Wraith Squadron: Star Wars Legends (Wraith Squadron): Star Wars Legends (X-Wing)

I bought this as a gift for my husband, and he read it very quickly! Safe to say it was a good read!

For the fifth book of the Star Wars: X-wing series, Wraith Squadron, Aaron Allston takes over writing duties from Michael Stackpole. Happily, the handoff is extremely smooth and Allston brings some new perspectives and strengths to the table. This series continues to be a very solid concept, bringing a welcome change from the many books focused on the main film characters and illuminating a side of the conflict sometimes overlooked in today's focus on Jedi, Sith, and clone troopers.Allston's first job is to introduce us to the titular group of fighter pilots. Wedge Antilles believes based on his many experiences with Rogue Squadron that a new team with a different focus is needed. Rogue are pilots first and commandos second; this new squadron will be the other way around, with the highest level of competency in ground-based missions supplanted by keen piloting experience. Allston does a superb job of quickly fleshing out over a dozen new characters, employing an entertaining interview sequence followed by training missions and various short scenes of exposition to get the reader comfortable with so many new additions at once. Within a hundred pages, I was easily able to differentiate the pilots and had already started picking my favorites, no mean feat in a book of this nature.Several pilots are of particular note. Wedge heads up the squadron with the help of his old squad mate Wes Janson, and they provide a necessary connection back to the earlier stories and the Rogue Squadron comics. Myn Donos, fresh from seeing his entire Talon Squadron wiped out around him in a mission gone awry, brings heaps of survivor's guilt and angst to his new job. Hohass "Runt" Ekwesh, who is depicted essentially as an bipedal horse, must grapple with his multiple personalities, making for some very entertaining dialogue. Garik "Face" Loran, a former child star of Imperial propaganda, and Ton Phanan, a cynical cyborg with medical skills, offer some great comical interludes between missions. Finally, Voort "Piggy" saBinring is a genetically altered Gamorrean with superlative mental abilities - my favorite character of the bunch.The plot of the book can be readily broken into two segments: the setting up of the squadron and the move to Folor Base for training, and then the missions that come after the surprise assault on Folor by Admiral Apwar Trigit. Trigit works for Admiral Zsinj, the warlord that has been lurking in the shadows of the prior few books. With Ysanne Isard out of the way, it's time for Zsinj to assume the spotlight. I had some trouble envisioning Zsinj as depicted to be truly threatening, but his character does make an interesting break from the stereotypical Star Wars villain.In an early mission, the Wraiths manage to capture a Corellian Corvette employed by Zsinj, the Night Caller. This capture drives the remainder of the plot, as the Wraiths pose as Imperials and take the Night Caller on through her schedule of stops. The hints of a larger plot by Zsinj begin to unfold, although they are not woven together in this particular volume. The Night Caller storyline is a great one, and it allows Allston to tie together a variety of ground and space-based missions that otherwise might feel somewhat disjointed.Wraith Squadron receives highest marks for its outstanding characterizations and deftly-handled humor. There were more moments that made me chuckle aloud in this book than any other Star Wars book I've read recently. Allston takes the baton from Stackpole with no glitches and introduces enough new twists to keep this book from feeling like a copy of the first four.

I was a little dismayed that Micheal Stackpole wasn't going to be writing this series all the way to the end. I don't think I have ever read anything from Aaron Allston until this book. But I must say I am impressed.The first thing Allston does in this book is to shake up the established status quo. Allston starts moving characters around and gives us a whole new set of characters to focus on in this book. Normally in an established series this can be a disaster (how many people would have been happy if they had introduced Yoda for the first time, then immediately cut him out of the story and focused instead on some distant relative of his?!). But in this instance it worked.Allston keeps Rogue Squadron in the background, but takes Wedge out of Rogue Squadron and gives him a new adventure and a new squadron to play with. Wedge also brings along Wes Janson for this adventure, Janson was in the movies and I think this is the first series face time this character gets in this franchise.The best part about Allston's writing isn't that fact that the established characters stay in character. The best part is that the new characters and old characters interacting in this book are HILARIOUS! I damn near fell out of my chair laughing when I read the Ewok joke (no I am not going to spoil it here, read it yourself)!Throughout the book Allston just randomly decides to take silly breaks and has the characters bantering and cracking jokes with abandon -- it works VERY, VERY well!Read it, you will like it -- unless the dark side has already claimed you!

Fun but short. This story is not based on the Star Wars main characters but secondary & new characters. Still a good story.

Its a gift

I read this back when I was in high school, and now reading it again years later I'm very happy to find it still holds up! It's got a great blend of action, humor, and suspense that makes it a highy entertaining read. Allston has put together a memorable cast of characters who play off each other well, in a rollercoaster of a plot that includes impersonating an entire Imperial starship. It's a hoot!Yub, yub commander!

This was a gift from my husband's Christmas Wish List. I don't know the specifics of this book, but I do know that he keeps asking for the next book in the series, which to me, says this book is at minimum entertaining enough for him to want to read the next in the series.

High adventure, excellent characterization, and exciting and we'll visualized battles make for a great read. A great book in a great series.

Good quality

good book, not as good as the earlier ones but still worth a read if a fan of the series.

these are continuing tales following on from one another dating back all the way to the last film return of the jedi , a must read for any Star Wars fan !!!!

Great condition

A little ware on the book pages but for a used one I don't mind at all great price for an amazing series of books!