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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Another Strong New Canon Entry
Aftermath series is not my favorite part of the new canon, but it tells the story immediately following 6 well enough to establish a foothold to get us to episode 7 some 30 years later. That continuity is very important to me, and why I enjoy the series as much as I do.
Life debt, like the aftermath series in general, has high points and low points. What's unfortunate is that they come against where you expect it. Rae Slone and Sinjir Rath Velus continue to inspire, whereas Han feels out of place.
In general, I'm happy for this to be part of the new canon, but I can't recommend this to less hardcore fans, because the series doesn't stand well on its own.
Aftermath series is not my favorite part of the new canon, but it tells the story immediately following 6 well enough to establish a foothold to get us to episode 7 some 30 years later. That continuity is very important to me, and why I enjoy the series as much as I do.
Life debt, like the aftermath series in general, has high points and low points. What's unfortunate is that they come against where you expect it. Rae Slone and Sinjir Rath Velus continue to inspire, whereas Han feels out of place.
In general, I'm happy for this to be part of the new canon, but I can't recommend this to less hardcore fans, because the series doesn't stand well on its own.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A nice continuation of the previous book. For me, the highlights were Norra Wexley and Wedge Antilles. The style of writing is a bit hard to keep engaged with, but overall the story is solid.
adventurous
medium-paced
"We are all just asteroids, tumbling into one another."
Life Debt brings a new layer of sophistication to the themes of war, loyalty and what turns the gears of a political system.
Read after Bloodlines, it's very interesting to see how the seeds of the fall of the New Republic are already there from the start. The bureaucracy and compromises, although understandably a fundamental part of democracy, tying the hands of people who want to do good for the galaxy.
The book also turns up a notch on violence and cruelty, always a good reminder on how integral exploitation is in an Empire. The New Republic might need to deal with things better, but the author never uses that to falls back into a "maybe the Empire had SOME good" argument.
I can appreciate the maturity of the narrative in not pretending the plot twist was a huge reveal, and relying much more on the consequences of it. It was a very natural progression for the story, and the author seemed to realize a good portion of the audience would see it coming and dealt with the situation accordingly.
My only draw-back still is the constant pov shifting, a bit heavy handed for my personal taste, but still considerably better executed than in the previous book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Pregnancy
Star Wars Sparkles: ✨
Holy crap. I didn't learn from AFTERMATH.
Earlier this year at the beginning of my Star Wars deep dive, AFTERMATH nearly ended me - it took me a month to read, and I really didn't like it. It felt sloppy, poorly written, and the plot was all over the place. In fairness to Wendig, it turns out the book was forced out early and under-edited after being written in record time, so I figured I'd give him another chance.
This was.. an error in judgement.
LIFE DEBT, while better written and edited, is really not much better than AFTERMATH. In fact due to the lack of qualifiers, my review is lower. In the interests of fairness, I will also say I skimmed the last 200 pages of this book, but I really don't think I missed any information that would change my rating.
I've come to the realisation that if the entire AFTERMATH trilogy was condensed into one book, and was entirely the Imperial side of the three novels, that I would probably like it quite a bit. The half involving the Imperials, specifically Sloane, is actually quite interesting and compelling - whereas the half involving the Rebels (or rather the New Republic) bores me to tears.
Rebel Mum Norra is back again to be positively average and generic while also introducing a romance conflict which does nothing but drag down the badassery of Wedge - her teenage son Temmin is back to be kind of irritating and moody and make the audience question why exactly he's there, other than to have this droid Bones screech 'hy-larious' tone-deaf lol violence in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
Jas the Most Generic Bounty Hunter returns to continue her escapades, now with added sexual tension with the burly commando Jom who is possibly the most vacant character I've ever seen written in a book - and finally, Sinjir the former Imperial morale officer, who is actually the most interesting, is back to be homosexual and god doesn't the book want you to know it.
The way that the book handles Sinjir's homosexuality is particularly egregious to me. He and his partner are in a bar and Sinjir is worried about being seen because 'of what people will think' - and two New Republic soldiers say 'we don't like your kind'. It turns out they're referring to his being a former Imperial, but still - yuck.
