Book Review: Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston

ISBN: 0553578944
Published: February 1998
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Read from July 27th to August 3rd, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads:

They are the galaxy's most elite fighting force. And as the battle against the Empire rages, the X-wing fighters risk life and machine to protect the Rebel Alliance. Now they must go on a daring undercover mission--as the crew of an Imperial warship.
It is Wedge Antilles' boldest creation: a covert-action unit of X-wing fighters, its pilots drawn from the dregs of other units, castoffs and rejects given one last chance. But before the new pilots can complete their training, the squadron's base is attacked by former Imperial admiral Trigit, and Wraith Squadron is forced to swing into action--taking over an Imperial warship and impersonating its crew. The mission: to gain vital intelligence about Trigit's secret weapons, to sabotage the admiral's plans, and to lure him into an Alliance trap. But the high-stakes gamble pits Wraith Squadron's ragtag renegades against the Empire's most brilliant master of guile and deception.
Are they up to the challenge?
If not, the penalty is instant death.

Review:

Not only does this book have a different author than the first four in the X-Wings series, but it also focuses on an almost entirely new cast of characters.  At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but after reading the book, I think it was a great change.  While I greatly enjoyed the characters in the first four books and did miss them a bit, I loved the characters in this book.  They were fantastic.  They have much more interesting pasts, then the majority of the characters in the first four books.  I think they are more complex characters, and that helped make me feel more invested in them.  During the first four books, I liked all of the characters but really only became attached to a couple.  In this book, I became invested in the story of almost all of the characters, and I cared what happened to them.  There's still a small bit of me that somewhat misses Rogue Squadron, but I'm perfectly okay with reading about Wraith Squadron.

The story was also interesting, with Wraith Squadron pretending to be the crew of an Imperial warship.  I wasn't sure how they would successfully do that, but I really enjoyed reading about it.  I thought it was a really interesting story.