Wedge form a squadron with a trusted friend as XO, that friend ALSO then has tension with the Corran/Kell character). I also think that, as Wedge himself acknowledges at the end, Wedge's relationship with the Wraiths is a little different to the one he has with the Rogues. He feels more like a commander, and so Kell then takes on the role of "primary" protagonist for a lot of the intra-squadron interactions. Though, it should be noted, I do like the distinction - it's nice to see Wedge's reputation beginning to form - for him to start moving in the direction of Ackbar et al, as one of the giants of the Republic's military. I also agree that Allston did better, over all, at making it feel like an ensemble novel rather than making one character the lead.

In terms of the Stackpole vs Allston debate, I'm actually more or less a fan of both. Stackpole wrote some of my favourite of the NJO novels, and while I think Allston's style and humour are slightly more to my taste than Stackpole's sometimes self-conscious self-awareness, this is the man who gave us the death of Ithor and the bones of Elegos A'Kla which stand as some of the most stunningly visual and iconic moments of the EU for me. When you get down to it, I think that I prefer Stackpole's novels when he's telling the grander, universal stories but that's not intended as a slight on the man's skill.

I'm also pleased to hear that Zsinj improves because while I had no particular problem with him, the one area I would say that this novel lagged far behind the Rogues stuff for me was the villains. I did miss the complexity of Loor or Vorru, or the sheer, if unsubtle, presence of Isard.

In most other respects though, I really have to praise this novel. The deaths were exemplary. Sad, moving, powerful, and yes, the scene with Wedge attempting to compose that letter was far better than the scene regarding Corran's "death". I confess I was initially a little skeptical - not that I'd dislike the novel, but that I wouldn't be as impressed as its reputation led me to believe I should be for a few reasons. Partly because I thought a squadron of "misfits" was likely to actually be a squadron of people who are about as misfit as the "plain girl" in a Hollywood film is before someone takes off her glasses and puts her in a pretty dress, and secondly because the start was so similar to Rogue Squadron I kind of drifted off into expecting it to just be a bunch of pilots again.

But Allston actually achieves quite a lot of breadth and subtlety in his characterisations. They range from the genuinely mediocre, to the genuinely disturbed, to the genuinely problematic to the genuinely skilled who have found themselves in unfortunate positions for other reasons.

I was particularly impressed with Kell whom I had at first liked well enough but dismissed as, essentially, the Corran clone. But he's as messed up as the rest of them, and I found the idea of him genuinely suffering fear of Janson - the very organic reason he had to both be angry with him and fear him, and assume he would suffer no screw ups (which would increase the fear) was well executed.

So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what other stories Allston has to tell with regards to the continuing development of these characters.

One thing that struck me was that the end felt very "finished". As though everyone had completed an arc within the novel. Does anyone know if Allston knew whether or not he would have a series when he wrote the novel? Or was he doing so under the belief it might end up being a standalone?

The only place I'd say I did have trouble sticking with the narrative was the way they helped Donos out of his catatonic state. Donos' story in general - his attachment to the droid, for instance - was incredibly well-ren

 

Well, to some extent some stuff is finished. Due to Allston's ability to shift cast focus, and the fact that with the deaths there's actual turnover and new characters entering the squadron, some of the resolutions we get will basically hold, and then it's about other people's stories. Plus we get new stories from new people, and not everyone's arc that looks resolved will stay that way.

 

I have to agree with Hav on the final resolution, Solo Command takes it to epic heights but is locked into linking with COPL.

However, I think in COPL Iron Fist was a standard Star Destroyer with the upgrade to Super happening in Wedge's Gamble?

Anyway, onto a different point: Is Allston's Wraith Squadron work an example of how to do character deaths right? No one sees them coming, everyone gets hit hard by them but also accepts them which is a much more impressive achievement than it first appears.

 

I do like how Allston works around character shields in the Wraith books, but I think your overstating the point. Yes, fan accept them(which is good) - but he's not killing Chewie or Mara in his books. If he did the same whirlwind would exist no matter how well(or not well) it was handled.

 

Yes and no. The whole Iron Fist thing is irredeemably stupid in COPL. The first paragraph of the book says Iron Fist is an SSD that Han destroyed. Then, at the end, something called only a Star Destroyer shows up, and Luke's like, "It's Iron Fist," and Han's like, "Okay, that makes sense." So COPL can't even decide if it exists, let alone what it is. Everything following it went on the assumption that the Iron Fist was an SSD, and calling it a Star Destroyer is simply a very general appellation.

And, yes, the Wraith books are the perfect way to do death -- but, as Rob says, it's a very different matter with major characters just because of expectations, in terms of acceptance. You could execute the deaths just as well, but the acceptance won't be there from everybody.

