In the tweet, on September 4, 2014, Wendig wrote: "Dear Internet: I wanna write a licensed STAR WARS novel. It shouldn’t prevent you from reading Empire’s End, either.Chuck Wendig was hired to write Aftermath after posting a tweet saying he wanted to write for Star Wars. But that criticism may simply be a matter of taste, and it in no way prevented me from enjoying Wendig’s story. I find it exaggeratedly flowery and brimming with similes at times. My only criticism of Empire’s End at this time is Wendig’s writing style, which has been a source of contention since Aftermath released. He ends the stories he started, which is all one can expect of an author. He lets his characters start new paths and then leaves what adventures they have up to the reader’s imagination. Wendig doesn’t spend pages and pages waxing poetic about everyone’s fate. Moreover, Empire’s End wraps up the stories of our heroes and villains satisfactorily. It accomplishes that purpose in Empire’s End. Its purpose was, as I said above, to tell how the Empire fell and how the First Order began. The Aftermath trilogy was never about revealing Snoke’s identity, though some of us made it about that. His story, however, will have to be told somewhere else.Īnd that’s okay. That source, I’m willing to bet, is none other than Snoke himself. That answer lies in the Unknown Regions of space where a source of dark side energy lurks. That is made abundantly clear in the end. Of course, what I and everybody else who is interested in the Aftermath trilogy (and Star Wars in general) wanted to know was: Is Gallius Rax Snoke? The answer is no, he is not. Through Norra and Sloane, the book becomes more than just the story of, well, the Empire’s end. Their goals and their overall multi-faceted relationship add humanism and a literary beauty to Empire’s End. In the end, however, the saving of a planet rests on them working together. Norra, meanwhile, pursues Sloane, who she believes orchestrated the attack on Chandrila in Life Debt and turned her husband into an unwilling assassin. Sloane pursues Gallius Rax, the now-leader of the Empire who betrayed her and took over her right to lead Palpatine’s regime. The parallels between them are masterfully wrought: both seek revenge and justice, ironically for the same reasons. The conflict between and surrounding these two drives the story forward. Image Credit: Del Rey Booksīest by far, however, are the characters of Norra Wexley and Rae Sloane. Meanwhile, characters who got precious little personal development in the previous two installments in the trilogy, like Jas Emari, shine at the fore of Empire’s End as major movers and shakers. Even though a couple of characters – like Jom Barell and Wedge Antilles – only get a few pages of thought and dialogue, their words, thoughts, and most importantly, actions are crucial to the story and their character development. And, like any good book, it handily wraps up the stories of the main characters and the purpose of the trilogy: to tell how the Empire as we know it finally fell.Īftermath and Life Debt struggled to give each of the large cast of heroes meaningful page time. Because Empire’s End, like any good Star Wars story, plants the seeds for new ideas and exciting points of speculation. But in retrospect, I realize Wendig delivered just the right amount of information after all. Indeed, at first I was disappointed in the lack of information Wendig gave, particularly regarding Snoke. With its release I expected (or rather, desperately hoped for) answers to all my burning questions: Will any of the heroes die? What is the Empire’s new leader, Gallius Rax planning? Is he Supreme Leader Snoke? If he isn’t, will we meet Snoke at last? Image Credit: Del Rey Books If you have not read the book yet and do not want to be spoiled with any plot points or character development, please proceed with caution.Įmpire’s End, the final installment in Del Rey’s first canon post- Return of the Jedi book series, released yesterday in hardback and e-book. SPOILER WARNING: Mild spoilers may crop up in the following review. Or does it? Read Dork Side’s assistant editor Elaine’s review below. By Elaine Tveit 6 years ago The Empire ends in the third and final installment in Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy, Empire’s End.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |