Wraith Squadron: Star Wars Legends (Wraith Squadron, #1) in The Expanded Universe

Apr 06, 2008 Keith rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars

Stars: 2.5-3
Re-read? Yes.
Recommend to: It's still worth it to continue the series.

This is the first book in the series not written by Stackpole, and it was my least favorite in the series so far. The plot was okay, although I give Allston a break because he had to continue a series but essentially started a new one. Pretty much every major character other than Wedge is new. I'm guessing they didn't want to keep telling stories about the same people, but it was a bit tiring to go through the en Stars: 2.5-3
Re-read? Yes.
Recommend to: It's still worth it to continue the series.

This is the first book in the series not written by Stackpole, and it was my least favorite in the series so far. The plot was okay, although I give Allston a break because he had to continue a series but essentially started a new one. Pretty much every major character other than Wedge is new. I'm guessing they didn't want to keep telling stories about the same people, but it was a bit tiring to go through the entire initiation process again. I found this book mildly enjoyable in spite of the many flaws.

I ended up liking most of the characters by the end of the book, but it took quite a while to get to that point. Some of the characters were just ridiculous though. (view spoiler)[Runt is an alien that has multiple minds that he switches between. When he switches to his pilot mind, he screams a war yell and makes suicidal charges like a berserker. How in the world is he a pilot? This isn't even something he can control until the end of the book. How did he get beyond one or two simulator runs in basic training? It's just completely laughable. Myn Donos is a former squadron leader who led his entire squadron to their deaths in an ambush. He is clearly suffering extreme depression and mental instability. Oh well, that's no reason to put him back into a war zone with people relying on him. The dude is practically catatonic. It's crazy that they aren't sending him off to some psychiatric facility to try and rehabilitate him. His allies attempt to cover up his condition instead of thinking that he is unstable and will get them all killed. Then you have Tyria. She at least has some great survival skills from when she was a ranger living in the wild. (Like 5 years of intensely rugged living hasn't kept her from being incredibly beautiful though of course) But she is nowhere near good enough of a pilot to be in the squad. We find out she was sent to a remedial school for pilots who couldn't pass from the normal school. Long story short, she would've failed their but her trainer falsified her records to make her pass. So Wedge Antilles accepted a pilot who not only needed to go to remedial pilot training, she failed it. We never see this being a liability in battle though. Kell Tainer is the main protagonist, basically the Corran Horn of this squadron. Wes Janson killed his dad when his dad's cowardice was going to get them all killed. He freaks out every time he sees Wes. He later overhears Wes and Wedge discussing how to help Myn through his problems, and Kell basically gets over his life-long hatred of Wes on the spot. He's like, "wow, you didn't go and immediately execute him? I guess I was wrong about you." This entire thing started off interesting, but it just became silly over-the-top drama by the end. Then, it was all brushed off like it was nothing. I was also rolling my eyes at Kell's emerging cowardice. In the final battle, he freaks out and flees the battle. He eventually comes back, but it just didn't fit with what Allston had portrayed. He would get panicky, but he always acted heroically. (hide spoiler)]

There were a few things Allston did that I really liked. (view spoiler)

Other things:
- (view spoiler)
- Allston has the bad habit of creating ridiculous scenarios. (view spoiler)
- Allston also has too many things coincidentally going the way the good guys' need them to go. (view spoiler)
- Kell was sometimes a likable protagonist but he was often very annoying. (view spoiler)
- Like always, I have a soft spot for the droids in Star Wars. (view spoiler)
- I wish that Allston would've chosen to keep (view spoiler)

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