I recently picked this up for a quick read from the library. It was a Star Wars book and was put out with some recommended reads. Based on the last Star Wars novel I read, I figured it couldn’t be any worse. It’s the first novel by Alexander Freed.
The story centers around Sergeant Namir, a soldier with the Rebel Alliance’s Twilight Company. Portions of his backstory are interspersed throughout the book, and because he went by different names when he was younger, those scenes are at first a little disjointed and disrupt the flow of the book. We see him as he recruits new soldiers to Twilight, and when they capture/liberate an imperial governor seeking to defect, the story begins to sort of move forward. We follow the company as they campaign against the Empire, learn they were present on Hoth during the battle at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, and watch as they seek to find their way in the aftermath of that disaster.
Some of the battle scenes are well done, and I do enjoy that several Star Wars worlds that I’ve never heard of have been included. It is nice to see authors given undeveloped areas to play with, but with the inclusion of the battle of Hoth, it feels like a lot of that was overshadowed.
Like a lot of Star Wars novels it has the mandatory appearances of as many characters as they can cram in. Darth Vader appears, Luke and Leia are both mentioned, and the characters almost feel secondary in their own book, overshadowed by the events that are occurring at the same time. I just felt like I never really had a reason to care about any of them, and when it ends it does so more with a whimper than a bang.
It wasn’t a difficult read, but it definitely didn’t have a lot of substance. If you’re looking for some sci-fi fluff under the Star Wars banner, I’d say go for it. But if you’re looking for something more you might want to let this one pass you by. It’s not the best book you’ll ever read, but it is light years better than the Force Awakens novel adaptations.
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