Inferno Squad by Christie Golden
After the humiliating theft of the Death Star plans and the resulting destruction of the battle station, the Empire is on the defensive. In response to this stunning defeat, the Imperial Navy has authorized the formation of an elite team of soldiers, known as Inferno Squad. Their mission: infiltrate and eliminate the remnants of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. Following the death of their leader, the Partisans have carried on his extremist legacy, determined to thwart the Empire—no matter what the cost. Now, Inferno Squad must prove their status as the best of the best and take down the Partisans from within. But as the danger intensifies and the threat of discovery grows, how far will Inferno Squad go to ensure the safety of the Empire?
It has been a while since I read a Star Wars book, one of the last ones must have been Catalyst. Anyhow. Star Wars books are hot at the moment with the new movies coming out in a rapid pace. The great thing about these Star Wars books is how they expand the world that is being shown in the movies (and other books). One aspect of the movies is that for my personal preferences one side is a bit under represented. That of the Empire. I remember still remember the book Lord's of the Sith with features Dart Vader and Darth Sidious. It is with these kind of stories that you learn a lot more about the Empire. The same counts for Inferno Squad. Meet the elite soldiers of the Empire that are ready to clean up the mess and eliminate, threaten, assassinate any unwanted person/threat.
Inferno Squad picks up right after the Death Star got destroyed by the rebels. The Empire is in disarray on how this could have happened, they need to get their things together and fight back. One of the very few survivors of the Death Star attack is the experience TIE fighter Iden Versio. Iden's father is a high ranking admiral among the Empire and she is set to lead a four man team called Inferno Squad. Each of the team members of Inferno Squad has their own specialization. Seyn Marana is the covert spy, super intelligent and a photographic memory, Gideon Hask, a friend and also a pilot has know Iden for a long time and Del Meeko one of the best engineers out their. The task at hand for Inferno Squad is to root out all the last "Dreamers", partisans that follow Saw Gerrera. These extremist rebels need to be root out for good.
The flow of the story in Inferno Squad is set out spot on. Some of the members of Inferno Squad know each other already and some need to familiarize themselves with working together. This reflects in one of the first missions that they carry out that doesn't go quite as smoothly as planned. The build up of the story like this shows a pleasant growth of the individual characters and that of the squad together. At the end it is remarkable how well they grew as a team and the ending is in that regard a bit of a shock.
One of the most interesting relations of the book was that of Iden and her father the Admiral. This could have been one strenuous relationship but they manage to keep it business. This doesn't mean that there is no human touch, on the contrary, when they are not together you see just how much family feeling their is between one another and that they will not let each other down, no matter how dire the situation.
And of course what would a Star Wars book be without some action. Just a note up front, Inferno Squad is a more a book about non-Force users. No lightsabers or force. This doesn't take away that there isn't plenty of tense action to enjoy though. The team members of Inferno Squad all know their way around: explosives, blasters and a lot more. This front is definitely checked.
In my opnion Inferno Squad is a enjoyable addition to the ever extending Star Wars canon. Their have been plenty of book written about Luke Skywalker and cohorts. With Inferno Squad Christie Golden deftly shows one of the under represented sides of the Empire. Lets see if there will be another Inferno Squad adventure in the future.
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