Star Wars Aftermath: Life Debt Excerpt Revealed.
Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath saga continues with Life Debt, continuing the story of the Wexley family and the motley crew they’ve assembled. An excerpt of Life Debt has just been released, teasing the presence of Han Solo.
From the text of the novel:
The galaxy is changing, and with peace now a possibility, some dare to imagine new beginnings and new destinies. For Han Solo, that means settling his last outstanding debt, by helping Chewbacca liberate the Wookiee’s home world of Kashyyyk.
Meanwhile, Norra Wexley and her band of rebels pursue Admiral Rae Sloane and the remaining Imperial leadership across the galaxy. Sloane, increasingly wary of the mysterious fleet admiral, desperately searches for a means to save the crumbling Empire from oblivion. Even as Imperial forces fight to regain lost ground, Princess Leia and the New Republic seek to broker a lasting peace.
But the rebel’s hunt for Admiral Sloane is cut short after the disappearance of Han Solo and Chewbacca. Desperate to save them, Leia conscripts Norra, Sinjir, Jas, and the rest of their team to find the missing smugglers and help them in their fight for freedom.
For the full excerpt, refer to Entertainment Weekly. Another preview will be made available in next month’s Bloodline, by Claudia Gray.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Don’t want to sound too optimistic, but this already sounds slightly better than Aftermath.
Slightly better than Aftermath would still fall into the “don’t touch it with a 10 foot pole” category.
Sounds good to me. I actually really enjoyed Aftermath, so I think this will at least get 3/5 stars on Amazon, instead of the 1 from a bit too much overreaction from the fandom. It might have just brought out a better sequel, however 😀
oh you liked Aftermath too? so it’s you, and Remy, and I that are the fans of the book.
i was into the Han/Chewie & Imperial remnant threads (especially the former Palpatine advisor, versed in Sith lore*); not so much the new batch of misfit good guys…
*“No Sith remain,” Tashu says. “And the lone Jedi that exists- the son of Anakin Skywalker-possesses an untouchable soul. At least for now. We must instead move towards the dark side. Palpatine felt that the universe beyond the edges of our maps was where his power came from. Over many years he, without aid, sent men and women beyond known space. They built labs and communication stations on distant moons, asteroids, and out there in the wilds. We must follow them. Retreat from the galaxy. Go beyond the veil of stars. We must seek the source of the dark side like a man looking for a wellspring of water.”
I enjoyed it as well, but Wendig’s style is not my favorite. I enjoy the more traditional flow of the third person prose, but I liked a lot of the story elements in the book.
so there are 4 of us! awesome. 🙂
I liked it, too. Don’t let the vocal minority fool you.
I doubt that in this precise case we’re talking about a vocal minority… I never found any completely positive review on the book, and myself hated its prose, so there definitely seems to be some problem with that book. Story was okay, but in no way as grandiosus scale as heir to the empire was. The interludes were some of my favourite things about the book, but the main plot seemed to me chlaustrophobic. entirely set on one planet, just a few characters, the council didn’t decide too much about the future of the empire (except for operation: ash and the revival of the emperor through the crimson messengers), so I felt a little disappointed, even though I was entertained by the book. The final battle could have been described more in detail.
It’s not a minority, believe me. Check out Amazon.
maybe we will see a Battle of Kayshhyk
There is a rather big typo in that excerpt. I downloaded the Star Wars Del Rey sampler last night (it’s free, so check it out), and in that exceprt it doesn’t say “Sloane, increasingly wary of the mysterious fleet admiral,” it says “Sloane, increasingly wary of the mysterious GRAND ADMIRAL.” So either the excerpt that was officially released here was altered to cover that notion up, you guys made an error, or the excerpt in the Del Rey sampler is a typo. I’d be willing to bet it’s the first.
I took a screenshot of the section in question. http://imgur.com/LHCGVPi
I think it is fait accompli that the character at the end of Aftermath is Thrawn… too many similarities. I love the find. 😉
I’m guessing it’s a typo in the sampler, actually. He was referred to as a Fleet Admiral in Aftermath and in interviews. Someone certainly had Thrawn on the brain, though, which could still be a clue that it will turn out to be Thrawn in the novel.
Ugh, I really didn’t like Aftermath….the story was scattershot and everything seemed forced, from the style of the prose to the character types. I hope this one is better.
It is apparently written just as terrible as the first one. Why am I not surprised?
They should have dumped this guy….he’s an ass.
“The Mysterious Fleet Admiral” – most interesting phrase in this article
Wendig’s writing is still shit. The story sounds way better than what Aftermath turned out to be, but without better writing, I find it hard to be excited for this. No idea why they didn’t dump Wendig after the terrible reception that Aftermath received. Ugh. As much as I’d like to skip this novel, I’m a completist for the new canon (plus how can I skip a story with Han and Chewie?), but I’ll definitely do audiobook for this one, which makes Wendig’s painful prose more bearable.
Aftermath is the only genuinely *good* SW novel I ever encountered, so I am excited about this one. You can have your trite stories with their bland writing and the endless connections to other characters (how many links between the main characters of Lost Stars and established movie characters could you find? I lost count). Wendig’s take on Star Wars is both refreshing, jives better with the pace and plot progression of the movies, and he dares focus on new characters and, contrary to popular belief, is very well written to the point that I am astounded so many people profess to hate “Aftermath”. It takes both balls and skill to write a story like “Aftermath”, while it only takes a laptop to write fan fiction. m/
‘kay, so I’m not the only fan who liked Aftermath. I really really super enjoyed it. I loved that it was mostly new characters plus JJM’s Sloane and of course minor movie hero Wedge. Jas and Sinjir are some of my favorite new canon characters. Mr. Bones was fun, Moff Pandion was a fun bastard to read. And then in Decemeber when we found out that Grunberg was playing the Wexley kid all grown up.
