SPOILER Chuck Wendig - Aftermath (Journey to The Force Awakens)

It will be interesting to see how the fan reaction will affect Wending's approach for the sequel. Do you guys think he will totally abandon his quirky style in favor of more acceptable narrative form or refine his own style?

 

@Hard Case, I liked the book, but I readily admit to getting confused in the opening chapters as we bounce back and forth between all these new characters. That, imo, gets better if you stick with it.

 

Hello all. Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I just finished reading Star Wars: Aftermath this morning, and wanted to share my thoughts.

While it doesn't reach the lofty heights of some of the best old-EU/Legends Material (looking at you, Timothy Zahn) I found Aftermath to be a largely enjoyable, bracing adventure to read. I think the fact that I had read "A New Dawn" and also invested time in watching Star Wars: Rebels - in short, adapting to watching and reading about new characters rather than Classic Trilogy heroes - allowed me to approach this for what it was, which is a new adventure featuring entirely new characters.

I think Wendig succeeded on a few fronts, and faltered on others. Much has been made of Wendig's prose. For the most part, I found it refreshing. Some authors - particular science fiction ones, in my experience - can trip themselves up by being overly verbose and technical. When I read Star Wars, above all, I am looking for a quick-paced adventure, not a long slog that forces me to drag out my dictionary or thesaurus to figure out what the author is trying to say. So Wendig's, dare I say, simplistic approach was a nice change of pace. However! On several occasions, I noticed his use of "Earthling" terminology, especially in the first chapter introducing Jom Barrell. His references to pigeons and falcons - creatures that do not exist in Star Wars - was a big strange. There were a couple of other spelling and grammatical errors throughout that made me feel like this book was pushed through the editing process a little too quickly. While it did not dramatically detract from the overall story, it was noticeable (to me).

The other thing I found off-putting was the introduction of two characters in particular; one who may be the least likeable personality to be introduced into the SW Universe since Jar Jar Binks, and the other a hilarious piece of Deus Ex Machina; literally a walking trump card that thumbs its nose at danger. I am referring to Temmin and Mister Bones. While some of Temmin's resentment and anger may come across as understandable, his rapid ascension to mechanical prodigy, shop-owner and criminal had me rolling my eyes. Anakin Skywalker is supposed to be the shining beacon of innate talents when it comes to all things robotic - he built C-3PO as a child. And we're supposed to believe that another petulant teenager has essentially constructed the Godzilla to Anakin's Bambi, out of the biggest piece of cannon-fodder (the battle droid) that Star Wars has to offer?

Those were really my only qualms. I found the other three protagonists we were introduced to - Norra, Sinjir and Jas - to be immensely likeable and well fleshed out characters. We had Norra, the ace pilot who was torn between two primary motives: looking out for her son, vs. looking out for the galaxy that her son was going to live in. Sinjur, the ex-Imperial who actually had a remarkably simple and elegant reason for turning against the Empire. And there was Jas, whose instincts to follow the money were gradually and - in my opinion, organically - worn down by her growing compassion for this ragtag group she found herself caught up with.

On the Imperial side, I was delighted to see Admiral Rae Sloane back. Her motivations were also well fleshed out. This isn't a moustache-twirling, villainous-for-the-sake-of-being-villainous archtype we were dealing with. Sloane believes in her cause, disagrees with some of her comrades, and has a grander vision for the Empire as a whole.

The "A Story" itself is a fairly straight-forward adventure. Imperial brass meets to squabble over the succession of power in the wake of Palpatine and Vader's deaths. A rag-tag group rebels tries to alert the New Republic to the goings on and does everything in their power to thwart the fledgling Empire's plans. Impossible odds, you get it.

The "B Story" was quite interesting as well. We were introduced to little "World War Z" style vignettes that showed the impact of the Battle of Endor on the galaxy at large. We saw familiar locations such as Coruscant and Naboo, and uncharted territory such as Jakku (to be explored in The Force Awakens). I think these segments were Wendig's most inventive contribution, as it allowed him - and by extension, us, the readers - to have our cake and eat it, too. We got the intimate story telling of the goings-on on Akiva, and we got the broader scope of the entire galaxy by way of these interludes. They also allowed Wendig to liberally sprinkle in appearances from well known characters in a way that felt natural and organic, without ever being forced for that "cheap pop" effect. And while I had never been a massive fan of Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma (and this book did little to change that, with their political pontificating) it was at least interesting to see how the Rebel/Republic leadership was approaching things.

The last thing I will comment on is the fire this book - and Wendig - have come under for its portrayal of female and gay characters. I am saddened that for the many valid reasons one could critique this book, its style and its characters, that people have to resort to this sort of prejudicial commentary. The fact that principle characters were female and/or gay did not impact my enjoyment of this book in the slightest, and in a story that has always been about right triumphing over oppression, it is tremendously sad that some will still try to push that type of oppression on others.

