Kindle Price: | $9.99 |
Sold by: | Random House LLC Price set by seller. |
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample Sample
Wraith Squadron: Star Wars Legends (Wraith Squadron) (Star Wars: Wraith Squadron – Legends Book 1) Kindle Edition
It is Wedge Antilles’s boldest creation: a covert-action unit of X-wing fighters, its pilots drawn from the dregs of other units, castoffs and rejects being given one last chance. But before the new pilots can complete their training, the squadron’s base is attacked by former Imperial admiral Trigit and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action—taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew.
The mission: to gain vital intelligence about Trigit’s secret weapons, to sabotage the admiral’s plans, and to lure him into an Alliance trap. However, the high-stakes gamble pits Wraith Squadron’s ragtag renegades against the Empire’s most brilliant master of guile and deception.
Are they up to the challenge?
If not, the penalty is instant death.
- Reading age8 - 12 years
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level3 - 7
- PublisherRandom House Worlds
- Publication dateJune 28, 2011
- ISBN-100029665120540
- ISBN-13978-0593726075
- Rogue Squadron: Star Wars Legends (Rogue Squadron) (Star Wars: X-Wing - Legends Book 1)Kindle Edition$12.99$12.99
- Outcast: Star Wars Legends (Fate of the Jedi) (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Legends Book 1)Kindle Edition$7.99$7.99
- Dark Lord: Star Wars Legends: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars: Dark Lord Book 3)Kindle Edition$8.99$8.99
- Shadow Hunter: Star Wars Legends (Darth Maul) (Star Wars: Darth Maul Book 2)Kindle Edition$8.99$8.99
- Betrayal: Star Wars Legends (Legacy of the Force) (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Book 1)Kindle Edition$8.99$8.99
Editorial Reviews
Review
From the Publisher
From the Inside Flap
It is Wedge Antilles' boldest creation: a covert-action unit of X-wing fighters, its pilots drawn from the dregs of other units, castoffs and rejects given one last chance. But before the new pilots can complete their training, the squadron's base is attacked by former Imperial admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action--taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew. The mission: to gain vital intelligence about Trigit's secret weapons, to sabotage the admiral's plans, and to lure him into an Alliance trap. But the high-stakes gamble pits Wraith Squadron's ragtag renegades against the Empire's most brilliant master of guile and deception.
Are they up to the challenge?
If not, the penalty is
From the Back Cover
It is Wedge Antilles' boldest creation: a covert-action unit of X-wing fighters, its pilots drawn from the dregs of other units, castoffs and rejects given one last chance. But before the new pilots can complete their training, the squadron's base is attacked by former Imperial admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action--taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew. The mission: to gain vital intelligence about Trigit's secret weapons, to sabotage the admiral's plans, and to lure him into an Alliance trap. But the high-stakes gamble pits Wraith Squadron's ragtag renegades against the Empire's most brilliant master of guile and deception.
Are they up to the challenge?
If not, the penalty is
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The world below, Coruscant, former throne world of the Empire, was an unbroken landscape of urban construction, a vast city reaching from pole to pole, blanketed by gray clouds shot through with white and yellow flashes of lightning.
The squadron commander, piloting a black fighter with an incongruously cheerful green and gold checkerboard pattern on the bow, shook his head over the grim vista of the world below. Even after all the time he'd spent here--even after the crucial role he'd played in conquering this world for the New Republic--he still could not get used to the arrogance of Coruscant. It was a world that could only rule or perish, for it produced nothing but soldiers, officers, and bureaucrats, and could not feed its population without importing massive quantities of food from around the galaxy.
He took a visual scan of his immediate surroundings. "Rogue Three, tighten up. We're putting on a show here."
A green X-wing closed in tighter to the formation. "Yes, sir." Though distorted by the comm system, the voice sounded indulgent rather than military.
"That's 'Yes, Wedge' until we're formally returned to duty." The commander smiled. "Or perhaps, 'Yes, Exalted One.' Or 'Yes, O envy of all Corellia.' Or--"
A chorus of groans interrupted him. The voice of Nawara Ven, the squadron's Twi'lek executive officer, cut through it: "Stop complaining. He's earned his little vacation from reality."
Then the voice of Tycho Celchu, Wedge's second-in-command, sharp and military: "Sensors register a squadron of fighters rising toward us. Speed is X-wing or better; sensor profiles suggest X-wings."
