Alphabet Squadron

Just finished this new book, part one of a trilogy: Alphabet Squadron (Alexander Freed, 2019). Part of a crossover event with Marvel comics, specifically the 5 issue TIE Fighter title (currently on issue 4). I have to say this one fell a bit flat for me. I loved Freed's first foray into the SW universe, Battlefront: Twilight Company. This one has a number of problems, even though on its surface it feels perfect for me and this blog. 

The good: Alphabet Squadron is a rag tag collection of ships flying for New Republic Intelligence. Its pilots (and ships) are cast offs and survivors of regular starfighter squadron-killing events here or there. Their job is nominally to fly strange or interesting "non-combat" missions for the New Republic. They're spies, basically. In starfighters.

The bad: the name. Don't care for the word "Alphabet" when the SW equivalent is Aurebesh.  Don't care for the fact that there are literally only five ships in this "squadron", and each of them is a different type of vessel. What, exactly, will be the point of a single A-wing flying alongside a single U-wing and a single X-wing, Y-wing, and B-wing? Good question. 

The bad (part 2): Each of the members of Alphabet Squadron is the sole survivor of their particular former squadron's demise. That being said: don't worry! They weren't the best pilots in their former units, but they don't die...even when flying their five mismatched vessels (none of which were built for the same battlefield role) against some of the best the Imperial Remnant has to offer. Reading the scenes wherein their former squadron mates died in droves made it seem that the life of a starfighter pilot is short. Reading how these yahoos have nothing to worry about when flying against many times more enemy ships (from the same "legendary" Imperial squadron that destroyed their friends) kinda ruins the suspension of disbelief. 

The bad (part 3): I can't stand the "conflicted, brooding, secretive former Imperial trying to make good" storyline. Will she or won't she stay loyal to the New Republic? Worse is the "the Empire was full of good people trying to do their best" storyline. Even after exposure to countless episodes of Imperial cruelty. I, for one, don't like to muddy the waters on this point. The Empire is like the Nazis. BAD GUYS, full stop. Adding layers of moral ambiguity to what should be fast paced space opera usually doesn't end well. I don't even like the Imperial characters to refer, when speaking to each other, to efforts by the Rebel Alliance as "terrorist acts". That may be indeed what the Imperial military machine would realistically label the destruction of the Death Star, but writing this kind of moral equivalence is troubling. We want the Rebels to be the GOOD guys, you dummies. Characters like Saw Gerrera were rightly kicked out of the formal Rebellion for crossing those sorts of lines.

The bad (part 4): This is certainly not the best book for reading about the workings of a starfighter squadron in combat, both on and off the battlefield (that would be the wonderful Rogue Squadron series by Stackpole et al: both the novels or the Dark Horse comics). The writing during the battle scenes in Alphabet Squadron does not evoke that sense of movement, throttle and stick work, rolls, tricks, and edge of your seat danger that Stackpole provides. Those details make it feel more realistic. Also more realistic in the Rogue Squadron material: many pilots die along the way. A tragic but true effect of war. There are some weird things that occur in Alphabet Squadron dogfights: enemy ships forming a "cage" and not letting their target out, for one. While flying. In space. No thanks. Not to mention these five underpowered characters in their mismatched ships with no coherent job on the battlefield will never die. No matter what they face. Again, no thanks.

To sum up, this was an average Star Wars book for the Disney era (read: disappointing). Like many of these new books, I don't care about these characters. They try to make them "gritty" or something, and it falls flat. If you aren't invested in the characters, then you don't care what happens to them. 

Disney does keep the inclusivity streak alive, with multiple mentions of LGBTQ relationships, which I am for, in theory. They must have a checklist, however, for each writer, as these references tend to pop up out of nowhere and not be exactly germane to the story. There are no similar shout outs to heterosexual relationships, where a quick note tells us some random tidbit about a background character's sexual preference. Not that I'd want those random comments to pop up, either. We have yet to see, for example, a long-running romantic relationship between two main characters (like Han and Leia in other novels), where the mere existence of their relationship is not the story, but just a detail. That would be interesting.