To Wendig's comments on the matter, what I have read has shown that he is open to criticism of his book and his writing style, but he is not willing to engage/defend against that sort of bigotry. I find that admirable, and I don't think he is attempting to cloak all negative criticism of his book as being homophobic. He states that much explicitly.

Anyway. I found the book to be an enjoyable read that succeeded in vesting me in the interests of four of its protagonists - Norra, Sinjir, Jas and Sloane. I would happily pick up more books to read about their future exploits. Temmin and Mister Bones...well, they can bog off.

7/10 Overall.

 

Excellent, informative review.

 

Welcome to the Cantina, and thanks for sharing your thoughts on the book. This is a very well thought-out review.

 

Excellent review, and I also must add, excellent user name!

 

Hey all, REALLY long time lurker, first time poster. Seems like it might be kinda fun

I don't believe that anyone has made this connection yet, so I apologize if I'm stepping on someone else's shoes:

Does anyone else think that the Jakku interlude may be a tad more than just a small introduction to the planet? I understand that it may simply be an ironic reference to the fact that despite Corwin Ballast coming to get away from the war, he's settling down at the location where one of the largest engagements of the war will take place.

However, might Ballast actually be

Spoiler: TFA Connection

Max Von Sydow's character/the Vicar? The time differential between Aftermath and TFA lines up just about right (should Ballast be about 40 during the book), and this seems like the kind of detail that Lucasfilm would love to include in their Journey to the Force Awakens properties. Furthermore, should the rumors regarding TFA's Act I pan out as they've been reported, our introduction to Ballast's background here (dead family, seemingly an honorable guy) might invoke some additional sympathy for him (granted, only for those hardcore fans who have read the books) when Ren cuts him down.

I realize that I may have just boarded the "everything's connected!" train, but it's just some speculation I wanted to share. Overall, a relatively quick and enjoyable read!

 

Welcome to the Cantina!

You're not alone in wondering if there's a connection there. It's definitely been brought up. There's really no way of knowing just yet. If they are the same character, he would have changed from someone who wanted no involvement into someone who was, at least in some way, involved with the locals. It could indicate that they're different people, but then again hed have 30 years to change.

 

Welcome to the forums. Anyone who uses the word "vignettes" in their post gets a 'like' from me.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 20, 2015, Original Post Date: Sep 20, 2015 ---

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I don't think it said how old he was but I guessed he had a young family and if you then add on 30 years that would put him in range of MVS's current age.

 

Fantastic review, Lady M. I had very similar impressions of Aftermath, particularly in terms of the fact that a lot of the ability to enjoy the story rests on being able to suspend prior expectations. My own "official" review on the blog (and I actually think that yours is better) caught a whole lot of Comic Book Guy flak ("Worrst. Star Wars novelll. Everrrrr.") in the comments, and some comments from other readers who found Aftermath at least tolerable or (in a number of cases) enjoyable. I was very pleasantly surprised yesterday to find your review here and to see that somebody else read the thing more or less the same way I did.

I suspect that the reason that there wasn't much more than a brief tease about the Big Three in this was, at least in part, because the ST itself really won't be that much about the Big Three. Yes, Han, Luke and Leia will be in TFA, but I suspect that the story isn't really going to be about them. Can Star Wars work if it's focused on unfamiliar characters? IMHO, that's really the big leap of faith we're looking at with regard to the ST. The PT, at the very least, focused for the most part on familiar lead characters - Anakin, Obi Wan, Yoda, etc. Even Padme always came across to me as being very similar to Leia. Whether you liked the PT or not (and I admit to not having been crazy about it) it at least had the benefit of being built around characters we already knew.

Episodes VII, VIII and IX aren't going to have that to rely upon. Yes, we've heard that Han will play a major role in TFA, but then again so did Obi Wan in ANH - but the OT films weren't "about" him. They were about Han, Luke and Leia. Had that ensemble not worked, ANH would have probably ended up a half-forgotten, one-off film called "Star Wars" that occasionally ran on TV late at night.

The ST will depend very much on whether people can accept a Star Wars movie that isn't driven by characters we've all known and loved for decades. So I tend to wonder if that wasn't part of why LFL/Disney had Chuck Wendig write a book that almost entirely avoided the Big Three.

My biggest gripe about Aftermath was the writing. Though I caught some hell for saying so in my own review, I liked the story but, like you, I found the writing to be rather lackluster. I'm not sure whether or not this was partly due to the fact that Wendig was given 45 days to crank this novel out, or whether that's just the way he writes. In any case, the writing style I saw in Aftermath was very spotty and inconsistent. The biggest problem was that I even noticed the writing style in the first place. IMHO, when writing style upstages the story, we've got a problem. Especially for a Star Wars novel.