The idea that in this infinitely old galaxy of history, there's even a discussion about "Oh no what if people judge me for being gay"? Pathetic. Says the Empire preferred 'breeders'? Gross.
The 'good guy' plot is honestly barely worth talking about - Han wants to rescue Chewie from a prison on Kashyyk, does so, and liberates Kashyyk.
The 'bad guy' plot is far more interesting, with Sloane and Rax tug-of-warring over the remnants of the Imperial fleet, lots of backstabbing and smoke and mirrors. This is the kind of stuff that I am very interested in, the Imperials trying to pull themselves back together after the catastrophic loss of Death Star II.
I am a glutton for punishment, because I will probably read EMPIRE'S END after a break - but rest assured I will be skimming the entire way.
Holy crap. I didn't learn from AFTERMATH.
Earlier this year at the beginning of my Star Wars deep dive, AFTERMATH nearly ended me - it took me a month to read, and I really didn't like it. It felt sloppy, poorly written, and the plot was all over the place. In fairness to Wendig, it turns out the book was forced out early and under-edited after being written in record time, so I figured I'd give him another chance.
This was.. an error in judgement.
LIFE DEBT, while better written and edited, is really not much better than AFTERMATH. In fact due to the lack of qualifiers, my review is lower. In the interests of fairness, I will also say I skimmed the last 200 pages of this book, but I really don't think I missed any information that would change my rating.
I've come to the realisation that if the entire AFTERMATH trilogy was condensed into one book, and was entirely the Imperial side of the three novels, that I would probably like it quite a bit. The half involving the Imperials, specifically Sloane, is actually quite interesting and compelling - whereas the half involving the Rebels (or rather the New Republic) bores me to tears.
Rebel Mum Norra is back again to be positively average and generic while also introducing a romance conflict which does nothing but drag down the badassery of Wedge - her teenage son Temmin is back to be kind of irritating and moody and make the audience question why exactly he's there, other than to have this droid Bones screech 'hy-larious' tone-deaf lol violence in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
Jas the Most Generic Bounty Hunter returns to continue her escapades, now with added sexual tension with the burly commando Jom who is possibly the most vacant character I've ever seen written in a book - and finally, Sinjir the former Imperial morale officer, who is actually the most interesting, is back to be homosexual and god doesn't the book want you to know it.
The way that the book handles Sinjir's homosexuality is particularly egregious to me. He and his partner are in a bar and Sinjir is worried about being seen because 'of what people will think' - and two New Republic soldiers say 'we don't like your kind'. It turns out they're referring to his being a former Imperial, but still - yuck.
The idea that in this infinitely old galaxy of history, there's even a discussion about "Oh no what if people judge me for being gay"? Pathetic. Says the Empire preferred 'breeders'? Gross.
The 'good guy' plot is honestly barely worth talking about - Han wants to rescue Chewie from a prison on Kashyyk, does so, and liberates Kashyyk.
The 'bad guy' plot is far more interesting, with Sloane and Rax tug-of-warring over the remnants of the Imperial fleet, lots of backstabbing and smoke and mirrors. This is the kind of stuff that I am very interested in, the Imperials trying to pull themselves back together after the catastrophic loss of Death Star II.
I am a glutton for punishment, because I will probably read EMPIRE'S END after a break - but rest assured I will be skimming the entire way.
The best one in the series, but the series isn’t much to talk about
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
• heck YA Han Solo and Chewie
• yet again Norra Wexley is my fav and deserves better
• Tem is less of a disaster prob cause he has less scenes
• holy fuk Rey Sloane
• yet again Norra Wexley is my fav and deserves better
• Tem is less of a disaster prob cause he has less scenes
• holy fuk Rey Sloane
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Life Debt is not nearly as good as the first Aftermath. Halfway through I felt like the main story of the book was finally starting, and it wasn't until the last eighty pages that I found myself really invested in the story. The last eighty pages are very good, but the story and the characters are just all over the place in this thing. Suddenly Jas has to pay off her aunt's debts and that's something she worries about at the start/end of the book. Things like that are cheesy and cheesy things happen in this book. In the end it's OK though :) I really did like the last eighty pages and I am excited to see how this dang story ends.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence