This is my spoiler-free review. You can read my full review which includes minor spoilers for the previous book over on my blog: https://geeking-by.net/review/star-wars-shadow-fall-by-alexander-freed/

Unlike book one Shadow Fall starts right in the middle of the action. I wondered if the pace would end up slowing down and dwindling into endless politics and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t. If anything it kept ramping up. From start to finish Alphabet Squadron are in the thick of it as they lay a trap for their Imperial nemesis’, and like any good plan, there are always bumps along the way. These bumps allow us to get to know the characters, to watch them grow and work through what’s happening.

There are also delayed reactions to what happened in the first book and in my opinion, this is as much to do with the circumstances as it is to do with the better characterisation in this novel. Despite there being action the author has made space for the characters to get retrospective with themselves and each other. The main cast isn’t fighting over space in the novel with twenty other characters, and as I’d hoped, the line between minor and major characters is much clearer. The minor characters pop in and out like scenery, adding to the story, adjacent to Alphabet Squadron but never taking the attention away from them as they did in the first novel.

There is so much improvement in this novel that I honestly wondered at one point if it was written by a ghostwriter. However, as I continued to work my way through the book I began to see familiar patterns in the writing style that dispelled that idea. For one, the author continues to write as though striving to impress someone way too hard. This is particularly noticeable through long rambling sentence structures which would probably make J.R.Tolkien proud. In a science fiction novel that is already filled to the hilt with jargon, it just feels out of place and clunky. I ended up skimming quite a few sections of description due to the long sentence instruction because I lost interest in the lacklustre description which essentially wasn’t telling me anything I needed to know.

In the end, it was the characters and the plot that shone through, and I was pulled into the action eager to find out what would happen to the Squadron as I became emotionally attached to them at last. There are highs and lows, and there were finally moments where they said things to each other that had me laughing or made my heart squeeze with emotion. ( )

Another great time in the skies with my good friends the Alphabet Squadron! But really this book was so tense and fast paced, and also I think a much deeper character dive in a lot of ways than the previous book, but it's all so balanced over all, between action and espionage and yes, that character development and inner world. I will admit it took me a second to reestablish where the plot was, because I have no memory for previous books, but things fell into place pretty quickly and just so much happening all the time but all of it was so good and intense. I'm really excited to see how this series ends, and can't wait for the next book! ( )