No longer constrained by an as-yet unopened Star Wars “mystery box” and a 45-day deadline as he was for Aftermath, Wendig is now free to begin tying elements of his story to the “galaxy far, far, away” as it exists in the new Star Wars sequel trilogy, and he clearly had a bit more time to ponder how to go about doing so. What about the story? Well, again, I really dug the tale that Wendig had to tell this time around.
(I do have to say, though… the use of “busted” in place of “broken,” as occurs on at least one occasion in Life Debt, will always make even the best writing sound amateurish.)Īll right, all right, enough with the grammarian grousing already. The result is a far more engaging and compelling story and a much smoother and more professional feel to the writing overall. However, to his credit, Wendig also seems to have taken some of the other criticisms of Aftermath to heart. It is a technical choice that, unfortunately, tends to create the impression of an author who, deep down, would rather be a screenwriter than a novelist – whether that’s actually the case or not. Granted, third-person, present-tense is not “wrong” in the sense that it’s wrong to perform with a badly tuned musical instrument. Regardless of how brilliantly he may play, that flat note is always there poking at me like a stray whisker in my t-shirt collar.
To me, it’s like listening to a guitarist playing with his B string tuned just ever so slightly flat. Yes, Wendig is still sticking with his third-person, present-tense style, and no, I still don’t like it.
While I personally enjoyed Aftermath for what it was, doing so required that I make an extra effort to filter out numerous problems related to Wendig’s stylistic and storytelling choices.įortunately, Wendig’s latest effort, Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt, is much better and, in my opinion, infinitely more enjoyable. The more critical ones highlighted a variety of flaws, including the novel’s wandering plotline and halfhearted attempt at resolution, as well as Wendig’s choppy writing style and insistence on telling his tale in third-person, present-tense. As many of you will no doubt recall, last year’s Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig was met with mixed reviews.
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