"Maintain formation," Wedge said, then switched his comm unit over from squadron frequency to New Republic military frequency. "Rogue Squadron to approaching X-wing formation, please identify yourselves."
The voice responding was brisk, amused, and familiar. "Wrong designations, sir. We're Rogue Squadron. You're simply a rogue squadron. But for the next few minutes we'll do you the courtesy of designating ourselves Red Squadron to avoid confusion. We're your escort."
"Hobbie? Is that you, Lieutenant Klivan?"
"That's Captain Klivan...again, just for the next few minutes."
The other X-wing unit rose into view, gradually attaining the altitude of Wedge's squadron. Wedge was startled to see that the dozen snubfighters were painted in Rogue Squadron's traditional red stripes and twelve-pointed insignia. "Hobbie, explain this."
"No time, sir. We have a course change for you. High Command has decided to broadcast this entire event across the HoloNet--"
"Oh, no."
"--so set your new course to ninety-three, follow my rate of descent, and we'll get you there in one piece. After that, you're on your own."
Within moments their destination was clear: Imperial Plaza, a ground-level ferrocrete circle so broad that in spite of the surrounding skyscrapers, it could be seen from high in the air at angles other than directly overhead. The plaza was packed with spectators; even at this altitude Wedge could see banners and fluttering haze that looked like chaff but had to be some sort of celebratory confetti.
A speakers platform had been erected on the plaza's west side, with barricaded open areas north and south of it--obvious landing zones for the two squadrons.
As they descended toward the plaza, Wedge flipped his comm system back to the squadron channel. "Once around the park, outbound port, return starboard, at five hundred, Rogues. They're here for a show; let's give them one."
Immediately he heard Hobbie's answer on the same channel: "Same, Reds, but starboard to port return at six hundred meters. Sloppiest flight group buys drinks."
The two squadrons parted, circling the plaza at its perimeter, the wingtips of the X-wings sometimes only meters from the faces of admirers piled up against the skyscraper windows. The squadrons crossed one another's positions on the far side of the plaza and rejoined at their first position, then spiraled down toward the landing zones.
Rogue Squadron angled toward the northern area, Red Squadron toward the southern. At three hundred meters, Wedge said, "Landing gear and repulsorlifts, people," and both squadrons began the safe, vertical descents allowed by the snubfighters' antigravity engines.
Wedge smiled. "Your Red Squadron looks pretty good, Hobbie. A pity you haven't had time to teach them anything about precision flying."
"What?"
"Rogue Squadron, Three Diamonds Parade Formation, execute!"
After a moment's hesitation--it had been some time since the unit had practiced the intricate parade formations--the Rogues split into their three flight groups, each group maneuvering into a diamond-shaped formation--one X-wing forward, one back, the two others side by side in the middle--with Wedge's group forward and the other two side by side behind, making a triangle of diamonds, all facing eastward.
Even over the sound of the repulsorlifts, Wedge could hear the cheers from the crowd.
Hobbie's voice came back immediately: "Red Squadron, same maneuver, but one-eighty to their orientation." He sounded amused rather than angry. And in moments his squadron was in the same Three Diamonds Formation, but his X-wings faced west.
More cheers--the crowd was going wild over the aerial demonstration.
"A little wobbly, Hobbie."
"We haven't been together that long, Wedge, but we still know a few tricks. And you started this. Red Group Three, deny Rogue Group One!"
The three-fighter triangle to Hobbie's starboard rear broke away from the Red Squadron formation, sideslipped and reversed orientation while maintaining the same internal order, and came into position a mere ten meters beneath Wedge's group, descending toward the spot where Wedge would have landed.
"Not bad, Hobbie. Rogue Group Two, deny Red Group One!"
Corran Horn, in his green X-wing with the black and white trim, led his group in a similar maneuver and positioned them directly beneath Hobbie Klivan's group.
"You mynock. Red Group Two, deny Rogue Group Three!"
"Rogue Group One, substitute Red Two!"
The two squadrons' flight groups crisscrossed above the speakers platform as they descended, a dazzling display of precision flying, until, when all were a mere ten meters above the ground, Rogue Squadron was reassembled over the southern landing zone, Red Squadron over the northern. The two dozen snubfighters set down within moments of one another.
