Book Review: Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron

 

Alphabet Squadron is a canon Star Wars novel written by Alexander Freed and published in 2019. It is the start of a new (at least) trilogy of novels about a fighter squadron of the New Republic. This novel is set just after Return of the Jedi. It includes a mish-mash of different characters, some of whom are Imperial defectors, who are sent on missions to see if they can work together as a unit. There is a lot of character development, but the main issue I had was that I did not find myself all that invested in the characters. While characters like Luke, Leia, and The Emperor are referenced a lot, there is really only one recognizable character in the book, Hera Syndulla, who is only recognizable to those who have read all the novels or have seen the Rebels TV series, which, at the time the book was written, was the only appearance she had made in canon. Of course, the character has been included in the live-action Ahsoka series since that time.

The hardcover version of the book is just over 400 pages long. I found it read slower for me than many Star Wars novels, mostly because there were so many new, unfamiliar characters.  It would have helped a lot to have a character like Wedge as the leader or at least a trainer of the squadron and have the character actually interact with Leia instead of just name-dropping her. That said, there are some good parts to it like the ex-Imperials coming to grips with the fact that they lost the war and some of them asking themselves if they were ever on the right side. Hopefully, now that much of the setup is out of the way, the subsequent novels will be stronger entries in the canon, but this is definitely not one that I would call a must-read.