Freed, Alexander
About the Author:
Alexander Freed was born near Philadelphia, USA and now lives in Austin, Texas.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.4 out of 5
(7 books)
TOP PICK:
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The novelisation of the awesome film (the best Star Wars film since the Original Trilogy, if you ask me), set 0 BBY. For those not in the know, this story follows the renegade Jyn Erso as she is recruited by the Rebel Alliance to help locate her scientist father and discover the secrets of the Empire's rumoured new superweapon; the Death Star.
'Rogue One' is absolutely the kind of Star Wars story that I want to see; telling the tales of the ordinary men and women who enabled the Rebellion to triumph. And when I say 'ordinary', I mean that each of the characters here are believable human beings, with hopes, fears and regrets. Whilst I do love the mythic quality of the likes of Luke Skywalker's innate goodness, it's nice to read stories about people who we can understand through their flaws. Freed was definitely the right choice for this novelisation too, since the rogues gallery of Rebel commandos featured here would have been pretty comfortable around the soldiers of 'Twilight Company' from the author's last Star Wars novel.
This story does a fantastic job of enriching the Star Wars mythos with new planets, cultures and heroes whilst simultaneously leading perfectly into the opening of 'A New Hope'. Freed also makes the most of the medium and does a great job of exploring the inner thoughts of the protagonists in a way that the movie can't, offering explanations for some of the dialogue and reflections that might surprise you.
There is only one reason I've not given this book full marks and it's not really the author's fault. As a lifelong fan of Star Wars literature, one of the perks which mitigated being looked down on by movie purists was that we always got to read the novelisation before the film came out (a Star Wars mainstay going all the way back to 1977). However, with evil Disney in control of the rights, the movie had been out for more than a month before the novelisation followed and therefore the reading experience is unavoidably coloured by having seen the film first.
4 out of 5
Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron
Set in the months following the Battle of Endor, the first part of a trilogy, this book sees the newly-formed New Republic struggling to quell the remains of Imperial resistance. Amid this turmoil, Intelligence Agent Caern Adan puts together a unit of starfighter pilots to help take down the deadly 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, the 'Shadow Wing'. With limited resources, Adan is forced to use a ragtag group of troubled survivors and their motley assortment of starfighters.
I'm not a fan of Disney's Star Wars sequels, so I'm always very reluctant to read anything set after 'Return of the Jedi' (the old EU books have that more than covered for me) but I'd heard that the Alphabet Squadron Trilogy was particularly good and doesn't trounce all over the old canon, so I figured I'd give it a try. I have to say I was a bit disappointed.
I should be absolutely clear, this is not a bad book and there's lots to enjoy here. However, for me, it made two serious mistakes that held it back from being a great Star Wars book.
The first is that, in creating a diverse group of core characters - each with their own tragic backstory - for the squadron, Freed managed to forget that we, the readers, have to engage and empathise with them. In short, none of the main characters here are particularly likeable. They're all so cynical, jaded, unreasonable or just plain antisocial that it's impossible to treat any of them as an empathetic access point. The closest we get is Wyl Lark but both the characters around him and the writing treat him more or less as if he's an idiot for trying to be nice. I'd hoped that by the end of the book the characters would've bonded with each other and I with them, but that never really seemed to fall into place.
But the unlikeable characters is also an aspect of my second problem with the book. I'm a huge fan of the X-Wing novels by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston, which are about a couple of ragtag New Republic starfighter squadrons trying to defeat the remnants of the Empire after the Battle of Endor... and you see where I'm going with this. Allston's Wraith Squadron in particular was about a covert unit made up of washouts and last-chancers. Basically, I felt like I'd read this story before and, honestly, done much better. Freed's a good writer, but Stackpole and Allston are great writers, and the X-Wing books had more flair, creativity and, yes, likeable characters by far. It meant that this book, which may have been better in isolation, feels a bit like a pale imitation of what I've read before.
3 out of 5
Star Wars: Battlefront - Twilight Company
3 ABY. A tie-in to the Battlefront computer game (the Dice reboot, that is), this book follows First Sergeant Namir and the Rebel Alliance's Twilight Company as they find themselves facing overwhelming odds on the front lines of the war against the Galactic Empire.
Whilst this is exactly the sort of story I like Star Wars novels to tell, that of characters outside of the main movie heroes, it actually took me quite a long time to get into this book. For the first half of it I was struggling to connect to Namir, the main protagonist, as he is far too cynical and hard-bitten, not believing in the ideals of the Rebellion or even in its chances of winning. Don't get me wrong, he's a type of interesting new character we've not seen much in Star Wars literature but to have your main character be so overwhelmingly negative about everything really drains any sense of fun out of the book.
I had very mixed feelings about the mid-section of the book too. The scenes at Echo Base before and during the iconic Battle of Hoth were awesome but they were also over far too quickly and involved far too few of the characters who feature throughout the rest of the book. Nice to see how an ordinary grunt reacts to seeing the Force in action for the first time in the hands of Darth Vader though.
Things really picked up in the second half, however, as the decimated Twilight Company finds new purpose and engages the Empire head-on on Sullust. The battle scenes in this latter part of the book were brilliant and seeing Namir's cynicism start to melt made the character's story arc worthwhile in the end. It was a great ending but was just too weighed-down by the drudgery of the first half of the story.
3 out of 5
Star Wars: Shadow Fall
The second book of the Alphabet Squadron Trilogy, set 5 ABY. The ragtag pilots of Alphabet Squadron join General Hera Syndulla's New Republic task force in liberating the Cerberon system from the Empire and then plan a trap to catch their arch-enemies, Shadow Squadron. However, the Imperial Fighter Wing has come under the command of ace pilot and experienced leader Soran Keize, who leads a mission to turn the tables on the New Republic forces.
