Reading Aftermath

[JRoss]

It's bad. Like really bad. The story is fine, and I like two of the new characters, but this Wendig guy's prose is just terrible.

Present tense is fine, but I can't believe that so much of this book got past an editor. Like how he uses repetitive terms in the same sentence. I don't have it handy but it's like "This planet was so small that many people didn't even know the planet existed". He's clever enough to use five-dollar words, including some of my favorites, such as susurrus, but his expansive vocabulary cannot disguise lazy writing.

Has this dude done any more of the books?

 

[Tuskin38]

It's bad. Like really bad. The story is fine, and I like two of the new characters, but this Wendig guy's prose is just terrible.

Present tense is fine, but I can't believe that so much of this book got past an editor. Like how he uses repetitive terms in the same sentence. I don't have it handy but it's like "This planet was so small that many people didn't even know the planet existed". He's clever enough to use five-dollar words, including some of my favorites, such as susurrus, but his expansive vocabulary cannot disguise lazy writing.

Has this dude done any more of the books?

There are 3 Aftermath books, he wrote all three.
He also wrote a short story in a story collection, the comic adaptation of TFA and an issue of the Darth Vader comic.
https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Chuck_Wendig

 

[JRoss]

That's too bad. Like if he would just fix his prose this would be cool. But it's terrible.

 

[Tuskin38]

I hear the third Aftermath book is better, but I haven't read any of them so I can't comment.

 

[Reverend]

I don't know that this is actually the case, but reading the first 'Aftermath' left me with the impression that it was written in a bit of a rush, as if the novel was commissioned on fairly short notice. Hence the rough prose and the fairly minimal main story being padded out with lots of random vignettes that for the most part don't seem do anything of narrative value.

 

[JRoss]

Oh, I was wondering if those things were ever going to connect. I do like the idea behind that one fellow who was sent by the inhabitants of his poor world to beg the new Senate for aid. Then Mon Mothma's aide tells him that he's now a senator with an equal voice in the government.

It doesn't seem well-edited. I"ll read the rest of them. As I go I find that I like the characterization and actual plot, but I hate the prose. I suspect that Wendig is a history buff like me. "Arsin Crasssus" is a nice touch, as is calling the governor a satrap.

I take it that this Sloane character is the new Daala? I understand the retcon to show multiple women as having a role in the Empire, but that wasn't shown on screen in the films. We saw the Rebels as a unified, integrated force, but the Empire was basically racists, sexist white men. Good Nazi analog. I don't particularly care for this business of making the Empire seem more progressive. They're the bad guys. I get that the First Order is more pragmatic, showing that they take whom they can get, based on performance, not species or sex, which makes sense.

ETA: Oh, and I REALLY like Mr. Bones.

 

[Reverend]

I take it that this Sloane character is the new Daala?

Nope. Aside from both being Imperial officers with tits, they have nothing of substance in common.

I understand the retcon to show multiple women as having a role in the Empire, but that wasn't shown on screen in the films.

Well, in the movies we only saw about half a dozen named Imperial officers and a whole lot of nondescript people wearing helmets...not exactly a representative sample set.

Personally I always thought it was very lazy of the EU making the Empire sexist and speciesist. Lucas did quite a sufficient job of making it obvious the Imperials were a fascistic totalitarian dictatorship just with the visuals. Somehow, making the Emperor sexist and racist feels needlessly petty. He's really a "literally-everyone-who-isn't-him-ist" and very pragmatic when it comes to using people as resources.

I like that canon has kicked both of those concepts in the teeth with the speciesist thing being cultural, not doctrinal. Mostly stemming from classicism, since the wealthier core worlds being human dominated and a significant fraction of the wealthy non-human worlds were on the other side in the Clone Wars. Even then it's mostly a thing within the military, not the political or bureaucratic apparatus. And yeah, sexism within a a galaxy wide, highly technical civilisation that's existed for over 20,000 years is just bloody stupid on the face of it, so good riddance to that.

 

[Tuskin38]

Sloane I think was the first cross-media novel character in the new canon, she first appeared in the Rebels prequel novel 'A New Dawn' and has just spread out from there.