Aftermath, written by Chuck
Wendig
The book in conical and the cover
announces a “journey to” Ep VII and this clearly why I was interested in
reading it.
It is the first book of the
Aftermath Trilogy : Aftermath, Aftermath: Life’s Debt, Aftermath: Empire’s End
(July/2017)
Scenario takes place just after
the battle of ENDOR in a galaxy in chaos between the reminiscence of the fallen
Empire and the birth of the NEW REPUBLIC and crime syndicates trying to exploit
the situation.
***
warning : Spoiler inside ***
My expectation of this Trilogy is
to bring clues of the raise of the First Order and Snoke, the choice of Leia to
turn back to rebellion instead of being a politicians of the new senate and
last but not least the story of Luke trying to start a new Jedi order. I am
even opening to here about Jakku battle and characters!
Well, nothing about this ! Or
better said, not yet.
The story is introducing new
characters that are interesting due to the fact that most of them are connected
by battle of Endor:
- Norra: A rebel pilot that flew inside the Death star 2 during the destruction
- Jas: A bounty hunter present on the Endor moon
- Sinjir: An Empire Officier present during the battle on the Endor moon
- + a kid, a crazy droid and a rebel special force fighter.
- Old characters like Wedge Antilles and Admiral Ackbar have secondary roles.
Interesting to notice that No
force Sensitive’s are present.
Then we also discover new
Imperial high ranking officers (Moff, Admiral, Emperor adviser…) that are
making a meeting in order to try to decide the way the remaining forces of the
Empire have to be reorganized and what should be strategy.
Last key character is kept in
shadow: The Operator. This book nearly just refers to him with very few details
at that point. At this point no link between the Operator and Snoke can be established.
The whole story is linked to this
meeting and the main action takes place only in one location.
In order to widen the story the
author has created “interludes” chapters that are describing facts of the fall
of the Empire and the start of the New Senate of the republic. Mon Mothma is
nominated supreme chancellor and the politics has a clear way of stopping the
war by dramatically reduce the army forces and seek for peace by use of the
democracy. This is a good link to the EPVII that introduces Leia as the only
one taking serious the First Order menace in a Republic that is unable to
counteract to the threat. An other link
is provided by a description of some smugglers sealing Darth Vader light Saber
to some unidentified characters (Knights of Ren?). This is putting some bases
of the story of the famous saber (I am talking of this saber : here)
The story line is extremely full
of action and fights… and to my mind there are not enough pauses to reflect on
the characters and story è
this is a key missing fact that is a major aspect needed in star wars. Moreover
every story needs the conspiracy dimension, but it is not in the center of the
story. Indeed, only the last lines are opening the whole story and we discover
what is really behind the famous Imperial meeting (I will not make spoiler).
An other aspect of the action scenes
is that there are many KILLS that are not really necessary. It shocked me a bit
that some storm-troopers (by the way quite inefficient) are just exterminated by
the rebels with no real need. This is not really the “light side” way of the
war.
The overall model is very similar
to StarWars Rebels (TV show): New characters with special abilities are forming
a crew that helps fighting the Empire.
So overall I did not like the book
very much but as a fan I will for sure read the continuing in order to get more
information on the story, the characters and the larger plot.
Give me your comments. See you
after the next book.