This book began strongly, correcting one of the errors in the first book by having the main characters of Alphabet Squadron become more likeable, as well as actually creating a camaraderie among them. Unlike in the Book 1, here we finally had a starfighter squadron we could genuinely engage with.
However, things went astray through the middle of the book and, at times, I struggled to maintain any interest in what was going on. Part of the problem was that, after finally coalescing the squadron, Freed has them all split up by the fighting and throws away the bonding which was helping to keep the group compelling. It also didn't help that we spend a significant amount of time with Shadow Squadron and are, presumably, supposed to sympathise with this group of genocidal fascists. Sure, they murdered an entire planet but they're basically decent people, right? Right? Honestly, one of the biggest failings of Star Wars literature since Disney took over is a weird obsession with trying to make us sympathise with the Nazis ('Tarkin', 'Thrawn', 'Inferno Squad' and others).
Thankfully, the author actually manages to pull things together in the final third of the book. There are some genuinely powerful emotional moments for the main characters and a desperate last battle (featuring the 61st Mobile Infantry from 'Battlefront: Twilight Company') which finally managed to capture the feel of the classic X-Wing novels which had been missing up to that point.
Overall, a strong start and an even stronger ending mean that I was able to overlook the somewhat tedious bit in the middle.
4 out of 5
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Blood Of The Empire
(Art by Dave Ross and Mark McKenna)
Set 3,678 BBY, thirty five years before 'The Old Republic' MMO. This book drops us right into the middle of the Great Galactic War between the Republic and the Sith Empire which serves as the background to the RPG computer game. It focuses on Sith Apprentice Teneb Kel and his quest to hunt down the Sith Emperor's former apprentice, who has gone rogue.
Considering the fact that it's a vast conflict across the galaxy, the Great Galactic War has been surprisingly under-used in the TOR tie-in material, so it was nice here to get to see a bit of it. I also enjoyed seeing the almost insurmountable challenges that face young Sith if they want to advance in the heirarchy of the Empire.
I originally read this book before having played 'The Old Republic' and the book suffers as a result, since many of the plotlines seem to ultimately lead nowhere. I've marked it down as a consequence of that but, if you have played TOR, then this book offers some great background details to the story of Darth Thanaton and the Children of the Emperor.
3 out of 5
Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Lost Suns
(Art by Dave Ross, George Freeman, David Daza and Mark McKenna)
Set 3,643 BBY, shortly before the start of 'The Old Republic' RPG game. This story follows Republic spy Theron Shan, the half-mad Jedi Ngani Zho and the smuggler Teff'ith as they journey deep into Sith-controlled territory to investigate the danger represented by the Empire's Sun Razer.
This book is at its best when we're learning more about Theron Shan. He's an intriguing character; the secret son of a renowned Jedi, raised and trained by another Jedi and yet completely without Force powers. Here we get to see the details of his birth and upbringing and witness his struggle to understand his place in a galaxy where he was raised to be a Jedi but never can be.
Unfortunately none of the other characters are given as much depth or insight and the plot on offer here is fairly thin and unremarkable. Also, as with other TOR tie-in material, we are left with questions that will only be resolved in the game which is a frustratingly transparent marketing ploy.
3 out of 5
Star Wars: Victory's Price
The conclusion of the Alphabet Squadron trilogy, set 5 ABY. Believed to be a traitor, Yrica Quell has infiltrated Shadow Wing in the hopes of destroying it from within. As the rest of Alphabet Squadron and General Hera Syndulla's taskforce pursue, the fledgling New Republic and the remnants of the Empire are gearing-up for a cataclysmic confrontation above Jakku.
This is easily the best book of the series, wherein the problems of the previous two stories all prove to be ones that Freed was willing to recognise and correct. Personally, I was pleased to see that in his Acknowledgements, Freed calls out both Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston for proving that starfighter-focused stories are worth telling. On top of that, the main characters are made far more sympathetic here and we're genuinely given the opportunity to engage with them on a personal level. Each of their individual internal struggles gets explored, developed and, ultimately, given an ending (of sorts).
The author also takes a wise approach to how this story weaves into the larger narrative up to and including the Battle of Jakku. Most of this period was covered in the Aftermath Trilogy, which I have no intention of ever reading due to the fact that it tramples across the Expanded Universe stories set in the same time period, but Freed wisely doesn't rehash those other events here. Instead, he keeps the focus tightly on the pilots of Alphabet Squadron and Shadow Wing, with everything else happening peripherally. This means that someone like me, who wants to preserve the EU as headcanon, can still read these stories and enjoy them. I'm well aware that the majority of readers won't be concerned with this, but for a fan of Star Wars books for a quarter of a century, this is important to my enjoyment of the books.
It has to be said that the individual endings for each of the characters felt a little underwhelming, but that's mostly because Freed has taken a more realistic approach to jaded veterans surviving a war they never thought they'd outlive. Instead of getting the mega-happy ending in which they 'get the girl' (so to speak), become heroes and get to dance with Ewoks, instead we see the main characters having to deal with the truth that after the war has ended for them, life just goes on.
4 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Dragon Age: The First Five Graphic Novels (here)
Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View (here)
Star Wars Insider: The Fiction Collection - Volume 1 (here)
Star Wars Insider: The Fiction Collection - Volume 2 (here)
Star Wars: Purge (here)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - From A Certain Point Of View (here)