Star Wars: Aftermath is one of the first books to officially begin the new canon of novel in the Star Wars universe. This book picks up the story within the first few weeks and months after the destruction of the second Death Star.

This past year for fans of the Star Wars novels has been a trying one. Depending on who you talked to, there were many mixed emotions once fans found out that nearly 30 years of books were wiped clean by the hand of the Mouse and with a new movie coming, a new canon of books were sure to follow. On one hand the insanity that was the Yuuzhan Vong menace as well as the schism between the Solo children and the 2^nd Galactic Civil War has been eradicated. On the other hand, the deaths of Chewbacca and Mara Jade put them back on the table. But with Mara, her fate is uncertain as she is a post RotJ character. With Aftermath being set where it is, there is a whole lot of wiggle room for OEU (Original Expanded Universe) characters to possible appear and perhaps changed so all may not be lost.

…a bounty hunter, an Imperial Officer and a Rebel Pilot walk into a bar.

(WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD)

The plot of Aftermath is in the wake of the Death Star’s explosion, the Galactic Empire is in splinters. Everything is not hunky dory as we saw at the end of Episode VI. The Rebel Alliance is busy mopping up Imperial resistance and some have still chosen to fight on. On the planet of Akivva where the majority of the story takes place, a group of high ranking Imperials led by Admiral Rae Sloane, who is holding on to one of the last Super Star Destroyers, meet to try and figure out how to turn bantha poodoo into vonium regarding their situation. Part of the plan involves using a Palpatine decoy to re-establish order, consolidating the remaining Star Destroyers into a fighting force as well as establishing some sort of leadership hierarchy.   In the meantime, Wedge Antilles has been dispatched to the area to find out what’s going on and unfortunately gets captured. In the meantime, four strangers from different paths come together and wind up rallying the Rebel Alliance’s cause. There’s Norra, a Rebel pilot who is trying to come home after thinking her part in the war is done, not realizing how much more is left to do. Next is Timmin, the son that she left behind to fight against the Empire. Timmin is forced to grow up after losing his parents in more ways than one. There is Jas, a lone bounty hunter who is going after some high bounties at the Imperial meeting and lastly there is, Sinjir, an ex-Imperial Loyalty Officer who may or may not sell out his new group of friends. And oh yeah, he’s gay, which for some reason has caused homophobic Star Wars readers to come out of their own closets to rally against this character.   All of these beings come together with different reasons but unite under a common cause: to continue the fall of the Empire and they all realize that the best way to do it is to disrupt the Imperial meeting.

As far as the story itself, it’s very interesting that we get to see what happens in the Star Wars Universe right after the credits rolled. Even when considering the timeline of Timothy Zahn’s original books from 25 years ago, readers can see that the galaxy in his books was a bit more stable. What I liked most with Aftermath, you feel the chaos and disorder that is going on throughout. Many are looking to the leadership on both sides and many are trying to disseminate the truth and not getting all of the answers. Meanwhile, the leadership on both sides feels that change is coming as some try to consolidate power and other try to abdicate their power.

Most of the characters fighting on the ‘good’ side were likable enough and I was happy that Chuck Wendig took a little time filling in some back story to all of them including Timmin and Norra which makes it easier to see some of the decisions happen the way they do in the 3rd act of the book.  I also liked Jas and they way that she becomes a team player after being alone for so long and Sinjir…he comes off as conflicted about his new allegiance in a way and even when things are done and dusted, you still feel as if you need to keep an eye on him in later books.

There were 2 major things that I didn’t like about this book and it’s attributed to Chuck Wendig’s writing style. The first was his over usage of parentheses throughout the novel when describing certain situations and actions. It’s as if he is trying to dumb down certain things for the reader when he either could have just left the passage out or not used the parentheses at all. The other major issue I had was his use or “Interludes” throughout the novel to give bits of side stories to other happenings in the galaxy.   Now I don’t want to 100% discount them as a few were interesting: One had to do with the possible fate of Boba Fett and his armor, another had to do with a certain weapon lost when its owner lost their hand, a Lando mention and lastly Chewie and Han plot to go free Chewie’s homeworld. There were many of these interludes that, to me, slowed the pace of the story and not all of them were interesting nor made me care if they didn’t have anything to do with the overall plot.

Without these interludes, or possibly with a better way to weave some of them into the story, I think this major foray into the new canon would have been better. I was even happier that towards the end of the story, Wendig nearly abandoned his parenthesis abuse.   I did enjoy that towards the end, we got a satisfactory amount of action including a death defying rescue and a brief space battle.

Then at the end, we are introduced to an even bigger threat to the Rebel Alliance. The only hint is that everything that happened at Akkiva was ‘supposed to happen’.

As far as recommending the book, it’s a mixed bag. It’s a good story if you want to see what happened in the immediate time right after the Death Star’s destruction but if you aren’t used to Chuck Wendig’s writing style you may not finish it.

 

Also, if you haven’t done so, check out the new Star Wars comic that released as well as our Star Wars: Lost Stars review.

2.75 Thermal detonators out of 5