A review by pushingdessy
Empire's End by Chuck Wendig
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.