Easy Listening, Not Deep

Firstly, top marks as always to Marc Thompson, whose narration and delivery is always excellent. In fact, Stackpole’s punchy prose in action sequences is perfect for Marc and in his style, the peaks and valleys of combat hit hard with perfectly timed emphasis on the big blows. The SFX and music are also on point, the Force must be with the mixers because they never miss.

Star Wars books are seldom peak literature, but this is really not. And that is absolutely fine. I enjoyed an easy listen on my way to and from work. Wedge’s Gambit pushes its characters out of their comfort zones and situations range from high-octane action, to espionage thriller to sitcom. Stackpole’s writing only truly excels at the first.

Your mileage will vary with Corran Horn. I found my opinions on him shifted drastically and largely to the negative throughout the book and I do not think he is as likeable as the author clearly thinks he is. I just do not find him interesting. This is a shame because Corran gets the better part of the character development and attention in this book, and is presented with no less than three potential romantic interests. I didn’t find this storyline compelling and the emotional payoff for it was flat for me. It also quickly becomes annoying watching even the bad guys talk about him. Lor should have history with Horn based on their backstory, but even the fearsome Ysanne Isard cannot help but be drawn into Corran’s gravity well.

With how much ink is spilled on Corran’a development, you may like to see more of that spent on Wedge and our dastardly ISB agent. I am afraid to say that you will be disappointed. Wedge and Lor drive the plot on both sides in their perspectives, but do not develop. Stackpole tells us a lot in Lor’s internal monologue about how much he learns and changes but this is not felt.

I enjoy the cast of side characters, and it is a genuine pleasure to watch the internal politics of the ascendant Alliance play out. Borsk Fey’lya has a good showing in this novel as an up and coming player who will have big impacts later in the Legends timeline, but we see him truly caring and trying to get stuff done. He is a welcome addition to the first act.

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Nostalgia doesn’t do this book any favours

Much like with Rogue Squadron, I remember this book as being better than it actually is. Twenty years later it’s got some huge flaws, the biggest one being the protagonist (which is really Corran Horn, despite protestations to the contrary, sorry Wedge) - who is a total Mary Sue. Having a main character who excels at everything, has zero character flaws and every woman he comes into contact with lusting after him is not a good thing.

Marc Thompson, as usual though, kills it. His narration is brilliant and engaging, he crafts unique voices for all the characters and gives us essentially a one-man radio play. It’s worth it purely for the performance.

Here’s hoping they keep going with this series until the late, great Aaron Allston takes over, which is when the series gets really good.

Top of the books

amazing book keeps you guessing can't wait for the next book great performance the characters pull you in before you realise it and the story has so much depth I want more!

this is where the fun begins

This book for me is a great improvement over the first in the series. I loved the way that the characters worked so well together, trying to achieve a massive feat long thought to be impossible. Capturing Coruscant and the get-ups some of the characters were wearing was creative and funny to think about (Corrans role being a highlight)
I find that this particular author gets space battles incredibly well (along with Aaron Allston) and know what there doing. I really hope the movie takes note on how to nail the spirit of these books. Marc Thompson does a great job narrating and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Great Squeal!

Though not as good as the first book, nor some of the later volumes, but the production was nonetheless fantastic and Marc Thompson does a fabulous job as always!

Looking forward to the next book later in the year though, from what I can remember as a kid, it is certainly not the greatest adventure for rouge squadron.

Absolutely Fantastic

Another excellent reading of the Rogue Squadron series. Looking forward to the next audiobook. Marc Thompson as alway delivers an excellent performance.

An excellent story

An excellent story and a great addition to the rogue squadron arc.
I really can't wait for the next installation.
This is however another great example of why all the books should be unabridged and give us true value for money.
There are so many Star Wars books I'd love to listen to like those about the Yuuzhan Vong war but I won't buy the short abridged versions.

Finally an unabridged version, bad production.

It’s great to finally get an unabridged version of this but whom ever was producing / directing this needs to seriously re-evaluate their approach.

Having the narrator randomly shout and stress completely random words in a sentence is beyond annoying, it’s especially egregious in the action SCENES, which randomly puts EMPHESIS ON WORDS that really don’t need it, and IS a COMPLETELY unnatural way of SPEAKING.

Oh and turn down the background effects a bit.

It’s almost like the people making this were trying to make it an awful graphic audio novel or bad 90s radio play.

When the narrator is actually talking like a normal audiobook narrator it’s not bad.

Despite this being my favourite series in the old EU, I won’t be getting the next one if they keep up with this style of production. Which is a damn shame.

Nostalgia got better

Having read this full series and listened to the shorter abridged version (which was difficult) I am again totally blown away by Marc Thompson's performance. If you are a Star wars fan just listen to anything this guy narrates you won't be disappointed (out of all his work I have only found high republic narration hard to understand and only a few characters) . I am definitely a loyalist of Marc's work shame we have to wait until August for the return of book 3
Story's where great when originally released now they are even better! Thank you
All the characters in this series are brilliant and stories told magnificently. Humour where appropriate and sadness when required to this day House of mouse need to have a look at the older original stories of they wanna make successful movies because for me episode 7 and 9 especially where total shite episode 8 however was very good and I am major follower of all works read over 100 of the books so far and listened to nearly everything thats been released on audible.