Review via Yodasnews Contributor Jacob Burdis:
2016 is a thrilling year for Star Wars fans! In the wake of The Force Awakens, we are left with dozens of unanswered questions about events occurring both before and after the epic film. Earlier this year, Claudia Gray’s “Bloodline” began to fit together select puzzle pieces while frustratingly avoiding many others. In “Aftermath: Life Debt” Chuck Wendig does a masterful job answering a few key questions while hinting at many, many others.
I was giddy when I saw the cover of the book—the Millenium Falcon, outnumbered and being pursued by Imperial TIE fighters. Immediately the interlude from Wendig’s first book in the series came to mind. You may recall that Han and Chewie received a tip from an old friend about a window of opportunity to free the enslaved home world of the Wookies. Could this interlude set the stage for the story of the liberation of Kashyyyk? The cherry on top was the name of the book, “Life Debt,” surely a nod to Chewie’s life debt owed to Han Solo for saving the Wookie’s life.
But when I started reading, what I got was a continuation of the rag-tag team thrown together in the first book of the series: Norra Wexley with her son Temmin, the bounty hunter Jas Imari, the ex-imperial Sinjir Rath Velus, the commando Jom Barell, and even Mr. Bones, Temmin’s maniacal custom-built battle droid.
The story is set shortly after the events on Akiva. The Empire is fractured and on the edge of ruin, ravaged by internal conflict and New Republic victories. Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, whom we have come to know well by now, struggles to maintain control without upsetting her secret advisor, Gallius Rax. The New Republic fights to fill the void left by the downfall of the empire, while staunchly pursuing galaxy-wide demilitarization. Norra Wexley’s team is tasked hunting high-value imperial targets and bringing them to justice, until Leia Organa requests them to fulfill a covert mission without New Republic approval.
My experience with the book was similar to watching the calving of a gigantic glacier. At first, I wondered what I was supposed to be looking for. The movement began ever so slowly, at different points, hinting at something much grander. But before I knew it I was experiencing violent crashes and surprising twists that had me turning pages faster than the Millenium Falcon on the Kessel Run. While I was initially let down by the apparent lack of my favorite Corellian smuggler and his Wookie co-pilot, I was enthralled by the turn of events in the end.
“Aftermath: Life Debt” does a great job intertwining both new and familiar characters. Its interludes interject the right amount of plot teasing, including bits like another cameo of Boba Fett’s discarded Mandalorian armor and the liberation of Ryloth. It has earned its place among the top of the new Star Wars Canon, and leaves me impatiently waiting for the final installment.
Click Here or the image below to pick this up via digital, audio or physical form. We would like to thank Del Rey/Penguin Random House for providing the review sample.
