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Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt
Unavailable
Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt
Unavailable
Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt
Audiobook15 hours

Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt

Written by Chuck Wendig

Narrated by Marc Thompson

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Set between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, the never-before-told story that began with Star Wars: Aftermath continues in this thrilling novel, the second book of Chuck Wendig's bestselling trilogy.

It is a dark time for the Empire. . . . 

The Emperor is dead, and the remnants of his former Empire are in retreat. As the New Republic fights to restore a lasting peace to the galaxy, some dare to imagine new beginnings and new destinies. For Han Solo, that means settling his last outstanding debt, by helping Chewbacca liberate the Wookiee's homeworld of Kashyyyk.

Meanwhile, Norra Wexley and her band of Imperial hunters pursue Grand Admiral Rae Sloane and the Empire's remaining leadership across the galaxy. Even as more and more officers are brought to justice, Sloane continues to elude the New Republic, and Norra fears Sloane may be searching for a means to save the crumbling Empire from oblivion. But the hunt for Sloane is cut short when Norra receives an urgent request from Princess Leia Organa. The attempt to liberate Kashyyyk has carried Han Solo, Chewbacca, and a band of smugglers into an ambush-resulting in Chewie's capture and Han's disappearance.

Breaking away from their official mission and racing toward the Millennium Falcon's last known location, Norra and her crew prepare for any challenge that stands between them and their missing comrades. But they can't anticipate the true depth of the danger that awaits them-or the ruthlessness of the enemy drawing them into his crosshairs.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 12, 2016
ISBN9780451486165
Unavailable
Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt
Author

Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig is the author of the Miriam Black thrillers (which begin with Blackbirds) and numerous other works across books, comics, games, and more. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the cowriter of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus, he is also known for his popular blog, terribleminds.com. He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.

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Reviews for Star Wars

Rating: 3.7530121024096386 out of 5 stars
4/5

166 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to this on Audible and I think that coloured how I feel about it a great deal. I don't think I would be as invested in the story if I had read it.

    I am still in love with the characters though and enjoyed getting to have more of the original characters from the Star Wars universe.

    There were a lot of real heartbreaking moments for me, I totally looked like a freak on the treadmill tears streaming down my face because I was over involved in this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've really enjoyed the trajectory of the Star Wars: Aftermath series. The first book introduced our new central cast of characters with only minor appearances from any of the more familiar faces from the original trilogy. With that done, Life Debt begins showing us how our team connects to the larger universe and the paths towards Force Awakens.I'm fascinated by the movements of the Empire's remnants and how different factions have responded to the death of the Emperor. Similarly, I love seeing the changes in the Rebellion as it attempts to transition from guerrilla army to legitimate government. Against the backdrop of these larger forces' struggle to adjust, our little team (and some old favourites) find themselves facing difficult choices, while trying to determine their own priorities and how they fit in the new world. All of this is a lot to fit in a book and as a result, the interludes can feel superfluous and jarring from the main narrative, at times. Though I did enjoy one involving a personal favourite background character.Life Debt is a well-paced, fun read and I look forward to the next book in the series.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is another book in the sequence of stories that is taking us from 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi' to 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'. Although they haven't officially let any one know yet, Leia and Han have married and are expecting a child, but Han has unfinished debts that the New Republic was unable to meet, like the liberation of the Wookie home world of Kashyyyk. When Han's communication link goes dead Leia still believes he's alive but as Han is no longer a member of the New Republic forces, she can't use official sources to search for him so she turns to Norra's bounty hunting team to search him out, but who's double crossing whom in the tectonically shifting plates that make up the politics of the galaxy as the Empire collapses and the New Republic struggles to assert its authority.The main storyline of the book is very good but there are those pesky little interludes Wending throws in every so often.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The plot is good, and I like that this starts to tie events back into the timeline of the main characters (Han, Chewie, Leia, etc.), but I still can barely tolerate the writing style of Chuck Wendig. While somewhat better than the first book of this trilogy, the writing style is still more appropriate to a screenplay than a novel. After reading his so-called novels, I find myself with an insane craving for books with actual complete sentences.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I did not really like this, but I am not really certain why I read it. (I suspect I read it because I want to get a feel for Disney's new canon.) I did like it better than the first Aftermath book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a better written book than the first. The different groups have finally met and things are moving forward toward Jakku. The story suffers a bit from jumping forward in places and not giving any clear narrative as to what happened. An example of this is what happens to Jom Barell. It almost reads as if it wants to be in the same vain as Empire Strikes Back, the darker of the trilogy. But it doesn't quite reach this level. Flawed but good.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    There are some books that transcend the trappings of franchise fiction to provide a novel that is both profound and moving.