 

It's a pity that Allston lost that skill as he progressed in the Star Wars universe. Take Fury as an example, both Kam and Tionne were presumed dead, killed by the GAG. This showed how dangerous Darth Caedus was, but instead, in Fury we get Allston saying "Yeah, that happened in another book, they're fine here." Also, regarding the duel between Caedus and Katarn, Caedus stabs him straight in the heart, he falls to the ground, and yet, somehow, he survives. Yes, I know, Kyle Katarn, popular character, such a powerful character shield. But what excuse is there, when, later in the book, Caedus pushes Saba Sebatyne into a pit, and detonates a grenade in it. That should kill anyone, even a Jedi, yet Saba walks out of it, unharmed. Having protagonists die emphasizes the danger of the villain, and the danger the heroes are in.

Okay, I'm done ranting, I liked Wraith Squadron very much, one of the first EU books I bought, and it's still one of my favorites. Trigit isn't really seen as too incompetent, he almost nails Face as an imposter, portraying Darillian. It's only through a very good deception that Face convinces him. All in all, one of my favorites, a good mix of fleet battle and commando action, very well written for Allston's first entry into the EU. In fact, I consider Wraith Squadron to be Allston's best book, out of all the one's he's written.

 

I don't know. I think the X-wing books, overall, are definitely the best things Allston's ever done, but while I think Wraith Squadron has the best hijinks and I really love it, I think the big plots of Iron Fist and Solo Command are fantastic and those books are operating on a higher level than Wraith Squadron.

 

The translations and audio books seemed to agree, and called the ship at the Sovereign, taking Han at his word that the Iron Fist had been destroyed! Which led to the unfortunate CSWE entry that has Zsinj owning the Sovereign-class Sovereign...two years before it was even constructed.

 

I can't speak to the future Wraith novels, but regarding Allston's other entries into the EU, I do have to say I really loved his NJO stuff, which was actually the first time I met any of the Wraiths. I remember enjoying the hell out of Jaina's goddess subplot in those novels. (Why yes, I am very predictable, thanks for asking!)

I think that...it's fair, in some ways, to point out that LOTF in general dropped the ball on handling deaths well. We don't really get many until the very end, except Mara's which was a Big Event. So there's no...general background sense of fear that might well have occurred had we truly lost Kyle or Tionne or Kam. That said, part of the point is that it's easier, in novels like Wraith squadron, to start from the ground up - to create a different atmosphere and to play against pre-existing expectations. A series like this simply functions differently to a series like LOTF for narrative reasons. If we did see a slew of C list characters biting the dust, who's to say we wouldn't simply have complained that it was reinforcing existing character shields for the majors. In fact, one of the very reasons I, personally, was against Mara's death, was that it felt like the safest of the Big Four to kill because she was never really part of it - the same as the decision to kill Chewie in VP (although in general I thought that death and its fallout were well-handled, it did always seem like the rather predictable choice if you wanted to kill a "major" character to make a point).

Sooo, yes, I would rather Allston had kept this balancing act up in his LOTF entries, but at the same time, I can't help but think what I'm really doing is railing against the specific characters Del Rey's era has seen killed rather than the numbers. We've got almost none of the YJK era left at this point and had it been Valin, Jysella, Doran, Tahiri, Tekli, Tesar or Lowie who had had near-death encounters where they "should" have died, I'd very definitely be waving the, "WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE THEM!" flag.

I guess what I'm saying is that Wraith Squadron is outright remarkable in the way it handles that aspect of its story. But I think there's some more complicated contextual stuff going on than simply being able to say, "shame he didn't keep it up as he went on..."

 

Hi! Sorry I'm late to the party. I thought I would get a chance to read and finish this book weeks ago, but it turns out I just finished it tonight. Anyway, I enjoyed it. Like, really, really, enjoyed it. Let's talk about why.

The opening of the book was fantastic. It flowed really well from the ending of The Bacta War, but wasn't married to it. It didn't waste any time building up the Rogues and then transitioning into the Wraiths --- within the first few pages, Wedge was like "Hey, my experiences in The Bacta War gave me an idea for this cool new squadron." So it used the events of the previous X-wing book as a wonderful setup for its own unique plot that it was able to begin right away. And that opening bit with the real Rogues and the fake Rogues trying to playfully outfly each other was a treat. The first forty or so pages, right up until Wedge and Janson were interviewing for the new squadron, was just delightful.

