Plenty has been said about the writing style in this book. I did not particularly care for it and found it unduly distracting. I heard it works much better as an audiobook, which does not surprise me at all. To me, Wendig's prose sounds much more like something to be heard than something to be read.
Another problem I found was that, despite the many unrelated storylines kick-started by the interludes, the novel still feels a bit too small-scale. The Big Imperial Summit mentioned in the blurb involves less than half a dozen people, most of them important only because the narration tells us so. Their main opposition are a disjointed band of individuals, only two of which are actually affiliated with the New Republic. The result feels more like a frustratingly limited and unimportant skirmish rather than the announced major conflict.
The big reveal in the epilogue, telegraphed as it is, is bound to fan the flames of speculation. Is Chuck Wendig trying to channel Timothy Zahn's Admiral Thrawn? If he does, then how well can he pull it off? As tempting as it would be to have a Thrawn analogue in the new Star Wars canon, it would be even better if they were distinct enough to avoid direct comparisons beyond the superficial.
All in all, my greatest praise for this book is: it didn't feel painful for me to read it entirely. That's more than I can say of some books from the old Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Also to be noted: the Flame War this novel has started. Essentially there are four sides: the writer's fans, critics of the writer's style/talent, Heteronormative Crusaders, and fans of the older EU. Those demographics tend to overlap in quite surprising ways, and waddling into that particular debate is definitely done at your own risk.
Could have been much better, could have been much worse
Plenty has been said about the writing style in this book. I did not particularly care for it and found it unduly distracting. I heard it works much better as an audiobook, which does not surprise me at all. To me, Wendig's prose sounds much more like something to be heard than something to be read.
Another problem I found was that, despite the many unrelated storylines kick-started by the interludes, the novel still feels a bit too small-scale. The Big Imperial Summit mentioned in the blurb involves less than half a dozen people, most of them important only because the narration tells us so. Their main opposition are a disjointed band of individuals, only two of which are actually affiliated with the New Republic. The result feels more like a frustratingly limited and unimportant skirmish rather than the announced major conflict.
On the plus side, the new characters are mostly not-boring. Most aren't developed enough to be fully interesting, but they're not flat caricatures (except, in my opinion, for Yupe Tashu the Religious Fanatic Cliché).
The big reveal in the epilogue, telegraphed as it is, is bound to fan the flames of speculation. Is Chuck Wendig trying to channel Timothy Zahn's Admiral Thrawn? If he does, then how well can he pull it off? As tempting as it would be to have a Thrawn analogue in the new Star Wars canon, it would be even better if they were distinct enough to avoid direct comparisons beyond the superficial.
All in all, my greatest praise for this book is: it didn't feel painful for me to read it entirely. That's more than I can say of some books from the old Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Also to be noted: the Flame War this novel has started. Essentially there are four sides: the writer's fans, critics of the writer's style/talent, Heteronormative Crusaders, and fans of the older EU. Those demographics tend to overlap in quite surprising ways, and waddling into that particular debate is definitely done at your own risk.