Star Wars Book Club, Episode X: Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed

Welcome to the Multiversity Star Wars Book Club! Based on a conversation in the Multiversity Slack, Matt Garcia and Brian Salvatore decided to start up this column, where we will be reading and discussing a Star Wars every month or so. So come, enter the ancient library and join us!

Written by Alexander Freed

The first novel in a new trilogy starring veteran New Republic pilots!

On the brink of victory in a brutal war, five New Republic pilots transform from hunted to hunters in this epic Star Wars adventure. Set after Return of the Jedi, Alphabet Squadron follows a unique team, each flying a different class of starfighter as they struggle to end their war once and for all.

The Emperor is dead. His final weapon has been destroyed. The Imperial Army is in disarray. In the aftermath, Yrica Quell is just one of thousands of defectors from her former cause living in a deserters’ shantytown—until she is selected to join Alphabet Squadron.

Cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of pilots and starfighters, the five members of Alphabet are tasked by New Republic general Hera Syndulla herself. Like Yrica, each is a talented pilot struggling to find their place in a changing galaxy. Their mission: to track down and destroy the mysterious Shadow Wing, a lethal force of TIE fighters exacting bloody, reckless vengeance in the twilight of their reign.

The newly formed unit embodies the heart and soul of the Rebellion: ragtag, resourceful, scrappy, and emboldened by their most audacious victory in decades. But going from underdog rebels to celebrated heroes isn’t as easy as it seems, and their inner demons threaten them as much as their enemies among the stars. The wayward warriors of Alphabet Squadron will have to learn to fly together if they want to protect the new era of peace they’ve fought so hard to achieve.

Part of a Marvel and Del Rey crossover event, Alphabet Squadron is the counterpart to Marvel’s TIE Fighter miniseries, which follows the exploits of Shadow Wing as they scheme to thwart the New Republic.

Matt: Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron is the novel portion of a crossover between Del Rey and Marvel Comics. Written by Alexander Freed, who handled the Battlefront II tie-in, it takes its cues from the old X-Wing novels from the former expanded universe, where a ragtag bunch of pilots go on various missions for the New Republic. Except this time around, the squadron is made up of different types of ships: an X-Wing, A-Wing, B-Wing, Y-Wing, and U-Wing.

Obviously, this is a unit that shouldn’t work together, which turns out to be a plot point through. Freed takes a broad scope with his story, so instead of a single mission that brings them all together, we’re treated to several operations.

So, to start off: how did you enjoy this?

Brian: Well, I think there’s a little preamble involved before my answer. While I love all aspects of Star Wars, I have always fallen on the side of mythology, the Jedi, and mysticism. This book is nearly devoid of that, and is very much a ‘boots on the ground’ type of Star Wars story.

And so, while I thought there were good parts of this, I felt that the book was overlong by half, and nearly interminable at points.

What about you?

Matt: Y’know, I’m a fan of the dogfights and spaceship chases scattered throughout Star Wars media. And I like stories about the smaller people, the ones who aren’t necessarily the Chosen One heroes but who nonetheless do their part to keep everything aloft. The wonderful thing about Star Wars is that there’s space for all of that in one text.

Generally, however, watching a dogfight is more exciting than reading about dogfights. (For what it’s worth, I’ve read, like, half of an X-Wing novel, thought it was badly written, in both its prose and its approach to characters and action, and tossed it to the side.) And it feels like Freed thinks he’s a much better action writer than he is.

Because a book with this much going on shouldn’t be this boring.

It hits this formula, this routine of action, then action, then action. I was about to ask if any of the sequences stood out to you, but I don’t know if I could identify any of them other than the climactic showdown. Even that’s in vague swaths for me. I know they were constantly in danger, constantly battling a group of TIE fighters, but I can’t recall a single detail about what separated them. I remember reading the novel and thinking, “Oh. It looks like we’re in another fight scene.”

That being said, there was a lot I did like about the book. While Freed doesn’t give all the characters an equal playing ground, those who do get characterization and screen time I found interesting. Like, I sat up whenever the Wyl kid was around. I think Freed did find identifiable characteristics and quirks for these people to make them worth following.

Were there any characters that stood out for you? What parts of the novel drew you in?

Brian: I think that most of the members of the Squadron were interesting enough, thought I felt that a few of them started down the road to development but took the second exit. Obviously, Yrica Quell gets the most spotlight, and that works because we have the best sense of her pre-book life. Her role as part of the 204th gives the character instant pathos and sets up lots of good storytelling conflict.

Aside from her, Wyl was the character who seemed most fully formed, though that might just be because we got a lot of him early on in the book. That is likely due to him having a few very relatable traits, specifically related to his romantic life.