But then... the next fifty or so pages had me groaning. It was a Rogue Squadron clone, as Hav and others have pointed out. Kell Tainer was Corran Horn, the eager young recruit, and every single scene was from his perspective. Allston's usual tactic of switching scenes every page and a half was just cruel here, as every page or two I'd be like "Oh boy, a new sce --- oh, this one is from Kell's POV too. Yay. Seriously, how am I supposed to identify with someone who tells a girl he's in love with her after knowing her for like three days?" Wedge played an identical role as in RS. Janson was Tycho, Wedge's best friend and first officer who the protagonist has suspicions about/a vendetta against. Runt was Ooryl, the weird alien wingmate who refers to himself in odd ways and acts as a social foil to the protagonist's shyness. Crespin was Horton Salm, the general who clashes with Wedge but who the reader still respects because he's a capable leader of a non-X-wing squadron. Squeaky was Emtrey, the quirky protocol droid who is also the unit's quartermaster. Seriously --- it was the exact same book. I was honestly ready to put the book down and read something else, but only after coming to these forums and chiding everyone who made me believe that Allston's X-wing books were so fantastic.

I soldiered on, though, and about a hundred pages into the book, it took a sharp one-eighty and delivered a roundhouse kick right to my face. It became an entirely different book, that had a true ensemble cast of real, flawed, ambitious characters. It was like Allston spent fifty pages intentionally mimicking Stackpole, only to give Stackpole a swift dropkick and say "Just kidding! Here's how you establish a protagonist and then go on to develop an ensemble cast and make the book truly worthy of its title, that includes the word 'Squadron,' for frick's sake. You see that, Stackpole? SQUADRON. The book should be about the whole damn squadron, not one single arrogant ****." And then the next 300 pages were simply fantastic.

Allston created twelve unique characters with different personalities, ambitions, flaws, and skills. He rotated roles and POV's between them effectively, allowing each one to develop and grow, go through an arc, and to utilize their specific skills in multiple missions. Contrast this with Stackpole, who kept every space battle strictly from Corran's POV, and would then tell us (rather than show us) "I swear, Bror Jace is a great pilot too!" The Wraiths' group dynamic was wonderful, and each character was real and relatable. The deaths were heartbreaking, particularly Falynn's, who I was really rooting for to become #1 at something. Hell, I was rooting for all of the Wraiths, because Allston allowed me to really get to know each and every one of them. Again, contrast that with Stackpole, who, when he killed Riv Shiel in the third book, had me scratching my head and asking "Which one was Riv Shiel again?"

The Night Caller deception plotline was fantastic, and the various commando missions undertaken by the Wraiths were excellently-written. The bat

 

Holy crap, I forgot to mention Cubber. What a simply great character. I really liked him, and not even because I pictured him as looking and talking like Sal:

[image=http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100320225506/en.futurama/images/1/11/Vlcsnap-2010-03-20-23h47m25s217.png]

 

I'm also late to the party. I first read the X-Wing series about ten years ago, after swearing I would never read them. I had no desire to read about pilots (which was weird because I love Luke and hey, he's a pilot!), and my lack of interest in reading battle scenes was the big reason why I stayed away from this series. But finally I gave in and boy, am I glad I did because these are some of my favorite Star Wars books ever. I prefer the Rogues--I actually like Corran Horn--but the Wraiths are just awesome in their own right.

As such, how do you think Allston handles it? Broad opinion seems to be that Allston's strengths are humour and character versus Stackpole's precision and plot, but do you think that's actually so?

Allson definitely creates dynamic, interesting characters, but I found his action scenes easy to follow. Sometimes I can get lost very easily while reading complicated battle scenes, but that happened rarely in Wraith Squadron.


I agree with the others that Wedge is definitely the star of these books, but I understand the comparison between Kell and Corran. I also think that Face is set up to become a main protagonist (especially knowing what happens in Iron Fist), and enjoy his character more than the others.

I have to commend Allson for his handling of deaths. They're realistic, not glossed over, but don't cause the surviving characters to become paralyzed. And of course, his letter-writing to Admiral Ackbar is just heartbreaking. So much of Wraith Squadron is fun action, characters joking around, etc., that you can find it easy to forget the gravity of the situation. But Allston continuously reminds you that, even though these books are funny, it's still war out there.

I don't really care for Zsinj. I found Admiral Trigit to be a much more insteresting character...and of course, Face's Captain Darillian.

 

Of course, I may be tainted since the Wraith series are my fave with the Thrawn books a nostalgic second, but I personally felt a stronger sense of loss for a Wraiths death than even Chewbacca, Anakin/Jacen Solo, or Mara Jade (or maybe that's just because I was disgusted by the senseless volume). And I think it's a testament to Allston's skill. Zsinj was sort of vapid in these novels. But Trigit had a solid foundation and I could really picture his character. I particularly loved his action scene descriptions, which were quite thorough even in brevity compared to later ones I've read in NJO, etc. The setup of Kell and Tyria started off really well too. Their respectable flaws really made the relationship seem real. And I'm sure many of us have been in Kell's position of competitively trying to catch the leader (it was a bummer that he kind of quit trying snag the squad lead in Iron Fist to Face). This book was an amazing read and I'm still surprised that it remains my favorite. It was sharply written, kept me engaged throughout, and had the kind of interesting characters you just don't find these days in SW novels. I actually bought the book twice (the first was kind of falling apart through use) and even now it still remains a good read.