    This is not it.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This book was so bad I stopped reading it about 1/2 way through. Chuck Wendig can't go a page without writing multiple sentence fragments; and apparently a full paragraph is one of the hardest things to do ever. This is meant to be a novel! Let me write out the... paragraph(?) that made me shut the book for good, complete with crappy line spacing:"The visor both hides her face and, with the tap of a button on the side of the helmet, pulls up a heads-up display glowing on the plastoglass shield. In this case, it's a map of Coruscant. Her destination is a pulsing red star on the map: The old Hall of Imperial Register building. Less affectionately known as: "The Pit." It is a storehouse of deeds, records, and data dumps. It is to most a worthless aggregation of the Empire's bureaucracy-as records pile up in ships and transports and nav computers, across offices and academies and depots, those records must occasionally be off-loaded to backup."

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt, Chuck Wendig continues the storyline he began in the previous novel, focusing on the last days of the Empire and the struggles of the fledgling New Republic. He continues to focus on his previous main characters, an A-Team like group composed of pilot Norra Wexley, her son Temmin (A.K.A. "Snap"), former loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus, bounty hunter Jas Emari, Special Forces officer Jom Barell, and modified battle droid Mister Bones. Unlike the previous novel, where the main Star Wars characters' only significant appearances were in Interludes, Wendig has Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca appear as active characters who work with the aformentioned team to achieve their objectives, sometimes against the official orders of the New Republic. Representing the Empire are the mysterious Gallius Rax, whose backstory Wendig explores in this volume, and Rae Sloane, who first appeared in Star Wars: A New Dawn.Wendig fills in the gaps before The Force Awakens by continuing the Interlude from the previous novel, in which Han and Chewie plan the liberation of Kashyyyk, and tying that to the beginning of Han's family as Leia develops her Force sensitivity while pregnant. As this occurs, the fractured Empire continues to restructure, with hints at Palpatine's secret plans involving Jakku and the role of Brendol Hux, father to General Armitage Hux from The Force Awakens. Some fun nods to other stories include the presence of Evaan Verlaine from the Princess Leia comic series and a mention of the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse, originally from the Dark Empire comic series.Wendig's first Aftermath novel introduced many ideas, but he did not develop all of them, either due to limits placed on him by J.J. Abram's love of secrecy or the fact that he knew he had two more novels in which to explore them. In any case, Life Debt surpasses its predecessor and develops those ideas while still leaving room to explore, both in Wendig's final Aftermath novel and in subsequent novels set in the time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    So much wrong in this novel, not even quite sure where to begin.

    Firstly, I will say I definitely do not like where the new canon is going post-ROTJ. TFA was 'ok' but rehash of ANH. Aftermath was horrible. Aftermath: Life Debt, a slight step up, was ultimately just as bad. I haven't read Bloodlines or Lost Stars yet, so holding out hope for them. But the basic framework for how the universe/galaxy and timeline and events are pot-ROTJ I just do not enjoy. I do not enjoy the beginning of the New Republic, or the quick exit (basically) of the Empire, and so many facets.

    Firstly, the Kashyyyk plot is done horribly. Give me one reason why the Republic WOULDN'T go there, three star destroyers? Thats it? I know the book wants to make it seem a insurmountable thing, but then goes on to list all kinds of other battles where they take out SD's easily, and even in this book itself, they take out the SD's at Kashyyyk super easily. So why not have gone in their in the first place?

