Sources I trust make out the Aftermath series to be the worst literature of the new canon. It has the worst reviews I’ve ever seen for any Star Wars media. I’m not going to pay money to read it, and the local library doesn’t have any new Star Wars books. I still want to know what happens, and the tidbits I’ve gleaned from Wookieepedia aren’t painting a complete picture.
Sum it up for me please. In chronological order, what are the key plot points a Star Wars fan should know?
Ok first of all, aside from the first book, the series is quite enjoyable, especially Empire's End.
You can read the Wookiepedia entries for the books and it will give a really good description and summary.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Aftermath
If your local library doesn’t have It you can probably get it from inter-library loan.
Just ask your librarian to get it. Also I’ve availed myself of Overdrive and now can get audiobooks and e-reader books for free from my library. It’s awesome. I’m currently listening to book 1 of Aftermath. It’s not great but I makes the commute go by quicker.
@Celestial Lizards Thanks for the links.
I was hoping for something a little more brief, but this will be better when I have time to read it.
I struggled hard to get through the first book, and the second hasn't been much better. Haven't touched it in a couple months - and I was listening to the audio book when I did it. Wendig's writing style is grating at best when paired with Star Wars. I don't think you need to bother yourself with them, personally.
I also feel that I don’t need to listen to books 2 & 3.
On 10/30/2017 at 3:44 PM, jmswood said:@Celestial Lizards Thanks for the links.
I was hoping for something a little more brief, but this will be better when I have time to read it.
Short bullet points:
Such negativity, and no one has mentioned Mister Bones!
I got through all three pretty quickly and enjoyed them. Became quite invested in the characters.
1 hour ago, SDCC said:Such negativity, and no one has mentioned Mister Bones!
I got through all three pretty quickly and enjoyed them. Became quite invested in the characters.
Despite not enjoying the writing at all, I found myself hooked, too. The characters are pretty great throughout the series and have good dynamics, and in the second and third book the story becomes gripping, too. I even revisited the last two books once and might do so again.
On 11/20/2017 at 1:42 AM, Magnus Grendel said:Short bullet points:
- The Republic is set up.
- Rather than using Coruscant, the capital is a 'rotating presidency' - based on Hosnian Prime at the time of The Force Awakens.
- The 'grand army' style fleet is disbanded into system defence fleets with only a small central fleet - which is why Starkiller can realistically wipe out 'the republic fleet' - it's not destroyed every republic force, but all that are left are 'national guard'/'territorial army' style fleets that the home systems will be hesitant to commit
- The Emperor had something called "the contingency" to be set in play after his death.
- Operation Cinder - the burning of Vardos, Naboo, etc, etc that you see in the dogfight with Leia/Shara Bey is part of that
- Also seen in the new battlefront series
- The Emperor had squirreled away resources in the outer rim.
- At least one super star destroyer - the Eclipse - was part of this.
- Gallius Wrax (namechecked in battlefront II) was the emperor's choice to orchestrate this plan.
- He was an urchin from Jakku palpatine found when he was there.
- He essentially organises then betrays a bunch of surviving imperial officials to prevent any second emperor/ruling council coming into being.
- He gathers all surviving imperial fleet ships at Jakku
- In theory, the planet is then supposed to blow up, killing the remaining imperial fleet and the rebel fleet.
- Rae Sloane (the imperial admiral coming in armada with the carrier, and the one who orders the retreat at endor) declines to be blown up and shoots him.
- Wrax tells her they can't win at Jakku and to go and take over the outer rim forces.
- We assume these became the first order.
A few more bullet points I can recall:
19 hours ago, SDCC said:Such negativity, and no one has mentioned Mister Bones!
My first exposure to Mr. Bones was in the Poe Dameron Comic. Based on what I saw in the comic, and other details gleaned from the wiki spoilers, Mr. Bones is one of the most shameful examples of crap writing in the new Star Wars Canon.
Negative enough for you?
It's not THAT bad. The first book is awful but the next two get significantly better.
Now Phasma - THAT is a bad book. I've had it since the day it came out and I STILL can't bring myself to finish it. The entire basis for the whole thing is just so absurd I can't even suspend my disbelief.
1 hour ago, Crabbok said:It's not THAT bad. The first book is awful but the next two get significantly better.
Now Phasma - THAT is a bad book. I've had it since the day it came out and I STILL can't bring myself to finish it. The entire basis for the whole thing is just so absurd I can't even suspend my disbelief.
The writing is that bad. Today's marketing calls it 'edgy' and 'gritty' but it's broken sentence structure, awkward made up slang and absolutely no flow through early sections of the books. The author cannot maintain a climatic scene of any substance, it builds up to a point and then drops off a cliff and ends too quickly. The absurdity of the climatic battle in the second book had me venting quite a bit. That said, yes, the tale itself is interesting and some of the characters are strong enough that I've been reading it anyway, with long gaps in between. Haven't got to book 3 yet. That doesn't make it a good book, heck, I read pretty much all the old canon books as well, but curiosity of the timeline drives me forward. Sloane, to me, is the highlight. So far I've enjoyed all her appearances, going back to Rebel Dawn. She's certainly got the Palleon traits of Legends.
