FLYING SOLO
Review by Sabrina Fried
Aaron Allston returns with the next book in the ROGUE
SQUADRON series, "Solo Command"
Author: Aaron
Allston
Publisher: Bantam
"Is it here
yet? "
"No."
"That's what you said
last month."
"It's been
delayed."
"That's what you said the
month before."
"Try again next
month."
"That's what you said -
"
"Excuse me, I'm
looking for a STAR WARS book. SOLO COMMAND?"
It's at that point, I think, that the clerk at the bookshop went insane. But after three months worth of uncertain release dates and severely lonely looking holes on the bookshelves, Solo Command finally made its long awaited appearance in the bookstores. The book, the seventh of nine X-wing titles, continues right where Iron Fist left off, and was originally supposed to reveal all in November. But there was something known about this book long before its release was even delayed.
This would be the last planned X-wing book to focus on the Wraiths.
At first, I didn't know whether to welcome the book's appearance, or to dread it.
 Author Aaron Allston |
In an interview with author Aaron Allston, conducted last September, (http://www.jimfisher.net/wedge/allstonchat.html) not long after the release of Iron Fist, Aaron confesses that, as far as he knew, Isard's Revenge, the next book in the series, would focus on the Rogues. Ever since Wraith squadron was first created, we have known that it would not be Wedge's method of choice for harassing the Empire forever. Even in the first book of the second volume, Wraith Squadron , Wedge himself mentions that he will eventually rescind command of the squadron once they are established.
UH-OH
So then, it begged the question: What was the ultimate fate of Wraith squadron? Did Allston take the easy way out and plan to have them, save the characters which Star Wars continuity declared must survive, go out in some blaze of glory? Or would they just drop off the face of the universe? Speaking as someone who has become rather partial to the Wraiths, I don't think X-wing fans would have been too happy with either of those solutions.
But Allston does not disappoint. He never has.
His method of shifting the focus of the series back to the Rogues was respectful to both the characters he created and to the fans that love them. He also ensured that we'd still get a hello from the Wraiths every now and then, allowing the squadron to expand its horizons a bit and be more than just an X-wing squadron that does a lot of ground work. I know of only two other Star Wars writers who could somehow get me to laugh in the campus library loud enough to wake the librarian. Or for that matter, whose book I would read in a weekend, even if I do have three projects due on Monday. (And I think you all know which two authors I'm talking about).
When last we left our heroes in Iron Fist, the Wraiths had just joined General Han Solo on his mission to bring down warlord Zsinji. After posing as pirates to gather intelligence on Zsinji's movements the Wraiths rejoin the Zsinji task force just in time for book 6 to end. As Solo Command revs up, the Wraiths begin their campaign against Zsinji more openly, partaking in the strike force's attacks on Zsinji's assets. The Rogues and Wraiths get to work side by side, and Wedge begins the transition out of his new squadron and back into his old, handing over command to one of the squadron's members. Meanwhile, Lara Nostil's carefully constructed cover begins to come apart at the seams.
Allston's Warlord Zsinji is calculating and intelligent, if a bit self-absorbed, and a far cry from the caricature we saw in The Courtship of Princess Leia. In my most humble of opinions, Allston's Zsinji is a much worthier adversary for the New Republic than the one of that other book. He provides the heroes with a true challenge, for which they must accept loss as much as they would victory. Allston also reminds us that the New Republic is not a perfect alliance of compatible personalities and that even though professionalism prevents conflicts in times of combat, not all of the squadrons in the rebellion have perfect relationships with each other. A little friction between squadrons is always good for keeping them on their toes.
JUST NITPICKING IN SPOILER COUNTRY
I can still say that I have yet to read the perfect Star Wars novel, however, so if I may delve ever so briefly into spoiler country, I promise the strikes will be surgical.
Ok, let's get the big one out of the way first: Soontir Fel. I still can't decide if the entire Wedge/Fel subplot took its strange little twist at the end to reflect the fact that, in Visions of the Future, everyone is supposed to believe that Fel died shortly after leaving the Rogues, and the few who did know where he was knew he was hiding out in the Outer Regions with Thrawn's army. If not, it could possibly have been intentional, and something Mike Stackpole is intending to expand on (significantly) in Isard's Revenge. Personally, I'm hoping for the latter. I found the coincidences involved a bit hard to swallow.
My second small quibble with this book has to be the climactic scene where Myn (finally) finds out that Lara was the one at least partially responsible for the destruction of his former squadron. We've known this scene was going to happen for a long time now, but I have to say that having Face 'forget' to switch to a private comm channel was not exactly what I would have expected. If Wedge thought Face was ready for the sort of responsibility he was given, then how was he irresponsible enough to not check his comm channels before revealing information that had the potential to rip the squadron apart? (For that matter, why didn't he wait until the fight was over?).
BUT OVERALL...
All in all however, Solo Command is, without question one of the better Star Wars books I've read recently. I'm looking forward to Mike Stackpole's Isard's Revenge, of course, to see what he does with the puzzle pieces Allston has given him, and I am also impatiently awaiting Allston's return to the Star Wars scene with Starfighters of Adumar, book 9 and the last planned book (thus far) in the X-wing series. I think Del Rey would be doing themselves and Star Wars fans a great disservice if they did not sign Aaron onto some (any) Star Wars project sometime in the future.
(Sabrina Fried's is rapidly becoming a regular contributor for Echo Station...make sure you check out her interview with author Dan Wallace! When she is not busy trying to AVOID reading too many prequel spoilers online - a grand feat within itself, she is busy sacrificing pens to the deities of fanfiction, or driving the local bookstores crazy trying to find obscure science fiction books in sections which seldom carry anything more than a year old. Oh yeah, and then there is that whole university thing….Sabrina does remember to check her email occasionally at fried@pathcom.com)