Another video game tie-in,
Inferno Squad introduces a team of elite Imperial agents who are assembled to conduct a series of top secret infiltration missions across the galaxy. Commander of the squad is Iden Versio, a strong jawed, dark skinned (Disney needs us to know this detail) woman displaying suitably masculine qualities in keeping with the requirements of feminism today. There is also Gideon Hask, a stereotypical jarhead, Del Meeko, a friendly mechanical expert bucking the trend of rigidly austere imperials, and youngest member of the team, Seyn Marana, an Intelligence specialist. Like Iden, the reader learns that Seyn is not of the usual Caucasian mold when the epicanthal fold on her eyes is mentioned. The characters are not Christie Golden's, they were designed by EA games for Battlefront II, so she cannot necessarily be blamed for their shortcomings. Golden tries hard to humanise them, with varying levels of success.
Notwithstanding the rather derivative characters, the story is compelling enough, although not on the same level as the first Battlefront novelisation by Alexander Freed. After a series of minor assignments, Inferno Squad are tasked with recovering stolen sensitive Imperial data from a group of partisan terrorists known as the Dreamers. Acting undercover, the team are accepted into the cell and must work to dismantle them from the inside. The story was engaging enough up to this point, but I found that it began to slide in the second half. The main reason for this is that the partisans are just not a very interesting or likeable bunch. There is graphic torture eluded to throughout, but Golden never has the courage, or more likely permission, to go into it due to the target audience. Compared with the other Star Wars books, it's one of the better ones, if a little too rushed towards the end.
Rating: 3/5
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