Lit Wendig and Aftermath - why the hate?

Hi all,
Please forgive me if this is retreading old ground - I'm only a newbie here and to be honest the idea of going through the pages of existing threads is a bit daunting.

I've visited different SW fan communities in recent weeks and the common refrain seems to be that Chuck Wendig/Aftermath sucks, but after reading both current books a second time (in the lead-up to the final one) I'm struggling to understand why.

I never read much EU or many of the adaptations until recently. SOTE, Tales From/Of..., Knight Errant, Labyrinth Of Evil, Tarkin and A New Dawn are about it from the top of my head, and apart from the use of present tense in the Aftermath books I'm honestly not getting why there's such dislike for them - Wendig's work seems similar to the others. I really enjoyed reading both and the experience of buying and reading Aftermath so close to TFA was a great one.

I ask this honestly. I'm not trying to troll or create trouble, nor am I a secret plant from the publisher trying to infiltrate.

So what is it that makes fans mad about these books? Is it the use of present tense? The new characters? His treatment of Wedge and other original characters? The Interludes? The inclusion of gay and genderfluid characters? The storyline itself? Something else? I'm left scratching my head as no-one seems to offer any explanation other than it was bad or a let-down.

Thanks all.

 

His writing and the general sucky-ness of the plot irk me, not to mention that he does nothing to make me care for any of these new characters outside of Sloane or Sinjir. (Sloane isn't even his character, or new). For others, the marketing promoted the book as a huge, must read epic and many assumed it would revolve around the OT characters, leading to their disappointment.

What I don't like is how Wendig assumed criticism of the book was due to gay characters and that everyone is bashing the book because of it. It gave him an excuse to basically hide behind instead of realizing his writing flaws. "Oh, you don't like my book? You must hate gays then!". Last time I checked, no one was complaining about gay characters, and it was more on the quality of the book itself.

 

No one here, maybe, but Facebook comments and Reddit posts have a way of getting really nasty.

 

I believe Facebook comments, but I doubt Reddit posts. I'm not saying you're lying, but I'm curious to see if you could pull some of these posts up. Even the reactions to the book on 4chan mentioned nothing criticizing the inclusion of gay characters.

 

I don't care to go looking for it, sorry, comments like that effect me personally. And it's been more than a year since the book came out, I might be mis-remembering, fair enough.

 

The structure is...not for everybody. It was advertised as THE go to book in the new canon for post-ROTJ material and I guess this boiled to expectations. I can guarantee not a lot bought it to read about Temmin or the other characters. I found it ok but I read it after I did research on how the book is like and the best description I've heard: A shoddy anthology of short stories that connect with each other as the book goes on.

 

I actually think the interludes were better and more well written than the main story. Aside from space diapers, I mean.

 

Basically you answered your own question. Personally I find Aftermath to be a travesty precisely for the reasons you outlined - existing characters sidelined, lack of compelling characters, and stilted paragraphs.

 

I really enjoy them. Middle of a re-read of Life Debt right now. I think his approach is fresh, immediate, and works very well for the story being told. I really enjoy the new band of characters, find them unique, complex, hilarious, and quite believable.

Many based expectations on something that wasn't even advertised, and then when it was exactly what was advertised, and not what they hoped for right off the bat, disappointment manifest in anger and Wendig was the scapegoat.

It's a well written book by an established, popular author. Many Star Wars tie-in readers weren't familiar with non-traditional tenses, and assumed something different from their experience equals Bad Writing.

Again, in fandom, as in life, unmet expectations usually gets expressed in anger, and anger then needs to be justified ir rationalized when it is questioned.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons people might not enjoy the book. But most of the explanations I've seen given by mouth-frothing angry reviewers on Amazon really seem, as I read them, as if complaints were divised to justify their anger, rather than giving real reasons that actually make sense amd led to the dislike of the book in the first place. But, as always, YMMV.

 

I don't hate Wendig or his writing.

I do think everyone was expecting a Thrawn Trilogy and they got some lengthy Adventure Journal fic.

 

I do not own or have read any of the aftermath books. Just not to that point yet. But I have seem much controversy over them to be sure. I don't think the writing style would bother me and the gay character(s?) certainly wouldn't but I get the impression sometimes that was just a gimmick? Anyway I am more interested in whether the story advances the universe and/or provide cool insights into the universe.
Side note, I have also heard the author was somewhat mean and a jerk over the criticisms which is a turn off if true.
Once I am to the point of wanting to read in that timeframe I will have to decide whether to buy/read or read a good online synopsis. Opinions here are much more level headed I will say.

 

The gay-ness was a minor background detail, so it's not like these characters were created solely to have a gay representation in Star Wars just for marketing purposes . I think Aftermath is worth slogging through for the little bits of lore. Life Debt (which I haven't read yet), is said to be written much better and includes a LOT of possibly ST-era relevant lore.

