Journey to The Force Awakens

[Mr Mystery]

How do?

Following EG'a recommendation, I ploughed through the four part 'Shattered Empire' by Marvel comics.

And it's ace.

Today? Today I picked up 'Aftermath', which picks up immediately after Endor.

Whilst I'm not massively fond of the writer's style, the story itself is really rather good. First of all, it makes sense. Far more than the old EU did.

Second? It's properly diverse. Two female protagonists, main antagonist also female. Same-sex marriage, good spread of non-human characters. It really does feel like Star Wars.

This being the opening post, I'm keen to avoid anything spolierific, so I'll leave it here.

But before I go.....buy it. Buy it all. I got 'Aftermath' a mere 5 hours ago, and I'm already a third of the way through it (and I've squeezed in a four pint visit to the pub!)

[eldargal]

There is also the novel Lost Stars, which is billed as a young adult romance novel but don't let that put you off, its very good and the main character is a badass Imperial lady captain named Ciena Ree who ends up commanding a certain Star Destroyer featured prominently in The Force Awakens trailers if you know what I mean...

In fact you can check all the media that are part of the Journey to the Force Awakens on the wookieepedia page (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Journey_to_Star_Wars:_The_Force_Awakens)

[Mr Mystery]

Ciana Rae perhaps?

There's a character with the surname Rae in Aftermath....

Now a little over half way through Aftermath, and again, whilst the writer's prose isn't quite my bag (lots of Americanisms), but I simply cannot fault the plot or character development. The pace is decent, with some interesting asides (a certain bandage swathed Bounty Hunter has just made a fairly random cameo...not sure if this is the author's indulgence at this stage).

Overall, I'm enjoying it far, far more than the old EU. For a start, there's a lot of wrangling going on in the nascent New Republic about maintaining their fleet post-Endor. In the old EU, they started half-inching Super Star Destroyers and up-armed - effectively becoming a more benevolent military dictatorship.

Very slight spoiler, but more of an insight into a well known character just below...

SPOILER

Mon Mothma proposes cutting the size of the NR Army and Navy to 10% of it's then size - the idea being a sort of Policing Force than can assist individual systems, but isn't big enough to force Senate control, and individual systems and planets being allowed their own standing armies for self defence. Not entirely dissimilar to a certain Codex Astartes....

SPOILER DONE

[eldargal]

That migh be Rae Sloane? She's another badass Imperial lady who debuted in A New Dawn which establishes how Hera recruited Kanan.:)

[Mr Mystery]

That's her!

She's a self-promoted Admiral now...of the Ravager fleet, and owner of the last Super Star Destroyer.

[eldargal]

Yep. Hoping she appears in Rebels back when she was a captain. She seems to fulfill the role Pallaeon did in the EU, rallying the Empire at Endor and keeping a lot of the fleets **** together.

[Mr Mystery]

Certainly trying to do so anyway....

Another fun thing about the book - I have no idea how this is going to turn out in the end. Half way through, and no clear indication about who is going to win....

[Erik Setzer]

Aftermath's writing style made me stall out, and I'm trying to build up the courage to get back in. The story it's telling isn't bad, but the writing style is awful. Not even Dan Brown could get me to stop a book for a while like this.

With the EU, I liked the X-Wing novels because they actually went into the NR thinking about things like when military force was a bad option, stuff like that. (Like when they refused to go after Isard to Thyferra because the locals gave her "legit" control.) And the only Super Star Destroyer they had was the rebuilt Lusankya, which was meant to be more of a symbol than anything else (though a bloody expensive one, and it actually didn't show up in the X-Wing novels, IIRC, but rather in Crimson Empire). Their fleet was only big enough to deal with, say, a warlord, and maybe some defense.

But a lot of the EU was just crazy overboard.

I'll have to get to the part in the book you mentioned, to see if context helps it make sense. It doesn't really make that much sense to me, if the galaxy is still at war and all. But maybe it isn't.

Bah. Guess I better get back into reading that book...

[Mr Mystery]

It is worth pushing through. I'm not sure if his style improved or my standards dropped, but by the end it felt much improved.

Finished it last night, and I can definitely recommend reading it.

And on his writing style - according to the author bio up the back, he's also a screenwriter. This goes someone way to explain his writing style (with lots of bits in brackets clarifying positions) - wish I'd had that in mind when reading it.

[eldargal]

Some nice parallels in Shattered Empire:
http://41.media.tumblr.com/c10789072e4dc038c424a615408cb12a/tumblr_nw8f2prM7R1sq7bwzo1_400.pnghttp://36.media.tumblr.com/dcc3527f44650615b1c623b5f13bab75/tumblr_nw8f2prM7R1sq7bwzo2_400.png
http://40.media.tumblr.com/a470a2c2647b7373e1a3fddb89aa0acc/tumblr_inline_nw8wquU6hA1rlddd6_500.png
http://41.media.tumblr.com/81c0b3d1ddb9ab1ba91708f8c3ed5bae/tumblr_inline_nw8wu7vGWo1rlddd6_500.png
I suspect the identity of the twins mother might be a big reveal kept for the comics, pretty much every comic featuring them has had flashbacks or some reference to Padme.

[Mr Mystery]

True that.

And there's some knowing digs at the prequel trilogy - B-1 Battle Droids being frequently referred to as 'the worst soldiers ever', that sort of thing.

Might have to pick up 'Lost Stars' next.

[Erik Setzer]

And there's some knowing digs at the prequel trilogy - B-1 Battle Droids being frequently referred to as 'the worst soldiers ever', that sort of thing.

Yeah, I'm wondering who programmed battle droids to have the capacity to be afraid or cowardly or just so, so terrible at actual battle?

[Mr Mystery]

Jar Jar. It's why they look like him as well.

Just procured 'The Perfect Weapon', a short story.

Shall read on my commute home.