Book Review: Star Wars: Victory's Price: An Alphabet Squadron Novel

 

+++Warning, this contains a spoiler from the prior novel in the series, but no major giveaways from this book.+++

Victory's price is the third in the trilogy of "Alphabet Squadron" novels, telling the story of an elite fighter squadron that is tracking and trying to take out an Imperial unit called "Shadow Wing". The book is set one year after the Battle of Endor, and as the New Republic is gearing up for a "final battle" against the remnants of the Empire (in what would become the Battle of Jakku). Some in the New Republic think the war is over and underestimate the threat that the remains of the Empire pose and others know that it is not. The members of Alphabet Squadron are reeling from what they believe is the death of their leader, Yirica Quell. Of course, the readers know that she actually defected to Shadow Wing, although there is a bit more to that part of the story that plays out throughout the book. At the end of the book, we get yet another perspective on the events of the Battle of Jakku, which has been included in a few different novels. 

The big thing that the book (and the trilogy as a whole) lacks for me is any inclusion of the legacy characters. The book does include appearances by Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar, but Luke, Leia, and Han are nowhere to be seen (although some are mentioned), and it seems unlikely that they would never cross paths with some of these characters, even if for just a very short time. The book does expand the role of Hera Syndulla, but unless you watched the Rebels series (which most people who are likely to read this book probably have), she is not someone that readers are going to recognize as a major character. I think fans are still really looking forward to a novel set after Return of the Jedi that really shows what the legacy characters were up to, which, at the time the Alphabet Squadron trilogy was written, had not happened. To be fair, there are some novels that have come after this, such as Princess and the Scoundrel which have started to tell those stories, but I think a lot of fans, especially those who really grew up with the original trilogy and the characters of Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, etc., may find this trilogy of novels a bit hard to get into. The book does have a lot of action, and it does a good job wrapping up the arcs of the main characters, so if you have been a big fan of the prior books in the trilogy this will probably provide a satisfying conclusion to their story.

Ultimately, I think this is a good, but not great novel in the new canon material. But, it is not one that I would classify as a must-read if you are one of those who read some, but not all, of the novels.