4/5 Rancors - It's time in the Rancors Love to Read program to leave the prequels behind and delve into the stories centered around the original trilogy of films. The journey starts with Volume One of the Han Solo Trilogy, titled The Paradise Snare and written by A. C. Crispin. It's interesting to read a book set during the time immediately before A New Hope, as largely this period has been left clean and will be tackled in several upcoming projects, including a live-action TV series from Lucasfilm and the Dark Horse comic series Dark Times.
Since 1977, Han Solo has been a favorite character of millions of fans worldwide. He's easy to understand and relate to when we first encounter him in the Mos Eisley cantina, and his development through the films is one of the most interesting plot threads in the saga. Crispin definitely took a gamble in accepting the assignment to try and flesh out this character with a detailed three-book backstory. I'm pleased to see how well that gamble paid off.
Crispin perfectly captures Han's attitude and dialogue; her younger version walks like Han and talks like Han as we know him from the films. We join up with Han in his late teens as he seeks to escape his life upon the opportunistic vessel The Trader's Luck. Crispin does a great job of working Han's backstory into the tale via flashbacks and various hints dropped in contemporary conversations. As the book progresses, we learn many things about what forged Han into the hardened rogue we know and love, such as where his loner attitude stems from, why he lives a life on the wrong side of the law but refuses to condone slavery, how he accumulated his comprehensive piloting skills, and who influenced his fondness for Wookiees.
Crispin writes in a very descriptive style and shows a knack for interjecting subtle humor into dialogue. The book is slower paced than many Star Wars novels, taking its time to establish characters both familiar and new (mostly new), and kicking off storylines to take us through the next two books. Crispin's primary new location, the drug-producing planet Ylesia, is evocatively written and she spends the time to flesh it out and make it feel like a real place rather than a thin backdrop for action sequences.
There are several interesting new characters introduced in the book. The two most important are Muuurgh, a huge feline humanoid assigned to keep an eye on Han while he works for the spice lords on Ylesia, and Bria Tharen, a beautiful young spiritual seeker who plays a large role in forging Han's every-man-for-himself ethos. I loved Muuurgh's grammar instruction from Han and his role as a sort of proto-Chewbacca. Bria is a key part of Han's story and their relationship veers in some unexpected directions as the book progresses.
It was fun to revisit Coruscant after spending such significant amounts of time there reading all the prequel novels. Alderaan's inclusion was another nice touch and it inadvertently pairs up well with the time we spent there in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, the novel that chronologically comes right before this one. The introduction of Thracken Sal-Solo is a creepy foreshadowing of the man who will cause the Solo family so many annoyances and frustrations in the years to come.
The Paradise Snare is a promising start to the Han Solo Trilogy. While the story does not present the epic scope of some of the prequel stories I've read recently, it is a very well thought out and smart story that brings an already vivid character to even brighter life.
4 comments:
Hi Andrew and David,
This is a great site! I am enjoying your reviews. I used to read SW EU materials in my teenage years. I am now 30 and I have decided to read the books from the Bantam Spectra era again. I started by reading the Han Solo Trilogy (a decent place to start) in September 2011. I am now reading Zahn's "Allegiance."
Great stuff.
Mike from Canada
I completely agree that it was a daunting task for A.C. Crispin to take on Han Solo's backstory. While Brian Daley was the first to take on Han Solo prior to A New Hope, his books largely left Solo's motivations and history unknown. Overall, I found the first book in the series to be a somewhat rocky - but decent start. I particularly enjoyed learning about Han's origins as a thief and con artist working for Captain Shrike. The early portions of the book clearly echo of Dickens' "Oliver Twist" - right down to the author's wink to the reader via Shrike's unsubtly-named droid "F8GN" - who teaches Han and other unfortunates on the art of pickpocketing. I found the death of Han's surrogate mother, the Wookie Dewlanna, to be very sad. The scenes between Han and Dewlanna are touching and they evoke a form of filial love that need not be said to be acknowledged. Han's relationship with Dewlanna clearly explains and demonstrates why Han could have such an affinity for Chewbacca and also why he understands Wookie dialects. The subplots involving the backstabbing, double-crossing and treachery between and amongst the members of the Desilijic and Besadii Hutt Clans and their t'landa Til minions is quite good and a window into why Jabba and Durga are so equally cruel. I also found that the sections of the novel introducing Thracken Sal Solo and Han's aunt to be disqueting and of an almost nightmarish quality. On the other hand, I was disappointed that it was so patently obvious that the Ylesian Colony was a sham and cover-up for a Hutt cartel drug refinement lab. It would have been interesting if Crispin had tried to trick the reader into possibly believing that the cult truly was run by religious zealots - perhaps with Jonestown inclinations. The discovery that the operation is really just a criminal front would then have been more of a surprise. I also found Bria Tharen to be staggeringly naive at various portions of the book. I appreciate that she is a drug-addict, undergoing withdrawal symptoms and that she is quite young - but her reactions to events seemed somewhat ridiculous at various points in the novel. She seemed almost drawn to making counterproductive decisions that would lead to further despair on her part. I was also annoyed by Han's reluctance to shoot Shrike "in cold blood" - in the book's climax. In cold blood? Give me a break. This man was personally responsible for abducting Han from his extended family, severely beating Han on several occasions, introducing Han to a life of crime and slave-like servitude and murdering Han's surrogate mother Dewlanna. Shrike also tried to hand over Han to the Besadii Clan in exchange for a small bounty. I had a hard time believing that Han would really hesitate over shooting this man - especially when one considers how cavalier he would become about blasting-away other impediments in later novels and the movies (look at what he did to Greedo - another bounty hunter who tried to turn him in to a Hutt in exchange for a bounty). Overall, I think this book is definitely worth a look.
Mike - Thank you very much. Glad you like the site. Enjoy "Allegiance."
Hi Mike,
I'm thoroughly enjoying your comments on the Han Solo books. Thanks for taking the time to post and for checking out our humble blog. I admit, I am foggy on the details of the Solo books at this point, as I read them several years ago, but reading your comments brings back some fun memories!
Andrew
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