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A review by ultimatumman
Aftermath by Chuck Wendig
2.0
Well, it was fun to dive into the new Star Wars universe, but too bad we really didn't get to dive in so much as get our toes wet. From the standpoint of this book revealing new information about the Star Wars universe leading up to the Force Awakens, it was a disappointment. The book gives a general feel of where things are politically and where the Empire and the New Republic are at, but that's pretty much it.
There are a ton of new characters in this book so it was a little hard to keep them all straight and they weren't particularly that interesting. The book ends with a feeling that a new team has been assembled and will be featured in later books, which wasn't really what this book should have been about. So we focus on a group of characters (and one of them is obligatorily a bounty hunter) when we should have been focusing on greater events. The most interesting chapters for me were the interlude chapters which other reviewers found irrelevant, but to me the main story line of the book was the irrelevant part since it added no new information about the state of the Star Wars galaxy. Even spending time with the Imperials didn't add much even though they were meeting about how to proceed with the Empire. The book focuses a lot on this gathering of Imperials and its significance, but then not much happens with it.
The writing was interesting because the book was written in present tense. That's the first Star Wars book to do that and it was cool thing to explore. I don't think it was executed very well, but it was a good attempt. Near the middle of the book Wendig started throwing in random jokes which felt out of place since humor hadn't been used leading up to that point. The timeline was also confusing because some characters talked about Endor like it happened recently, but this book takes place years afterward.
Overall this book was okay. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. There were a few Deus Ex Machina accidents/coincidences that really ruined some potentially great moments. But the book isn't a long read and the interlude chapters are very interesting even though they are vague. If this book would have delivered more information about the "Journey to the Force Awakens" like it should have instead of introducing irrelevant new characters, this would have been a great read.
There are a ton of new characters in this book so it was a little hard to keep them all straight and they weren't particularly that interesting. The book ends with a feeling that a new team has been assembled and will be featured in later books, which wasn't really what this book should have been about. So we focus on a group of characters (and one of them is obligatorily a bounty hunter) when we should have been focusing on greater events. The most interesting chapters for me were the interlude chapters which other reviewers found irrelevant, but to me the main story line of the book was the irrelevant part since it added no new information about the state of the Star Wars galaxy. Even spending time with the Imperials didn't add much even though they were meeting about how to proceed with the Empire. The book focuses a lot on this gathering of Imperials and its significance, but then not much happens with it.
The writing was interesting because the book was written in present tense. That's the first Star Wars book to do that and it was cool thing to explore. I don't think it was executed very well, but it was a good attempt. Near the middle of the book Wendig started throwing in random jokes which felt out of place since humor hadn't been used leading up to that point. The timeline was also confusing because some characters talked about Endor like it happened recently, but this book takes place years afterward.
Overall this book was okay. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. There were a few Deus Ex Machina accidents/coincidences that really ruined some potentially great moments. But the book isn't a long read and the interlude chapters are very interesting even though they are vague. If this book would have delivered more information about the "Journey to the Force Awakens" like it should have instead of introducing irrelevant new characters, this would have been a great read.