I had a problem with the whole thing being written in present tense from the moment I read the online excerpt a month or so ago. Though I understood the point behind it (an attempt to give the story a "cinematic" immediacy) and was able to roll with it for the most part, when it came right down to it I felt that it was essentially the literary equivalent of the "shakey-cam" gimmick that has ruined so damned many movies over the past 10-15 years. I've always found shaking the camera to be a cheap shortcut - a way of artificially simulating "tension" for directors who can't be bothered to create actual tension through story and characters. The use of present tense in the writing of Aftermath felt similarly gimmicky to me.

And I think there were a lot of things in the book that could have worked better had Wendig had a better editor pushing him to hone his writing. Ben_Kenobi mentions the "This is my home" thing, for instance. Now that bit I did get - a shell-shocked war veteran returning home would tend to have a hard time seeing their home in the same way they saw it before the war, and the whole experience would probably tend to feel rather unreal. However, I don't think that Wendig dove into that state of "unreality" as deeply and meaningfully as he could have. He seems to skim the surface of it a bit too much, and I think that a good editor would have challenged him to go back and work on going beyond the short little bursts of superficial imagery and exploring what was really happening in Norra's head as she finally returned home after the war.

But the thing was, I liked the story being told, even if I wasn't thrilled with the manner in which Wendig went about telling it. I liked the characters even if I felt that Wendig sometimes presented them in a bit too hamfisted and obvious a manner. Especially Temmin, who often seemed to speak in modern American idioms (though at least he stopped short of throwing around Twittery little tween gems like "totes adorbs", which I began to dread as a very real possibility after awhile.) And yet, overall I didn't mind Temmin in the story, and I can rarely stomach children and teens in Star Wars stories.

So Wendig certainly seemed to have done something right with story and characters, I just felt like his writing read too much like a first draft.

But I agree completely with you when you say that readers are probably going to either love or hate Aftermath. I didn't love it, but I liked it quite a bit. (And this apparently didn't track for some of the folks who read my review and didn't understand how I could like the story while having problems with the writing.) I have a sneaking suspicion that TFA will be a lot like this for SW fans - over-expect certain things and it's going to let you down. Suspend expectations along with disbelief when you walk into the theater and it'll probably be a fun ride. At least I hope so!

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 21, 2015, Original Post Date: Sep 21, 2015 ---

Funny thing was, I didn't really even notice the prevalence of gay and female characters among the fairly extensive cast of Aftermath. I did get a chuckle out of the fact that I'd been picturing Sinjir as being rather like Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood long before he corrected Jas' assumptions about his sexuality. But I didn't feel like there was any agenda here other than to create a broad range of characters and personality types.

 

Yeah, and it's not like I found Wendig's style unreadable or anything. There were times when I didn't notice his style, and was just able to focus on the story. My problem was, his writing style grabbed my attention and drew me out of the story too often.

And again, present tense aside, I found his writing to be rather erratic and often a good bit more simplistic than I'd have preferred. I don't need it to be dense, jargon-laden sci-fi or anything like that. To me, the style just felt a bit too much like it was geared toward younger readers. I felt the same about Dark Disciple (haven't read A New Dawn yet.)

But the story was still plenty of fun, and I also think that some of the rough edges to the writing were probably a direct result of it being such a rush job. And as you point out, he's got a lot more time to write the next book in the series, including room to finish another of his books while he lets the story for the Aftermath sequel percolate in the back of his head. IMHO, he'll be able to put his best foot forward on the next book in this series, and we'll see how many of the problems with this one were due to the tight turnaround schedule.

And I'm just fine with the focus being on new characters and not the Big Three. I realize that some folks were hoping for something more like Heir to the Empire as far as that goes, but again... the sequel trilogy is going to focus on new characters more than the OT characters, so Aftermath is probably decent preparation for that.

 

It actually could have a fun historical rhyme.

Little known fact: The farmer who moved his family after the first battle of the American Civil War, to get away from the horrors of it, just so happened to be the same man who hosted Grant and Lee in his living room for the formal surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. The war started and ended in that man's home, so to speak.

I'm a little late with my final thoughts on the book. I was travelling for work last week and didn't have time to even login here at the Cantina.

There really isn't much more to say than what I have said earlier and what other have discussed, it was a quirky writing style, fun characters, brain candy type of book that will probably make more sense in retrospect.

I did pick up during the Dengar interlude that we are likely to see a guild or association of bounty hunters in TFA.

