Battlefront II: Inferno Squad - Book Review

Published by Del Rey Books in 2017, Christie Golden’s Battlefront II: Inferno Squad technically is a sequel to 2015’s Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed—both official Star Wars canon novels. It’s also technically a prequel novel to the events of the Battlefront II video game.

All that being said: none of this matters.

For all intents and purposes, Inferno Squad is a standalone Star Wars tale that, prior to my reading, I had not heard much about. If you’ve been reading Star Wars novels within the past couple of years, it’s inevitable to hear praises being sung about authors like Claudia Gray and Timothy Zahn (well-deserved by the way) but for the most part I went into this book completely blind. I’m not a gamer so I wasn’t familiar with these characters and I somewhat expected this to tie into the first Battlefront novel. In hindsight I’m thankful for this perspective going in, as Inferno Squad is one the new canon’s best.

Inferno Squad introduces us to an Imperial Navy Squadron lead by Senior Lieutenant Iden Versio, one of the few survivors of the destruction of the Death Star. Iden’s father, ISB Inspector Admiral Garrick Versio, recruits his daughter along with Lieutenant Commander Del Meeko (male former storm/shoretrooper & TIE fighter), Iden’s longtime friend Lieutenant Junior Grade Gideon Hask (male soldier/starfighter pilot) and Intelligence Lieutenant Seyn Marana (female master cryptologist with an eidetic memory).

Golden’s writing is fast-paced but never hard to keep up with and she introduces new characters in a very accessible way. We’re launched right into the story as the newly formed squad cuts their teeth on a couple mini missions, mostly so Iden can prove herself worthy of the captainship (more on the daddy issues later). The bulk of the story lies with Inferno Squad playing a very long game of infiltrating the base of the Dreamers, the remnant of Saw Guerrera’s Partisans, with the ultimate goal of wiping them out.

Each Inferno Squad member wears their own mask as they establish themselves in the Dreamer base. Iden as the Imperial defector with potential to be the voice of the Partisans; Meeko and Hask as brothers who build strong relationships with partisan members, and Seyn as a former slave who just needs a family that cares. As missions proceed, Inferno Squad find it harder and harder to separate who their true friends and enemies are. Moral questions arise as death is dealt out and dealt with (no one’s safe). This blurring of the lines amped up the tension and made the stakes so much more tangible.

So often with Star Wars the Imperials are the enemy, clearly in the wrong. Here, we see what has gone into the formation of the squad, we know their ambitions, their motivations and we’re conditioned to want them to succeed. But we also get to know the “enemy” Partisans and the diversity of the galaxy that they represent. This uncomfortable tension of good versus evil is just so much fun; I love that Golden really goes there and makes it challenging to choose who to root for.

A central theme of the book is family responsibility. Iden is the product of a relationship with warring values: a military father and an artist mother. She constantly tries to prove herself a worthy soldier to please her father—it is the Imperial way after all. But she also sees the pureness and innocence of a simpler life in her mother. She wages her own war of pleasing one parent and not disappointing the other. The results are pretty heartbreaking. Golden’s talent shines in this aspect; casting a lightsaber’s glow on the humanity in all of us. The people we try to please, living with the choices we make and suffering the consequences through all of it.

It should be noted that although this is a Star Wars book there is not a Jedi, Sith or otherwise Force sensitive character in sight—something I found refreshing and that works in its favor. This book also is not what I’d consider a “war” novel, a genre that I find can be weighed down by terminology. I would classify Inferno as a character-driven, psychologically complex adventure told in a way that will make readers pause and question the notion of good versus evil.