Victory's Price Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 460 pages

Author: Alexander Freed

Timeline: Follows Shadow Fall, precedes Force Awakens

Main characters: Yrica Quell, Wyl Lark, Chass na Chadic, Soran Keize, Kairos, Nath Tensent, and Hera Syndulla.

Brief synopsis: Nearing the end of the war, Alphabet Squadron also nears a climactic finish fighting Shadow Squadron while Yrica Quell battles internal conflict in an attempt to do what is right.

Gut Feeling

This book was definitely one that I had to grind through. I’m not saying that because I didn’t like it, because it was a good book, it just certainly is part of my gut reaction. Alexander Freed’s writing style is pretty dense and the story is character lead so this means that it was easy to get lost in the details. It would be easiest to read large portions of this book at a time, because then it would be easier to keep track of everything going on. Unfortunately, due to preparing for a wedding, finishing school, and work, I was forced to read this book a little at a time. Because of that, I expect my biased score of the book would be lower than the attempted unbiased score I am going to give. Parts of this book were really really good. I really did enjoy this trilogy, but I wish the book featured more of these peaks. In a trilogy that I expected to only get better with each book, I think the second may have been my favorite (in classic Original Trilogy fashion).

Characters (10/10 pts)

Alright, my biased gut reaction is out of the way and I am free to give a perfect score to the first section. It is no surprise that the characters were the strongest part of the book. They have been the focal point of the entire book trilogy. Each member of Alphabet Squadron has the character development of a main character. They probably have even more depth than most main characters. I won’t discuss each character, because that could be an article in itself, but I will discuss some of the highlights.

Yrica Quell has to have the most depth of any character. The cliff hanger from Shadow Fall was Quell leaving Alphabet Squadron to join her former squad. Her motivations for doing this were up in the air, and incredibly intriguing. I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, but her arch was a complex and interesting one. A theme within this book is that when one gets to know both sides of a war, the lines between good and evil get ever so blurry. This is the conflict that Quell must deal with. By spending so much time with both Alphabet and Shadow Squadrons, she has a perspective unlike any other. This makes it difficult for her to know what the right thing to do is. Whenever a character has an internal conflict like this, you can consider me intrigued. This is one of the strongest singular parts of the novel.

However, Quell was not alone in having a great arch. We learned much more about Soran Keize, the leader of Shadow Squadron. He seems close to the anti-hero character archetype by combining end goals we can believe in with means that we can’t morally condone. In this way, he feels like characters such as Thanos and Walter White. It would have been rather interesting if the story was told from his perspective. Then there is Kairos, who likely changed the most from the beginning of the trilogy to the end. Clearly from a different culture, Kairos is the most unlike any of the other characters. The transformation that her character goes through in this book is beautiful and compelling. Most notably the end of her arch presented the peak of Freed’s writing.

That brings me to my final point. A key part of the third part of a trilogy is closure. Freed gave every important character their own moment of closure that really tied the strings in this story. I’ve been going on for awhile now so it is pretty clear that Freed earned all of the ten points for characters.

Writing Style (7.75/10 pts)

It certainly is possible that some of my bias towards this book is showing in this score, but I did feel slightly underwhelmed by the writing style. It may be a combination of other factors like the story itself, but I found it difficult to read much of this book at a time. In all of Freed’s books, the writing is fairly detailed. Victory’s Price is no different. When the action was high, the writing was okay and even great at times. There were individual chapters/sections that felt like some of the best written content in Star Wars. But the entire book just didn’t feel that way to me. It just felt a little too easy to get lost in the details. I’m not saying all of this to say that the book is poorly written, that is just never the case for Star Wars novels. It is just the explanation to why I am giving a slightly below average score of 7.75 points. It is still a well written book, just most Star Wars novels have a little higher quality.

