Star Wars: Wraith Squadron, book five in the X-Wing Series, was written by Bestselling Author, Aaron Allston. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, seven ABY (7 years after the battle of Yavin).
SUMMARY
Wedge Antilles builds a new squadron! He wants it to mirror Rogue Squadron, which is both fighter unit and commando unit. Rogue is pilot first, commando second. He wants the new one – Wraith Squadron to be commando first, pilot second.
The Wraiths commandeer an Imperial ship, it’s mission logs, code, and mapping are all intact and available. They will use this equipment to pose as Imperials, following through on missions that are logged on the schedule as not to arouse suspicion. This will be the perfect opportunity for the New Republic to gather intel on the whereabouts of Warlord Zsinj. If all goes to plan, Wraith Squadron would be able strike Zsinj when he least expects it.
While the first four books of the X-Wing series focused on Rogue Squadron, there is a massive shift in the series. This story if full of new characters, though some do make an appearance, Wraith is now the primary focus of the X-Wing series.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
I enjoyed this story a bit better than the previous X-Wing books, though it is a tad slow. The development of the new Wraith Squadron, the mission they go one, and the interaction between the characters was written pretty well. Yet, I am a bit irritated that we didn’t truly get what we were teased; Wraith Squadron being designed as commandoes first, fighter pilots second. We really didn’t get an action packed commando story.
The first four X-Wing books written by Stackpole had a lot of characters to keep up with. That doesn’t change with Allston’s first book in the series. It’s easy to lose track of who the characters are sometimes. This book has a few characters that I found to be much more memorable than those in the first book. The few that stand out to me to be the most unique, are Piggy (a Gamorean that has a vocal translator to speak basic. He was a subject in one of the strange experiments under the rule of the Empire. ) and Donos (human male). Wedge Antilles shines in this tale as squad leader as well, we get a good sense of the burden he carries, the responsibility he has in the New Republic.
It may be sad to say but it’s honest, I’m so glad Corran Horn was absent in this story. Aaron Allston did a fine job mixing up the X-Wing series with the introduction of Wraith Squadron and the cast of characters. The plot was straight forward, introducing risky tactics that proved to be beneficial to the New Republic. This story also retcons some events from the previous story; the resignation of Rogue Squadron members was “misfiled” therefore they were still operating as the Republic. A temporary Rogue Squadron took their title so it wouldn’t draw so much attention.
Do I recommend that you read this tale? Yes. I found this installment to be far more entertaining that than the first book in the series, which a better cast of characters than the first four books all together.
Star Wars: The Bacta War, book four in the X-Wing Series, was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Michael A Stackpole. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, seven ABY (7 years after the battle of Yavin).
SUMMARY
Rogue Squadron has gone… rogue! In the previous novel, The Krytos Trap, each member resigned from the New Republic. As the New Republic turns its focus to fighting Warlord Zsinj, Rogue Squadron is dead set on putting an end to Isard. Had the group stayed with the New Republic, they would have had to follow orders and forget about Isard and her reign of terror, at least for the immediate future.
It’s up to Rogue Squadron to seek out its own ships, weapons, fuel, docking, and much more in order act alone. While Isard’s pride swells, her new right hand man – Fliry Vorru – keeps her grounded; reminding her that the empire is no longer limitless, and that it has its restrictions.
Isard has taken control of the wold – Thyferra and has the monopoly on Bacta, but she’s having trouble with the distribution of the much needed product. Rogue Squadron has been disrupting her plans as the feisty rebels pick off the freighters making their delivery runs. The war on controlling Bacta has begun!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
There’s no doubt that the X-Wing series is progressing, each story pushes new bounds. I wish I could say the same about the entertainment value. I found myself getting bored with this instalment. The last book felt more contained with a plot that was easy to follow. This one is all over the place with loads of character perspectives. Unlike the previous story, where we focused a bit more on the character development on Corran Horn, this one lacked that sort of character focus.
