Aftermath

Executive Summary: It's an OK story. Not great, but far from all the negative reviews I've seen. I'm not really sure how it's going to tie into the Force Awakens though. I guess I'll have to wait and see.Audio book: I don't think Marc Thompson does all the Star Wars books, but I think he does most of them. He's narrated all of the ones I've listened to though. He's fantastic. I'll never read a Star Wars book when I can listen to one. He does all the voices, and you get music and special effects. Normally I don't like music in audio books, but it really works for the Star Wars books.If you do audio and are interested in this book, definitely do it that way.Full ReviewThis is only my 5th Star Wars book, and my first Chuck Wendig book. I can't really compare it to the quality of the Star Wars books at large, or to Mr. Wendig's other work. As a Star Wars book, I would have liked a little more of the main cast, while introducing new characters, much like the Thrawn trilogy books did.Instead we mostly got cameos and mostly brand new characters who don't really feel that important to me in the grand scheme of things. Maybe this will change in later books, or the movie itself.I found the new characters largely forgettable. I also was largely uninterested in their stories. I probably liked Jazz the bounty hunter the best of the bunch. None of them were bad, but they just don't feel as big as Han, Luke or Leia.The writing was good, but the story felt “small”. Much of this story felt very unrelated to the larger struggle of the New Republic and the Empire. It was much more of personal stories of people living in the “Aftermath” of the destruction of the Death Star. It does set the stage a bit, but much of that seemed to happen at the end.It's hard to really speak to how well this book is really the “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens” until I see the movie. Maybe it will take the whole trilogy of books to make it relevant.Overall I didn't find this as good as Thrawn Trilogy, or even the [a:James S.A. Corey 4192148 James S.A. Corey https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] side story: [b:Honor Among Thieves 18050080 Honor Among Thieves (Star Wars Empire and Rebellion, #2) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385232527s/18050080.jpg 24581828]. It's easily a skippable book in my opinion, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as some of the reviews seem to indicate however.