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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it was alright nothing crazy. I did have fun listening to it, but wasn't overly impressed it's a book that you gotta have a vested interest in completing it. mine was the fact that the guy who narrated this also narrated Star Wars a new dawn and a character from that appears in this.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was willing to tip my rating of this book over to three stars for all the casual representation of queer people and women, but a main character ending up not-dead-after-all for what I think was the third time made me roll my eyes a little too hard. You can kill characters to raise tension if you've got a whole group of rag-tag heroes, you know. There's a little known indie movie called Star Wars that does this!
Star Wars: Aftermath is a well-paced adventure novel that hardly ever slows down. Let it be said to Wendig's credit that I got a good feel for the characters from their actions over the course of the story. Good job! The happy battle droid Mr. Bones is a funny guy. Cool set pieces, pew pew action, basically what one would want from a Star Wars experience. The author's choice to tell this tale in the present tense certainly adds an element of immediacy that (in my mind) had long since left stale-ass Star Wars.
Anyway, the fast pace and somewhat interesting occasional look into random scenes of galactic citizens dealing with the Emperor's death are offset by two things:
1.) The occasional dip into blog/social media style writing. I don't know if ever wanted a former Imperial torturer's internal monologue to include "(Because gross.)" Yes, parentheses included. There are many parenthetical asides in this book. By the way, it's the idea of a talking skeleton that is gross. Wouldn't that be weird or scary? Apparently it's gross.
2.) A few interludes in, I realized that not only was I getting cool little vignettes illustrating life in a post-Endor SW universe, I was also being sold cool new characters whose books will soon be available near me.
Screw you, buddy!
The book ends on a sequel-baiting teaser that reveals the true mastermind behind the Imperials' plan was a "You mean... he's not dead?!" character referred to only as Admiral. I'll eat my hat if they're not planning on re-doing Thrawn for the new canon here.
For Dexter Jettster aficionados, the reference to Dex's Diner occurs at location 3970 of the Kindle version of the book. You're welcome. Perhaps fittingly, it comes at 69% of the book. Hot under the collar as well, eh? Hmmm... my... pahket book...
Star Wars: Aftermath is a well-paced adventure novel that hardly ever slows down. Let it be said to Wendig's credit that I got a good feel for the characters from their actions over the course of the story. Good job! The happy battle droid Mr. Bones is a funny guy. Cool set pieces, pew pew action, basically what one would want from a Star Wars experience. The author's choice to tell this tale in the present tense certainly adds an element of immediacy that (in my mind) had long since left stale-ass Star Wars.
Anyway, the fast pace and somewhat interesting occasional look into random scenes of galactic citizens dealing with the Emperor's death are offset by two things:
1.) The occasional dip into blog/social media style writing. I don't know if ever wanted a former Imperial torturer's internal monologue to include "(Because gross.)" Yes, parentheses included. There are many parenthetical asides in this book. By the way, it's the idea of a talking skeleton that is gross. Wouldn't that be weird or scary? Apparently it's gross.
2.) A few interludes in, I realized that not only was I getting cool little vignettes illustrating life in a post-Endor SW universe, I was also being sold cool new characters whose books will soon be available near me.
Screw you, buddy!
The book ends on a sequel-baiting teaser that reveals the true mastermind behind the Imperials' plan was a "You mean... he's not dead?!" character referred to only as Admiral. I'll eat my hat if they're not planning on re-doing Thrawn for the new canon here.
For Dexter Jettster aficionados, the reference to Dex's Diner occurs at location 3970 of the Kindle version of the book. You're welcome. Perhaps fittingly, it comes at 69% of the book. Hot under the collar as well, eh? Hmmm... my... pahket book...
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was ight. A good book but ultimately a book me at to get everyone where they need to be for the sequel. Characters were fun but I feel like the plot was kinda everywhere at some points.
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm begrudgingly giving this a two star rating. I was super excited at beginning "the journey to the force awakens" only to be immediately let down by this author's writing style. Seriously, I would not be shocked to find out 90% of all sentences in this book were 6 words or less. Very choppy. Hard to read. Unpleasant.
The main story itself was kind of generic and uninspired. The interludes (which came fairly often thank goodness) almost made up for it.
This is the second "new extended universe" book I've read now and they have both disappointed me greatly. But, being a fan of the Star Wars universe, I'll keep my eyes open for the next non-movie story with potential and hope for the best, I guess.
The main story itself was kind of generic and uninspired. The interludes (which came fairly often thank goodness) almost made up for it.
This is the second "new extended universe" book I've read now and they have both disappointed me greatly. But, being a fan of the Star Wars universe, I'll keep my eyes open for the next non-movie story with potential and hope for the best, I guess.
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
December 2015: I was nervous about reading this book for a couple of reasons:
Firstly, because there was a whole hullabaloo around it involving bigots upset at the reasonable portrayal of a diverse galaxy, and five year olds in the bodies of grown men (mostly) crying about the old Extended Universe being axed, and so they must automatically shun the new canon, as if the people writing those new books didn’t love the old books as much as they did and wouldn’t do their best to preserve as much of it as they could. (Also, what an ineffectual protest. This book was a bestseller almost immediately.) There also seems to be a proliferation of reviews stating Aftermath is poorly written (it’s not); that it wasn’t the book they wanted, many comparing it to Zahn’s original trilogy (you should never put your own expectations on a book, ever–-guaranteed failure right there); and that it was boring. This last complaint I am BAFFLED by. Did we even read the same book?
And secondly, because I’ve never really liked any of the Chuck Wendig books that I’ve read. His style tends to grate on me, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to overcome that. His prose is very in your face, and his style tends to draw attention to itself by design. (I prefer books that allow you to sink into a story and forget you’re even reading. This is harder to do for me with his writing.) It bears repeating I think that just because you don’t care for an author’s writing style, that does NOT mean it’s “badly written.”
So yeah, it was a bit hard for me to overcome all that baggage when I just wanted to read a book that I could escape into. Thankfully, once I actually picked it up, and spent several pages getting acclimated to the writing style (which is one of the main things working against this book–he really would have been much better served to pick any POV other than third person present tense–added to his already, er, unique writing style, it’s just too much). I also noticed that occasionally, he’d have his characters speak colloquially, and instead of using Star Wars terms, he’d slip in our slang and our way of talking, and it pulled me out every time.
But even with those hurdles, this was overall a fun reading experience. You can tell that Chuck Wendig really fucking loves Star Wars. He has a nice grasp on the spaciness of it all, and the political situation between the Empire and the Rebellion, now the New Republic (that name being one of the many things that is staying the same in the new canon), and I genuinely liked all of his main characters. The story is a simple one. In the wake of the destruction of the second Death Star, a ragtag group of people come together on the Outer Rim planet, Akiva. The Empire has gathered there to decide how to move forward, and everyone’s favorite pilot, Wedge Antilles, has gotten himself captured gathering intel. Rebel pilot Norra Wexley has returned home to Akiva for the first time in three years, and with her fifteen year old prodigy son (he builds robots and stuff), a bounty hunter there to capitalize on the dense concentration of Imperial targets, and a deserter from the Imperial Starfleet--a former loyalty officer nonetheless--she goes about trying to rescue Wedge from the Imperials. Things go haywire of course, but it hits all the right notes and it all builds to an exciting swashbuckling conclusion.
I will definitely be checking out the second two books in this trilogy, and I’m super glad I didn’t listen to the haters.
March 2015: His wish came true!!! Awwwww.
Firstly, because there was a whole hullabaloo around it involving bigots upset at the reasonable portrayal of a diverse galaxy, and five year olds in the bodies of grown men (mostly) crying about the old Extended Universe being axed, and so they must automatically shun the new canon, as if the people writing those new books didn’t love the old books as much as they did and wouldn’t do their best to preserve as much of it as they could. (Also, what an ineffectual protest. This book was a bestseller almost immediately.) There also seems to be a proliferation of reviews stating Aftermath is poorly written (it’s not); that it wasn’t the book they wanted, many comparing it to Zahn’s original trilogy (you should never put your own expectations on a book, ever–-guaranteed failure right there); and that it was boring. This last complaint I am BAFFLED by. Did we even read the same book?
And secondly, because I’ve never really liked any of the Chuck Wendig books that I’ve read. His style tends to grate on me, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to overcome that. His prose is very in your face, and his style tends to draw attention to itself by design. (I prefer books that allow you to sink into a story and forget you’re even reading. This is harder to do for me with his writing.) It bears repeating I think that just because you don’t care for an author’s writing style, that does NOT mean it’s “badly written.”
So yeah, it was a bit hard for me to overcome all that baggage when I just wanted to read a book that I could escape into. Thankfully, once I actually picked it up, and spent several pages getting acclimated to the writing style (which is one of the main things working against this book–he really would have been much better served to pick any POV other than third person present tense–added to his already, er, unique writing style, it’s just too much). I also noticed that occasionally, he’d have his characters speak colloquially, and instead of using Star Wars terms, he’d slip in our slang and our way of talking, and it pulled me out every time.
But even with those hurdles, this was overall a fun reading experience. You can tell that Chuck Wendig really fucking loves Star Wars. He has a nice grasp on the spaciness of it all, and the political situation between the Empire and the Rebellion, now the New Republic (that name being one of the many things that is staying the same in the new canon), and I genuinely liked all of his main characters. The story is a simple one. In the wake of the destruction of the second Death Star, a ragtag group of people come together on the Outer Rim planet, Akiva. The Empire has gathered there to decide how to move forward, and everyone’s favorite pilot, Wedge Antilles, has gotten himself captured gathering intel. Rebel pilot Norra Wexley has returned home to Akiva for the first time in three years, and with her fifteen year old prodigy son (he builds robots and stuff), a bounty hunter there to capitalize on the dense concentration of Imperial targets, and a deserter from the Imperial Starfleet--a former loyalty officer nonetheless--she goes about trying to rescue Wedge from the Imperials. Things go haywire of course, but it hits all the right notes and it all builds to an exciting swashbuckling conclusion.
I will definitely be checking out the second two books in this trilogy, and I’m super glad I didn’t listen to the haters.
March 2015: His wish came true!!! Awwwww.