James Review -- Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad

This week I decided to review Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad by Christie Golden. 

The story begins with Iden Versio serving as a TIE Fighter pilot on board the first Death Star. After barely surviving the Battle of Yavin, Versio returns to Coruscant where her father, Imperial Admiral Garrick Versio, assigns her to Inferno Squad, a new elite unit intended to prevent leaks such as that which led to the Death Star’s destruction.

Following a test where each member draws up a plan for their first assignment, the younger Versio is assigned to command the unit. After a few missions hunting down information being used to blackmail Imperial officials and such, Inferno Squad is sent to infiltrate the Dreamers, a remnant group of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. While most of the unit goes undercover, Versio joins the Dreamers as herself seemingly disgraced after pretending to be angered by the destruction of Alderaan. At first the infiltration goes well and the Infernos work to spark conflict between Staven, the leader of the Dreamers, who has no qualms about targeting civilians, and his advisor known only as the Mentor, who wishes to minimize collateral damages. But soon some of the Infernos begin to form friendships with Dreamers. Also, while Inferno Squad has permission to attack Imperial targets as needed to maintain cover, the members must decide how much damage they are willing to inflict on their fellow Imperials, soldiers, officials, and civilians alike, to achieve their goal.

I give this book 8 out of 10. I enjoyed the general idea of the story and the characters but I felt there were a few flaws. I felt that the true identity of the Mentor was made obvious to those familiar with canon Star Wars lore far too early. I also felt that some more disputes between Staven and the Mentor would have been interesting. Also, with space combat included in Battlefront II from the beginning, I expected at least two or three space battles in the book. There was a short one at the very beginning, but none afterwards. In particular, I would have liked to get to see the Corvus, Inferno Squad’s corvette in combat.