Star Wars Books

I love Disney, and I love the fact that they bought Star Wars. I have complete faith that they will do great things with the franchise. I'm very excited.

But...

Disney can tell me what's canon and what isn't. But, I don't have to listen. As long as there is no conflict/ contradiction with the films, past or future, then those books are still a part of the story. At least they are to me.

On a side note:

Maybe Disney can declare Episodes 1-3 as non-canon. Then they can redo them properly. I can dream, can't I? Marvel did it with Hulk...

New now "official" book comes out tomorrow, Friday, September 4th:
http://news.yahoo.com/star-wars-sag...vbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDVklQNjE1XzEEc2VjA3Nj

supernova said:

New now "official" book comes out tomorrow, Friday, September 4th:
http://news.yahoo.com/star-wars-sag...vbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDVklQNjE1XzEEc2VjA3Nj

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I was excited about this, but it's getting universally bashed. Only two stars on Amazon. The complaints seem to focus on the writing, which I agree doesn't flow very well(I read the "look inside" preview on Amazon). Still, I may read it for the story. But, that writing could make it a challenge.

Sith said:

I was excited about this, but it's getting universally bashed. Only two stars on Amazon. The complaints seem to focus on the writing, which I agree doesn't flow very well(I read the "look inside" preview on Amazon). Still, I may read it for the story. But, that writing could make it a challenge.

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As a huge Star Wars geek and someone who's well versed in the Star Wars literature and 'Legends' canon ... Aftermath is a freakin' joke! I'm more than halfway through and I'm pretty much going to give up as it's as waste of time. There's not much pointing towards the future of the franchise and there is much better out there for fans ...

I'd strongly recommend the Darth Vader (and Star Wars) comic series for those looking for new stories. Also, the Greg Rucka Comic Series 'Shattered Empire' which comes out next week is supposed to shine some light on the origins of the First Order!

While I agree that writing style is not for everyone especially with the way the author whips around from different viewpoints/stories. I think a lot of the negative reviews are also about the book not being what people set themselves up to expect. I mean the marketing pushed this as being an essential bridge to the Force Awaken. People expected this to then be the story of Luke/Leia/Han/etc taking part in some kind of major plot between RotJ and the new film trilogy, as well as possibly introduce major plot elements/characters to carry on over into the next trilogy. In essence they thought this novel would essentially be a new action packed "Heir to the Empire" book 1 of a trilogy. Instead what we got felt more like a "Rouge Squadron" type book. The main characters from the original trilogy are barely present in "Aftermath". Instead, the main standalone story mostly features new unknown characters in a plot of seemingly minor future importance.
Interjected throughout that main story are over a dozen tiny little completely unrelated teaser stories about the state of things/events/characters after Return of the Jedi. Most of these teasers will seemingly pay off either in later books or in the Force Awakens.

Overall though I think the primary plot is okay for what it is. It's basically on par with the majority of the post-Disney CloneWars/Rebels books we've gotten. It's not fantastic, in fact personally some of the newly introduced characters seemed quite a bit flat to me. I'm not ready to completely write any of them off yet as who knows if they will gain further development/importance/character in this trilogy, but I personally found myself just not caring about some of them all that much (also I kinda worry about the potential of Mr. Bones to appear in the Force Awakens as he certainly seems like he has a strong probability of becoming a new Jar-Jar type character should it happen?). But at least plot wise it did not seem terrible.

Thus if you enjoy most of those Rebels type books or the like of X-Wing/Rogue Squadron type books (although certainly not nearly as well written) from the Legends then you may consider giving this book a look (again beware the style though). If you never had any interest in any of the spin-off franchises with characters you had no major prior connection with, then pass on this book for now. Any of the relevant teaser spoilers will surely be posted online. Actually scratch that...they were probably posted within minutes of the book being sold. Heck a month from now it will probably be impossible to avoid hearing about a couple items that were sold in two of those interludes in the book...

Really though the book does a decent enough job at giving us our first glimpse of the new canon universe post RotJ. It is just a small glimpse though only enough to just start to set the stage for what is to come. One would hope that the next two books in the trilogy will give us a longer look at what is going on and involve the core characters a bit more...and maybe make the new ones feel less stale. At the moment though this book feels far from essential to understanding the Force Awakens trilogy.

Xenith22 said:

I think a lot of the negative reviews are also about the book not being what people set themselves up to expect. I mean the marketing pushed this as being an essential bridge to the Force Awaken. People expected this to then be the story of Luke/Leia/Han/etc taking part in some kind of major plot between RotJ and the new film trilogy, as well as possibly introduce major plot elements/characters to carry on over into the next trilogy. In essence they thought this novel would essentially be a new action packed "Heir to the Empire" book 1 of a trilogy. Instead what we got felt more like a "Rouge Squadron" type book. The main characters from the original trilogy are barely present in "Aftermath". Instead, the main standalone story mostly features new unknown characters in a plot of seemingly minor future importance.

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I'll admit that I was expecting much more of a bridge to the Force Awakens. I figured we'd get a new generation Thrawn type trilogy ... after all the hype and secrecy I was very disappointed. Even as a 'Rogue Squadron' type of book I feel it's pretty bad. I really enjoyed the 'Rogue' characters ... I just don't find anything to like with 'Aftermath'.

I'd hate to keep brining up the comic series as I do enjoy both the comics AND prose novels ... but the newer comic characters of Triple Zero and Aphra have endeared me WAY MORE in just few pages than anyone like Mr. Bones