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  • Shadow Fall (Star Wars)

  • An Alphabet Squadron Novel
  • Written by: Alexander Freed
  • Narrated by: Carol Monda
  • Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (99 ratings)

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Shadow Fall (Star Wars)

Written by: Alexander Freed
Narrated by: Carol Monda
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Publisher's Summary

Alphabet Squadron's hunt for the deadliest TIE fighters in the galaxy continues in this Star Wars adventure! 

News of the New Republic's victory still reverberates through the galaxy. In its wake, the capital ships of the newly legitimized galactic government journey to the farthest stars, seeking out and crushing the remnants of imperial tyranny. But some old ghosts are harder to banish than others. And none are more dangerous than Shadow Wing.

Yrica Quell’s ragtag Alphabet Squadron still leads the search for Shadow Wing, but they're no closer to their goal - and the pressure to find their quarry before it's too late has begun to shake them apart. Determined to finish the fight once and for all, Quell works with New Republic Intelligence's contentious Caern Adan and the legendary General Hera Syndulla to prepare the riskiest gambit of her starfighting career - a trap for Shadow Wing that could finish the chase once and for all. 

But in the darkness, their enemy has evolved. Soran Keize, last of the Imperial aces, has stepped into the power vacuum at the head of Shadow Wing, reinvigorating the faltering unit in their hour of need. Once adrift in the aftershocks of the war, Keize has found meaning again, leading the lost soldiers of his unit through to safety. The only thing standing in his way? The most mismatched squadron in the New Republic Navy, led by his former mentee: the traitor Yrica Quell. 

©2020 Alexander Freed (P)2020 Random House Audio

What listeners say about Shadow Fall (Star Wars)

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Spectacular continuation

Absolutely loved listening to book2 of Alphabet squad & looking forward to the 3rd. The dramatization is done wonderfully & the narrator grew on me the more I listened. Cheers & may the force be with you all

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The first book was better!

Didn’t appreciate de second half of the book. I miss the team as a whole.

I really miss the first narrator. She wasn’t perfect but way better than the narrator of this one…

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excellent performance

I'm not entirely sure I like the direction that the story is going in. but I will do the third one to find out the conclusion

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well written and excellent expansion to canon

I really enjoyed this second installment to the trilogy. It took me a long time to read it and that's mostly due to having a tougher time reading military stories like this. Many of the non-star wars background music tracks were distracting but characters were expertly fleshed out further...ON TO THE FINALE.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good story, not good narration

Story is decent enough, but the narration made it difficult to listen to. Tough to distinguish which character is speaking, everyone sounds the same, like a 75 yr old grandmother.

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great series so far

I am into star wars for the big space battles and star fighters. This series has knocked it out of the park for me.

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I in Alphabet Squadron

the strength of the first installment in this series was how the characters came together as a unit. Volume 2 completely undoes that. we are dragged through individual, mostly inconsequential story arcs that leave much to be desired. It's really too bad because the first novel was pretty darn good.

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Tough to get into

Was so hard to get into the story and characters with a new narrator. Most of the voices seemed very similar

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The New Canon's Most Interesting Series (so far)

Alexander Freed returns to the characters and story of Alphabet Squadron in a devastating second entry full of promise and consequence. I greatly look forward to seeing how this narrative plays out in the third and final entry.

I think I, and many readers, began Alphabet Squadron with an expectation that it would try to recapture the sense of high-flying adventure that the X-Wing novel series did, and were surprised to find a more grounded (pun intended) and certainly darker story dealing with the consequences of the kind of mass murder Star Wars stories have been tossing in for added impact since forever and the emotional toll that puts on the victims and the perpetrators. For what it's worth, I don't think anybody is going to go into Shadow Fall expecting X-Wing, but if they go in looking for more Alphabet Squadron, with it's troubled characters, precise planning, and the distinct way Freed writes combat where everything is a mix of gone horribly right and horribly wrong, Shadow Fall delivers.

From a technical standpoint, this recording is made to the same standards as Alphabet Squadron: a healthy combination of voice modulators, sound effects and music (including some original pieces and those sourced from existing Star Wars works) elevates the listening experience and gives the whole work an authentic 'Star Wars' feel without overpowering them with blaster bolts and explosions.

Carol Monda, the new narrator, does a perfectly fine job, and unfortunately only draws complaints now because of the fantastic job by Saskia Maarleveld on the previous book. That's not to say it's a bad performance, it isn't, it's actually quite good compared to some other offerings I've had on Audible; but it is noticeably different, and in the eyes of the internet that's a worse crime than actually being 'bad'. As it stands, the only real problem I have with it compared to the Alphabet Squadron narrator is that both affect distinct voices for each character and some of them sound exactly alike (Wyl Lark, I'm talking about you!) which highlights the differences in every other voice.

