Victory's Price Review

spoilers ahead!!!!!

"The aces of the New Republic have one final chance to defeat the darkness of Shadow Wing in this thrilling conclusion to the Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron trilogy! "

Victory's Price by Alexander Freed is a thrilling conclusion indeed! A rapidly paced adventure with perhaps the most heart of the trilogy, this book was a masterfully crafted emotional rollercoaster that definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. Yrica Quell is back with the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing... but where do her true loyalties lie? Wyl Lark is in command, but will his desire to return Home result in disaster for him and his friends? Nath Tensent is a hero, but does really have faith in the New Republic to keep his friends alive? Will Chass na Chadic's affilition with the Children of the Empty Sun cause tension between her and the rest of the squad? And Kairos, perhaps the most mysterious member of Alphabet Squadron, is unmasked and talking for the first time, giving us new insight into her mysterious past and even more mysterious future. All combined, will Alphabet Squadron have the power to defeat Shadow Wing in the ultimate battle of the Galactic Civil War?

This book is so, so insanely good. Freed does it again, mixing brilliant character writing with fast paced combat, and a network of familiar Star Wars sights without becoming stale. The fight with Shadow Wing over Chadawa was written extremely well, and I really enjoyed that Shadow Wing was able to use the radition from Chadawa to influence the Battle of Jakku. Speaking of the Battle of Jakku, THE BATTLE OF JAKKU WAS IN THIS BOOK!!! I'm a sucker for the early Star Wars canon circa 2015-2017 (as well as the late rebellion/early New Republic era in general), so this was the ultimate crossover event of the century for me! With Hera Syndulla, Mon Mothma, and Gial Ackbar all showing up, this book did an amazing job at referencing what came before without taking away anything from the story.

My favorite part of the book was Quell's journey — talk about a complex female character! Her joining back with Shadow Wing in the previous installment was a shock, and that shock didn't wear off even after it was revealed that she was still secretly providing the New Republic with information. It became clear through Quell's inner dialogue that she did not believe she would ever be accepted back into the New Republic, which left me wondering what her fate would be into the last few chapters of the book. Additionally, Quell's relationship with her former mentor Soran Keize, alongside all of her Shadow Wing associates made for a really interesting story where her human attachment battles her moral compass. Chass finding Quell further cemented that her journey is my favorite of the book, as all the complexities of Quell's affiliation with Shadow Wing and Alphabetr Squadron made for really interesting character interactions between Quell and Chass, Quell and Hera, and the entirety of Alphabet Squadron. And the final chapter just cemented my love of Quell when it's revealed that her and Chass are partners!!!! I love them both so much and also I love lesbians so that was really huge for me.

Something I should touch on is Quell's main goal toward the end of the book: to stop Keize from killing people on Imperial-occupied Coruscant. Quell's ultimate goal of saving lives just goes to show how noble of a person she is, and how deeply her imperial service affected her. Freed does a great job of making us sympathetic to Keize's goal as well. I think that, in the end, he was flawed in his reasoning, but the way he describes New Republic justice really gets across the idea that he just wants to make it so that Imperials aren't forced into hiding or prison. And his points about no single Imperial worker being innocent (not being able to be innocent) really resonates with me. It reminds me of George Lucas' original parallels between the Galactic Empire and the United States; that to preserve a cruel system of power one must remove all pretense of innocence from those who are forced to work for it. It was a very poignant analogy, and very cool to see a clearly important part galactic history play out on the page. Keize's final act of taking credit for several atrocities that he didn't really take part in shows how far he would go to preserve the humanity of "innocent" imperial workers (many of whom were forced into service).

I'm really struggling to think of any criticism for this book. If anything, I'm just sad that it's over, as I would love to keep following these characters, but the ending was so masterfully written that I don't wish to pull any of our intrepid heroes out of retirement. The Alphabet Squadron Trilogy is officially a mandatory read for any Star Wars fan, in my opinion. Alexander Freed is an excellent writer, and I hope he keeps writing star wars books for years to come. This book gets a 10/10 rating, amazing, excellent, as close to perfect as a book can get!!!!