By: Christian Corah
Descriptives
Page count: Hardcover, 393
Author: Alexander Freed
Timeline: Follows Alphabet Squadron, precedes the Aftermath trilogy
Main characters: Yrica Quell, Chass na Chadic, Wyl Lark, Kairos, Nath Tensent, Caern Adan, Soran Keize, and Hera Syndulla
Brief synopsis: While still attempting to take down the dangerous Shadow Wing, Alphabet Squadron faces some intense adversity.
Gut Feeling
Just as Alphabet Squadron felt like the first book in a series of three, Shadow Fall feels like the second book in a series of three. This is certainly a good thing. In a lot of ways, it felt like a similar book to Alphabet Squadron but just a little bit better. A significant portion of Alphabet Squadron was devoted to giving depth to the book’s main characters so that means that Shadow Fall could focus more on the action. It was still primarily a character-led novel, but instead of just learning more about the characters, they were developing due to what was happening in the plot. While it did still start a little bit slow, it picked up and got very good near the end. Something that was a nice touch that was lacking in Alphabet Squadron was an addition to Star Wars lore that I’ll discuss further in this review. Overall, I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series and it sets up the final book to be even better. Let’s get into the details.
Characters (10/10 pts)
As a book that is led by the characters, this section should be strong, and it certainly is. While Yrica Quell is the “main”, main character of the novel, the other main characters have as much, if not more, character development than main characters in other novels. Alphabet Squadron did the grunt work in applying depth and initial development to these characters and Shadow Fall ran with it. All of the development in this book was unique and interesting. These characters really all have unique character arcs. For books with this many characters, there usually are weaker characters or arcs. I don’t see that being the case for Shadow Fall. While my personal favorite arc was Yrica Quell’s, I enjoyed reading all of the character arcs. And I can definitely see why another reader may favor another character’s arc. I have everything good and nothing bad to say about the characters in this book, so it easily gets full points.
Writing Style (8.5/10 pts)
I say it every time I write this section, but no Star Wars novel is poorly written so I haven’t given a poor score to this section yet. As it should be, the writing style was the same as it was in Alphabet Squadron. In the Freed novels that I have read, I’ve noticed that his style is certainly more detailed. Similar to the plot as well, he goes an inch wide and a mile deep really getting everything purposeful he can out of each section. This can sometimes cause the book to read rather slow, but when you actually pay attention to the details, they are appreciated. And Freed adds these details in a way that doesn’t take much away from the flow of the book, which is impressive. For these reasons, I am giving 8.5 points.
Plot (7.5/10 pts)
Seeing as the book is led by the strength of the characters, the plot does take a little bit of a hit: this is similar to what I said about Alphabet Squadron. Much of the book’s plot is just used to further develop and gives us different perspectives on the main characters. It did serve the purpose very well, but when I take a step back and just look at what actually happened during the whole book, it wasn’t that much. It isn’t necessarily a terrible thing for the book, it just means that the plot wasn’t what was driving the book. It is a stylistic choice. I can say two strong points for the plot, though. First, there was more action in this one than Alphabet Squadron. It slowly built up the whole book to an exciting, climactic finish that was even more exciting than the first book. The plot made a lot of sense and there were no glaring weaknesses to it outside of not that much happening. Second, seeing the plot told from so many perspectives gives us a more complete understanding of what is going on. I am still only giving 7.5 points for this section, but that shouldn’t deter you from reading the book.
Intrigue (7.25/10 pts)
Up to this point in the review, it has looked nearly identical to my review of Alphabet Squadron. However, this is where the books start to deviate and Shadow Fall starts to score higher. Since Alphabet Squadron did most of the work developing the characters, we enter reading this book with a different perspective. We are naturally more invested in the characters and more excited to learn about them. This is just the nature of it being the second book in a series. And instead of just learning about the depth of the characters, we are experiencing them change and adapt which is inherently more exciting. This obviously helps with the intrigue. But still, the majority of the book was a slow build to the climatic finish. While it did pay off in the end (I didn’t want to put the book down during the last couple of chapters), my intrigue was less than average for most of the book. I am giving 7.25 points for the intrigue.
What does it add? (8/10 pts)
This section was the biggest weakness of Alphabet Squadron and I expected Shadow Fall to be similar. I just didn’t see a book series about a New Republic squadron to add Star Wars lore. I was pleasantly surprised with what Shadow Fall ended up adding. There are two things that stand out the most to me. The first is through The Children of the Empty Sun: a religious group that follows the way of the Force. We’ve known that some beings follow the Force religiously even if they are not Force-sensitive, but I haven’t been exposed to it in so much detail before (it may be detailed elsewhere, I just haven’t read it before). The second addition is through exposure to a Sith temple. Alphabet Squadron did bring us to a Jedi temple, but I thought that what Freed did in this book was more interesting. I was actually fascinated by the concept. I’d love to say more, but I’ll spare the details to avoid spoilers. You will just have to read the book to find out. I’m giving 8 points for this section.
Logic (0 pts)
There is nothing in Shadow Fall that added to nor took away from the logic within the Star Wars universe. So, I am neither adding nor taking away extra points.
Final Thoughts
So, my final score for Shadow Fall is an 8.25/10, or a solid B minus. This is higher than the score I gave Alphabet Squadron and is about average concerning Star Wars novels that I’ve reviewed. As it was important to keep in mind that Alphabet Squadron was the first book in the series, it is also important to remember that Shadow Fall is the second in the series. I fully suspect that the final book in the series will score the highest of the three and make this series one of the better ones in Star Wars. If you enjoyed Alphabet Squadron, you’ll absolutely love Shadow Fall. And if you like character-led novels, I’d suggest getting started on the Alphabet Squadron series.
I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).