Book Review: Star Wars: Victory's Price by Alexander Freed

I know I mostly complained about the second book of the Alphabet Squadron series, but since I lot of that was because I completely forgot about most of the characters and storylines, I figured I should read this one right away to finish off the trilogy. And...it was a modest improvement.

Like it's predecessor, Victory's Price seems to take forever to get where it's going, and still feels like it has too many people to keep track of. But once the story becomes clear (about 150-200 pages in) it really starts to hum.

I don't want to get too far into the story - I don't want to spoil the ending, and I also don't want to talk too much about the beginning since that would spoil Shadow Fall. So let's jump around a bit, shall we?

• I believe the dude in the picture on the cover is Soran Keize, the leader of the Imperial 204th Fighter Squadron - Shadow Wing, the main enemies of the trilogy. First of all, the picture is all wrong - he should be played by Billy Zane in the movie. Second of all, he's by far the most well-developed character in the trilogy. And I say that after completely forgetting who he was in Shadow Fall. But he's got the most intriguing arc of any character in this trilogy (although you could also argue that he's the only character who doesn't change throughout the story - THIS MAN HAS LAYERS!). Of all the (feels like hundreds) of characters in these books, he's the real standout.

• A couple of thoughts about the author, Alexander Freed: (1) He wrote what I think is the best Star Wars book ever written, Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company, which has a twist of taking place alongside a famous battle (which, again, I won't spoil it for you - you HAVE to read it for yourself!). The funny part about Victory's Price is that he repeats that same scenario by having the ending take place at the Battle of Jakku - which is especially funny since he invented everything that happened at Jakku in his Aftermath story. (2) After three Aftermath books and three Alphabet Squadron books, I would definitely say that Freed has a ton of story ideas in him. Unfortunately, he keeps cramming them into the same books, which makes it hard to discern which threads to follow. I kind of wish he would stick to one story and spread out into more books - especially with some of the side-ideas he through out in the Aftermath books (What happened to the "Vader Lives" cult? What about the dude who took care of Jabba's Rancor? And that Mandalorian who survived that duel? Or was that "the" Mandalorian?!?!).

• Star Wars at its best is a blend of Sci-Fi, Western, Samurai, and War movies. The problem with Alphabet Squadron is that it was straight War story - there really were no other elements at play. Now, again, Twilight Company, my favorite Star Wars book, is also a straight-up War story - but it's a great one, and was a breath of fresh air filling in the background of the Skywalker saga. After a while, seeing the same story format gets tedious. Freed's stories need an injection of different elements - he needs a Cad Bane injection STAT!

Again, sorry for jumping around, but it's hard to review the third book in a trilogy without giving away spoilers. I'll give it seven out of ten hot dogs.