Book Review: Star Wars: Battlefront – Twilight Company by Alexander Freed

Based loosely on the popular video game of the same name, Freed’s novel tells the story of Twilight Company, an infantry unit fighting for the Rebel Alliance against the overwhelming forces of the Empire in the aftermath of the destruction of the first Death Star.

What you need to know about Battlefront is this: the book is basically a war novel set in the Star Wars galaxy. There’s a few references to familiar characters (Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia), Han Solo cameos but is not actually mentioned by name – not that it matters; there weren’t many brown-haired freighter pilots repairing their ship inside Echo Base on Hoth, were there? – and Darth Vader appears in the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth in a frighteningly violent sequence.

Battlefront shines a light on the other, less-glamorous side of the Rebellion. It wasn't all lightsabers and The Force. Some of the locations are familiar, as are events in the wider galaxy that are mentioned at times, but, aside from that, Battlefront doesn’t share too many similarities with other Star Wars books. This is the story of a group of alien and human volunteers, and it paints a bleak picture of too many defeats at the hands of the Empire’s forces, who are better-trained and better-equipped than even the Alliance’s best troops.

Early on, they capture an Imperial governor during a siege, and, after she pledges allegiance to the Alliance, end up following her ambitious plan to bring down the side of the Empire that manufacturers weapons and other necessary supplies for the conduct of war in a series of raids at various planets. The end game is supposed to be the starship-building facilities on Kuat but the company is instead stranded on Sullust (where a resistance cell is led by Nien Numb) when their plans are partially uncovered by an Imperial unit sent to eliminate the treasonous governor. The hit-and-run campaign becomes a siege that occupies the last third of the book

Given that the Alliance were at their most vulnerable during the period between the fourth and sixth moves, the story is fairly bleak in places, and Freed has captured the frontline trench feel like any good military fiction writer needs to if their work is to be believable. In Battlefront, of course, you swap rifles for blasters and Howitzers for ion cannons and Tomcats for X-wings.

To be honest, I didn’t enjoy Battlefront as much as I thought I would. Parts of it were very good, and others seemed to drag a little. Vader’s appearance, for example, was fantastically written. These new canon novels just haven’t excited me like the old ones did – Dark Lords of the Sith is about the only exception to that rule – but I liked it more than Chuck Wendig’s awful Aftermath novel, which left a dirty taste in my mouth about these new novels. Still, Battlefront was interesting enough, and was an easy read, perfect for my vacation time.