I got excited when something I really enjoyed from the Rise of the Republic era was mentioned, the very book that got me out of a Star Wars reading fatigue; The squadron sits around discussing the challenges they face, when someone says, “We can hope the Outbound Flight project finally produces results, with a host of non-human jedi knights coming from outside the galaxy to help us.” I loved the reference.
In the last book, we found out that Corran Horn has some Jedi blood. I accept this. In this book, I couldn’t stand it when Corran Horn was faced with an obstacle, and to get out of it he just had to think about a story he’d once heard about the Jedi (mind-trick), and uses the force (though not fully successful) on his enemy. I think there would need to be some sort of an “awakening” (epiphany might be a better word – I don’t want to cause a canon war because of my choice of words). Some sort of mentoring from Luke should have been ongoing for this force ability to be used… not just recall some story and say yeah I can do that because I found out I might have the force.
Overall, the story was a bit of a blur and not as focused as I would have liked. It is nice though that Michael A Stackpole is putting a lot of culture in these books with all the different characters.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: The Bacta War? Sure, why not, if you’ve read up to book 3, give this one a go as well.
RATING
I will give this story 3/5 stars, or a C for the letter grade.
Star Wars: Dark Force Rising was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY. This is book two of the original Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The stakes are raised in the second instalment of the Thawn trilogy! The New Republic and the Empire are in need of war-ships. Talon Karrde has information on the whereabouts of a Clone-Wars era fleet known as The Katana Fleet or Dark Force. The news travels fast as both factions learn where the ships are located.
Leia and Chewbacca are on a mission to gain a new ally for the New Republic, Han and Lando are on the search for the Katana Fleet, and Luke Skywalker meets with Jorus C’baoth to discuss the future of the Jedi! Meanwhile, Borsk Fey’lya is determined to climb the political ranks of the New Republic! He’s desperate for power, and will stop at nothing to put an end to the “wreck less heroics” of Republic heroes.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The second book in the Thrawn trilogy is definitely more entertaining than the first book, Heir to the Empire. Timothy Zahn had certainly had his hands full with all the characters and events taking place throughout the galaxy in this one. While some of the character quests taking place were a tab boring, others were more exciting.
While Leia had a lot to do in this story, I wasn’t much a fan of her storyline. tryng to mentally wake up an alien race that basically worshiped Vader and served the Empire. They thought the Empire had been helping them cleanse their planet. Turns out, the Empire wasn’t doing anything to help them. Leia does her best to open their eyes to that fact.
I was really captivated when Timothy Zahn brings Luke Skywalker to Jorus C’baoth. Zahn did a good job making me feel the discomfort Luke was experiencing during their meeting. Luke is very hesitant when it comes to Jorus, he’s uncomfortable around him. Luke doesn’t know if the old Jedi is in his right mind.
There was one big thing with the writing I couldn’t stand; Luke is seriously doubting Jorus C’baoth the whole time he’s with him, but when ill intentions are made known by C’baoth, it’s a total shock to Luke. This whole time Zahn has us believing that Luke has his wits about him and feels really uneasy about C’baoth… just to find be told that Luke didn’t expect such darkness and distrust from this crazy old mad-man.
Overall, Zahn balanced out the many plots fairly well. He builds up tension and puts in a few unexpected surprises throughout. Leia with a lightsaber, C’baoth stepping up to be a bigger threat than Thrawn realized, Borsk Fey’lya getting his voice heard in the uppper politics of the New Republic, and a few other things.
I once really enjoyed Thrawn, thinking he was a cool character. He’s so calm, collected, loves art and knows cultural war tactics. However, upon this re-read, I found the character to be highly annoying and uninteresting. I know I mentioned this in the review of Heir to the Empire, but this book solidifies the dislike of the character. I found Jorus C’baoth and BBorsk Fey’lya to be far more interesting.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Dark Force Rising? Yes.
