Aftermath

[Aleksandr]

The book has a lot of negative reviews on Amazon. 40% of the reviews are one-star ones.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The book has a lot of negative reviews on Amazon. 40% of the reviews are one-star ones.

A lot of the reviews break down into three camps:

1. "OMG there are homos in Star Wars????" These are assholes who are to be ignored.
2. People who deliberately went in there just to complain about the Legends de-canonization.
3. People who didn't like the writing style, which is fair.

So take those reviews for what they're worth.

 

[Aleksandr]

I read that there's not much character development, that they largely cliche, the writing style is rather annoying, and that the side-stories that are briefly talked about are more interesting than the main plot of the book.

 

[Aleksandr]

They should have gottem James Luceno, the author of Tarkin, to write Aftermath instead. Tarkin is a good book, one of the best of the new canon books, in my opinion.

 

[Taz]

I've been reading/listening to the book on Audible, true there is not a lot of character development but this is suppose to be part of a three book series. In any case the story is entertaining (at least to pass the time between an 8-10 hour work day). My favorite characters are the former loyalty officer (his name escapes me at the moment) and the Mr. Bones, the reprogrammed B1 battle droid.

 

[StormWolf]

I too have heard that the author's prose leave something to be desired. I've experienced similar sentiment with New Dawn and Heir to the Jedi.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The problem with Heir to the Jedi was its first person style. It was written with the same level of formality (for lack of a better word) as a third person narrative, and that's a problem. Luke is a very simple character. The prose should've reflected the character it was portraying.

 

[StormWolf]

It was more than that. Hearne had a very odd sentence structure in his style that borders on constant run-on sentences. I get what Hearne was trying to achieve, but as an old green man once said: do or do not, there is no try.
Currently, Tarkin and Dark Disciple remain the best reads in the new swathe of Star Wars literature. They were entertaining page-turners, which is what a Star Wars book should be. New Dawn was terribly dry and Heir to the Jedi seems to not know what it wants to be when it grows up.

 

[JollySailorBold]

Isn't trying the process of getting to did/did not? Sorry, off topic, don't mid me.

 

[Grumpy_Duck]

I'm really struggling to get into this book, which is disappointing me greatly. I've been looking forward to it for ages and the writing style is just annoying the hell out of me.
I just finished Dark Disciple and had the opposite occur- I didn't have any expectations (or at least good expectations) and really enjoyed it.
Humph.

 

[Ser Gregor]

The book was decent enough. Norra Wexley is one of the most annoying main characters I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. Senjir (the loyalty officer) and Jas the Zabrak were the only two characters remotely interesting.

I was fine with the writing style but nothing stood out for me. The writing quality was good enough but there wasn't a single moment in the entire book that I just had to go back and re-read. It held my attention enough but it will not be remembered as one of the great Star Wars books, that's for sure.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Why didn't you like Norra? I had no issue with her.

 

[TwoSidedHeart]

The writing style wasn't the best, but I loved the book. I also LOVE the characters. Sinjir is amazing, Rae Sloane is just perfect and I love the little band of Rebels. :D

 

[Phil]

Is the writing style that bad or annoying? I'm actually considering giving this a read when I get payed.

 

[Aleksandr]

Most people find it annoying, yes, but that's not the book's only flaw. Read some of the reviews on Amazon.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Most of the reviews I've read on Amazon are disgruntled Legends fans and people who don't think gay characters should exist in Star Wars. Amazon is not really the best source of information regarding reviews here.

 

[Phil]

I only go by Amazon's reviews if it's a certain product. Most book reviews seem to be very... well, what Brandon said. So far, we've had about three or four new Star Wars stories that had homosexual characters. Hell, even Marvel's Agents of Shield introduced a new character that was one. People need to get over it. Same with Legends, a lot of it was good, but a lot of it was bad, and a lot of those people seem to think that since it's not canon anymore they can't read them anymore.

So much hate.

 

[Ral]

My 2 cents:

So, I enjoyed this book. I didn't think it was particularly amazing, the writing style didn't stand out to me very much, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, I was entertained as they say, which is what a book should do. Now, I liked most of the characters, except Norra's kid, and really my only real issue with him was that the author did too good a job at writing him as a bratty teenage prodigy. I loved the interludes, as they helped to explain the Galactic climate and broaden the scope of the story, as well as them bringing back a Carrack class cruiser (a personal favorite).

The first Act or Part or whatever you want to call it was pretty slow for me. But thankfully the next two parts gradually picked up on the action and the excitement as things started to build up, which I really enjoyed. I'm just a little sad the beginning was so dry because that made getting into it initially a little hard. But I was too curious to find out what happens and how the Empire turns into the First Order and what happens to the Rebellion. I liked that they still kept some things from Legends, like the Rebellion becoming the New Republic and the Empire fracturing. I think the aspect of just how bad the Empire is post Endor is really intriguing, and just how precarious the Rebellions position is as well. I can honestly start seeing how Episode VII comes about with the FO and the Resistance with Mon Mothma's demilitarization plan (though to be fair, in theory it was a good plan with sound reasoning, I just see it backfiring really easily).

I liked Sinjir a lot, especially the chemistry between him and Jas, and that scene in the tunnels actually got me to laugh. I liked Rae Sloane and their portrayal of Ackbar, and they way they showed the Moff promoting himself to Grand Moff. It seemed very realistic to me. And one last shout out to Mr. Bones. A B-1 that's actually competent.

Overall it was good, just not Shakespeare. I will probably read it again eventually. I honestly think the fake out the author did with us was unnecessary, at least the second time, seriously who does that? Haha. I am eager to read the next two in the trilogy, though.

 

[Srota]

Not as good as Dark Disciple, but thankfully nowhere near as bad as Heir to the JedI (still likely the worst SW novel ever.).

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I didn't like Heir to the Jedi either, but there's some crazy shit from the 90s that will always be the worst Star Wars ever.