 

Now that I've had some time to let the story sink in, as well as compare it to the other Journey to The Force Awakens books(just finished all of them), I would have to say it is simply OK, not bad, but not particularly good either. I think I tried to convince myself that I liked it more than I really did early on, otherwise known as The Phantom Menace effect . Just like TPM however, I don't think that film is terrible, its just OK, just like this book. To be honest, I didn't have the desire to keep turning the page in this book like the others from The Journey to The Force Awakens line, in fact, I kind of had to make myself keep reading the book.

People have had a number of issues with this book, the writing style being one of the chief complaints. The writing style, while not necessarily my preferred choice, didn't really affect my enjoyment that much. My biggest obstacle to enjoying the book was the characters, other than Sinjir, the new characters didn't really grab me while reading this book. I wanted to connect with these characters, but the writing didn't really do a good job of establishing the connection that I imagine most readers were looking for. Dekka129 pointed out how some better editing might have helped with this, but sadly the editing of the book seemed to fall short as well.

Norra showed a glimmer of potential, but it was never actually realized in this book. I honestly found Temmin kind of annoying, and his pattern of speech didn't really feel like something we would see in Star Wars. Jas also had some potential, I liked the tidbit about her aunt being Sugi from TCW, however she also fell short in the character development department. Sinjir on the other hand was definitely handled the best of the new characters in the book, we got a better feel of where he was coming from, and his snarky personality easily made him the most likable character in the book. Ideally these characters will be better developed in the next book, however with proper writing, Wendig could have developed them sufficiently in this book.

Additionally, I didn't really find the planet Akiva to be all that interesting either. The planet has potential, there were some interesting details given at various points, however Wendig failed to really make it feel like a planet we might see in a Star Wars movie. I have no objections to seeing the planet show up in future stories, I just feel that a better writer could have fleshed it out in a more interesting way while making it feel like Star Wars.

That is actually one of my problems with this book, it doesn't really have the proper Star Wars feel when reading it. I'll agree that the writing style did add a bit of cinematic flair at times, making it feel more like a movie, just not a Star Wars movie. As was mentioned about Temmin for instance, the way the character talks just doesn't feel like an authentic Star Wars character. I honestly think that Chuck Wendig's style of writing just doesn't fit Star Wars that well, at least after writing this first book.

All of that being said, I still don't think the book is terrible, there were parts I liked, the interludes were interesting, as well as the portions dealing with the meeting of the Imperial leaders. Rae Sloane continued to show further promise in the new canon material as well, she is one of my favorite characters thus far in the new canon stories. Also the ending with the mysterious Fleet Admiral character definitely showed some potential for further stories in the book series.

As for some of those other criticisms leveled at the book, not focusing on the OT characters, the writing style, it isn't written by Zahn, etc. I can honestly say that those didn't factor into my real feelings on this book. I'm OK with new characters as long as they are well developed and likable. Lost Stars for instance, focuses entirely on new characters and I loved that novel. I'm always open to seeing what new authors can bring to the Star Wars mythos, so the fact that he wasn't Zahn and didn't try and write a book in the style of Heir to the Empire is completely fine with me. This book has a good framework for an interesting story, I just feel that it would have been much better in the hands of a more capable author, an author who had a better feel for writing and character development(just like I feel the PT would have been much better had Lucas had other people direct those films).

I would give this book a 6.5 out of 10.

My rankings of the Journey to the Force Awakens material:

Lost Stars 9.8
Smuggler's Run 8.5
The Weapon of a Jedi 8.4
Moving Target 7.9
Aftermath 6.5
​

Like I said, I don't think Aftermath is terrible, but its a shame that the most hyped of the new run of Star Wars novels wasn't handled better. I'd still recommend it to the hardcore Star Wars fans that read most all of the books, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone just getting into the world of Star Wars novels, Lost Stars is a much better recommendation in my opinion.

Additionally, I would like to say that I have enjoyed the well thought out reviews of this book by both those who loved it and those who didn't. Even though this book disappointed me, I'm glad that others out there are really enjoying it.

 

I kinda think that Sinjir was probably Wendig's favorite out of all the characters too. And once again, I've got to wonder how much of that had to do with the "We need this book finished yesterday!" timetable that he was apparently given. Because it can take some time to really discover a character when you're writing a story. Sometimes a character just comes to you almost fully formed (which I bet is what happened with Sinjir) and other times a character might not really come to life for you for awhile. And it sounds like Wendig didn't have the luxury of "awhile" for this batch of characters.

Look at the other character that readers tended to like in Aftermath: Admiral Sloane. She had already been fleshed out as a character in A New Dawn, which gave Wendig more to work with.

To be completely fair to Chuck Wendig, I can't imagine having to crank out an entire novel in a month and a half, especially with an almost entirely new set of characters that you've got to set up for a multi-book series.