Book Review: The force fizzles out in 'Star Wars: Aftermath'
Posted Friday, September 4, 2015 at 12:01 AM Central
Last updated Friday, September 4, 2015 at 8:38 AM Central
by John Couture
[Editor's Note: No, you're not imagining it. We previously posted this article. The book's publisher informed us that we broke their embargo for reviews. We complied and took down the article until their specified date. Consider it a special Force Friday treat.]
It's not often that we review books on this movie-related website, but as I mentioned previously, there are always exceptions. Interestingly enough, this exception is also due to it being related to Star Wars.
On September 4, the first of three books being touted as "The Aftermath Trilogy" and part of the "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens" marketing plan for The Force Awakens is set to debut. The novel, appropriately called "Star Wars: Aftermath," was written by Chuck Wendig and covers the events that follow in the months after the rebels destroy the second death star at the battle on and above the forest moon of Endor.
One of the perks of being a home entertainment distributor that also distributes audiobooks is that we occasionally have to review audiobooks before publication to insure that there is no objectionable content that our customers do not want in their offerings. I like audiobooks and I have a decent commute, so I listen to a lot of audiobooks. As you can imagine, the production level on audiobooks varies greatly, but one company that excels in that detail is LucasBooks.
Every single audio book that they put out contains genuine Star Wars sound effects and even snippets from John Williams' scores. It's a nice touch for sure and why I will always listen to a Star Wars if given the choice between reading and listening. So, you can imagine my hysteria when the audiobook for "Star Wars: Aftermath" landed on my desk last week.
Finally, after many decades, I was finally going to get some canonical information about the events after Return of the Jedi. Even better, I was promised to get some Easter eggs for the forthcoming The Force Awakens. Eek! I couldn't tear the polyurethane wrapper off of the book any faster, I had to plunge into the unknown abyss with both feet and see where it takes me.
That journey is spelled out ahead, but I must warn you that there may be spoilers ahead. I will be talking about the book in detail, so if you're eagerly awaiting the book and don't want to be spoiled, turn back now. Likewise, I have not seen The Force Awakens obviously, but in talking about the book, I may unintentionally spoil something in The Force Awakens. I highly doubt it though, but I feel that it's best to err on the side of caution in these things.
So, now that we've gotten the pleasantries out of the way, what did I think about the book? Well...
Do you remember that moment in The Phantom Menace when you suddenly realize that it was a horrible movie and that all of the built up excitement was for naught? Yeah, I had that moment in this book pretty early on.
To be fair, I should probably couch my comments about the book with these tips. They will also help you to control your own expectation.
1.) This is the first part of a new trilogy of books. As such, a great deal of the book is spent establishing new characters that will hopefully pay off in future installments.
2.) This is not a prequel of events in The Force Awakens. The majority of the story takes place in the months just following Return of the Jedi. We know that there's something like 30 years between Jedi and The Force Awakens.
3.) As much as I love audiobooks and LucasBooks' production value in particular, they are not the best medium for following stories with a large of mostly unknown characters. I had similar issues in keeping characters straight when I listened to Game of Thrones.
4.) I only listened to the audiobook, so please forgive any typos of names below. Trying to recall Star Wars names from memory that you've only heard is impossible, but I will give it my best. I will go back and correct them when the names are published online.
I think if you rein in your expectations and go in with the notion that this book isn't going to immediately give you insight into the coming film and that it's basically an establishing book, then you will probably enjoy it. My expectations were through the roof and I erroneously thought that there would be direct threads to The Force Awakens.
Had I come in with more moderate and proper expectations, then I think I would have enjoyed it just fine for what it is. But, I have a feeling that most of you are like me and on that note, here are my thoughts on "Star Wars: Aftermath."
Overall, I just found the book to be slow and boring. There's a reason that J.J. Abrams and company have leapt 30 years into the future for The Force Awakens, the immediate aftermath of JEDI is pretty boring - and predictable. What's that? Some people think that Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are still alive and the news of their demise is just a rebel scam? Yep, that makes sense. The Empire didn't just immediately surrender? You get the idea.