    Wendig's writing is horrible. First off, lets get that out of the way. It's just atrocious. Its not even the present tense thing that bothers me, its just his writing style. You don't break off a paragraph to run down a (in separate lines no less) a column a) b) c) .... the writing is just so hacky and horrible. Cliches abound. Characterization is completely off or non-existent. Han and Leia are terrible. The whole Han character has been completely destroyed in this new timeline (not due to his death, but his character's actions post-ROTJ through Life Debt here), and his characterization of him has been completely off in this book so its not even forgivable what they did to him as a character.

    This is supposed to be the first serious trilogy that spawns off the new canon, that cements it, and gives us what the galaxy really looks like. This will be the cornerstone for the new canon and how everything is perceived post-ROTJ, .... and its just such utter trash. Writing, trash. Tense, trash. Cliches, trash. Constant use of Earth terms and stuff, Han saying "nobody likes a preening peacock" --- what?! Etc. The sad thing is, to even really do this book review a justice, I need to almost go line by line with the novel pointing out just how bad it is at every step of the way.

    I can't find any redeeming qualities about this book or the trilogy (so far two books in). Plot makes no sense. Leia's actions make no sense. Han's actions make no sense. His "team" that he created and wedged in here makes no sense, are one dimensional worthless characters, mostly stolen from tropes. Mister Bones is just such a glaring "this is everything that is wrong with Wendig" in a nutshell type of thing.

    The entire prison plot makes no sense. The entire Rax character is absurd and if he isn't Snoke is just utterly stupid and pointless and makes his character just a transition and vehicle plotpoint that took us from A to B. Also, how do you do an epilogue that is actually THIRTY years before the novel? A flashback at the very end of a movie to try and explain the movie? No dice.

    We're led to believe that the Imperials (through Rax) would know that these rebels hidden in a prison, guarded by droids that nearly kill everyone, would somehow get rescued despite overwhelming odds (though our characters are in no real danger) and that they'd make it back to a rebel base area where they could do maximum harm after inserting an operative/agent in the area to cause them to do said harm.

    And how convenient that Brentin (Norra "worthless character #3" 's husband) Wexley just so happens to be one of them. And so is Chewbacca..... but he'll never get turned agent, so don't worry about him being bugged. But then again, he's the only character the novel did any justice too.... partly because there is no way to screw him up, and partly because he has very little screen time.

    Wedge..... oh, poor Wedge. What have they done to you? I guess Bacta doesn't exist on Chandrilla, so you're a hobbled old washed up man now, sucks for you, maybe you'll get shipped with Norra once Brentin is killed. Lucky you, but don't worry you'll be dead before TFA comes out anyway.

    Ackbar is also done for character-wise. Same with Mon Mothma.

    And just to round out our rebels, we'll kill Crix Madine off screen just to let you know he's dead and was never going to matter anyway. Have we hobbled/killed/destroyed the character of enough tertiary and secondary rebels from ESB/ROTJ? Don't forget we got to add Norra to make up for them! And she supposedly was the one piloting that A-Wing through the DSII.... so yippee on that! What a great new character she is.

    Rae Sloane.... ugh don't get me started on her character. She's Del Rey's Asoka, the thread to take you through all of their new canon books and Mary Sue her way around and for us to love as the new Thrawn great "imperial" who isn't "truly imperial or evil" but still "not a good guy, but you have to respect her" type of BS.

    Rax, ie. PalpII who can make plot over plot over plot to make sure everything turns up sunny until he gets vanquished by Sloane in Empire's End (book three of the trilogy) (guessing here, though it seems obvious), either to boost her character, or to hide him until TFA comes out and he's revealed to be Snoke.

    Ugh, I honestly could go on for a few more hours about this drivel, but I just can't stomach it to do it. I'm off to read much better quality stuff and not kill my brain cells anymore wasting and devoting time to this crap. Unfortunately I know I'll still read Empire's End because it's Star Wars (thank god the Hershey library gets these books so I don't have to pay for them).

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved everything about this book. A fantastic addition to the Star Wars universe.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great continuation of the Aftermath trilogy. I really like how this is setting up events that we already know happened, but not how or why they happened. This new cohesive Star Wars universe is coming together quite nicely.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Oh wow oh wow oh wow! This book was even better than the first one. Mr. Wendig, while I do kind of hate you for a number of the beautifully horrible things you did to these characters, I am very, very eager for the next book.