Plot (7.25/10 pts)

The plot is probably what I was most disappointed in. In the final book of a trilogy, I just expected it to be more climactic. Like Shadow Fall, it started out exciting and then moved into a rather long lull. However, I saw this as ok because it was building up to the climax of the story. But the climax just felt a little unfulfilling to me. I just kept building and building, and then the excitement was just over. I expected the peaks to come when the stakes were the highest, but that simply wasn’t the case. I am not saying there weren’t peaks though. They just came in unexpected parts of the story that weren’t always necessarily significant concerning the plot. They were more so individual character moments, which does coincide with the story being character driven. But, concerning the plot, it does fall a little short in my opinion. I just expected the last book of the trilogy to hit a little harder. I am giving 7.25 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

There are a couple of things working against the intrigue of Victory’s Price. The first is the writing style. Freed is a dense writer and when that is the case, it can cause the reading process to slow down. It is a difficult thing to do to make a book both readable and dense. Claudia Gray and Timothy Zahn are two authors that do this well. Freed can as well, but I don’t think this one was his best work. This naturally takes away from the intrigue because it is more difficult to read large portions of the book at a time. Then there is the plot. I won’t repeat myself too much because I just discussed it, but the plot did take some away from the intrigue. When the peaks are expected, it urges the reader to read more to find out what is going to happen. Because the peaks were unexpected and isolated, the high intrigue also became limited and isolated. I am only giving 7 points for intrigue.

What does it add? (8/10 pts)

This is the section that I expected to be the lowest for all of the Alphabet Squadron books. When it comes to adding content to the Star Wars universe, usually the content is Force or Sith/Jedi related. I was pleasantly surprised with what Shado Fall added to Star Wars with Yrica Quell entering the Sith Temple. What interested me the most in Victory’s Price was the Emperor’s Messenger. While the Messenger was in the previous books, we learned the most about it in this one. Specifically, the data that it carries and the way that it is programmed. I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, but it is rather interesting. I am giving 8 points for this section.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in Victory’s Price that adds to or takes away from the logic within the Star Wars universe So I am neither adding or taking away extra points for the logic. 

Final Thoughts

My final score for Victory’s Price is an 8/10, or a low B minus. This makes the book slightly below the average score that I have given thus far and between Alphabet Squadron (7.8) and Shadow Fall (8.25). Concerning the ranking of the books in the trilogy, it feels right to me. I also want to say that I do try to keep my ratings unbiased, but it does seem that others did enjoy this book more than I did. So don’t be surprised if you do! If you are someone that enjoys character driven novels, I would certainly recommend this trilogy to you.

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).

Shadow Fall Book Review

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).

Alphabet Squadron Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: 408, hardcover

Author: Alexander Freed

Timeline: Follows Return of the Jedi and precedes the Aftermath trilogy

Main characters: Yrica Quell, Chass na Chadic, Wyl Lark, Kairos, Nath Tenset, Caern Adan, Devon Lhent, and Hera Syndulla

Brief synopsis: Alphabet Squadron is made up of unlikely members, including outlaws and imperial defectors, but they are united over one thing: taking down Shadow Wing.

Gut Feeling

Alphabet Squadron is a book that I’ve put off reading for a while. I have realized that something I am really looking for in my Star Wars novels is additions to Star Wars lore. This is something that I was not expecting from Alphabet Squadron, so it kinda fell under my radar. But, I have still heard really good things about the book and knew that there was a ton of anticipation for Shadow Fall, so I figured the story itself had to be great. As you can see from the main character list, there are many characters that are featured in this novel. The only one that we are familiar with is Hera Syndulla (and she really isn’t featured), so this caused most of the first half of the book to move kind of slow. I was not sure if I was going to like it or not, but the last quarter of the book was very good. This is when it all came together and the development of sections of the book paid off well. Something that I was keeping in mind while reading this book was that it is the first of a trilogy. And it certainly felt like it. On its own, it was a good book. But as the first book of a trilogy, this book was excellent. I am reading Shadow Fall now and expect it to be even better. But we’re talking about Alphabet Squadron, so let’s get into the details.

Characters (10/10 pts)

Alphabet Squadron was certainly a character led novel. Alphabet Squadron itself is made up of six new members of the Star Wars universe (only five are shown below because Caern Adan works in intelligence for the squad instead of flying with them). What Freed did so well is give each of these characters their own unique backstories. No two characters were alike and although Yrica Quell did have the most attention from the novel, all characters had main- character-like depth. This did cause the first half of the book to move slowly (which I’ll discuss later) as these characters were developed, but because this is the first book of a trilogy, that makes sense: where if this were a standalone book, it would be too much time devoted to development of the characters. But because there are so many well developed characters, there is a lot that the reader can relate to. They can either relate really well to one of the characters, or a little to all of them. Something else the book did was have a somewhat separate storyline for Devon Lhent (I’m going to avoid spoilers on his character) who didn’t have a major impact on the story in Alphabet Squadron, but set him up to have an impact in Shadow Fall. This means that this next book won’t have to have hardly any development stage and should get right into action. I am easily giving 10 points for this section.

