The first Star Wars book I read from the Imperial perspective. Great espionage thriller full of delicious Star Wars flavor! Quick, pulpy, plot-driven read with just enough characterization and emotion to make it all go down smoothly. Recommended. ( )

I'm not a huge Christie Golden fan at all. Most of her SW stuff I think has been total dreck. On a writing level, this is sub-par to average, as per usual with her. The plot for this is basically two hundred pages of set-up to getting them infiltrated in the "dreamers", the remnants of Saw Gerrera's partisans from Rogue One. .....Problem is for this novel... there's all of about 8 Dreamers left, and two die soon after the Inferno Squad infiltrate. So a group of 4 infiltrate a group of 6, for a total of 10. Which makes the Inferno Squad 40% of the group. And we're supposed to buy that this group is so devastating and important. They even kill Imperials to keep up the appearance, and much of the novel is the internal strife they have of being there.

It just seems impractical, implausible, and stupid. Seems the kinda crap that sounds good on paper until put into practice. Sounds like what you'd write for Star Wars, especially new Disney Star Wars, without putting too much thought to it.

I understand trying to get the information, but it still doesn't seem worth it, especially in light of killing your own people and everything. It doesn't help that Golden's writing is just so.... tepid. ( )

This is a tie-in book to the release to the game Star Wars Battlefront II. It gives the origin story to Inferno Squad, a group of Imperial spies/Special Forces who are lead by Iden Versio. It boils down to the elite team of the leader, the fighter, the engineer and the brain, who are tasked with bringing down a radical Rebel cell linked to Saw Gerrera.

Although the book says Battlefront II, it is really a stand alone book and has nothing to do with Battlefront I (besides being Star Wars)Honestly, this story didn't have to be a Star Wars book either. Remove references to the Death Star and the Empire and Rebellion and you could put this story into any sci-fi universe. No main characters from Star Wars take part or are even mentioned (except for a brief mention of Darth Vader in the beginning).

I would have liked more on the moral code of Iden. We are told her justifications on why the destruction of Alderaan is ok, even though there were millions of children and innocents on the planet. But then when given a mission to bomb a building with teenagers are the target the character balk and talk about how bad that is.

I would recommend this to anyone who is a Star Wars book completionist, or really into the Battlefront games. If you just care about the main characters of Star Wars, then this book can be skipped. ( )

Tie fighter pilot Iden Versio was present at the Battle of Yavin engaged in battle with X-Wing fighters when the first Death Star was destroyed. One of the only survivors, she crash landed on Yavin but was able to steal a ship and return to her Imperial comrades. Shortly after returning she is contacted by her father Admiral Garrick Verso and is summoned to a meeting. Along with three others, her childhood friend Gideon Hask, Del Meeko and Seyn Marana are reassigned to the newly formed Inferno Squadron. Established to go undercover to deal with the Rebel threat. After couple of successful missions they undertake their most difficult mission, going deep undercover and infiltrating The Dreamers. The Dreamers are what remains of Saw Gerrera's group. Iden and her comrades have always seen The Rebels as an uncaring terrorist group, but as they spend more time with The Dreamers they see a different side of their enemies. A side the never thought existed a side that might put their mission in jeopardy.

My Thoughts:

Okay I've heard of but never played any of the Battlefront games, and I'm not sure how closely the story in the book follows the game but I can't really imagine it being very interesting if it does. What I could say the book does very good is getting you to root for Inferno Squadron. I kept having to remind myself that they are part of The Empire and The Empire is the enemy. There was some action sequences that were very good. But close to the end there is suppose to be a big reveal of a certain character. I could hear the climactic music playing in my head and a gasp when he was revealed and then I was like, okay who the hell is this suppose to be? After a quick search on Wookiepedia I found out he was a somewhat important character from The Clone Wars animated series. And even though I saw the show I could very vaguely remember who this person was. Beside that I found it to be an enjoyable story, not a great story but still an enjoyable one. ( )

I have no relationship at all to the video game, but the premise for the story intrigued me (Imperials going undercover in an extremist Rebel cell), and the novel delivered! Nothing earth-shatteringly original here, sure, but everything is quite well executed, and I felt appropriately torn in my loyalties (as, indeed, does the cast of characters). If this is any indication of the potential, they should definitely do more books humanizing the Imperial idealists. ( )