 

A lot of people genuinely didn't like the writing style/plot/characters, but a vocal minority of people were upset that there were LGBT characters, and that was the issue that got the most attention. Wendig's unprofessional response to the backlash against the book left a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths, too, as he went on a rampage that made Karen Traviss look like Troy Denning.* Charlemagne's right too in that it was being perceived by fans ahead of time as the new canon's Heir to the Empire, and there was some resentment when it didn't deliver on that front, even if doing so had never been Wendig's intention. So a combination of things, really.

*Denning has always dealt with his haters in a very polite and professional manner.

 

There's a lot about very important things on in the background of the first Aftermath which aren't clear until the Epilogue. That's by design, and part of the dramatic structure of the trilogy. It was very effective for me. For this reason, talking about details of that aspect of it prior to someone reading it is a bit of a spoiler for the first novel's experience.

Something I loved about the first book is that it's very much about how and why the protagonists find themselves fighting together, even though, as we meet them and spend time with them, we learn how they all have very, very different motivations, which are explored, and challenged in (to me) compelling ways. Some are more complex than others. But Wendig does a great job of getting you to understand (and believe) why they are doing what they do.

 

Also, instead of taking other's characterizations of it, just read Chuck's take on the negative reviews for yourself, here. He addresses them after he addressed the positive reviews. You can then decide if others' characterizations of his response are accurate or, well, forms of 'alternative accuracy'.

 

Well, it goes deeper than just that blog post. He responded to the negative reviews in other forums, including a lot of angry tweets as well as direct responses to reviews on amazon. One blog post where he gave a more levelheaded and measured response is far from the whole story.

 

Aside from people who can't join 21st century attitudes, I'd say that the writing style will bother some people. It's a matter of taste. You either can work with it or you can't. I think the story is strong enough, and the first novel really exists to set up this crew to follow though with the second novel, which was much more well liked.

 

Only snarky posts I saw in any degree of regularity in regards ro reviews were in direct response to linked and/or quoted blatantly anti-gay review excerpts. He did seem to take pleasure in exposing and calling out and mocking the attempted logic perpetuated in those criticisms.

 

Speaking of the structure, I liked that the first novel had a more intimate setting, in one location, before the next novel branched out and became a part of the bigger universe.

Much like Star Wars A New Hope, which had a more intimate, controlled setting compared to the expansioning of the universe in the next two movies.

Sent from A TRANSMISSION BEAMED ABOARD THIS SHIP--

 

I think there were a few reasons it had such a backlash. First was that it did have a writing style that was different and was difficult for some people to get into. Secondly it came out at a time when EU fans were still trying to come to terms with the legends announcement and the writing style and Wendig's sarcastic sense of humor on social media gave them a little bit of fuel. And thirdly people did misinterpet what the book was supposed to be about. People thought it was supposed to give some real answers when in reality all it said it was going to do was just give us a beginning of a story.

 

I didn't follow all the online controversy, but overall, this was basically the first post-RotJ novel of the nuEU and... it definitely wasn't at the level of the Thrawn trilogy. It wasn't even at the level of Truce At Bakura.

Partially its the grammar style. Its not wrong, just not exactly to everyone's taste, as it came off very odd. Then there's also the story. Partially its due to the perceived hype and letdown. With the nuEU we want to find out what the Galaxy Far Far Away looks like post-RotJ and instead the book just focuses on one backwater planet, that supposedly hosts a last-ditch gathering to pull the Empire together before the whole galaxy falls to the Rebel Alliance (which is also a topic of contention, how fast the war ended after TFA, but that's a different topic), yet most of the people involved are pretty pathetic, aside from Sloane, and she was created by John Jackson Miller, who is a much better writer.

Doesn't help none of the heroes are that super-memorable and thus not instantly popular... well, aside from Mr. Bones of course. More annoying was all the interludes showing way more interesting stuff happening in other parts of the galaxy rather than on this backwater.

Its not the worst Star Wars novel, but as the novel that kind of sets the post-RotJ era in the nuEU, it definitely wasn't very impressive. Life Debt was an improvement, but I had issues with that too, though that's partially due to the direction the nuEU is going (which is a separate topic).

It doesn't help that it was the first nuEU post-RotJ novel and also marketed as part of the lead-up to TFA.

 

I haven't read the book. Flipping through it in the store, the fragmentary present-tense prose turned me off. It probably would be a surmountable barrier if I chose to give it a shot, but I have enough unread books sitting on my shelf that adding some with built-in barriers, low though they may be, hasn't been a priority.

You doubt that that there were Reddit posts with opposition to the presence of LGBT characters? Have you been on Reddit?

 

I mostly enjoyed the books, my biggest concern was the presence of the constant innuendos that were extremely forced, un-starwarsy (in a bad sense), and took me out of the book. I don't mind gay characters at all, Sinjir was one of the highlights of the book anyways. I still feel though that they should've given this trilogy to a more experienced SW author (like JJM or Luceno) and let Wendig write some minor story instead of what's supposed to be the flagship trilogy of the NEU.

 

Honestly, I think Chuck's complete lack of respect for the homophobic backlash to his books is entirely fine. We've had gay characters since Juhanni and hating on books for including them is ridiculous.

As for being angry over the 1 star ratings.

Well, as an author, I have mixed feelings. I know that kind of frustration but you haters gonna hate.