Star Wars: X-Wing: Rogue Squadron
They are sleek, swift, and deadly. They are the X-wing fighters. And as the struggle rages across the vastness of space, the fearless men and women who pilot them risk both their lives and their machines. Their mission: to defend the Rebel Alliance against a still-powerful and battle-hardened Imperial foe in a last-ditch effort to control the stars!
Its very name strikes fear into enemy hearts. So when Rebel hero Wedge Antilles rebuilds the legendary Rogue Squadron, he seeks out only the best-the most skilled, the most daring X-wing pilots. Through arduous training and dangerous missions, he weeds out the weak from the strong, assembling a group of hard-bitten warriors to fight, ready to die. Antilles knows the grim truth: that even with the best X-wing jockeys in the galaxy, many will not survive their near-suicidal missions. But when Rogue Squadron is ordered to assist in the assault on the heavily fortified Imperial stronghold of Black Moon, even the bravest must wonder if any at all will survive…
Author: Michael Stackpole
Cover artist: Doaly
Publisher: Del Rey
Release date: September 7, 2021
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9781529157338
What’s it’s about?
Set 2 years after the destruction of the second Death Star and the death of Emperor Palpatine and the redemption of Darth Vader. The Rebel Alliance is transforming into the New Republic. Many systems have rallied to the Rebel Alliance’s cause yet many more systems are still under the yoke of the Imperial Remnant and the various Imperial Warlords who are all scrabbling to protect their sectors of the galaxy. Imperial Centre, formerly Coruscant is now under the control of the head of the Imperial Security Bureau; the formidable Ysanne Isard.
Hero of both the Battle of Yavin and The Battle of Endor, Wedge Antillies has been instructed to resurrect Rogue Squadron to once again become a rallying symbol for the New Republic and start the long and dangerous journey Coreward with the aim to liberating Coruscant.
With that in mind, pilots from all over the galaxy have been recruited and gone through a rigorous training regime to identify the very best of the best and these pilots are to form the new Rogue Squadron. Wedge has the unenviable task of having to juggle the politics and public relations pressure of the New Republic council to give fair representation to as many new member systems as possible whilst still being able to build a strong and cohesive squadron.
One of these new pilots is ex-Corsec security officer Corran Horn who is looking to make a name for himself and take the fight to the Imperial Navy.
Should I read this book?
The X-Wing series was the first multiple book series for the Expanded Universe, totalling 10 entries. It was published from 1996 to 2012, written by Micheal.A Stackpole and Aaron Allston and spanned a 30 year period of EU timeline. The X-Wing series is held in high regard by EU fans as being some of the very best EU stories ever written with Corran Horn being regarded as one of the most popular EU Characters up there with Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade.
The book series was envisioned to being a high octane, fast paced action packed series of stories which Star Wars Insider referred to as “Star Wars meets Top Gun” and you certainly get that impression with Corran having an in-squadron rivalry with another Ace Pilot Bror Jace. There’s a hint of romance and sexual tension in this book again goes to reinforce that Top Gun comparison. We don’t see the full recruitment process but the story starts as the training is well underway.
As this is the first book in the series there is a fair amount of set up for the timeline, characters and the plot. This Exposition is important to the building a strong foundation for the book series and Stackpole does a great job in giving the main characters enough of a back story and motivation without spelling it all out for us and leaving nowhere for the story to develop. There is enough combat both on the ground and in space which creates a lot of variation. Stackpole creates a good solid first story that works on its own but clearly was written to be part of a larger series.
What did you like?
We’re now a good 26 years since its original release and yet to me this book holds up pretty well. Obviously, we are deep in Legends territory, but I think this is a pretty good jumping in point as the events of the book happen before the events of Timothy Zahn’s first Empire Trilogy.
Stackpole does a good job of galaxy building and drawing on references from other material of the time to help with expanding the nomenclature of the Rebel pilots and technology as well as to set the scene to the burgeoning New Republic. Older PC gamers may pick-up up a number of references to the old Lucasarts X-Wing game, and in fact the first training mission is a direct lift from that that game. There’s also a number of references to technology and events from west end games and other EU novels that don’t feel too shoe horned in – the multiple references to the Katana Fleet maybe the only exception.
There’s a good tonal balance in the writing style that I like about Rogue Squadron. it feels lighter and written with less angst than Alphabet Squadron and I felt I was able to keep up with the starfighter combat pretty well. It very much feels like Top Gun in space with rivalries for the title “Best in the Squadron”, admittedly there’s no greased-up volleyball chapter (thankfully).
As the main protagonist I really like Corran Horn as a character although there are times when he comes across as being a bit whiny and similar to A New Hope era Luke Skywalker. As a ex-Corsec officer (Coreillian Police) you can see Stackpole’s intention to create a Coreillian character that is the opposite to the many Han Solo-esque rogue stereotypes we’ve gotten till that point.
*Revisiting this after so many years you can clearly see the foreshadowing of Corran’s Force Sensitivity that eventually leads him to sit on Luke Skywalker’s reformed Jedi council, they were never that well-hidden even back in the day but re-reading it now they feel even more overt.
Even in a book like this there is some of that classic EU politics with the arrogant Bothan’s making the wrong call about tactics and the whole balancing act Wedge has to do to keep the New Republic member systems represented. However, this is navigated pretty well by both Stackpole and by Wedge so you don’t feel too bogged down in it. Kirtan Loor as the main antagonist grew in my appreciation during the book, you think he is just a sniffling ineffectual Imperial officer with only a vendetta against Corran Horn but he does put the pressure on Rogue Squadron, and I’m excited to re-read how the cat and mouse develops over the next couple of books.
What did you not like?
As a reader of both the Legends and Canon it’s obvious to draw comparisons to Alexander Freed’s Alphabet Squadron. Whilst both books cover the formation of a fighter squadron and their trials and tribulations of their first missions Rogue Squadron primarily focuses on Corran Horn and so the other members of the squadron aren’t as well drawn with the exception of perhaps Wedge and Corran’s wingman Ooryl Qrygg.
The inclusion of Gavin Darklighter as the cousin to Biggs is an interesting one, it works as a bit of a touch stone to the events of A New Hope but whilst you could see the death of his cousin as being a motivator to joining the Rebel Alliance you can also start to see why people began to say the EU was too small a galaxy and everyone knows everyone. Corran comes across as being a bit petulant and impatient at time, with his Force sensitivity its easy to draw the parallels to Luke Skywalker but as the series progresses and we move towards I, Jedi it allows for some easy character development and growth.
What’s next?
The second instalment in the Rogue Squadron series Wedge’s Gamble was released in the Essential Legends Collection line on April 5th with the third – The Krytos Trap – due to be released in August. The fact they have released the first three in the series gives me hope that we’ll get the entire series released under the Essential Legends banner.
Anything else to add?
Up until the release of Rogue Squadron under the Essential Legends line you could only get the abridged audiobook recording. Which if you’re really short on time then the 4 hour long recording might be perfect to get the jist of the story but nothing compares to the full-length unabridged version recently released by Penguin Random House and performed by Marc Thompson who many will recognise as being the preeminent Star Wars audiobook narrator.
- Stackpole, Michael A. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 384 Pages - 09/07/2021 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)