gingerreader99's review
5.0
Well I'll be... After the first novel in the series being a complete let down, Empire's End has finally made up for the mistakes and blunders of the first novel. Wendig has obviously listened to the feedback he has most likely seen and learned from it. I actually began to really care and take an interest in the characters of the trilogy as their lives intertwined with my favourite classic characters. Such as Mon Mothma, Wedge, Leia and Han( Who I think Wendig has actually done a great job of portraying these two in a married life and with newly born Ben, specifically Han having no clue how to be a dad). The interludes this time around were also quite interesting, specifically Lando's and the one including Jar Jar now a clown on the streets of Theed...(which is what we all secretly wanted). The ending easily sets up for countless more novels and leaves countless questions about the building of the First Order and finishes in a similar way to the first novel but this time it was not disappointing. Personally I would like to see more of Temmin Wexley as a young hot shot pilot and not so whiny kid(anymore) is a good building point for more stories before we see him as the man he becomes in the Force Awakens. All in All I think Empires End claws for its 5 stars and has earned them. I finished this book content and with no quarrels as I did the first and even the second. Well done Wendig, you have redeemed yourself.
cptrexct's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
dylanhenning's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I know the Aftermath trilogy hasn’t exactly been everyone’s cup of tea but I’ve greatly enjoyed these books but especially this last installment.
Getting to see the battle of Jakku was pretty cool to see play out. I also enjoyed how each character in our cast got their ending. Some characters ending I didn’t particularly like but I felt they were all deserved if that makes any sense.
It was very impressive to see how this book touched on elements from almost all eras of Star Wars connecting threads from the prequels all the way to setting up seeds of the First Order for the sequel trilogy. Palpatine had plans on plans on plans for every possibility.
I also enjoyed seeing these characters have very real responses to this long war they’ve been fighting and the losses they’ve faced along the way and the trauma that results from all of it.
Getting to see the battle of Jakku was pretty cool to see play out. I also enjoyed how each character in our cast got their ending. Some characters ending I didn’t particularly like but I felt they were all deserved if that makes any sense.
It was very impressive to see how this book touched on elements from almost all eras of Star Wars connecting threads from the prequels all the way to setting up seeds of the First Order for the sequel trilogy. Palpatine had plans on plans on plans for every possibility.
I also enjoyed seeing these characters have very real responses to this long war they’ve been fighting and the losses they’ve faced along the way and the trauma that results from all of it.
lostz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
mal8181's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
gnashchick's review
4.0
This book was so much fun to read. Plenty of good folks, bad folks, bad robots, sketchy bounty hunters, and pirates. Impossible situations, bloody fights, and buried secrets. OMG am I dead yet characters (no). Fist fights turn into TIE vs. X-Wing which turn into Empire vs. Everyone Else (as all SW plots do) and plenty of close calls.
My favorite droid is, and will always be HK-47, but damned if I don't have a giant soft spot for Bones.
I HAVE PERFORMED VIOLENCE!
Perfectly entertaining novel (and series).
My favorite droid is, and will always be HK-47, but damned if I don't have a giant soft spot for Bones.
I HAVE PERFORMED VIOLENCE!
Perfectly entertaining novel (and series).
banjax451's review
4.0
A solid conclusion to a fun trilogy of Star Wars books. Probably my favorite of the 3 novels, though Book 2 was very very good. Wendig can write action sequences very well and while maybe not all of his choices might have been mine, I found myself enjoying them anyway. A few quibbles here and there, but the characters are well done, the action sequences shine and there's just enough hints and answers and easter eggs in the text that I'll be looking at the sequel movies closely to see if some of them come out (or don't).
pushingdessy's review
3.0
I was very pleased to discover that the writing style in this book had improved. It's really noticeable how much it did, as the overused sentence structure I've previously complained about was used an acceptable number of maybe two or three times in the entire book, when that used to be the number you could find in a single page. Given so, I was able to enjoy the story without being annoyed so much by the interrupted flow, and it was easier to see that each character had, in fact, their own voice.
