The X-Wing series consists of four books written by Michael A Stackpole set 6 years ABY and followed by three books by Aaron Allston set 7 years ABY. There was then an additional book written by Michael A Stackpole set 9 years ABY and a final book written by Aaron Allston set 13 years ABY.

The books are:
Rogue Squadron
Wedge's Gamble
The Krytos Trap
The Bacta War
details of which are available here.

Then:
Wraith Squadron,
Iron Fist
Solo Command
details of which are available here.

Then
Isard's Revenge which is covered here
and
Starfighters of Adumar here

Also connected with this series is Michael A Stackpole's book I, Jedi which I will deal with in another blog, together with a number of short stories, some of which have been reprinted in hyperspace fiction and will also be detailed in the other blog...

These books are being discussed in BC&T here.

My thoughts on these books are spread throughout the thread, including here:

I have just finished "Rogue Squadron" and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've already launched into "Wedge's Gamble".

Now that I know more of the characters (from my other EU reading) I found it much easier to develop an interest in what was going on, although the actual battles tended to go on a little too long for my liking.

It was nice to read about the beginning of Corran and Mirax's relationship and to find out a little more about Corran and Iella's corsec days.

I assume that Ysanne Isard's character will be developed further through the subsequent books ... I was expecting someone much meaner and nastier than appeared in this book.

I am also looking forward to the development of Tycho's character. Unfortunately in the NJO he just seemed to be there, without much character at all.

and here:

Just finished Wedge's Gamble. Yes, YI does get nastier in this book, doesn't she. Even with less emphasis on the air/space battles I still had a little difficulty getting into the book ... but by about halfway through I didn't want to put it down.

And the ending really makes me want to head straight into the next book as well (even if I am cringing about the coming court scenes). I thought that a little more could have been made of Mirax and the others' reactions to Corran's crash ... but maybe that's in the next book.

I thought that there might be a little more of Tycho and Winter in this book - there was not even an indication of reunion when in the first book Tycho was clearly unaware if she was still around/alive.

The one thing I have some difficulty with, and I agree with Valin (I think it was in T'bone's) on this point, is the inter-species relationships. I don't think that these even begin to compare with inter-racial relationships - something I see as a total non-issue.

In inter-species relationshops biology would/could be totally different and has a bit of a wince-factor involved for me. I felt that the discussion about Corran and the Selonian was way over the top. I have no problems at all with relationships being developed in these books (and I am actually quite happy that there generally seems to be a bit more openness on this issue in comparison to other EU books) - but that was just a bit more than my brain could handle.

Besides which - wouldn't creatures born in a species where there are only queen breeders and few males who are available only to that queen have atrophied/non-developed sexual organs?

That led to quite a bit of debate which readers can see following on from my posts. I then posted:

I just finished The Krytos Trap and in many ways this one was my favourite yet.

I was a little confused at first because knowing that the Lusankya was an SSD from my other EU readings, I had assumed all along that when prisoners were sent to Lusankya, they were sent to the ship ... and I couldn't really work out what was going on when it seemed to be underground. So then I started thinking maybe a ship had been named after the prison ... and then I found out that it was the ship after all!

Up until a few months ago I would have read the reference to the Lusankya being 8km without really taking any notice whatsoever and would have just thought "gee that's really big". Now - I still think the same thing but I couldn't help but be distracted by the 8km/17 point whatever km debate. Bah. Whatever it is, it's bigger than I can even begin to comprehend, anyway. ;p

My reservation going in to this book related to the court room scenes - but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. With only a couple of very minor quibbles, these scenes were definitely the best court-based scenes I have read outside of any fiction written by a lawyer. Most of the things that were out of the ordinary were acknowledged as such due to the extraordinary nature of the trial, making it just that little bit more interesting for me.

My only slight disappointment (knowing that Mirax would survive to marry Corran) was in the supposed death and miracle re-appearance of her character ... to have both her and Corran disappearing and reappearing in such a short timespan just stretched things that little bit too much IMHO. The explanation for her return was quite reasonable but very abrupt and I was left thinking that the whole device was just a little odd.

But that was a very small point - other than that I thought that this was the best of the three I've read to date, and I'm looking forward to moving on to The Bacta War tonight.

Then:

I enjoyed The Bacta War, but was a little disappointed that we didn't hear more of Winter and even Iella could have played more of a role IMO. I liked finally finding out how Booster got the Errant Venture (although I still don't know that I understand the mechanics of it all) and it was good to eventually see the demise of Ysanne Isard.

However, I was a little concerned at the way that Corran actually seemed to enjoy killing Erisi - not only was it not very good guy-ish but it didn't seem to bode well for his attitude as a Jedi. I know that she had caused him all sorts of pain and trouble but the way that ended just didn't seem quite right.

Anyway, on to Wraith Squadron now...

So after the Stackpole books I moved on to the Allston trilogy and posted:

Finished Wraith Squadron and I think I enjoyed it more than the Rogue Squadron books. I certainly got into it much more quickly - although that could in part be because I knew more of the characters because of their roles in the NJO, especially Rebel Stand.

Reading these books has made me want to go back and read Enemy Lines (2 of my favourite books in the NJO) yet again.

Seeing the very early days of Kell (and Tyria, who I had only previously heard of in passing), Face and Piggy as well as the involvement of Wes was really interesting.

And no one was believed to be dead and came back to life - a nice change from the earlier 4 books.

I notice from the dramatis personnae of Iron Fist that Lt Kettch is actually listed - so I assume the joke increases to a new level in the next book.

Then:

I've now finished Iron Fist and Solo Command and they are definitely my favourite books in the series so far.

The mix of humour, tension, battle scenes that didn't go on too long and well drawn characters was great.

And you were right, D'ganin, Lt Kettch was fabulous.

I'm definitely going to re-read Enemy LInes again as soon as I've finished the remaining 2 x-wing books.

However I move on to Isard's Revenge with a sense of dread ... especially now that I know she hasn't just returned from the dead but there is also a clone. Aargh.

Ah well. Hopefully it will have some good points (but what are the odds that Corran will go missing presumed dead again ...). ;p

So back to Stackpole and I posted this:

Finished Isard's Revenge.

The first chapter was good.

I liked Whistler and Gate's escape.

There's not much more worthwhile that I can say ...

Now I suppose I'll re-read I Jedi before finishing with Starfighters of Adumar.

I did in fact read I,Jedi next - but as I've already said, that will be in another blog. So finally:

And now I've finished Starfighters of Adumar so I've sadly finished the series (although I'm now going to re-read NJO Dark Tide and Enemy Lines).

I really enjoyed this book - Aaron Allston's sense of humour is great.

It wasn't as weighty as the other x-wing books, and had the feel of being an elongated short story. It wasn't until I was more than half way through that I realised that this was because, unlike the other books with 3 times the number of central characters, the focus was on half a dozen central characters without any divisions of storyline - it was rare that the group split up and there was no writing about what was going on from the enemy/imperial side of things.

This was a little superficial, but it actually made the book harder to put down. Even with chapter divisons there were few of the usual natural breaks that come from a divergence in story line, so it was really compelling reading.

As I said, I'm a bit sad that the series is over now - hence my moving into those NJO books for more of the character development 15+ years down the track.

However, I'm definitely glad that I accepted everyone's recommendations and read them (well, maybe all except IR ;p).

Now if all goes according to plan, the I, Jedi blog will be here.


Links to all of my reviews/overview blogs can be found in this blog.