All in all, a solid performance with great production value applied to a story that, for all its grimness, proves that you don't need to be afraid to examine Star Wars to 'be' a great Star Wars story.

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Um...why a new reader?

Saskia Maarleveld’s narration in Alphabet Squadron is one of the best audiobook performances I’ve heard. It made a very good book into a near perfect experience.

I preordered this book as soon as it was listed. At the time it named the reader as To Be Decided. I’ve seen this before and usually sequels end up with the same reader as the original, so I didn’t think anything of it.

It wasn’t until I started listening to it that I found out the reader had changed. The new reader isn’t great, to say the least. It was quite jarring and VERY disappointing. I may get this book in hard copy and try again.

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  • christopher lane
  • 2020-06-23

Hard to get into the narration w/ edit

The first book in the series was so good and narrated sooooooo well. I could not get into the change of readers. It hurt the book so much for me. The characters were so well done in the first title but it’s so hard to follow with the new reader because it all sounds the same from character to character. Book so far is great I just wish the original reader had of done it.

Edit: I jus can’t finish it. Narrator is jus too awful

20 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Nicholas
  • 2020-06-24

Narration Not Fitting

I just could not get into the narrator on this one. I gave the story 5 stars even though I did not finish because I am assuming the story is just as good as the first book. I will have to get this one in print to finish the story (which kills the completest in me) but I just did not like the narration compared to the first book. All the characters sounded the same, and sounded like they had been smoking for 50 years.

11 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Eric
  • 2020-06-26

Don’t use this Narrator ever again please

I loved the book just couldn’t handle the narration of this book it is the worst I could not tell which character was talking I could not even get thru the Audio book had to just read it to finish it. This was the first time I have ever not finished a audio book please never use her again

8 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • MAC
  • 2020-12-02

Granny is that you?

I love the story.
The Alphabet Squadron is a great team working for Commander Syndulla, from Rebels...
I used to read the books on Kindle and listen them at the same time on Audible. It is the way.
But this time I’m not being strong enough to do it.
Shadow Fall plot is growing more interesting every time, but the narrator takes all emotion away! There’s too few or none emphasis or acting with all different characters.
Her voice is weak, and sometimes kinda tremble. It feels like if my granny is reading me a StarWars book before bedtime.
Can’t follow.
I’d ask my credits back if I could. Can I?
Move along! Move along!

5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • jacen
  • 2020-07-10

Good Book, Terrible Narrator.

Good story, but could not get past narrator. Listened to maybe 2 hours and could not take it anymore. Save yourself some trouble. Buy the book.

5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Vash
  • 2020-07-08

Bad narrator. Not as good as first book

I don't expect Mark Thompson and Jonathan Davis to always read the Star Wars books but this reader was pretty terrible. It was hard for me to get into the book and it felt like Disney was just trying to squeeze a couple extra dollars out of me because I'm going to buy every Star Wars book released.

5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Matthew J Emery
  • 2020-06-26

Switching to Print

After thoroughly enjoying every new canon audiobook that preceded this, I'm turning this off after an hour or so of listening to it and switching to the Kindle version.

This narrator just can't get voices right. All over the place and can't seem to create consistent voices for each character. As a result, every character is either put in one of two camps: old grandmotherly smoker or slightly British male that loses his accent by the end of his sentence. This "two character" problem becomes abundantly clear in scenes where there are more than three characters.

Once I got to her rendition of the beloved Rebels character, I just couldn't take it anymore-- there was no attempt to mimic the original VA at all. Instead her Hera sounded exactly like her Yrica which sounded exactly like her Chass.

Based on this review, you would think that I have unrealistic expectations... but every Star Wars production that preceded this had a very high level of quality. The prior book in this trilogy (Alphabet Squadron) did this superbly with all the same characters. The sharp drop in quality is concerning and gives me pause to immediately pre-order any upcoming Star Wars books.

5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Rob Pirog
  • 2020-11-12

Terrible

Not sure why I kept listening. Did not like the ending.
Do not recommend at all.

4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Andrey G.
  • 2020-07-08

great star wars read

great except it was a different voice actor from the first book. She is a great narrator but the first book the voice had a much greater range.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Oldman1969
  • 2020-11-05

don't waste your money

clearly not a star wars novel. yes it has refinances about the republic and the empire, but the narrator even hates it. I can tell by how she reading it and how uninterested she is.. maybe I'm used to mark Thompson and Jonathon Davis.. but I couldn't even get past the 3rd chapter.. I have over 39 starwars novels and this is the worst one yet.. I want my credit back..

1 person found this helpful