Bantam Press 1996
Set 2.5 years after RotJ
| Book 1 - 'Rogue Squadron' by Michael
A. Stackpole
Bantam Press 1996 Set 2.5 years after RotJ |
|
Original characters from the movies -- Wedge and Admiral Ackbar. That's it. If you're looking for Luke, Leia, Han and the gang, go somewhere else. It felt weird at first, reading about these background movie characters as main characters in the novels, but you soon get used to it. And I always had a soft spot for Wedge. ;-)
New characters -- everybody else. Just look at the list at the
front of the book. Not all human, not all male, not all Force-strong -
made a pleasant change for me!
Cover art -- X-wings, a Star Destroyer, yadda, yadda. Get used
to it - they're pretty much all the same.
Chicks -- 13 listed pilots at the front of the book include 4 chicks. Mirax is a cool smuggler who can give as good as she gets. Ysanne Isard ('Iceheart') - yes, the chief baddie is a chick (she's good, but no Thrawn).
Any good? -- I went into this expecting space battles and very little else, but I was pleasantly surprised. There's lots of character stuff too (admittedly, about characters we don't really know about yet), as well as politics, spy stuff, smuggler stuff, etc. Maybe it's because I expected so little, that I enjoyed it so much. The space battles are quite interesting and didn't go on too long for me. And I love new characters in the SW universe, so that appealed too.
Read it? -- not the best X-wing novel, but the first chronologically, so I would say yes. It gives you a taster of what is to come, and introduces some of the main characters. If you really can't bear snubfighter battles in space or don't want to read about anyone but the major characters, then you're probably not even reading this review.
Rating -- 7 out of 10