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I have yet to read this three-part series written by Aaron Allston. I have the Iron Fist and Solo Command books, but I'm missing the first one. My question is simple: should I find Wraith Squadron either by shelling out at a bookstore or prowling around the used book stores, or just skip it and start on Iron Fist? Is the first one integral? Does it set up the plot for the next two in a significant way? Can it be missed or should I read it before the others?

I thought it set up the next two pretty well, and was a good read besides.

You could get the gist of the series without having read it, but you'll be missing out on some character development. Just my opinion.

I think you will be missing a bit if you don't get the first one, like Kerneth said, character development-wise.

Also, one of the more "major" guess you could say events in Iron Fist probably wouldn't have as much impact as it would without the character development in Wraith Squadron. But that's just my opinion.

I actually skipped Wraith Squadron and skipped straight to Iron Fist originally. It helps that the first book is fighting a certain admiral guy working for Zsinj, while the main villan in the second two books is Zsinj. Though the first helps set up the characters.

I first read Iron Fist, but I wasn't very interested. Then I read Solo Command, and went backwards. Each time I went back, I wondered how I could have enjoyed the later books without having read the ones before.

You should get the gist of it form the other two.

Their a bit like the orginal trilogy WS is more or less a complete story in and off itself.

Bascially theres not in WS thats vital to IF that IF wont give you the short version of at least once.

Besides WS focous on a completely differnet character than IF.

I'd suggest reading all the books in order, if your going to read them at all. These books are not my favourite examples of SW's EU, to say the least. For me Solo command had to be the worst one. It seemed to take everything bad about the Stackpole X-wing books (you know, a single X-wing squadron wiping out Imp cap-ships, that kind of thing) and multiply it by ten. I read something like the first 20 pages, and haven't touched it since.

If you don't read Wraith Squadron you won't appreciate the Yub Yub jokes.

Sharp-kun wrote:If you don't read Wraith Squadron you won't appreciate the Yub Yub jokes.

At least morale was high
Personally, after Zahn's stuff the Wraith books may very well be my favorite EU books, though the X-Wing fanwanking I could have done without (no Mr Allston the X-Wing games are NOT correct models of Star Wars fighter combat). They're tons better than the Rogue books at any rate(not that that is much of an achievement as such).
Those books are not only a good read but they're funny.

Batman wrote:

Sharp-kun wrote:If you don't read Wraith Squadron you won't appreciate the Yub Yub jokes.

At least morale was high
Personally, after Zahn's stuff the Wraith books may very well be my favorite EU books, though the X-Wing fanwanking I could have done without (no Mr Allston the X-Wing games are NOT correct models of Star Wars fighter combat). They're tons better than the Rogue books at any rate(not that that is much of an achievement as such).
Those books are not only a good read but they're funny.

Allston's books arn't too unreasonable in that department. Single squardrons only take on small fry. They use an entire fleets worth of fighters on the larger stuff.

Crazedwraith wrote: Allston's books arn't too unreasonable in that department. Single squardrons only take on small fry. They use an entire fleets worth of fighters on the larger stuff.

True enough, and my main gripe is with the capital ship combat anyway.
A couple of cruisers taking down an SSD (even if it's actually the silly 8km variant) is just garbage.
BUT if I admitted that, I wouldn't get to blame the X-Wing games...
...
Nuts.

Batman wrote:

Crazedwraith wrote: Allston's books arn't too unreasonable in that department. Single squardrons only take on small fry. They use an entire fleets worth of fighters on the larger stuff.

True enough, and my main gripe is with the capital ship combat anyway.
A couple of cruisers taking down an SSD (even if it's actually the silly 8km variant) is just garbage.
BUT if I admitted that, I wouldn't get to blame the X-Wing games...
...
Nuts.

The thread asked for no spoilers brains of britain.

Back on topic. The Wraith books where some of the best in the Expanded Universe. The characters where some of the best and unlike the rest of the books they had good comedy thrown in. You really do get the feeling of what a normal Fighter Jock squadron would be like. Also the story does flow better of you read them in order.

Batman wrote:At least morale was high
Personally, after Zahn's stuff the Wraith books may very well be my favorite EU books, though the X-Wing fanwanking I could have done without (no Mr Allston the X-Wing games are NOT correct models of Star Wars fighter combat). They're tons better than the Rogue books at any rate(not that that is much of an achievement as such).
Those books are not only a good read but they're funny.

After reading Bacta War and Isard's Revenge, well, Allston's books are the Holy Grail by comparison.

Allston probably used the WEG RPG for his capship battles, wheras SDN has a tendency to use the Offense-Defense model (with values modified for their story). In the Offense-Defense model, beyond a relatively small difference in firepower and shielding, there's no fight if the larger ship was serious - the first blow from the larger warship would overwhelm the shield thereshold and the second would destroy the smaller ship. While the RPG D6 is meant to compress the differences and allow the smallest runt a chance against the bigger one.