Aaron Allston’s Star Wars: X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar is the ninth book in the X-Wing series and the final book of the original sequence before Mercy Kill, which Allston wrote 13 years later in 2012 and which followed the continuity changes introduced in the Prequel Trilogy. Starfighters of Adumar follows Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron as they visit the titular world, which appears to have just made contact with the rest of the galaxy after centuries of isolation. Wedge quickly finds that all is not as it seems and that the Adumari people have been aware of the New Republic and Imperial Remnant for some time as they play both sides off each other in a diplomatic contest for trading rights. Wedge must navigate his diplomatic duties and his distaste at the Admuari passion for bloodsports and vendettas. Allston crafts a great story that ties up many of the threads in Wedge’s life that ran through the various Bantam-era Star Wars novels, though he does at times get bogged down in the anthropological details about Adumar. In wrapping things up with Wedge, Allston helps to set the stage for The New Jedi Order and the subsequent Del Rey Star Wars books that continued the franchise alongside and beyond the Prequel Trilogy. ( )

I enjoyed this book as an extension of Wedge's story. Also, the author's sense of humor, as played out through the various characters, is enormously enjoyable. Add to that the plot and plot twists of a country/continent obsessed with starfighter pilots, a couple of double-backs in the plot, and a hilarious love story... It's a marvelous story. ( )

scifi

The funniest Star Wars book there is. Hands down. It's got humor, action, great characters, and adds a new and interesting world to the Star Wars galaxy. It's fun action fantasy that happens to be Star Wars, not a by-the-numbers spinoff. Unlike some books in the Star Wars universe in the X-Wing novels and particularly "Starfighters of Adumar" there's never a feeling of an author checking off Star Wars boxes ("All right, someone has a bad feeling...someone says 'May the Force be with You'...) If you think you need the "big three" of the movies to care about a Star Wars plot, this proves you don't. The Bantam books that followed Zahn's trilogy were definitely hit or miss, but Starfighters of Adumar is a direct hit. ( )

X-Wing - Starfighters of Adumar: several things wrong with that title
First and foremost, this is NOT an X-Wing book. It contains X-Wing pilots as primary characters but it is not about X-Wings and the craft themselves barely appear at any time. Second and second-most, there's no starfighter action - nearly all combat portions of the story take place in atmosphere. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was slow-moving but the witty repartee was exactly what I'd come to love about Allston's depiction of Rogue Squadron (sorry, Michael).
I enjoyed a lot of the cloak-and-dagger mystique of the plot and the emotional portrayal of the protagonists. While I was happy to witness the initial romance of Iella & Wedge, that part seemed forced. Previous novels showed them as being close friends and now suddenly they aren't. It's tragic, sure, and eventually some explanation is given for that but it just seemed so scripted (I know, it WAS scripted - it's a novel). It's like they needed to add some sort of drama to the romantic entaglement besides the danger of the mission so someone said "Ooooh! I know. Make her mad at him for something!" Aside from these perceived drawbacks, I did enjoy this book a good deal and would recommend it. But with no X-Wings and no starfighter action to speak of, I have reservations. ( )