Okay, despite my clever (okay, sorta clever...fine, fine, lame) title, there really isn't much actual "war" in
Aftermath, not hot, troops on the ground, fleets in the outer atmosphere, war, anyway (btw, if you haven't read
Aftermath, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?! I mean, uh, you should probably not read this). Though, it's not really cold war either...more like lukewarm war, something like cats and dogs...maybe...moving on...the book skips forward from the end of
Return of the Jedi, past the majority of the remainder of the real war portion of the conflict to more skirmish-style engagements (it seems like the
Shattered Empire comics are taking care of the immediate post-RotJ action), to a galaxy that's adjusting to the absence of the Empire as much as the reintroduction of a republic. To be honest, by omitting a few references, the main story could easily take place during the early stages of the rebellion, and felt like a natural progression based on where things were when we left off. The Interludes do a magnificent job of highlighting the variety of goings-on around the galaxy and painting a picture of what this huge galactic change means for several different types of people on planets running the gamut from the core to the outer-most rim. The Interludes are so interesting, in fact, that I'm going to focus on them independently in another post. This entry will be about the main characters of the story, a story of getting the band together, which is essentially what this book breaks down to...think of it like
A New Hope for this set of characters, several sets of coincidences throw them into a narrative and set them on a path toward something bigger...