Their pilots climbed down from their cockpits into a whirlwind of celebration: New Republic diplomats and old friends dragging them up onto the speakers platform, clouds of confetti raining down from the skyscrapers ringing the plaza, roars of appreciation and exuberance from the thousands in the plaza. Wedge managed to get handshakes and backslaps from Hobbie and Red Squadron's second-in-command, Wes Janson, before being dragged into line formation with all the pilots; the crowd's roar was too overwhelming to allow them to hear one another's words.
At the front of the platform, at the speakers lectern, stood the New Republic Provisional Council's best-loved speaker, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. Unlike most of the New Republic's representatives present, she was dressed simply, in a belted robe of senatorial white. She caught Wedge's eye and gave him a smile and half shake of the head, acknowledging their mutual dislike of public spectacles such as this, then turned back toward the crowd.
With a few waves of her hand she managed to reduce the crowd's roar to the point her amplified voice could be heard above it. "Citizens of the New Republic, I present to you Rogue Squadron!" Another protracted roar, and then she continued, "Before I bring Commander Antilles up to speak, I think I should put the squadron's recent accomplishments in perspective. With their efforts, we now have, once again, a steady supply of bacta--a supply sufficient to stamp out the last lingering effects of the Krytos Plague. With their efforts--"
Wedge tuned her out. This was all old news to him. Weeks before, he'd led Rogue Squadron--the true Rogue Squadron, the men and women now in civilian dress--on a mission that the New Republic military command could not support. Resigning their commissions, the members of Rogue Squadron and a handful of professional insurgents had mounted a civilian action against the new government of the world of Thyferra, the world where the overwhelming majority of bacta, the miracle medicine, was produced. That new government was headed by the Empire's former espionage leader, Ysanne Isard, and could have become the core of a reunited Empire.
But now Ysanne Isard was dead, and Rogue Squadron's resignations had apparently been creatively misfiled--meaning that they were never civilians--meaning that, with the mission's success, the New Republic was retroactively making the Thyferran mission an officially sanctioned operation.
Product details
- ASIN : B00513E5GG
- Publisher : Random House Worlds; Reissue edition (June 28, 2011)
- Publication date : June 28, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 3940 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 450 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0593726073
- Best Sellers Rank: #213,088 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #95 in Star Wars Series
- #2,285 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #2,863 in Science Fiction Adventure
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Aaron Allston is the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force novels Betrayal, Exile, and Fury; the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines adventures Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand; novels in the popular Star Wars X-Wing series; and the Doc Sidhe novels, which combine 1930s-style hero-pulps with Celtic myth. He is also a longtime game designer and was recently inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design (AAGAD) Hall of Fame.
Related products with free delivery on eligible orders
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the new characters good, but the author tried too hard to make them new. They also describe the plot as high adventure, exciting, and holds up. Readers praise the outstanding characterizations and deftly handled humor. They mention the book has a great blend of action, humor, and suspense.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the new characters in the book good.
"...Allston has put together a memorable cast of characters who play off each other well, in a rollercoaster of a plot that includes impersonating an..." Read more
"...because it doesn't have endless dogfights and there is more emphasis on character development...." Read more
"A great tradidtion of the X-wing series, exciting characters new and old, and a great twist on recuiting and training for the new republic, and some..." Read more
"It was alright. The new characters were good, but the author tried too hard to interject humor in the story...." Read more
Customers find the plot high adventure, exciting, and suspenseful. They also appreciate the blend of action, humor, and the Night Caller storyline.
"...Allston takes the baton from Stackpole with no glitches and introduces enough new twists to keep this book from feeling like a copy of the first four." Read more
"...It's got a great blend of action, humor, and suspense that makes it a highy entertaining read...." Read more
"High adventure, excellent characterization, and exciting and we'll visualized battles make for a great read. A great book in a great series." Read more
"...the new republic, and some pleasent surpises with humor and really great adventure, Wraith Squadron....not just for flying!!" Read more
Customers find the characterizations outstanding and deftly handled. They also say the concept is very solid and brings a welcome change.
"...This series continues to be a very solid concept, bringing a welcome change from the many books focused on the main film characters and illuminating..." Read more
"...and now reading it again years later I'm very happy to find it still holds up!..." Read more
"High adventure, excellent characterization, and exciting and we'll visualized battles make for a great read. A great book in a great series." Read more
Customers find the book has a great blend of action, humor, and suspense that makes for very entertaining dialogue.