 

Awesome! Thread revival!

Jeff - I'm glad that you enjoyed it, though I do take your point about the start mimicking Stackpole's style in some ways. I can't recall now, without going through the whole thread again, whether we already touched on this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were in some ways intentional. An example that springs to mind (which may well be something you don't know anything about...) is the new series of Doctor Who; they changed showrunner and put a new guy in charge, who'd previously written many popular episodes and had a very recognisable oeuvre. The first episode of the new series is really interesting because you can see the new guy consciously mimicking the style of the old guy, but with hints of his own style, before moving on to his own stuff later in the story/series. Intellectually I know it was a good plan, but I still don't enjoy the episode as much as his later ones, since I like the new guy more than the old guy. Err, complicated way of saying that I definitely agree the book kicks into high gear after the much more formulaic introductions.

Oh, and also points for mentioning the continuity about why Wedge wanted to start the new squadron: I agree that was a nice touch.

Jade - I was much like you. I think the reason I never really wanted to read the pilot novels way back when I had read everything else Bantam published was because I had this idea that they'd be Boring Military Stories for Boys, which was probably down to my illadvised attempts to read a few military science fiction novels (the names of which I no longer recall) that were pushed on me by my military/scifi geek of a cousin. I suppose, really, that's still a prejudice I hold, since even when Hard Contact came out and I heard nothing but awesome about it (and it still seems that there's a general consensus whatever one thinks of the later direction of the series, that the first RepCom novel is very good), I just couldn't bring myself to be bothered to read it.

Either way, it turns out it's Awesome Military Stories Even for Becca, which pleases me.

I'm sure people will disagree with me (given my self-confessed inability to understand largescale military engagements when written about without any visual diagrams) but I think part of why I find Allston's space battles a little easier to understand than Stackpole's is that Stackpole is extremely precise and technical in his descriptions, which probably works fantastically for someone with good spacial awareness, but I have terrible spacial awareness. Allston on the other hand, I think handles things a little more abstractly, with the fight more related to the point of view of the person in question at the time, which I find easier to cope with.

Regan - while I can't say that I found their deaths more moving than the NJO deaths, simply because I wasn't as attached to the characters, I definitely understand how one could (well, okay, maybe not Anakin Solo's... ) They were definitely very well handled.

I am glad I'm not the only one a little bored by Zsinj, but I also agree the secondary villains here were interesting. Not as great as in the Rogue Squadron novels, yet, but I'm willing to be convinced on that point over time.

 

A friend and I were talking about this very subject while we were reading Wraith Squadron just a few weeks ago.

We came to the conclusion that perhaps Allston's greatest strength is his ability to subvert literary tropes (which is why we think that it's entirely possible he and Joss Whedon are the same person, but that's another discussion). He'll set up a character or a plot element in a certain way to lull the reader into a false sense of familiarity and then yank the rug out from under you. Some of Allston's best subversion moments occur later in the Wraith Squadron trilogy, but there are a few in the first entry alone that really stand out.

Kell Tainer seemed to be a Canon Sue just like Corran. He turns out to be anything -but- perfect. Kell is a man coping with deep rooted childhood trauma that causes him to lock up and nearly flee a combat zone. His wingman has to put him under a target lock to force him to Get a Hold of Himself.

Tyria Sarkin is described as being a Force Sensitive, albeit one with weak control over the Force. You would think that would vault her to the top of the depth chart ala Corran, but instead Allston clearly describes her as being the worst pilot of the group.

Ton Phanan is the squadron doctor with a sense of humor. You'd think he'd be a little more towards the always noble Hawkeye Pierce side of the spectrum. Instead it's more of the occasionally neurotic Greg House type.

Aaron Allston seems to posess incredible Genre Savvy, which allows him to surprise you so often. It's truly a wonder to behold.

 

Phanan is totally House. Totally.

Also: Oh god I can't wait to discuss Iron Fist.

 

Yessss. I've imagined Phanan as being House-like since I first saw the show. Hugh Laurie's appearance works for Phanan too, depending on the artist...

[image=http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091020172453/starwars/images/f/f3/DeathofTonPhananPencils.jpg]

 

I've never thought of that. But now that I do, I can see what you're saying about Phanan and House having the same demeanor. Hugh Laurie's appearance working for Phanan... That, I don't see as clearly.