3/5 Rancors - Like the Lando Calrissian Adventures, Brian Daley's Han Solo Adventures are among the few books written while the original film trilogy was still being produced. In fact, Daley wrote these before The Empire Strikes Back was released, so he had to be very careful not to step on Lucas' toes creatively. Therefore you will find little that is familiar from the films in these three novels. They are set before A New Hope and are essentially three stand-alone episodes of Han Solo's life. A.C. Crispin's excellent Han Solo Trilogy encompasses a much broader span of time; she works these adventures into her third volume, Rebel Dawn.
Han Solo at Stars' End is set in the Corporate Sector Authority region of space, an area that appears to be largely free of the influence of the Empire. Han is living the typical smuggler's life, moving from job to job and situation to situation as he and Chewbacca try to make a living. An early predicament in this book throws them a curve: they desperately need some upgrades to the Millennium Falcon and they need them fast to stay a step ahead of the Espos, the regional security goons. There is only one man to turn to: Doc, the preeminent outlaw-tech who runs an illicit starship chop-shop.
Unfortunately, Doc has been captured by the Authority and has disappeared. Han and Chewbacca agree to attempt to track Doc down and attempt a rescue in exchange for ship upgrades. To aid them in getting data on Doc's location, they are assigned Bollux and Blue Max, a pair of droids who, much like Vuffi Raa in the Lando Calrissian Adventures, will start out as annoyances but grow to become trusted partners. Blue Max discerns that Doc has been taken to Stars' End, a wretched, isolated facility on the very edge of the Corporate Sector. The rest of the book deals with the rescue mission.
Daley is a descriptive and engaging writer. Han Solo at Stars' End, though set apart from most other Star Wars EU novels, does occasionally introduce an element that has been carried through to many other stories, such as Z-95 Headhunters and vibro-blades. Bollux and Blue Max prove to be entertaining additions to the story and I'm glad Daley chose to bring them along in his other two books. The feline Trianii mother and son Atuarre and Pakka and the wicked VicePrex Hirken are the other memorable characters introduced. There are a fair number of supporting characters who flit in and out of the story quite briefly, which seems realistic for a smuggler's tale.
The climatic events of the story are almost too over-the-top for my tastes. I found the ultimate fate of Stars' End rather hard to believe, although I will grant it certainly paints a vivid picture when you're reading it. Han is a rather two-dimensional character in this tale. Everything you learned of him from seeing him in the cantina in A New Hope is what you're given in this story. I was surprised by how cold-blooded he is in dealing with a traitor mid-book, but that probably fits well with the pre-Rebellion old-style Han Solo.
Although it doesn't add much to the overall characters of Han Solo and Chewbacca, Han Solo at Stars' End is an entertaining stand-alone chapter in the saga.
1 comments:
Overall, I enjoyed Daley's books quite a lot.
I think the Corporate Sector Authority is an interesting concept that fits extremely well with the "corporate powers" described in the prequel movies - such as the Trade Federation, Commerce Guild, InterGalactic Banking Clan and (my favorite) the Techno Union. Within a couple pages of the first chapter, it is fairly clear that the Corporate Sector Authority is not as benevolent as it would like to appear. There are parts of the novels that are a bit reminiscent of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" - itself a meditation on the Congo Free State (which I think serves as the model for Daley's Corporate Sector Authority). If you find the Corporate Sector Authority concept interesting - I recommend you get a copy of West End Game's Corporate Sector Authority sourcebook.
In terms of this book, I felt that it had a good mix of action and adventure. I agree that the characterizations are a bit one-dimensional and vapid - particularly for Han and Chewie. Doc and Jessa are fun to read - but they are not really all that prominent in the book. Rekkon is far too saintly for my tastes - I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop - and it never did. I too was a little surprised by Han's treatment of a Corporate Sector Authority spy at the mid-point of the novel - but I thought that Han's method for fleshing out the traitor was pretty clever.
Considering how casually Han would grease Greedo and various Imperials in the movies though - perhaps the punishment that he metes out in the novel was not all that out of character. The villains in the book are probably the most fascinating additions. Viceprex Hirken and his corpulent wife Neera are the picture of frivolous evil and self-entitled arrogance. I thought that Daley's addition of a "gunslinger" - in the form of the reptilian Uul-Rha-Shan as Hirken's bodyguard, was a great addition and I was pleased to see this idea carried on in the sequels to this novel. The ending of the book is bit far-fetched and considering the nature of the disaster that befalls Stars End, I was surprised at how much time it apparently took for the final "conclusion" to arrive.
These books are just plain fun. They are not too serious and considering the fact that they are prequels - we can all appreciate that the potential for serious harm befalling Han and Chewie is nil. With that in mind, I think that Daley did a decent job penning a fun adventure. You don't even need to watch Episode IV to appreciate this book.
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