The Gamer's Guide to Books

X-Wing Wraith Squadron

Aaron Allston
paperback, $5.99 403 pages

"Every pilot who makes it will be a success story, a come- from behind story, suited for a holodrama or series."

Aaron Allston is a writer all gamers should appreciate, because he's been there and done that. He has designed role-playing game scenarios and computer role-playing games. Lately, he's been quite successful with his fiction. Wraith Squadron is the fifth X-Wing book, and the first written by someone other than Michael Stackpole. Stay tuned for numbers six and seven, which will he Wraith books by Allston.

Where the earlier books cover the exploits of Rogue Squadron, here Wedge Antitles creates Wraith Squadron, a group of pilots gathered for their commando skills. Imagine Top Gun Navy Seals in X-Wings. The haddy du Jour is a guy with a SUper-St2r Destroyer; this baddy has various lieutenants, one of whom is the designated victim of Wraith Squadron in this installment.

Allston gives you good value for Your six bucks: while these media tie-in novels sometimes run light, there's plenty of action in between the covers of Wraith Squadron. He does a good job of juggling the large cast (twelve pilots, plus support and command personnel), and the inter-relations between the large cast are as vivid as the many action scenes. Allston does a good job with the chestnut type of story the series requires: watch any old war flick, and you'll spot the stereotypes translated into this Star Wars novel. There's the practical joker, the fearful/vengeful hero, the hot combat chick, the remorseful survivor, and so on.

Though working within a pre-determined framework, Allston manages to introduce new and interesting wrinkles into the formula. For Star Wars buffs, this is a good pick. "Yub, yub," commander!

Freeform's Landing

"During that long march, she found herself resenting Patti Sue's frailty. She'd've preferred being up front with Mitford and Zainal, able to see where she was going: scouting ahead even. She liked being first, not tamely following others."

If you don't think "Pern" when you hear the name "McCaffrey," get thee to a bookstore or library! RPG's flourish in well-developed worlds, and McCaffrey's Pern is a great example of the Fantastic mated to the Grittily Practical. Here, McCaffrey posits a different future. In a kind of IN scenario in which we don't win, millions of humans are shipped off-planet as slaves of an interstellar society. While the Cattem are the slave-lords, they themselves are pawns of a master race you don't get to see first hand in this first book of the series. One of the principle narrators is Kris, who meets an upper-crust Catteni and is shipped with him, various aliens, and many other humans to a "new" planet in need of colonizing.

Trouble is, the new planet ("Botany") isn't exactly empty: there are automated farm gadgets tilling the soils and harvesting the local cattle. The local fauna also makes life interesting for the colonists, who have clothing, knives, hatchets, and cups but little else with which to carve a niche out of the semi-wilderness. Luckily, the automated farms produce a lot of chow, and the farm gadgets are readily re-assembled into useful tools.

While any McCaffrey fan will enjoy this book, there are more loose ends than usual in a McCaffrey work. On an alien planet before "Botany," we meet Kris after she's stolen the personal aircraft of a local commandant and lived off the land for a month or two. Since this is high-tech stuff, one might presume that the Catteni have some of the same features available to today's drivers, for example a satellite locator useful if some naughty person steals your car. And once on Botany, civilization progresses very quickly, even given the many advantages these semi-castaways receive. It's only a matter of days, for example, before "experts" are divining the vitamin content of alien foodstuffs. And while Kris' attraction to the "nice guy" Catteni slaver seems inevitable, I found myself doubting she'd take a shine to him so quickly, especially since he represents the invasion and domination of Earth.

Oh well. Though it has a few more rough spots than most of her books, this McCaffrey adventure is a must-read for fans and an OK choice for folks who like a good "human ingenuity defeats anything" tale.

Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others without his thumb on the scales.

--Byron Langfeld