Mercy Kill Review

ALL TIMELINES


		MERCY KILL A novel by Aaron Allston (2012, Del Rey) 45 years after Star Wars: A New Hope Wraith Squadron is reassembled to unofficially look into the suspect habits of a Galactic Alliance general, who might have been part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government years ago.

		Read November 13th to 29th, 2017, in hardcover
		What a mess of a story. Everything was overly complicated, with little cohesion. I’m a reader who loves lots of characters in a story, but here it seems they existed just for the sake of having characters, because none of them were interesting except Piggy. So many of the plot elements didn’t do anything except add pages to a story that was already anemic to begin with. The only parts that I enjoyed, even somewhat, were the flashbacks of Piggy during the Yuuzhan Vong war. In short, I couldn’t wait to finish this book, and for all the wrong reasons. Spoiler review: I remember enjoying the Wraith Squadron novels, more than the Rogue Squadron ones, so I’ve been looking forward to reading this story. Yet I don’t think it colored my enjoyment or lack thereof. I rather enjoyed the first chapter, focusing on an undercover operation by Piggy and the Wraiths, but from the second chapter in, the book went downhill, and quickly. The basic plot is that Face Loran is getting Wraith squadron reformed, but unofficially, and with all new members. The focal point is almost always on Piggy, who now goes by the name Voort, the talking Gamorrean. We also have Myri Antilles, Wedge’s daughter, who apparently makes her living gambling until now. They are brought together with a bunch of other pilots, and without any information about what they are doing, to investigate the actions of a corrupt Galactic Alliance general. I don’t recall much about the events of the Fate of the Jedi series, but this general was apparently involved in the plot to depose President Daala back then. The Wraiths go in search of his holdings, which leads them to a planet where they discover a secret underground facility warehousing contraband for sale on the Black Market. Why did one of the Wraiths overreact so much to the presence of thermal detonators? While illegal, they don’t seem to be difficult to come by, as so many people have used them in the movies and books. They discover that Face Loran recruited a second group of pilots to become Wraiths, and they accidentally meet at this facility, which they destroy. When a second target (head of Galactic Alliance security) mentions that it was a good idea to create two groups, I had to scratch my head -why? The whole thing is so convoluted when we were following Piggy’s Wraiths, that it didn’t require the addition of a second party. There is a sequence that seems to come out of nowhere, and that has no consequence whatsoever, where they board a luxury liner, sabotage its systems so that they can launch out into Imperial space in an escape pod, get picked up by an Imperial patrol, take control of the patrol, then a larger ship, and go meet with a Galactic Alliance vessel under the pretense of dealing with contraband. The whole thing was so strange and complicated, and for what? The Galactic Alliance ship opens fire on the Imperial vessel (why -aren’t these two groups still allies?), and it is destroyed, though Piggy helps save the shuttle in which everybody escapes. The second half of the book takes place on a non-Galactic Alliance world, where General Thaal was going to retire after he made an identity change. Good thing they picked the right world, or they would have been waiting a long time. Again, they weave a complicated plot to bring him to the planet early, kidnap his future wife, impersonate a jewel-wealthy fake species, and get Thaal so angry that he essentially confesses in front of a large group of spectators. The one funny thing about this entire convoluted sequence was Voort dancing a strip-tease. There was at least some attempt at character building, but mostly with the Wraiths interactions with Voort. There’s the Yuuzhan Vong member of the crew, apparently a Shamed One who was adopted by a human family. Voort has a problem with him due to the losses he suffered during that war, and Scut (who seems to change names through the novel at times) doesn’t think Voort is fit to lead, especially after Bhindi dies. They do manage to work it out, and Scut shows that he’s a master shaper after all. He creates a likeness of Thaal, as well as a full body suit for somebody to wear to become the underground creature with the jewels. There is a short side-story featuring Face Loran, as he is chased by bounty hunters and his airspeeder is destroyed. I’m not sure if the author meant for us to believe that he was actually dead, but given the story and the lack of follow-up, it was pretty obvious that he’d survived. So what would a Wraith Squadron novel be like without a few of the original Wraiths? Although we’d need to suspend reality to see Wedge and Tycho in action again, who cares? We’ve done it for Luke, Han and Leia up to Crucible, so why not here? Unfortunately, Wedge and Tycho only get a brief cameo (and Wedge gets a couple of speaking lines; no such luck for Tycho), when Myri asks for help defeating a siege army when she’s trapped. It less believable that Wedge could get there in the time allotted; I’d rather see him leading the Wraiths if I’m going to suspend that kind of disbelief. Booster Terrik gets a couple of mentions as well, but it’s less than fulfilling. The nostalgia factor is just plain missing in a book that seems to want to relive the past. It also wants to pass the torch to the next generation, which I don’t think it’s successful at either. I just couldn’t get into the convoluted story, nor the characters, and that made it feel like a waste of a Star Wars story.