My experience with the book
When I began reading the book, the first few chapters were switching between the rouge squadron and Corrans experiences while captured. It drew me in with the snap shot of dogfighting between the rouges and the imperials, two navy's, good vs bad. This intense scene set the expectation that there would be an intense story to follow and it lived up to my expectations and surpassed them in the category of accuracy and plot twists. When Corran was in the simulator being brainwashed to shoot down his old squadron, I nearly threw the book across the room when he lined up on the X-wings tail and wanted to applaud him for stoping the fight and saying that he wouldn't fly against his wingman or blow him out of the sky. When Corran learned that the ship he was being held in was still on corasant, I knew he was going to get out but didn't expect him to pull off an escape and rejoin the fight so soon. I was left thinking "Oh my god, he is going to save Tycho and kill the imperial spy and they are going to destroy the empire!" The book does have its dull moments, like when Corran was doing some drug running before the battle to earn some extra cash. He was not flying his X-wing, instead he was flying a freighter and was a fat target for the unsuspecting empire. But instead of the ship having a boat load of guns hidden, ready to blow the imperials apart, he just flew by and the book brought me through his visual approach to a factory and then when he left the spaceport ( their version of an airport) and went home. I really didn't care for the drama of his home life. While it showed the reason for his drug running ( he has a wife and a daughter who got into an accident and can't walk and the wife has to support the daughter all alone) I was more interested in how they were going to get the rouge squadron anywhere near corasant with out the imperial blockade of the planet knowing they were on approach.