Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: AFTERMATH: LIFE DEBT (spoilers)

We continue to witness the aftermath of the Battle of Endor through the eyes of a few intrepid New Republic soldiers/spies. No longer confined to Akiva, Norra Wexley and her band of eclectics strive to help the effort to continually wound the remains of the Empire so that they can bring freedom to the galaxy more swiftly.

This was an interesting continuation of the events from Aftermath, as it took a broader focus on the war effort between the New Republic and the Empire, while still following Norra, Sinjir, Temmin, Jas, Jom, and Mr. Bones on a more personal adventure. They’ve been hunting down top Imperial officials and officers, but they also receive a special mission from Leia herself, which is to find a missing Han. And it turns out Han isn’t missing, but is rather on the down-low in search of clues on the whereabouts of Chewie, as the two of them had been planning on conducting a mission to liberate Chewie’s home world of Kashyyyk, but things went awry and Chewie was captured. So once Norra and the others find Han, they agree to team up and bring down the Empire on Kashyyyk all on their own. And of course in the process of doing so Norra is reunited with her long-lost husband, though she soon finds he’s not quite the man he used to be.

Meanwhile Rae Sloane is trying her best to stay afloat in her role as what’s essentially the leader of the Empire. However she is not truly in control, as the mysterious Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax is the one pulling the strings. Throughout we see her chafe under his seemingly arbitrary methods, and we feel her helplessness as he manipulates characters and events in his favor, rather than the Empire’s. Though she does begin to investigate him, and learns some interesting tidbits about his rise through the ranks of the Empire.

I thought most of the core group were characterised well here, and Han and Leia as well. Though I thought Norra got sidelined a bit once she returned to Chandrilla with Brentin. I get that a spouse can become unreasonably happy after reuniting with their partner after a long while, but I thought she got hit a bit too hard with that characterisation, and cheapened her role a bit. I did like how Temmin reacted, though- as an ever-changing teenager he’s a lot more inclined to react in a torrent of emotions to such a drastic change in his life. The character I thought got the best development here was Sinjir, as he’s struggling to see his place within the NR after all the horrible acts he had committed under the Empire. His inner struggle with reconciling his nastier traits with his more wholesome lifestyle was very captivating, and I enjoyed the way it affected the rest of the team. As for Jas and Jom, I thought there relationship was interesting, and added a bit of flavor to their stories.

Overall this was pretty good. It got real interesting once they got to Kashyyyk, and the liberation itself was really fun and action-packed. Rax is certainly an interesting cookie, and his and Sloane’s roles in leading the crux of the Empire was interesting after we saw the conditions on Coruscant and the garrison at Kashyyyk, where they Imperials stationed therein are basically all on their own and barely managing to maintain control and autonomy. Once again the interludes were really cool sneak peeks into various people’s lives around the galaxy.

I give Life Debt an 8.7 out of 10 for a good followup to the first Aftermath book, and for taking its characters in new and interesting directions.

 

A big improvement over the first book and written in a way that doesn't require you to read the first book at all or leave you feeling like you're missing a previous installment, It has fewer of the Interludes that were the true highlight of the first book, but the ones here are solid and continue to help provide a greater sense of the actual aftermath of Endor more than any of the larger evenst taking place in this series or even comics like Shattered Empire.

A lot of big events take place "off screen" or between chapters so it has an odd outside-looking-in vibe at times. This makes the shift to having the bigger heroes off-screen for the half of the book only to bring them more into a central role in the second half a bit jarring.

The good original characters are still the draw here, though. Mister Bones is still amazing. Sloane is the most compelling and Sinjir is highly entertaining. Temmin still sucks, but he sucks less here.

Overall, I'd probably this one on par with Tarkin of the books I've read so far. Tarkin was better written but I connected with most of the new characters here more than NU Tarkin's characterization.

My ranking: 7.5/10

Ranking NU Adult Novels so far:
-The Last Jedi 10.0
-Catalyst 9.5
-Lords of the Sith 8.5
-Aftermath: Life Debt 7.5
-Tarkin 7.0
-Aftermath 7.0

 

Average Score Update: 213.4/27 = 7.90

 

Average Score Update: 220.4/27 = 7.87