Aftermath

When all the ruckus about Chuck Wendig's tie-in novel Star Wars: Aftermath occurred upon its release, I decided that I wanted to read it for myself to decide how much of what was being said was true. So I put my name on the wait list for the book (at something like #177) at my library, and my turn finally came around.

Of course, the fact that Wendig had BLASPHEMED STAR WARS WITH TEH GAYZ was a huge part of the ruckus -- but I figured out at least one other reason why people were so much in arms: This is Star Wars For Adults.

What I mean by that is not that the book contains "adult" content -- but that it is not written to kiddie level (or even YA level). It has plenty of action and adventure, yes -- but it also has a great deal of examination of the numerous motivations, both individually and at an interstellar government level, which go into wars and conquests and revolutions.

The main characters -- on both sides -- are well-fleshed-out and shown in their various shades of gray. The fact that most people, even those who serve on the "evil" side, are in fact decent people just trying to survive or doing what they believe is right (whether or not that is actually the case) and some of the people on the "good" side aren't terribly good, and the duality and the ambiguity of such conflicts and the people involved in them, are writ large here by Wendig.

So I can totally see why the manbabies had such a problem with this book: 1) it is not merely a pew-pew-pew non-stop action book, and 2) it actually examines human lives and motivations, in all their beauty and ugliness, where lines between "good" and "bad" are often not clearly drawn. Those with a preference for authoritarianism tend to have a problem with shades of gray and ambiguity of Good vs Evil, and prefer more simple, childlike representations in black and white -- so it is not surprising that they would have problems with this book.

Also, I have a huge bone to pick about all THE WILD GAY SEXYTIMES I was promised by all those outraged people complaining about the way this book promoted "The Homosexual Agenda" -- and the fact that my library apparently stocked an expurgated, G-rated version of the book. About a hundred pages in, one of the main characters is talking to a woman, and that woman's wife walks into the room and joins the conversation. About a hundred pages later, a minor character thinks about the fact that both his dads were killed by the Empire. Another hundred pages later, a main female character suggests coupling to a main male character "when this is all over", and the man says, "thanks, but I'm not into women".

That's it. That's the extent of "The Homosexual Agenda" in this book -- in other words, the existence of such relationships is mentioned a few times, just as the existence (or death) of a man's wife or a woman's husband, or a character's father and mother, are mentioned a few times. Which is to say that the book simply reflects real life. Anyone who complains about this aspect is, whatever denials they may make, a homophobe ostrich who's trying to keep their head buried in the sand of unreality.

And finally, I had to admit that I approached this book with more than a bit of trepidation because of all the claims I'd read that the writing style was choppy and in a horrible third-person present-tense and totally unreadable.

In fact, the book is extremely well-written. I had no problems with the writing style, it read swiftly and smoothly, it was interesting and enjoyable, and it took me about 3-1/2 hours to finish the book -- and I never had the slightest temptation to put it down.

I give this book a very solid 3-1/2 stars (only because it's not original worldbuilding, and yes, there are loose ends to set up for the next book in the series) -- and add a bonus 1/2 star for massively exceeding my expectations for a media tie-in novel. If Star Wars and tie-in novels are your thing, I think you'll really enjoy this book.