The idea of having interlude chapters in all the books is interesting and it adds something more to the book, showing us other stories that aren't part of the main storyline. However, when you start from the first book they're so disconnected that you wonder what the point is. As you transition into book 2, you think, oh, so that was the point. By book 3, however, I'd read so many interludes about so many characters that I could no longer remember what storyline I was expected to hold on to to be able to understand what I was reading. I often thought, "I guess.... I've read about this character before?" And while some of these interludes had a connection later on, some didn't, either because they were about minor characters that only appeared briefly in the follow-up interlude, or because that was the whole thing about them. Such as,Jar Jar's interlude, which served no purpose other than as a note of colour, and the one about the party to restore the kyber crystals to some planet or other. Am I supposed to remember that until it's explained in some other book?
So, overall, I felt like there was always too much going on. I had to remember not only what the main characters had been doing in the last two books, but also that amongst the 50 interludes I read, the one I was reading now connected with one of the characters I'd read about in book 1. It felt cluttered.
I liked the continuation of the main plot here. Norra and her group all had a more or less satisfactory, closed ending, and it was good to finally see how the battle of Jakku went and what Rax's plan really was. However, and this isn't the author but the story group's fault, it felt... really convoluted. Unnecessarily so. I don't know if I'm expected to know this information to understand the sequel trilogy--which I shouldn't have to--, if it adds something, if there are clues here, or what it all was about.
I also had issues with how Han was written; I can understand some things, but... making a trash compactor reference and expecting people to get it? Yeah, I assume this was done because he expected Obi-Wan and Luke to know about the Kessel Run, but these are wildly different things and that line felt frankly confusing and out of place. Saying a baby (his baby) is "doing that noise again" instead of "crying"? I don't know what background story Disney has planned for him (and I'm not interested to find out if the way is by watching that new movie), but I don't believe it's such a stretch for him to know that babies cry. Or that he would have held his son earlier than what the book shows us. I liked how touching it waswhen he talked to the baby, when he held him, and when Leia told him he didn't need the Force, but other parts felt unnecessarily oafish, and given the general treatment of Disney towards the character, I didn't care for it.
All that said, I think this was the best book of the trilogy and I enjoyed it.
The idea of having interlude chapters in all the books is interesting and it adds something more to the book, showing us other stories that aren't part of the main storyline. However, when you start from the first book they're so disconnected that you wonder what the point is. As you transition into book 2, you think, oh, so that was the point. By book 3, however, I'd read so many interludes about so many characters that I could no longer remember what storyline I was expected to hold on to to be able to understand what I was reading. I often thought, "I guess.... I've read about this character before?" And while some of these interludes had a connection later on, some didn't, either because they were about minor characters that only appeared briefly in the follow-up interlude, or because that was the whole thing about them. Such as,
So, overall, I felt like there was always too much going on. I had to remember not only what the main characters had been doing in the last two books, but also that amongst the 50 interludes I read, the one I was reading now connected with one of the characters I'd read about in book 1. It felt cluttered.
I liked the continuation of the main plot here. Norra and her group all had a more or less satisfactory, closed ending, and it was good to finally see how the battle of Jakku went and what Rax's plan really was. However, and this isn't the author but the story group's fault, it felt... really convoluted. Unnecessarily so. I don't know if I'm expected to know this information to understand the sequel trilogy--which I shouldn't have to--, if it adds something, if there are clues here, or what it all was about.
I also had issues with how Han was written; I can understand some things, but... making a trash compactor reference and expecting people to get it? Yeah, I assume this was done because he expected Obi-Wan and Luke to know about the Kessel Run, but these are wildly different things and that line felt frankly confusing and out of place. Saying a baby (his baby) is "doing that noise again" instead of "crying"? I don't know what background story Disney has planned for him (and I'm not interested to find out if the way is by watching that new movie), but I don't believe it's such a stretch for him to know that babies cry. Or that he would have held his son earlier than what the book shows us. I liked how touching it was
All that said, I think this was the best book of the trilogy and I enjoyed it.