Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars Aftermath: Life Debt Reflects a Diverse Galaxy

For fans of the old Expanded Universe, Wendig became the public face behind a reboot that wiped out 20 years of stories. For a different kind of fan, one who didn’t know about the exploits of Grand Admiral Thrawn or Mara Jade, he was competing with a universe built up in the imagination since 1983. Given all that, he might have been tempted to play it safe. Nope: instead, he was perfectly happy to drive certain segments of the internet insane with some of his choices, including one in particular (spoiler alert: multiple homosexual protagonists).
The next chapter in his saga, Aftermath: Life Debt, is out this month, drawing further connections between the old series and the new, while still focusing on the team that came together in the first book: Leia Organa, navigating the murky political waters of the budding New Republic, receives a disturbing message from her husband, the former General Solo. Having set out with Chewie to free the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyk from slavery at the hands of an Imperial remnant, the two are separated, and Han is attacked by unknown forces. Unable to contact him, and reluctant to abandon her duties at a critical juncture, Leia sends Norra Wexley and company on a secret mission: find Han Solo!
Nora and Jom, the two former Rebels at the center of the action in Aftermath, take a backseat as the focus shifts to erstwhile bounty hunter Jas Emari and former Imperial Loyalty Officer Sinjir Rath Velus. Given that Han Solo’s absence hangs over the book in much the same way that Luke Skywalker’s looms over The Force Awakens, it makes perfect sense that the scoundrels on Wendig’s team would take the lead in the hunt. There are ominous hints for the future, as well: a growing cult of Darth Vader fangirls and boys is growing increasingly violent as the rise of the New Republic puts the old order into chaos, and there are rumors of royal pregnancy we readers know will only end in tears in the decades to come.
Wendig’s trilogy is taking the Star Wars universe in interesting new directions, and given that these adventures are explicitly canonical, carrying as much weight as the films themselves in the overarching story, there’s a good deal of detail to be teased out, and more than a little controversy.
A Whole New Team

Perhaps as a way to avoid getting in the way of The Force Awakens, Aftermath features an entirely new team of characters from across the galaxy. While there were hints about the old crew in the first book, plus slightly more significant turns from Wedge Antilles and Mon Mothma, Wendig has assembled a group even more ragtag than our beloved Rebellion: troubled single mom Norra Wexley, her son Temmin, crotchety rebel Jom Barell, bounty hunter Jas Emari, and former Imperial Sinjir Rath Velus. For an added bit of diversity, there’s also Mr. Bones—one of the battle droids from the prequel films, refitted as a bodyguard with a sadistic personality. By the start of Life Debt, this group has established itself as a sort of special ops team hunting down Imperial war criminals.
Given the success of The Force Awakens, it’s easy to forget the initial controversy over the film’s female lead. Aftermath beat J.J. Abrams to the punch by a few months, introducing a main character who is not only a woman, but a mother, and not always a great one, at that. She has been traumatized by her wartime experiences, meaning she’s not only the boss, she’s imperfect in interesting ways. (Luckily, we’re past the point where a leading lady needs to be entirely flawless.) She’s not the only important woman in the trilogy: Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s former padawan from Clone Wars, gets a shoutout in her guise as a Rebel agent, while Mon Mothma and Leia have significant cameos in their roles as political power players. Another nice touch are the interludes scattered throughout the novels, short vignettes that establish the tenor of events in the wider galaxy. (One focuses on the fate of the survivors of Alderaan and follows perfectly from Marvel’s female-led Princess Leia graphic novel.)
The main bad guy, as it happens, isn’t a guy, either. It’s Rae Sloane, an Imperial admiral who carries some of the same weight as the old EU’s legendary blue-skinned commander Grand Admiral Thrawn (a younger, less experienced Captain Sloane first appeared in John Jackson Miller’s A New Dawn). Sloane isn’t just a lady version of the typical SW villain; she’s almost shockingly competent. In a world where Stormtroopers rarely hit a target, and leaders include a theatrically cackling tyrant and his homicidal mama’s boy sidekick, an entirely sane boss who doesn’t get by solely by invoking terror makes for a nice change. She’s largely practical, while still holding true to the Empire’s vision of galactic order and stability. She feels like someone you’d actually want to be your boss, if your job was ensuring total domination by the end of the fiscal year. She continues to consolidate her power in Life Debt, even while being manipulated by a mysterious benefactor. It’s a situation she’s willing to tolerate, but only as long as it furthers her endgame.

Then there’s Sinjir Rath Velus, the disillusioned Imperial loyalty officer. A single paragraph in Aftermath regarding his sexuality was enough to ignite a firestorm of controversy from a vocal online minority. He’s not the first LGBT character in the Star Wars universe, nor even in the new canon (Delian Mors, a lesbian Imperial officer, figures prominently in Paul S. Kemp’s Lords of the Sith). Somehow, Velus seems to have provoked a more vocal reaction on both sides, perhaps because he’s a lead character, and not a villain. Some might say sexual identity politics have no place in Star Wars, but I, for one, salute Wendig for helping ensure the galaxy far, far away reflects the one we all live in.
At the trilogy’s midpoint, we’re racing deeper into the mystery of those missing 30 years, even as the story continues to explore new corners of the galaxy and introduce diverse new characters. While it’s too soon to say where we’ll be come Empire’s End early next year, there’s no denying it: Chuck Wendig has changed Star Wars forever.
Star Wars Aftermath: Life Debt is available on July 12. Pre-order the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition, featuring a two-sided pull-out poster.