Between Books - Aftermath: Life Debt

Among the things I was not looking forward to among all of Disney's new Star Wars offerings was another Aftermath book.  So it was with great hesitation I borrowed, not bought, Aftermath: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig.  Because honestly, I could not have any lower expectations!

Wendig throws his readers early into the action. We join Norra Wexley and her band of Rebels (or New Republic commandos), comprised of surviving characters from the last book, as they serve as an extraction team.  They find, kidnap and extract Imperial war criminals so they can be tried for their atrocities by the New Republic.  However, the actions of others pull her into a different story. Princess Leia calls upon Wexley and her crew to find and return another type of scoundrel. Her husband Han Solo has gone missing. His partner Chewbacca was captured in an attempt by the pair to organize an attack to free the  Wookie's home world Kashyyyk from Imperial control.  Solo refuses to come home until he can recover his partner despite his wife's pregnancy.  But do Wexley's actions fill the needs of the New Republic or the Imperial remnant and its leader Grand Admiral Rae Sloane and her secret advisor?  And can you team survive the strain of the twists and turns of this adventure?

Let me just jump to the big reveal, and that's not the home world of the Imperial secret advisor!  I loved Aftermath: Life Debt.  It started hard for me, as I could not remember who all these new heroes from the first book was.  So watching a group I did not really know extract an unknown to me villian in a new to me setting, I was a little lost. But within the first 30 pages it turned quickly for me. I began to identify and feel for Norra's band.  I found I cared for this group, their emotions and what was going to happen to them.  The group is largely a team of dubious personalities, so just the question if how do former bounty hunters and imperials move forward within the New Republic was fascinating.  And unlike Bloodlines, it had just enough politics. I t is close enough to the Rebellion we see how Leia struggles with the new politically correct structure the New Republic is becoming. That is even more interesting and helps advance Leia closer to the Resistance intellectually more then the actions of Bloodline.  And Wendig makes me care about the politics outlined in this book as the New Republic debates what can they do for Kashyyyk, a work full of Wookies that I do care about. 

In the first book of the trilogy Wendig touched briefly on classic Star Wars heroes.   In this volume he goes all in. And so we get Han Solo...and a lot of him.  And it is the Solo we want and hope from, a lovable scoundrel. Wendig does a nice job highlighting the Solo/Chewbacca relationship, even when the Wookie is not there.  He makes it clear the Chewbacca is not a sidekick or pet. Chewbacca is an equal partner!  And the descriptions of this relationship really further cement how I feel about this dynamic pair.


But that's not to say I do not care about the new heroes.  Norra is a good examples.  She's a former Rebel, a soldiers, a mother to the future Snap Wexley, a wife to a missing husband and more.  I care about her future and her relationships with not just her team but also her family and potential love interests.  And honestly I could not say that after the first book!

I really enjoyed Aftermath: Life Debt. I do not always recommend many Star Wars books bases on plot and writing. This however is one I fully recommend!

Between Books - Aftermath

I continue my quest to prepare for Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Aftermath by Chuck Wendig.  I started the book knowing this was official canon that also serves as part of “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.  And I opened the book excitement to find out officially what happened to Han, Luke and Leia after the Battle of Endor.  But what I got was very different.

I have decided to write this synopsis from the window of a casual Star Wars fan.

On a world you don’t know in the Outer Rim, the Empire attempts to regroup after the loss of the Emperor, Darth Vader and the Death Star.  Wedge Antilles travels to this world in a scouting mission and stumbles into the Empire’s planning conference.  Imperials you don’t know capture the Rebel hero and dream of a Imperial tomorrow.  On the planet you don’t know, a Rebel, bounty hunter, former Imperial and streetwise kid, all of which you don’t know, struggle to make their way in the galaxy while also potentially sabotaging the Empire’s talks.  These heroes you don’t know are the only hope for Wedge’s freedom, a hero you might know.  Interspersed in this adventure are interludes from throughout the galaxy as people you mostly don’t know, but hey Han and Chewy show up, are forced to answer issues caused by the fracturing Empire and the rising New Republic.   One thing is made clear, the struggle you know is not yet over!  

I will continue to argue that Star Wars works best with a visual element.  And with all apologizes to Chuck Wendig who was given and job and did his job, Aftermath has this problem and more working against it.  First, Wendig puts us in a new world and uses aliens where we have to rely on either our imagination visual reference or the internet to create a picture of the mind.  But unlike an original science fiction novel our mind pushes for a visual reference for the mind’s eye.   Our minds know this galaxy and pushes to provide the right image instead of accepting imagination.  Second, Wendig is largely using original characters to this story, this trilogy wow really, so readers are left frustrated wanting to spend time with original trilogy characters who are largely absent.  And finally the plot is not what a casual Star Wars fan would want since it is really about this new group of heroes for which we have no context.  The blunt reality is Wendig’s book would be a good science fiction story.  But it fails in meeting the needs of causal and hard core Star Wars fans.  

What I really want to know is what happened after Return of the Jedi.   And Aftermath gives us a big picture.  The Empire is hurt but not eliminated.  And a power vacuum has been created with multiple voices trying to fill the void.  The Rebel Alliance is also in transition as they move from a guerilla underground movement to a legitimate authority in several planets and systems in the universe.  Both sides are scrambling to keep or take power.   In short there is enough contested territory that the war is far from over.  And so I can use this to enter the movie with the sense that a long struggle continued or even continues into the future.  The other aspect I take from the book is the ideas that were found in the Expanded Universe to be frank with a New Republic, Mon Montha as the key political leader, Wedge Antilles as a flying legend and Imperial Moffs and Admirals fighting to become key political players.  

Aftermath by Chuck Wendig is set to prepare me for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  In the end it was largely failed for me.  What could be a solid science fiction story is high jacked by the constraints of Star Wars.  And of course there is the slight problem that it does not even close to meet the expectations of casual and even hardcore fans.