Spoilers ahead
I'm one of those Star Wars nerds who has read dozens of the books. Most of them are now categorized as "Legends," but I've been making a concerted effort to read the newer books that are in the official timeline.
I just finished reading the first book in what's called the Alphabet Squadron trilogy. On its own, it was just an okay story, though knowing it was written with two more stories coming makes the sting of the open ending hurt less. But when putting this book into the context of the grander scheme of things within the Star Wars universe, the book is really exciting.
First of all, Alphabet Squadron features some popular characters from other corners of the Star Wars universe. The most significant character appearance is courtesy of Hera Syndulla. She is a key figure in the show Rebels, which, of course, takes place before the original trilogy, whereas Alphabet Squadron takes place much later in the timeline. On a side note, if you've read any of my Star Wars blogs, you know that my biggest issue with a lot of the newer content on Disney+ is the lack of explanation of where these characters have been for so long and why they're just now reappearing in the timeline, but that's a discussion for another blog. Hera is one of my favorite characters, and I'm okay seeing an older version of her in this part of the timeline.
Secondly, Alphabet Squadron takes place directly after the events of Return of the Jedi. This is a hopping era right now. The Mandalorian show on Disney+, of course, takes place just two years after Return of the Jedi. Another supposed show we're eventually getting is Rangers of the New Republic, though that project is in limbo because of the hot water Gina Carano (the supposed lead actress of that show) got herself into on social media. Rangers could've been a prime opportunity to bring characters from Alphabet Squadron onto the silver screen.
Of course, there's one other place these characters would fit perfectly: the video games. In addition to appearing in the book, Hera Syndulla makes an appearance in the Star Wars: Squadrons video game last year. Much like the story in Alphabet Squadron, this video game takes place directly after the events of Return of the Jedi, too.
What's great about the stories in both the game and the book is how it centers around Imperial characters. Remember when we first met Finn in The Force Awakens? I was incredibly intrigued to see the progression of events from the perspective of a simple stormtrooper, a unique concept to the universe at the time.
Alphabet Squadron centers around Yrica Quell, a former Imperial Navy expert pilot who was a member of a deadly, well-known squadron called Shadow Wing. After the fall of the Emperor, Quell realized she didn't want to stay loyal to the Empire. Quell loses her rose-colored-glasses view of the Empire she so blindly and loyally served, and realizes the pure callous terror through which the Empire operated.
Quell defects and eventually earns her way into the Rebellion. She works under Hera Syndulla herself (aboard the famous Lodestar ship, of course). Hera must put her trust in Quell to use Quell's experience with Shadow Wing to bring down her former squad mates. Hera even puts Quell in charge of assembling and training this makeshift group of pilots. These pilots all have similar stories in that they all were sole survivors of various battles (same as Quell), but though they seemingly have similar motivations, they don't gel together immediately.
What makes this squad unique is each pilot flies a different type of starfighter. The Rebellion is known to have vehicles with different letters of the alphabet for identifiers - X-Wing, Y-Wing, B-Wing, A-Wing, and U-Wing - thus, for a group of randomly assorted ships, the name Alphabet Squadron makes sense.
In the book's final act, the Alphabet Squadron is partially successful in a mission to help liberate a mining facility called Pandem Nai from the Empire, but their run-in with Shadow Wing has sort of a neutral ending, which, of course, sets up the sequel books. The other perfect set-up comes via two "side" chapters, one in the middle of the book, and the other at the very end. These two chapters have nothing to do with the main story, so I was perplexed where Alexader Freed, the trilogy's author, was going with it. We follow a seemingly random character named Devon, but he turns out to be Soran Keize, former Shadow Wing squadron leader who is somehow still alive when Quell believed he was dead. It's basically an MCU post-credit stinger moment; Keize clearly will be the main villain to the story going forward.
I've already got Part 2 of the trilogy, Shadow Fall (released in 2020), which I'll start soon. The third book, Victory's Price, just came out a little earlier this year, so I'm excited to read both to see how this all plays out.