RATING
For the rating of the second book of the Trawn trilogy, I give it a B
Star Wars: Dark Force Rising was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY. This is book two of the original Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The stakes are raised in the second instalment of the Thawn trilogy! The New Republic and the Empire are in need of war-ships. Talon Karrde has information on the whereabouts of a Clone-Wars era fleet known as The Katana Fleet or Dark Force. The news travels fast as both factions learn where the ships are located.
Leia and Chewbacca are on a mission to gain a new ally for the New Republic, Han and Lando are on the search for the Katana Fleet, and Luke Skywalker meets with Jorus C’baoth to discuss the future of the Jedi! Meanwhile, Borsk Fey’lya is determined to climb the political ranks of the New Republic! He’s desperate for power, and will stop at nothing to put an end to the “wreck less heroics” of Republic heroes.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The second book in the Thrawn trilogy is definitely more entertaining than the first book, Heir to the Empire. Timothy Zahn had certainly had his hands full with all the characters and events taking place throughout the galaxy in this one. While some of the character quests taking place were a tab boring, others were more exciting.
While Leia had a lot to do in this story, I wasn’t much a fan of her storyline. tryng to mentally wake up an alien race that basically worshiped Vader and served the Empire. They thought the Empire had been helping them cleanse their planet. Turns out, the Empire wasn’t doing anything to help them. Leia does her best to open their eyes to that fact.
I was really captivated when Timothy Zahn brings Luke Skywalker to Jorus C’baoth. Zahn did a good job making me feel the discomfort Luke was experiencing during their meeting. Luke is very hesitant when it comes to Jorus, he’s uncomfortable around him. Luke doesn’t know if the old Jedi is in his right mind.
There was one big thing with the writing I couldn’t stand; Luke is seriously doubting Jorus C’baoth the whole time he’s with him, but when ill intentions are made known by C’baoth, it’s a total shock to Luke. This whole time Zahn has us believing that Luke has his wits about him and feels really uneasy about C’baoth… just to find be told that Luke didn’t expect such darkness and distrust from this crazy old mad-man.
Overall, Zahn balanced out the many plots fairly well. He builds up tension and puts in a few unexpected surprises throughout. Leia with a lightsaber, C’baoth stepping up to be a bigger threat than Thrawn realized, Borsk Fey’lya getting his voice heard in the uppper politics of the New Republic, and a few other things.
I once really enjoyed Thrawn, thinking he was a cool character. He’s so calm, collected, loves art and knows cultural war tactics. However, upon this re-read, I found the character to be highly annoying and uninteresting. I know I mentioned this in the review of Heir to the Empire, but this book solidifies the dislike of the character. I found Jorus C’baoth and BBorsk Fey’lya to be far more interesting.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Dark Force Rising? Yes.
RATING
For the rating of the second book of the Trawn trilogy, I give it a B
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY, just five hears after the events of Return of the Jedi. Heir to the Empire is book one of what’s widely referred to as, the Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The Empire, divided and unorganized is spread throughout the galaxy. The New Republic foundations are sill unstable, as political infighting ramps up. From the outermost reaches of space, the wild, unknown regions, a threat to the New Republic emerges… an imperial Star Destroyer led by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn sets his sights on gaining Imperial control of the galaxy once again. Disorder and the lust for power divided much of the Empire after the death of Lord Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Thrawn devises a plan that could decapitate the New Republic (rebellion) and instill order in the galaxy once again. He seeks out an alien life-form that muffles the force, a wonderful tool to suppress the force in enemy number one, Luke Skywalker. Thrawn also seeks out a man named Jorus C’baoth, a lost Jedi. His plan is to use C’baoth to fulfill his quest, promising C’baoth that he can keep Luke Skywalker to build a new Jedi Order (that’s a bit twisted).
While Thrawn is on the hunt for the tools of conquest, Leia Solo (pregnant with twins) is busy avoiding abduction attempts; Han and Luke wind have an encounter with the Empire. Luke also comes face to face with a mysterious new enemy that burns with hatred.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This novel captured the attention of many Sar Wars film fans as it opened up the universe of the franchise on a grandiose scale. The Star Wars Expanded Universe became a force of its own. This book is highly regarded by the Star Wars reading community as one of the best! This review follows my second reading of the novel. It’s a fine story for sure.
