The lack of comedic relief makes it harder for the reader to invest in the bonds between the core characters. While the grimness is sometimes contextually appropriate, Life Debt's consistent, utter bleakness is tonally at odds with the vast bulk of Star Wars' cinematic source material. The Force Awakens wore its adventuresome humor on its sleeve, but Life Debt feels more akin to the previews we’ve seen for Rogue One or more tragic Star Wars stories like Dark Disciple. But while fairly generous in providing the reader with action, drama, and intrigue, Life Debt is a strikingly humorless novel. The sense of scale is appropriately grand for a Star Wars tale, with the plot carrying heroes and villains across myriad star systems and into strange, exotic dangers. Action sequences erupt throughout the story, with shootouts, chases, and space battles aplenty, though author Chuck Wendig sometimes skims over the back-and forth details in favor of jumping ahead to a battle's dramatically-consequential aftermath. Violence is vicious and bloody, limbs are chopped or ripped off, eyes popped out, and war's horrors depicted with an unflinching fidelity. “The best Star Wars films exude a degree of visual grit, and Life Debt heartily embraces this legacy.
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