SPOILER ALPHABET SQUADRON discussion

all right, i'm not done yet (they are just now leaving the Lodestar to go after Shadow Wing at Pandem Nai, but here are my predictions:

Spoiler

• Chass wants to martyr herself for the cause, therefore she won't. not because she is thwarted, but because she decides to live.
• Wyl is toast. he's so toast. all the kid has ever wanted was to just go Home after having fulfilled his duty. he's never going to make it.
• Devon is Blink (calling it!), or, if not Blink, then some other member of Shadow Wing. his scenes are actually flash-forwards.
• Adan's self-interests will be thwarted (with the help of IT-O, i hope), Nash will be a hero in spite of himself, and Yrica will find her place in the New Republic.
• Grandmother is going down.

i am loving every moment of this book. even when i hate Chass, i love how well she's written. this is exactly the kind of Star Wars story i love to read. : D

 

I'm waiting for this book.

 

I just read the excerpt, so can't really add much... its dark like Rogue One, the comic book is great, cool characters like Grandmother... currently reading master & apprentice... @FN-3263827 said Last Shot was good, so that was gonna be next, but I don't know I might do this if I finish M&A in time for Thrawn... I gotta know how Thrawn tries to take over, or betrays the Empire... or If Vader gets a chance to take him out....

 

oooh, i gotta wait to read the spoiler, but i'm finishing the book this weekend.
my copy has a comic book insert and yeah, other than the character of Grandmother, i wasn't seeing much connection there yet.
last night's reading:

Spoiler

...they just got through the minefield and Grandmother blew the hangar doors, so i'm still at Pandem Nai.
i actually kinda feel sorry for Rassus. he's a good officer. XD

like i said, i'm trying to savor it. XD

 

everything was all good and well until that last chapter.
and then it broke me. XD

i had a slight suspicion that was coming because of the scene in the mud, but i put it out of my mind because i thought: but his name is Devon!
ughnnnnnn. i can't believe Freed is going to make us suffer like this ~ hahahahaha

some other thoughts, generally, about the characters:

Nath, Chass, and Adan are well-seated on the train to "you suck". especially Adan. what a tool.
is Kairos literally going to metamorphose? i'm kinda freaking out at the possibility.
i thought i wouldn't like Wyl, but dang, what a great character. his sweetness and generosity is so refreshing in a landscape full of mean cynical gritty thuggery.

And Yrica: so wonderfully written, so complex, so tough, so fragile, so much potential! i'm so happy this is a trilogy!
she is my second favorite EU character behind Sinjir (and she easily nudged out Iden Verso for the spot).

one tiny quibble though (and other spoilery thoughts):

Spoiler

i low-key hate that she only joined the academy to get the flight experience and then defect. on the other hand it's a great story point that she subsequently couldn't defect and had to be shoved out by Keize. but i really like that she's so torn between the Empire and the New Republic either way.

looks like that's Keize's fight now. i'm so heartbroken that he tried to get out but didn't make it. just couldn't reintegrate.
i fear this trilogy will end in tragedy now that he's returning to Shadow Wing. i'm not sure she can save him now. : ' o (

somebody give me hope! XD

i LOVED this book. what an amazing ride.

 

K, so I just finished this book. To me, it was pretty much a chore. Part 1 just about did me in. It was like one of those dreams where you're trying to get somewhere but your feet keep getting stuck in mud and you have to drag each limb with tremendous effort. I was tired of everybody's angst already and we STILL hadn't really brought the main players together as far as I could tell. The only thing that kept me going was that the next section had Hera in it and I figured I could finally read about someone I could actually trust.

I'll admit it did pick up speed sometime after that, and by Part 3 it wasn't dragging anymore.

I'll also admit Quell grew on me (I actually really liked the way she kept failing and failing and failing and kept going), but I guess I had kind of figured out what guilt was driving her, and I kind of figured out who Devon was after he had a dad-chat with the radicalized bomb-maker, which was so similar to the way he had seemed to talk to Quell. So the end reveals felt a bit anticlimactic to me.

On the other hand, I grew to like Wyl a lot, and Kairos is really, really intriguing. I wish I could see her dust-pile story on screen. I want to know what is up with her species.

So I don't know if I'll read the rest of the series. Probably I'll get them out of the library like I did this one, but I'll skim if it gets to be too much.

 

oh noooooooo! as my twin, i really thought you would love this. : o p
but yeah, life's too short to read books you don't love (she says and she shoves Thrawn: Treason under the bed). XD

 

I am more of a Claudia Gray person.

I have Thrawn 3 on hold at the library also for skimming purposes.

 

I finally picked this up. I don't want to fall too much behind since part 2 is on its way. I like Freed's writing style might pick up his other Star Wars books that I missed( Battlefront & Rogue One) I also want to read Thrawn Treason. The first two books were pretty good.
I've got a long reading list( gotta delve into the Old Republic books) still haven't read Ashoka ( really into Jedi stories) or the Padma books. I want to read that 3rd person Luke book Heir to the Jedi. I was thinking about reading multiple books at the same time as I did in my college days. Does that work for anyone? Anywho, the next Star Wars film is in 3 years so there is no rush.

 

Reading multiple books at once seems kind of like a bad way to enjoy a body of work as it can lead to confusion. Though I have been known to get to three books a week, I sometimes find it hard to keep track of where I am and so trace back to where I can remember finishing off last time and reread previous chapters and pages in order to further cement the images in my head.

It is alright to have a reading list but don't make this your primary focus as this may lead to rushing through the books you have in order to make your next set of acquisitions. Take your time and appreciate the book that you have in front of you. If you do manage to read through your reading list in that five year period, I would suggest taking a break from Star Wars for a short while to avoid burnout.

If you think that you have a backlog, just imagine the average Star Trek fan- there are approximately 800 (now likely slightly over) books (novels, anthologies and omnibus editions) at the moment.

• https://airtable.com/universe/expsZ6vRPGwedtNfq/every-star-trek-book-ever?explore=true
• https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/booklists/star-trek-the-reading-list/

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 15, 2020, Original Post Date: Feb 15, 2020 ---

Personally, I am waiting until the second book in the series comes out so I can read them together. Sometimes I find myself in the situation where I have read the first book, X unit of time has gone past and I have run out of shelf space and so have had to sell a number of books to make more space and book Y in the series comes out. By that time, I have forgotten what has happened in the prior instalment so I have to re-buy the book that I had before.

 

Audiobooks have some great productions especially the ones that are just audible, but I grasp the story much more when I read it, or as @DarthSnow said, properly read it. I had to listen to Star Wars Bloodline by Claudia Gray twice because some parts just went over my head, or was distracted. I have 4 Star Wars audiobooks: From a certain point of view, Catalyst, Bloodline, and Aftermath. I read them first then listened to the audible. I got the digital version of Victory's Price at a discount from Amazon, $9.99, so I'll start reading that this week.