I found the big character that didn’t work for me was Kairos. I felt like there was a revelation that was waiting to drop about them, and then never did. They were set up as such a shadowy, unknown figure, only to remain so. That wouldn’t be so bad if there was something to take the place of that revelation, but the closest we got was her scene of explaining her origin while writing on the ground in the old Jedi Temple. And, to me, that wasn’t enough to make up for the build up.

The character I have the most mixed feelings for is Chass. On one hand, I felt that the Star Wars mythology she had access to was a shortcut to emotional resonance, and made for some less than nuanced moments in the way she was talking about Jyn. But on the other hand, we got something from Chass that is very rare, and that is a character that has actual interests. I know that sounds silly, but we spend so much time in Star Wars living in the moment, and those moments are typically insane ones, that we rarely get to know what people like to do.

Chass’s love and collection of music is an exceedingly rare thing in this universe, and something I wish we would get more of. I’m not saying that ten minutes of The Rise of Skywalker needs to be dedicated to what types of books Rey likes, but I think you know what I mean.

Matt: Sure. But I think that’s something that can only be explored in the expanse of a novel rather than a two-to-three hour movie. Or even TV series. (I think Resistance features more of the cultural segments of the universe, though I can’t remember much of that happening in Rebels, with the exception of Sabine’s art.) These are the details that helps connect with characters, yeah? Especially in prose fiction. The frustrating thing about the book is that Freed managed to hit this once but then never dove into it with the rest of his cast.

I think Wyl also had one of the more memorable sections of the book. It comes at the beginning, when he and his squadron are fighting the TIE armada and he’s dealing with all of them drop off. Then there was the part where he got stranded and rescued by the one edgelord girl.

Speaking of Rebels, Hera Syndulla has a minor role in Alphabet Squadron. She’s obviously a fan favorite and there’s been smatterings of her and the Ghost throughout various media. She might also be one of the few pre-established characters who has a role in the story. So I guess, broadly speaking, how’d you feel about her inclusion? Did it seem consistent for you with her personality from the show? Or did it seem like she was put in because someone at LucasFilm told Freed to do it?

Brian: I think, for the most part, it was an accurate portrayal of the character we’ve seen in Rebels. Of course, that series ends five or so years before this one begins, and obviously a lot has happened in between now and then, so some changes/growth could be expected from the character, though there wasn’t all that much noticeably different than the last time we saw Hera.

As for her inclusion, I think it fits tonally with Rebels, but runs into the problem whenever you expand media: if Hera was so important before A New Hope, and so important after Return of the Jedi, it can be asked, well, why didn’t we see her at all during the original films? There are obviously outside the film reasons, but I wonder if we’ll ever get a “here’s what Hera was doing during the war” novel. I’d actually welcome that.

One aspect of the book that I did like, and somewhat is reflected in the Aftermath trilogy as well, is the idea of the Republic making it up as they go along. Sure, they are firm in their overarching ideals, but applying those ideals to things as basic as military procedures or trade laws is something that takes time, effort, and skill. I like that we are seeing the Star Wars equivalent of the Articles of Confederation, knowing that much of this will all be amended, adapted, or dropped in the future.

Speaking of Aftermath, this book is set to the be the first of a trilogy, much like Chuck Wendig’s novel. The books take place in similar timeframes, and cover (somewhat) similar events, which leads me to question why Alphabet Squadron will merit sequels. What do you think about this being the first of three titles?

Matt: It’s a crossover and the first part of a series? It’s like this book sought out literally everything I dislike about this kind of literature. Like, if I had known it was the first part of a trilogy, I don’t know if I would have picked it up. A lot of time, series’ existences feel more like cash grabs than, say, a thought-out story. Especially in the media tie-in department.

And, I’m not sure if there was enough here to warrant a whole series of three books. Are we going to get three 400-plus paged tomes where the Alphabet Squadron are chasing that same TIE Fighter squadron? Because, a lot of it seemed to have wrapped up by the end of this book. I don’t foresee it being a set of unrelated adventures featuring the same cast of characters because a.) Star Wars has never really done that, and b.) that’s not where we are in our media consumption, in that desire for continuity or anything.

Of course, it could just be the Aftermath Trilogy all over again, but with updated beats and plots to match where LucasFilm has taken their galaxy. Did you have any feelings about this?

Brian: Well, the biggest clue to the trilogy-nature is the Soren/Devon reveal. I figured it out in the penultimate chapter focusing on him, under his assumed name, but it is a move that would have been even less enjoyable in a standalone book. That said, if the second volume took a more nuanced look at what it means to leave the Empire, and potentially what would bring you back, I think there is potentially some more story there.

I’m interested to talk about the portrayal of Yrica and other Imperials as ‘just following orders.’ This is the sort of platitude that has grown less and less convincing over time in the real world, and likely is similar in Star Wars. I think that Yrica’s story is a little ridiculous, because she went from rebel sympathizer to killer without ever really buying into the dogma, which is some fuckin’ sociopathic behavior. But at least she was trying to atone for her actions, whereas there are parts of this book when Freed rubs up against the ‘the leaders are evil, but the people were fine’ argument.