"...grapple with his multiple personalities, making for some very entertaining dialogue...." Read more
"...It's got a great blend of action, humor, and suspense that makes it a highy entertaining read...." Read more
"...on recuiting and training for the new republic, and some pleasent surpises with humor and really great adventure, Wraith Squadron....not just for..." Read more
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Allston's first job is to introduce us to the titular group of fighter pilots. Wedge Antilles believes based on his many experiences with Rogue Squadron that a new team with a different focus is needed. Rogue are pilots first and commandos second; this new squadron will be the other way around, with the highest level of competency in ground-based missions supplanted by keen piloting experience. Allston does a superb job of quickly fleshing out over a dozen new characters, employing an entertaining interview sequence followed by training missions and various short scenes of exposition to get the reader comfortable with so many new additions at once. Within a hundred pages, I was easily able to differentiate the pilots and had already started picking my favorites, no mean feat in a book of this nature.
Several pilots are of particular note. Wedge heads up the squadron with the help of his old squad mate Wes Janson, and they provide a necessary connection back to the earlier stories and the Rogue Squadron comics. Myn Donos, fresh from seeing his entire Talon Squadron wiped out around him in a mission gone awry, brings heaps of survivor's guilt and angst to his new job. Hohass "Runt" Ekwesh, who is depicted essentially as an bipedal horse, must grapple with his multiple personalities, making for some very entertaining dialogue. Garik "Face" Loran, a former child star of Imperial propaganda, and Ton Phanan, a cynical cyborg with medical skills, offer some great comical interludes between missions. Finally, Voort "Piggy" saBinring is a genetically altered Gamorrean with superlative mental abilities - my favorite character of the bunch.
The plot of the book can be readily broken into two segments: the setting up of the squadron and the move to Folor Base for training, and then the missions that come after the surprise assault on Folor by Admiral Apwar Trigit. Trigit works for Admiral Zsinj, the warlord that has been lurking in the shadows of the prior few books. With Ysanne Isard out of the way, it's time for Zsinj to assume the spotlight. I had some trouble envisioning Zsinj as depicted to be truly threatening, but his character does make an interesting break from the stereotypical Star Wars villain.
In an early mission, the Wraiths manage to capture a Corellian Corvette employed by Zsinj, the Night Caller. This capture drives the remainder of the plot, as the Wraiths pose as Imperials and take the Night Caller on through her schedule of stops. The hints of a larger plot by Zsinj begin to unfold, although they are not woven together in this particular volume. The Night Caller storyline is a great one, and it allows Allston to tie together a variety of ground and space-based missions that otherwise might feel somewhat disjointed.
Wraith Squadron receives highest marks for its outstanding characterizations and deftly-handled humor. There were more moments that made me chuckle aloud in this book than any other Star Wars book I've read recently. Allston takes the baton from Stackpole with no glitches and introduces enough new twists to keep this book from feeling like a copy of the first four.
The first thing Allston does in this book is to shake up the established status quo. Allston starts moving characters around and gives us a whole new set of characters to focus on in this book. Normally in an established series this can be a disaster (how many people would have been happy if they had introduced Yoda for the first time, then immediately cut him out of the story and focused instead on some distant relative of his?!). But in this instance it worked.
Allston keeps Rogue Squadron in the background, but takes Wedge out of Rogue Squadron and gives him a new adventure and a new squadron to play with. Wedge also brings along Wes Janson for this adventure, Janson was in the movies and I think this is the first series face time this character gets in this franchise.
The best part about Allston's writing isn't that fact that the established characters stay in character. The best part is that the new characters and old characters interacting in this book are HILARIOUS! I damn near fell out of my chair laughing when I read the Ewok joke (no I am not going to spoil it here, read it yourself)!
Throughout the book Allston just randomly decides to take silly breaks and has the characters bantering and cracking jokes with abandon -- it works VERY, VERY well!
Read it, you will like it -- unless the dark side has already claimed you!
Yub, yub commander!
Top reviews from other countries
The story as such is great, the Wraiths are finding themselves, become a real unit and friends, some even lovers. We are winning friends and losing some, that makes for a really good story and damn, my internal fuel lines are leaking, or something like that. Go on, read the book ;)