Algemene kennis

Gangbare naam: Freed, Alexander
Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten: Freed, Alexander Marsh
Geboortedatum: 1980
Geslacht: male
Nationaliteit: USA
Woonplaatsen: Austin, Texas, USA
Beroepen: Ecrivain
scénariste
responsable de l'édition (Bioware)

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story door Alexander Freed

Read it after seeing the movie just to re-hash the plot especially since the beginning of the movie can feel a little confusing before you get a handle on all the players.

Provides a smidge of inner monologue to help flesh out some characters but there's nothing earth shattering here but that's OK.

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hmonkeyreads | 17 andere besprekingen | Jan 25, 2024 |

Shadow Fall (Star Wars): An Alphabet Squadron Novel… door Alexander Freed

This is my spoiler-free review. You can read my full review which includes minor spoilers for the previous book over on my blog: https://geeking-by.net/review/star-wars-shadow-fall-by-alexander-freed/

Unlike book one Shadow Fall starts right in the middle of the action. I wondered if the pace would end up slowing down and dwindling into endless politics and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t. If anything it kept ramping up. From start to finish Alphabet Squadron are in the thick of it as they lay a trap for their Imperial nemesis’, and like any good plan, there are always bumps along the way. These bumps allow us to get to know the characters, to watch them grow and work through what’s happening.

There are also delayed reactions to what happened in the first book and in my opinion, this is as much to do with the circumstances as it is to do with the better characterisation in this novel. Despite there being action the author has made space for the characters to get retrospective with themselves and each other. The main cast isn’t fighting over space in the novel with twenty other characters, and as I’d hoped, the line between minor and major characters is much clearer. The minor characters pop in and out like scenery, adding to the story, adjacent to Alphabet Squadron but never taking the attention away from them as they did in the first novel.

There is so much improvement in this novel that I honestly wondered at one point if it was written by a ghostwriter. However, as I continued to work my way through the book I began to see familiar patterns in the writing style that dispelled that idea. For one, the author continues to write as though striving to impress someone way too hard. This is particularly noticeable through long rambling sentence structures which would probably make J.R.Tolkien proud. In a science fiction novel that is already filled to the hilt with jargon, it just feels out of place and clunky. I ended up skimming quite a few sections of description due to the long sentence instruction because I lost interest in the lacklustre description which essentially wasn’t telling me anything I needed to know.

In the end, it was the characters and the plot that shone through, and I was pulled into the action eager to find out what would happen to the Squadron as I became emotionally attached to them at last. There are highs and lows, and there were finally moments where they said things to each other that had me laughing or made my heart squeeze with emotion.… (meer)

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justgeekingby | 1 andere bespreking | Jun 6, 2023 |

Alphabet Squadron (Star Wars) (Star Wars: Alphabet… door Alexander Freed

For my full review please visit my blog: https://geeking-by.net/review/star-wars-alphabet-squadron-by-alexander-freed/

I’m a big fan of the X-Wing novels from the Legends timeline so as soon as it was announced that a new starfighter series was in the works I was really excited. Nothing could replace those books, but as far as I’m concerned Star Wars isn’t Star Wars without its starfighter squadrons. Throw in Hera Syndulla who I fell in love within Star Wars Rebels and I’m sold!

Prior to reading this novel, I read the accompanying comic series, [b:Star Wars: TIE Fighter|44024202|Star Wars TIE Fighter|Jody Houser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568792681l/44024202._SY75_.jpg|68452425] by Chuck Wendig) which had been extremely disappointing. I clung to the link to the TIE Fighter comic series and reminded myself that one novel didn’t necessarily mean that all the new canon novels were going to be disappointing. The new comics have been absolutely brilliant. And so, I went into this book with an open mind…

… and I was thoroughly disappointed.

Let me start with the blatant lie I mentioned in the synopsis and go from there.

In the aftermath, Yrica Quell is just one of thousands of defectors from her former cause living in a deserters’ shantytown–until she is selected to join Alphabet Squadron. Cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of pilots and starfighters, the five members of Alphabet are tasked by New Republic general Hera Syndulla herself.

As I mentioned I’m a big fan of Hera so the idea of a new squadron run by her sounded awesome. In hindsight the synopsis only makes it sound like she is running the show, so I’ll give them that; it’s careful wordplay. A small spoiler here so I'm going to pop this bit under a spoiler tag:
However, it’s still a lie because Hera isn’t the one who gives them the task in the first place. She is involved, and it’s fantastic to see her, but in a much smaller capacity than the synopsis makes out. It’s a name drop to draw in fans of Star Wars Rebels.

Other than Hera the book is made up of brand new characters and there are a lot of them. Too many, to be honest. There are four separate narratives happening at the same time; Alphabet Squadron, Shadowing Squadron, the Imperial commanders and group of New Republic Military. The last group seems quite random at the start, and as the novel progresses their identity becomes evident. What confused me was how much effort was put into their narratives. The role they play in the novel didn’t require the amount of characterisation and detail that the author chose to go into, and many scenes regarding those characters seemed to be fluff to just bulk out the novel. Even when I realised who these characters were I didn’t feel the need to know anywhere near as much detail about them as I now did.

In comparison, I knew almost nothing about the main characters, the actual Alphabet Squadron. Being cagey and mysterious about your characters is one thing, but there’s a problem when you’re giving the reader a full character history of minor characters they’ll never meet again. I felt absolutely no empathy or bond to any of the main characters, and that’s a big problem. The only interest I had in them by the end of the book was to unravel their mysteries and that will only go so far for me.

For a novel which is built around a space fighter squadron, there were not that many space battles, at least for Alphabet Squadron itself. Most of the space battles scenes didn’t involve them, and for most of the book, they were out of the cockpit. It felt more like a spy novel than a space pilot one. The series has potential, although this does depend on what happens in the next novel. The members of Alphabet Squadron have enough personality, quirks and history that could be the foundation for a really good series. The problem is all the other junk in between. There is so much political rubbish in this novel whereas all I really wanted was for them to get in their ships and do what star pilots do best. I really feel like the author completely misunderstood what he was getting himself into when he signed up to write a series called Alphabet Squadron. If you want to go write a military novel, fine, but don’t label it a starfighter novel and drop a name like Hera Syndulla just so people will pick it up!… (meer)

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justgeekingby | 6 andere besprekingen | Jun 6, 2023 |

Alphabet Squadron (Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron, #1) door Alexander Freed

Good idea, but a bit of a slog until you get to Hera's ship. Feels like a very drawn out first act, though I'm liking the "Rogue One" feel compared to the X-Wing series.

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Kavinay | 6 andere besprekingen | Jan 2, 2023 |

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