Starfighters of Adumar: Star Wars Legends (Wraith Squadron #4) in The Expanded Universe

Apr 06, 2008 Keith rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars

Stars: 3 (2024)
Re-read: Leaning no.
Recommend to: If you're super invested in the SW EU. It's a story that isn't likely to impact other stories in the timeline other than maybe a love interest.

This was a decent book that more or less made me shrug and say, "That was fine." I wasn't constantly irritated by incompetent writing like some other SW books, but it is closer to bunting for a single than hitting a home run.

The plot was sort of contrived, but in a way that wasn't terribly offensive. (view Stars: 3 (2024)
Re-read: Leaning no.
Recommend to: If you're super invested in the SW EU. It's a story that isn't likely to impact other stories in the timeline other than maybe a love interest.

This was a decent book that more or less made me shrug and say, "That was fine." I wasn't constantly irritated by incompetent writing like some other SW books, but it is closer to bunting for a single than hitting a home run.

The plot was sort of contrived, but in a way that wasn't terribly offensive. (view spoiler)[Allston comes up with an idea that there is a previously undiscovered advanced planet that essentially worships pilots. So Republic Intelligence decides to send Wedge as their diplomat to try and bring them into the Republic while Imperials do the same with some of their top pilots. This is pretty silly, but he handled it in a way that didn't try to take itself too seriously. He went off the deep end a bit though when, to make the plot work, he contrived a reason that they couldn't have any communication with anyone else in the galaxy, because then the plot would just seem silly as Wedge has no clue what is going on and they are constantly fighting for their lives against terrible odds while a friendly star destroyer in space is watching over and refusing to respond to them because a corrupt diplomat, who has no power in this negotiation because he isn't a pilot, secretly ordered things this way. So Cracken sends out the most famous and skilled pilot they have to potentially hostile territory with a handful of other high profile heroes to try and recruit a very valuable planet (they'll drastically increase proton torpedo production), and he isn't concerned at all at the total communication blackout? He isn't concerned that even the star destroyer isn't communicating with them? It seems certain that Cracken would send out a follow up team almost immediately after all communication ceases, and he certainly wouldn't just sit back for the duration of the book in the dark and just assume this incredibly unusual lack of communication is no big deal. The final contrivance is that the main power on Adumar is made up of psychotic killers who end almost every duel/flight in death. They are disgusted by the thought of a simulator or not dueling with live ammunition. They'll even shooting down pilots who have abandoned their craft. I'm sorry Aaron, but you'd have almost no pilots left. To be alive, you have to essentially never lose, and they are always fighting and dueling. It just doesn't work. And that's ignoring the insane cost of constantly destroying your aircraft for honor duels. (hide spoiler)] So those are the things you have to be okay with overlooking if you want to enjoy this book. The laudable ideas in the plot are that Allston kept the story very localized. It's not some galaxy spanning adventure where Wedge almost single-handedly takes down the biggest threat to the Republic. They want a planet to join the Republic, and they work to make that happen. Disney Star Wars could've learned a lot from this type of scope in their storytelling.

The worst part of this book was how Allston handled Wedge's love interests. He clearly had an idea of where he wanted things to go, but he wasn't very interested in putting in any work to justify it. (view spoiler)

There are a few too many times Wedge acts out of character. (view spoiler)

Allston did well in allowing a war to be a war. Too much of Star Wars allows the good guys to avoid killing. Allston spends perhaps a bit too long describing how the good guys avoid killing when possible, but I appreciated that, when the fighting began, the good guys are blowing people away left and right and not agonizing about it afterwards. It wasn't shooting an engine so they can avoid killing enemy combatants. They would just be shooting people in the face. Nice.

I wasn't a fan of much of the dialogue, but I think he did well with the comedic characters of Janson and Hobbie. It's easy for authors to mess up competent but buffoonish characters like them, but Allston did well there.
First Read: 4 Stars 2008 ...more

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