Aaron Allston should make more money.

Aaron Allston is one heck of a good writer. I first read his work back when I was 9ish and ripping through everything I could find with a Star Wars label. He authored the 3-book Wraith Squadron story arc in the X-Wing series, writing about a new unit of particularly skilled misfits given a second chance by Wedge Antilles. I know the premise sounds bad, I know you groaned, shut up and go read them. Personally, I think that the second book in that story arc, Iron Fist, is the best Star Wars novel ever written. I loved it when I was 10, I love it now, the incredibly distressed state of the book's spine serves only to highlight my enthusiasm. It poses some big questions about the nature of the New Republic, answers some of those questions, examines the logistics of a unit like the Wraiths and does the whole thing without any space wizards. The scene with Face and Phanan? Read it, you'll know the one. It is one of the best chunks of writing to ever come out of Dark Horse Publishing.

Last night I read through Starfighters of Adumar again. After reading through that, it is my fervent hope that Aaron Allston made a substantial amount of money off of that book. If there was ever a book dedicated solely to taking a character written to be a big deal and making him into a person, it is this book. A lot of the EU establishes Wedge as a hero to the Republic, with frequent stories about his daring deeds, and in many ways the rest of the X-Wing series does that as well. Instead of just continuing on with Wedge taking on impossible odds and succeeding, it just opens with the question of "Should he be happy with his life?" Follow that with a fantastic supporting cast of "the big four" Rogues and this book is just amazing. It is funny, it is engaging and the story is downright fantastic.

Caveat to this: I have not yet read "Mercy Kill," so I don't know if Allston still has the magic going. I hope so, and reviews seem to indicate that he does.

But anyways: Go read the X-Wing Series. If you don't want to, read the Wraith Squadron Series, then read Starfighters of Adumar. If you don't want to do THAT, just read Starfighters of Adumar.