I liked the present tense it was written in too. Really looking forward to this sequel.
I really enjoyed Aftermath as well. The pacing of the story was great. This will be a great beach read for the summer. Present tense reminds me of screenplay writing, so you get the fast pace feel of the action. I am looking forward to the sequel.
If Aftermath is the only genuinely “good” SW novel…it sounds like you are not a SW fan and just more of a Sci-fi fan. Nothing wrong with that. But most feel just the opposite in this case.
And of course, his behavior and confrontational ways of handling criticism leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. I personally think he probably should have stayed in the genre that he is used to. IMO.
Aftermath is basically the AOTC of the EU.
I enjoyed it, but I thought that “Tarkin”, “Lost Stars” and “Lords of the Sith” were far better
Once bitten, twice shy. After the debacle that was Aftermath…I’ll pass.
debacle is an understatement. Del-rey should have kicked him to the curb.
“Norra Wexley and her band of rebels”
These characters reminded me a little too much of the group in Disney XD’s Rebels. I would have preferred something a little different.
The Han/Chewie stuff sounds cool, tho.
“YOUSA HAVIN’ DA LIFE PLAY WITH THISSEN-HISSEN?!?”
I really liked Aftermath so I am excited. Sinjir is my favorite character and I can already see that he is in fine form. Add to that Han and Chewie and I can’t wait. I’ll have to reread the first one, but there is enough time. Bloodline first!
Still believe that they should have dropped Wendig after all of his drama. He just couldn’t understand that people didn’t like his book and move on like most authors do. He’s a douche-bag!
Should have canned him and let Claudia Gray finish the trilogy, she has proven to be an outstanding author in the SW universe.
She can’t be in two places at the same time lol 🙂
Claudia Gray can do know wrong, lol! (And I do mean that genuinely. She’s amazing.)
I didn’t really like Aftermath but I’ll be picking this up. why? Because Star Wars
After the last book, I’m not going to rush into this one. There’s interesting tidbits to get excited about, but I’ll wait for the reviews first.
I’ll grab this one from the library. I bought Aftermath and a few of the other new canon novels but while I’m enjoying them enough, I think they’re definitely, like most of the EU, one-read books.
My biggest hope is that Wendig has ceased adding in things to his stories that are such clear references to facets of our culture such as the Imperial deck of “wanted” cards and the game mentioned early in the novel that was such a clear allegory to Settlers of Catan. That sort of thing takes me right out of the story. I also would like to see the outside narration remain relatively objective when it comes to describing the Imperials and such. I don’t need the author’s feelings about the Imperial officer’s hats and whatnot.
I didn’t get attached to any of the Aftermath characters so this will be very hard to follow. I probably will give it a shot (for canon reasons), but if it starts to drag again then it’s probably over.
Its a shame that aftermath opened to such a lukewarm reaction. Its such a rich time-period between RotJ and TFA that it would be a shame to squander it. If indeed the “mysterious fleet (grand?) admiral” does indeed turn out to be Thrawn as most readers surmise, then it seems like a shame for such a legacy character to premiere is such an average book.
For episode 7 Disney pulled out every stop to bring back the people who made Star Wars great: Struzan returned to do a poster, WIlliams was back for the music, Kazdan wrote the script, even a lot of the crew were star wars vets…so why not bring that sensibility to the books? Tarkin was great because they brought back a beloved author. If you are going to bring back Thrawn, its gotta be through Zahn. Even if you are not- he would make a great story for one of the linchpin books to bolster the (currently weak) roster of SW canon books. Zahn said he would be happy to return if asked…so why in the galaxy have they not asked him yet?!
Alan Dean Foster who wrote Splinter In The Minds Eye wrote the TFA Novelization.
He also ghost-wrote the original novelization for A New Hope.
In my opinion, the SW book roster is actually really strong. The only bad books in it are Heir to the Jedi and Aftermath imo.
ah damn that wendig prose! That’s really the complaint I find with the aftermath book series… other than that we get han and chewie fighting on kashyyyk, according to the summary, wich is something I’d like to read, but Alexander Freed’s Battlefront book had better writing style, and that was that guy’s first book…
I won’t be buying it soley on the fact that the author is a total cock and thinks he’s the Hemingway of SW novels.
That’s a point I can understand.
As much as I love the EU, There are a lot of hacks in it but he’s the only one who has consistently proven himself to be an even shittier person.
So Han is the one with the life debt and not Chewie? Wasn’t it reversed? Consider mesa cofuzadid okeday?
Legends.
I thought Chewie was the one with the life debt to Han?
That was in Legends, so who knows….
Ugh! I have zero interest in the non-film characters of this story at all, Maybe if a literate author took over this series but that cover is even more uninspired than the original. Aftermath was like The Crystal Star, Children Of The Jedi, AND Planet Of Twilight rolled into one horrorific tome.
This is random, but has anyone thought about the possibility that Ben Solo might not be the apprentice that destroyed Luke’s Jedi? Think about it….
Multiple canon sources say that he WAS the one who destroyed the Jedi. Sorry, but I had to nip that in the bud.
What sources? Name them and when they say he destroyed the Jedi
From the Star Wars:The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary “Kylo Ren betrayed the other Jedi students studying with Master Luke Skywalker, and is responsible for their destruction.”
Pretty cut and dry.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91ppNTY8QVL.jpg
Okay, chill, man I was just messing with ya lol
Welp, gotta defend my honor.
What interest me is that the photo says “One of Snoke’s apprentices” Hmm You into the Plagueis theory
I think the other Knights of Ren are also his apprentices. Either that, or he’s had past apprentices that have failed him. I don’t think he had Plagueis as an apprentice, but Plagueis may have taken him as a secret apprentice before or after Sidious.