Thanks for the warning on Phasma though... All these origins books for the antagonists... I'm one of the few, I guess, that didn't like Tarkin. I like the character, hated the way the book was written. Very dry, a lot of flashbacks and I just didn't care about Tarkin's journey throughout. Thrawn I walked away from having thoroughly enjoying it despite it meandering in a way that Timothy Zahn doesn't normally do. It wasn't the same as his Legends pieces, or his original works, but I suppose since we already know so much about the character he was trying to do something different.
1 hour ago, LagJanson said:The writing is that bad.
Sure the writing is... but the story as a whole has some redeeming points. By the second book it was including characters that I cared about, and I suppose you had developed a connection with some of the principle characters, even if it wasn't strong, it was something. And there were tie ins to other stories. I'm just saying it got better, even if it wasn't quality stuff overall.
Thrawn, Lost Stars, and Dark Disciple are easily the top 3 of the new Star Wars books. Everything else feels much worse by comparison. IMO. It's tough when you read some really AMAZING authors and then go back to these new Star Wars books which are so bad for the most part.
11 minutes ago, Crabbok said:Sure the writing is... but the story as a whole has some redeeming points. By the second book it was including characters that I cared about, and I suppose you had developed a connection with some of the principle characters, even if it wasn't strong, it was something. And there were tie ins to other stories. I'm just saying it got better, even if it wasn't quality stuff overall.
Thrawn, Lost Stars, and Dark Disciple are easily the top 3 of the new Star Wars books. Everything else feels much worse by comparison. IMO. It's tough when you read some really AMAZING authors and then go back to these new Star Wars books which are so bad for the most part.
It doesn't have to be good to be fun. I think Aftermath fits into that. It is that bad, but there is fun hidden in the mess.
Rebel Dawn is a good one if you liked the older style writings of Legends, but with a few of the key players of the Rebels crew instead of main trilogy cast. I enjoyed that one. Lost Stars was interesting because of what the story revealed. I felt that was a good lead in to TFA. This book made a lot of the weird little things in the movie make sense.
Dark Disciple - is this the one with Asajj?
Dark Disciple is Assaj and Quinlan Vos. Book Legit had me in tears and not too many books will do that.
2 minutes ago, Crabbok said:Dark Disciple is Assaj and Quinlan Vos. Book Legit had me in tears and not too many books will do that.
Yeah, I read that one. Didn't know the characters (I didn't watch Clone Wars) and still found it a good book. The plot stalled out for a little while nearing the end, but was well worth the read. Would recommend.
Dark Disciple is the best story arc from the entire Clone Wars series - they were planning on having that be the arc that they would finish off the show with, but Disney bought the universe and prematurely ended the show, so they made it a book instead. And in my opinion it's even better as a book. It really shows you why it's such a shame that they never got to finish animating and editing Season 7.
I’m not seeing anything to convince me to read Aftermath. Every post and review I’ve seen attempting to redeem the book fail to address the key issues raised by the negative reviews.
Thank you everyone who participted in my request for spoilers. I think I got everything I needed.
As for other new Star Wars books, I’ve read Before the Awakening, Ahsoka, Tarkin, Catalyst, Dark Deciple and Thrawn.
Tarkin has some great elements, but over all the the story is too much Vader/Tarkin buddy cop. Catalyst blends Tarkin to Rogue One really well.
Before the Awakening was 2/3 good, 1/3 glue the pages together to prevent people from reading Finn’s story. Finn’s portion was terrible. Rey’s story gave the character some depth. Poe’s story was excellent.
Ahsoka had flaws, but it brought me back to my youth reading Young Jedi. That, paired with story telling, made the book great for me. I think it’s essential post Clone Wars reading, and I’ll come back to that.
Dark Disciple is the other essential post Clone Wars reading. Fans of the Clone Wars should read both Ahsoka and Dark Disciple . Asajj and Ahsoka are inverse characters, and that image isn’t finished without both books.
Thrawn is a solid contribution to the new canon. The writing is good and the story is essential to establishing Thrawn in a respectable place among a new generation of Star Wars fans. I’m looking forward to the next Thrawn novel.
You absolutely MUST read Lost Stars. Please. It's magnificent.
On 2017. 11. 23. at 10:37 PM, Crabbok said:You absolutely MUST read Lost Stars. Please. It's magnificent.
I liked it, up to the point when the battle of Yavin happened. After that, I can't help but feel that all the two main characters' cameos in the most famous movie scenes were rather forced, and their love story was just plain textbook cliché.
I've read the first book and I'm working through the second at present; so far I've found the style of writing really not to my taste but the overall story has kept me interested. I'm not sure I can put my finger on exactly why I don't like the style of writing; it just feels... off.
Lords of the Sith was an entertaining read; some interesting concepts and action scenes with some insights into the Vader/Palp relationship. Any real tension was, unfortunately, lost as we all know the original trilogy happened.
I've got a copy of Tarkin that's next up after the Aftermath Trilogy (I paid for them so I'll **** well read them!) but so far nothing in the new cannon has really enthralled me. That said; I was a kid when I read Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy and I'd have been excited by anything Star Wars despite Luuke...