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carlyxdeexx 's review for:
Life Debt
by Chuck Wendig
This book actually made me cry a little and I was not expecting it.
I really love these characters! I honestly cared more about our new ragtag band than the old heroes, though I loved every moment with Leia and appreciated the author’s loyalty to Han’s personality. I still love Sloane, and it was great to see further evolution in Jas and Sinjir. Also, can we talk about the genderfluid space pirate? There’s a genderfluid space pirate! And they are fantastic.
There’s an amazing thematic tension throughout this book between different methods of securing peace/order—this is touched on in the first book, but it goes even deeper here. There are the pragmatic peacekeepers (Mon Mothma) seeking to demilitarize and consolidate and negotiate whenever possible. Then there are the heroes (Norra and Co., Han) seeking to do more, liberate all the planets they can regardless of cost or material benefit, prioritizing protecting more innocents from harm and also their personal debts. And then there are the iron fists (Sloane) seeking to impose order and safety through clear, calculated might, ensuring everyone knows and stays in their place. But even Sloane is in for a surprise when she discovers others willing to sacrifice all honor and decorum to seize absolute power.
This is my favorite of the book’s themes, and we aren’t necessarily led to conclude that any one path is best. For even ruling out those pursuing tyranny, it seems that both the pragmatic and the heroic need each other to accomplish their unified goal. It seems a balance must be struck. On top of this, the book delves into the Empire’s discrimination against and enslavement of aliens, what it means to do terrible deeds in the name of good, how that’s different from evil (or if it is at all), and the complexities of many types of love and allegiance. This is subtitled “Life Debt” and the subtitle is apt: debts are a motif in the book, whether they are monetary or social, inherited or incurred. Everyone’s trying to pay off their debts, trying to keep track of what they owe to whom. It’s actually almost annoying how much the word “debt” pops up.
But everything else is so good I have to overlook that. Chewy really shines in this book, too, which is very special. I can’t wait to talk to my little cousin about this one and borrow the next in the series.
I really love these characters! I honestly cared more about our new ragtag band than the old heroes, though I loved every moment with Leia and appreciated the author’s loyalty to Han’s personality. I still love Sloane, and it was great to see further evolution in Jas and Sinjir. Also, can we talk about the genderfluid space pirate? There’s a genderfluid space pirate! And they are fantastic.
There’s an amazing thematic tension throughout this book between different methods of securing peace/order—this is touched on in the first book, but it goes even deeper here. There are the pragmatic peacekeepers (Mon Mothma) seeking to demilitarize and consolidate and negotiate whenever possible. Then there are the heroes (Norra and Co., Han) seeking to do more, liberate all the planets they can regardless of cost or material benefit, prioritizing protecting more innocents from harm and also their personal debts. And then there are the iron fists (Sloane) seeking to impose order and safety through clear, calculated might, ensuring everyone knows and stays in their place. But even Sloane is in for a surprise when she discovers others willing to sacrifice all honor and decorum to seize absolute power.
This is my favorite of the book’s themes, and we aren’t necessarily led to conclude that any one path is best. For even ruling out those pursuing tyranny, it seems that both the pragmatic and the heroic need each other to accomplish their unified goal. It seems a balance must be struck. On top of this, the book delves into the Empire’s discrimination against and enslavement of aliens, what it means to do terrible deeds in the name of good, how that’s different from evil (or if it is at all), and the complexities of many types of love and allegiance. This is subtitled “Life Debt” and the subtitle is apt: debts are a motif in the book, whether they are monetary or social, inherited or incurred. Everyone’s trying to pay off their debts, trying to keep track of what they owe to whom. It’s actually almost annoying how much the word “debt” pops up.
But everything else is so good I have to overlook that. Chewy really shines in this book, too, which is very special. I can’t wait to talk to my little cousin about this one and borrow the next in the series.