Writing Style (8.5/10 pts)

I’ve said this a million times and I’ll say it again, there is no poorly written Star Wars novel. They have always done a great job at selecting excellent authors to write the books. Freed’s style definitely leans towards being more detailed than normal. This carries beyond just the writing style to the plot itself, Freed loves going an inch wide and a mile deep. However, this didn’t make the book especially hard to read. It did lose some readability to the details, but not as much as I’d expect. It still flowed very well and the details that he added were important to the book so it paid off well. I am giving a slightly above average score of 8.5 for the writing style.

Plot (7.25/10 pts)

Although it is true that the book served its purpose as the first in a trilogy, it will still get hurt on some of the sections as I grade all novels as essentially being standalone. This will certainly be true for the book’s plot. The plot was definitely used by Freed as a device to develop the characters in the book. It wasn’t really about what was happening in the book, it was more so about what was happening to the characters and learning more about them. Like I said, this book was character led. After reading the book and just looking at what actually happened during the story, it wasn’t that much. And again I’ll say that it makes sense because it is setting up the rest of the trilogy, but it is true that the plot was not super exciting in Alphabet Squadron. What I can say that is good about the plot is from very early on the reader knows where the book is headed. We understand the objective. It also finished very strong, as all novels should. All characters reached closure for this part of the story and had intrigue for what was going to happen next in Shadow Fall. But despite this, because the plot was mostly used to develop characters, I am giving 7.25 points for the plot.

Intrigue (6.75/10 pts)

Like with the plot, this intrigue section will also get hurt due to Alphabet Squadron being the first book of a trilogy. While in the present most of what I was learning about the characters was interesting, that type of writing does not do much for the intrigue. Intrigue is built when something exciting is happening and the reader is compelled to find out what is going to happen next. Because most of the book was developing characters, I wasn’t on the edge of my seat waiting to learn about other characters. While the book did an excellent job at developing characters, it just isn’t super exciting. But the book still did it’s job and the next two books won’t need to spend much time in a development stage and should be excellent as a result of that. Once Alphabet Squadron got to the climactic finish, it was excellent. While I am giving a slightly below average score of 6.75 points for the intrigue, it is understandable being the first in a trilogy. It should not deter you from reading the book.

What does it add? (6/10 pts)

As I stated in my “gut reaction”, I mostly read books to learn more about Star Wars lore. I love what books can add to the Star Wars universe. This is a reason why I hadn’t read Alphabet Squadron for so long. And my assumption turned out to be right, it did not really add anything substantial to the Star Wars universe. While the book itself did provide a great story, it was lacking here. All I could think of that it added was blurring the lines between good and evil in Star Wars. It is not as clear cut as the Original Trilogy made it. But, Alphabet Squadron is not the first book to have done this and did not do it the best (Lost Stars by Cluadia Gray did it the best in my opinion). So, I am only giving 6 points for this section.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

While Alphabet Squadron didn’t add anything new to the Star Wars universe, it did help to explain one of Star Wars’ most prevalent plot holes (I say plot hole, but it is more of something that isn’t explained well). I am talking about the fact that the Jedi went from being protectors of the galaxy to a myth very quickly. This novel does help to provide an explanation for that. So, I am giving an extra half point.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for Alphabet Squadron is a 7.8 out of 10, or a C plus. This score is slightly below average for Star Wars novels that I have reviewed, but I hope that it does not deter you from reading it. If you are wanting a series of books that is high stakes and character led, I encourage you to start off by reading this book. It served its purpose perfectly as the first in the trilogy. I am reading Shadow Fall now and expect it to be better than the first. So if you like great stories in Star Wars, check this series out. But, if you just read Star Wars novels to learn more about Star Wars, this might not be the series for you.

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).