The main plot in the story revolves around Wedge Antilles (sort of) who is now basically a glorified scout running reconnaissance missions for the burgeoning Rebel Alliance, er New Republic. Don't worry, many of the characters make the same mistake in the book. Again, predictable.
As Wedge comes out of hyperspace over Akiva, he finds that he's accidentally interloped onto a high power meeting of the remaining minds of the Empire, led by an Admiral Rae Sloane. She was at the battle of Endor and apparently appears in an earlier new canon book. I actually liked Sloane, although I much more preferred her towards the end of the book than the beginning.
At first, Sloane and the Imperials are presented as buffoons with names impossible to remember, but don't worry, most of them don't last long. At least Sloane shows signs of becoming a worth adversary to the New Republic at the end of the book, I just wish that had those attributes from the beginning.
Did I mention Wedge? Yeah, don't worry, he's soon captured by Sloane and he disappears from the story for about 10 hours. The real protagonist in the book is Norra Wexley, a rebel pilot who served with Wedge back in the rebellion and is on her way back to her native Akiva to fix her fractured family.
That family includes her entrepreneurial son Timmons, who just happens to be handy at building robots, and his robot body guard Mr. Bones. I kid you not, Mr. Bones is a battle droid from the prequel trilogies and the first sign this book was going downhill was hearing him say "roger, roger" over and over again. Don't worry, Mr. Wendig spends plenty of time making fun of battle droids, but why do we need to have another droid builder as a character?
In trying to escape Akiva, Norra and Timmons form an unlikely alliance with a female bounty hunter (what's a Star Wars story without a bounty hunter) named Maze and turncoat former Imperial loyalty officer named Sirjun. Maze is there to collect bounties on the heads of the Imperial bigwigs for the New Republic, while Sirjun is just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyhow, the group comes together as a posse with similar goals. Norra wants to save Wedge and get Timmons off Akiva, while Maze wants to collect her prized bounties. They need each other and everyone in the group brings their own strengths to the operation. Things go sideways as they often do and a late-arriving rebel fleet helps to drive the action in the climax of the main story.
That actually sounds pretty good, doesn't it? It would be if it weren't so boring. I'll spare you the specifics, but the ineptitude by the group and a "oh no everything is a trap" Admiral Ackbar leads to a comedy of errors that might be indicative of the hardships involved in trying to create a new government or more likely just a product of it being a setup story.
The biggest problem though that I have are the parts that the audiobook calls "interludes." They are flashbacks or flash-sidewise snippets that give you a brief look at the aftermath of events in a variety of places. There are some old faces, a nice scene between Han and Chewbacca is a nice interlude, while others are merely mentioned or hinted at (Lobot, Calrissian and perhaps even Boba Fett).
In these interludes, numerous characters are introduced and quickly forgotten, never to be mentioned again. There are a lot of interesting strings, but it remains to be seen if they will go anywhere or lead to anything in The Force Awakens. In particular, the new sheriff-in-town John Wayne type on Tatooine who has an interesting encounter with a miner in a Jawas establishment is one that I would like to see again. Also, the introduction of a Corwin character on Jakku (a world that we know will be in The Force Awakens) in the last 30 minutes of the book seems like the most obvious thread to the new film. He has an interesting back story and I already have a guess as to who will be playing him in the film.
But mostly, the threads are boring and only serve to divert your attention from the weak primary story. Given that this book is mostly a setup book, it's not surprising that the most interesting thing happens in the epilogue. Admiral Sloane meets up with a shadowy figure that was thought to be dead. This character may or may not be a known commodity in the Star Wars galaxy as they only reveal little nuggets as to his identity, but it's pretty apparent that he'll be the main antagonist in the next book.
And that book already sounds more interesting and intriguing than this one.