Rogue Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Apr 06, 2008 Keith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: star-wars, favorites

Stars: 5
Re-read: 100%
Recommend to: This series is a great entry point for people looking to get into the EU. I'd probably recommend starting here instead of the Heir to the Empire trilogy.

This is one of the best series to read for people new to the EU. You don't have to have read any of the previous books to be able to step into it, although you could read the Truce at Bakura. I don't think there are major spoilers to anything if you don't though. The story does well by having one of the main ch Stars: 5
Re-read: 100%
Recommend to: This series is a great entry point for people looking to get into the EU. I'd probably recommend starting here instead of the Heir to the Empire trilogy.

This is one of the best series to read for people new to the EU. You don't have to have read any of the previous books to be able to step into it, although you could read the Truce at Bakura. I don't think there are major spoilers to anything if you don't though. The story does well by having one of the main characters be Wedge Antilles, and the plot is kept pretty basic and interesting. There isn't a lot of galactic politics or things that might turn new readers off. It just follows the top squadron in the New Republic. Perhaps most importantly, you get to read seven novels in the series before any other EU books intrude in the timeline. This lets you get invested in the characters and universe instead of jumping around from story to story. After you finish those seven books, you only have to read a couple of others books before you get to the excellent Heir to the Empire trilogy.

It is usually pretty tedious when you start a series and are working your way through the introduction of characters and watch as they go through training. It is even worse when you re-read all of this. Rogue Squadron is among the best I've seen in being concise and quickly moving through the required bits without sacrificing quality. It's impressive how much action gets compressed into a single book that also introduced almost everyone in the series. Stackpole is excellent at writing space battles.

The characters in this book are mostly excellent. Among my favorites are Corran Horn and Tycho Celchu (even though Tycho was technically in the movies). Stackpole is also able to create engaging characters with only a few scenes. (view spoiler)

There were some things that could've been improved.
- I'm still unclear on the necessity of the final battle. (view spoiler)
- I remember really liking Isard, but she seemed over the top to me in this book. Vader would kill you for complete incompetence, but it wasn't like everyone who worked with him were just waiting to die. That's how Isard is portrayed. People think it is just a matter of time before she executes them. Who would stay loyal to that? Who would stick around? Her character gets much better if my memory of the series is correct.
- There were a few times the dialogue got too cheesy.

This would be a pretty decent start to a series if it was independent of Star Wars. It is really good when it gets to stand on the shoulders of the OT. ...more

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