The cover for the final book in Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars Aftermath trilogy, Empire’s End, has been revealed.
The sequel to Chuck Wendig’s post-Return of the Jedi novel Aftermath, Life Debt, hasn’t even arrived in stores yet (its release date is July 12th, next Tuesday), but we already have the cover for the penultimate installment in the trilogy, Empire’s End (via The Star Wars Show). Check out the explosive imagery below.
photo via @germanjedi on Twitter
The plummeting Star Destroyer is a fitting symbol for the book’s title, as Empire’s End will, presumably, tell us how the Empire ceased to become a viable power player against the New Republic following the destruction of the Second Death Star.
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This cover is reminiscent of the on created for Lost Stars, a YA novel which followed events from pre-A New Hope up through the Battle of Jakku and explained how the Star Destroyer we see in the sands in The Force Awakens ended up there. It seems curious the books’ two events would intersect so closely, from its prevalence in recent canon and even the Battlefront video game, the Battle of Jakku was a deciding battle between the Empire and the New Republic, so its complete significance may have yet to be revealed to us. Empire’s End may provide that knowledge.
Without having read Life Debt, it’s impossible to know what situation Empire’s End will place our heroes into. However, there are a couple of factors we learned from Aftermath, the first book in Wendig’s trilogy, which hinted at some of the exciting developments to come. For example, at the end of the story, an anonymous Imperial character who was written a lot like Grand Admiral Thrawn from Timothy Zahn’s famous Legends trilogy, Heir to the Empire. There were also hints of other powers at play, like a Darth Vader-obsessed cult, and new missions for the heroes.
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Fortunately, Life Debt may answer some of these questions and provide us the clues we need to predict what will happen in Empire’s End. Preorder it now or pick it up on July 12th, and keep an eye out for Empire’s End‘s synopsis.