I know it is redacting to say ‘you’re an Imperial, you’re evil,’ but I also think that there are plenty of Star Wars moments that do this exact thing much better. Finn’s story in The Force Awakens, for example, is a much, much better version of this. Compare this to the aforementioned Aftermath, with its incredibly charismatic and interesting Rae Sloane, a character that isn’t mustache-twirling evil, but doesn’t get whitewashed into nothingness.

What did you think of the softening of the Empire?

Matt: What you’re pointing out has been an uncomfortable current running throughout the orbital Star Wars media for me. I’ve only read the first book in the Aftermath series and I don’t remember much of it, but Claudia Gray had turned in Lost Stars around the same time. And that book prominently featured an Imperial character who couldn’t understand how the Rebels could possibly want to attack the Empire. And her crying about all those Imperials who got blown up on the Death Star — and equating that to what they did with Alderaan — was a truly jarring and odd section of the book for me, because, y’know, Space Nazis.

My feelings about the whole thing are complicated. Not in that I think that the Empire is being treated unfairly or whatever, but in the whole nature of softening the Empire. Of, like you said, how the soldiers aren’t evil, just the leaders. Yrica leaves the Empire and Finn leaves the First Order (which was sort of different, in that the First Order were going around, kidnapping babies, and brainwashing them, as opposed to the Empire’s habit of recruitment, but whatever), sure, but they also talk with a lot of other characters who share their opinions but do nothing about it. And, I dunno, boots-on-the-ground Space Nazis are still Space Nazis.

I wonder if this is a deliberate move to help make so a group like the 501st aren’t so stigmatized. Or maybe it’s a sort of Book Thief/Jojo Rabbit sort of thing where the foot-soldiers don’t know any better, and are caught up in the glamour, the camaraderie of it all. If that’s the case, I don’t think any of the media has effectively explored that. Or if it’s Disney’s base nature of not wanting to offend anyone and pretending nothing untoward ever existed from the company, ever. Or maybe it’s all Bob Iger preparing us for his eventual ascension.

We live in a world where this evil we thought we vanquished suddenly reared its head on a global stage again. I don’t think now’s the time to humanize these inhuman individuals, all for the sake of selling more copies of the book and making sure the IP is untarnished.

Brian: It would be a different story if that was the approach and the stories being told were super interesting and deep, but they aren’t! This feels simplistic and undercooked.

And like we’ve both said, there could be stories of interest here, but this isn’t it.

One of the interesting ideas found here is making this a crossover with a comic, Marvel’s “Star Wars: TIE Fighter.” I think we can both appreciate an attempt to tell a story in a new/different way, but how did having a counterpoint comics series work in practice?

Matt: Not especially. To me, they were such disparate entities, with such a loose connecting thread they feel more like two hemispheres of the same world. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the book and comic were developed independently, then some higher up executive was like, “Hey. Let’s make it a crossover because Marvel.” I would have rather seen a sort of Invention of Hugo Cabret attempt. Hell, even a Diary of a Wimpy Kid-esque thing which would have felt more authentic and interesting.

To be honest with you, I made it only a few issues into the comic. I found it bland, the action incomprehensible. Houser didn’t have the room to work her characters the way Freed did, couldn’t really give them more than archetypical personalities. (I’m not a fan of Houser’s writing in the first place; I’m also not sure if she would have utilized extra space to round out her Imperials regardless.) While we talked about how Freed definitely favored certain characters, he at least could round them out, give them personalities. I thought Roge Antonio’s art was standard Marvel house work, fast and scribbly, not concerned with making sure we were effectively guided through the page as just making sure we got to see all these dope explosions.

Then there’s just my adamant resistance to anything that tries to make the Empire human or empathetic.

In short, I thought Alphabet Squadron was OK. I had fun with parts of it. “TIE Fighter” was such a throwaway piece, such a sloppy add-on, it was barely worth a shrug.

How about for you? How did you see these two mediums working together?

Brian: I actually read the comic twice, so convinced that I must have missed something in my first read through. But no, it really is that vapid.

Look, I’m not here to pick on anybody, but this felt totally unnecessary. Aside from a Quell cameo and some Grandmother stuff, this had nothing of any consequence. The ‘fearsome’ 204th came off as weak, and the attempts to humanize didn’t really work either. I didn’t care about these pilots, but I didn’t fear them either. I just didn’t like them.

Again, there are stories to tell about Imperials being more than just faceless folks in white, but making them dull is the gravest sin of all. There are plenty of Star Wars books and comics that do interesting things with Imperials, but neither of these are.

Next month: Resistance Reborn!