YUB YUB, COMMANDER
Review by Jim Fisher
Aaron Allston proves that he was not a "One Wedge
Wonder."
Warlord Zsinj unavailable for comment.
X-Wing: Iron
Fist
by Aaron Allston
published by Bantam Spectra
It's been a while since a
novel has had me choked up in one chapter and laughing
out loud in the next. Iron Fist, the sixth
book in the X-Wing series, and Aaron Allston's
second chapter of the Wraith Squadron trilogy, does just
that. Allston has managed to write one of the best Star
Wars novels to come around in a long while, and he
still has another book to go. In addition, Allston
reminds us that in war people die; and, unlike previous
X-Wing novels, they don't always pop back up later
on. This installment of the series shows the
Wraiths going undercover as a group of pirates, the
Hawk-Bats, in order to ferret out Warlord Zsinj, who was
first seen in Dave Wolverton's Star Wars book The
Courtship of Princess Leia.
IN CASE YOU'VE
FORGOTTEN...
...Wedge Antilles has formed "Wraith Squadron:"
an elite commando unit that also happens to pilot
X-wing fighters -- or TIE Fighters, or whatever the
situation calls for. Wraith Squadron differs from
Rogue Squadron in that the Rogues were chosen for
piloting first and espionage second, while the Wraiths
are a group of near wash-outs who were chosen primarily
for their espionage skills.
One of my complaints about the previous novel was that much of its focus was on Kell Tainer -- in fact, I had him pegged as the "Corran Horn" of this series. Allston has proved me wrong with this book. Kell is still featured in the novel, however it is not to the extent that he was in the previous one. The spotight seems to focus on "Face" Loran and Ton Phanan, as well as newcomer Lara Nostil. However, all of the pilots get a fair amount of space devoted to them.
|
IS THERE...
CHARACTER DEVLOPMENT?!?
Yes, and a good bit of it to boot. Allston gets you
inside the heads of the characters -- you understand
their motivations, fears, desires, and all that good
stuff. I enjoyed the simple scenes between a
few characters more than I enjoyed the dogfights,
although they were also very well written. It has
been said that if a character is the same at the
beginning and end of a story thenl the novel has failed
-- if that's true, then I cannot think of a single
instance where Iron Fist has failed.
Overall, I found Iron Fist to be probably the best X-Wing novel released so far. I'm only curious as to what Allston will give us with his next X-Wing novel, Solo Command -- the "Solo" of the title being Han, with events running concurrent with COPL. After that Mike Stackpole is set to take back the reigns with Isard's Revenge. But can Stackpole step into Allston's shoes as easily as Allston stepped into Stackpole's? We'll see when the time comes. For now, go out and read Iron Fist -- you won't regret it.
(Jim Fisher spends entirely too much time thinking about Wedge. Really, it's not healthy.)