The book is full of action and moves the characters around to many new planets. The characters jumping around from location to location, makes it a little difficult to keep up with where we are in the galaxy. We spend some time on Kashyyyk which was interesting. While this book really pioneered the Expanded Universe and is truly entertaining.
There seems to be a lack of communication between the big three; Luke, Leia, and Han. Rumors of a lost jedi resurfacing are spreading, Leia brings it up casually to Luke in conversation and he had no knowledge of it, How do you not mention this to your Jedi brother as soon as you hear about it? I believe the characters weren’t the most accurate depiction of what we’d seen from them on screen.
The story is cool for the most part, but the execution in much of it is a tad wonky. It seems like everyone in the story just knows a lot about everything, everyone knows too much! There are too many little coincidences that take place throughout the story in an attempt to tie the story into the films. Luke drinks “hot chocolate” – that just doesn’t feel like Star Wars.
Yet, this story has a lot of really cool things in it; Leia being trained, Luke facing new challenges and enemies, the surge of imperial power, and a force user that uses the dark side.
Thrawn, knows too much, and I don’t like it. The “smarts” he has in this book go beyond mere strategic abilities. He knows who’s on what ship, he knows the history of people, he knows everything! If Thrawn had the force, it would be more believable. Thrawn is pretty harsh at times which is a good character trait; he doesn’t tolerate poor work. He has an assistant – Rokh – and when Thrawn needs to remind his crew how the Empire should work, Rokh has no problem executing on Thrawn’s command.
So do I recommend you pick up an dread Star Wars: Heir to the Empire? The answer is yes. This story really does a great job expanding the universe of Star Wars beyond the Emperor and Vader, giving us a fresh new cast in the Empire.
Star Wars: Truce at Bakura was written by Bestselling author, Kathy Tyers. This tale takes place during the Rebellion era on the Legends novel timeline, four years ABY (After the Battle of Yavin).
SUMMARY
The Rebel Alliance intercepts a message that was intended for the Empire. The Imperial Governor of the Bakura System is requesting that the Empire send more stormtroopers, as Bakura is under attack by an alien invasion force from outside Imperial territory!
The Rebels, fresh off their victory over Endor, which resulted in the destruction of the second Death Star, Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine, head to Bakura. Here, they offer a truce to help the remnants of the Empire fight off the attackers. These invaders are harvesting life-forms to use them as an energy source to fuel their weapons. Among the chaos, Luke senses a force user!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This is a pretty neat story, I love the timing in which this tale takes place as well; the day after the Emperor and Vader are destroyed. Witnessing the structure of an Imperial fleet cripple at the news of their fallen leadership was entertaining.
In this novel things go from bad to worse for the Empire stationed at Bakura; the shock that the Emperor is dead, no backup will come to their aid, they must rely on the rebellion to fight their ba, and finding out that the Ssi-ruuk were actually invited into their galactic territory by the fallen Emperor.
I like that we have some outside force making it’s way into the galaxy with the goal of conquering. The disturbing means by which they intended to do so was creative and terrifying. I don’t like how these beings were described – the Ssi-ruuk – dinosaur-like (there are artist depctions of these characters online, a bit silly). However, the technologically advanced aliens have some impressive tools of war. I love that the author brings the Rebels and Empire together in the Bakura system in an attempt to defeat the outsiders.
There’s a new character introduced, Dev, and he’s a force user! This is a pretty cool addition to the story. However, I think this new character was created to be a little too powerful, being able to sense Luke, to sense the death of the Emperor from the far reaches of the galaxy. Despite the “too powerful in the force flaw,” the author did a fine job fleshing out this character.
Do I recommend Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura? Yes, an exciting tale of a unity, betrayal, and wonder characters.
