3/5 Rancors - Completing L. Neil Smith's Lando Calrissian Adventures, Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of ThonBoka weaves together some of the events and many of the characters of the first two volumes to bring some closure to the story. This volume is the most far-out of the three, involving gigantic vacuum-breathing transparent creatures, kilometers-long droid starships, and a few surprising revelations about our main characters, including Lando's faithful sidekick Vuffi Raa and the malicious Sorcerer of Tund, Rokur Gepta.
This third volume is written in the exact style of the first two: large doses of humor, gambling vignettes, Earth-based terminology, and flamboyant dialogue. Lando and Vuffi get in one scrape after another but with all the humor it is hard to feel very concerned. However, Smith does continue to write in a broadly entertaining style and I will admit that this encouraged me to read and digest these three books very quickly. Also like the first two books, this story feels tangentially connected to the Star Wars universe we know at best, although some sources have retconned various aspects of the story into the more familiar modern framework (such as specifying Gepta's role under the Emperor or locating and explaining the Centrality sector of the galaxy).
The inhabitants of the titular StarCave are the massive vacuum-breathing Oswaft. An adventurous young Oswaft named Lehesu is befriended by Lando and Vuffi, leading to their involvement when the Empire decides the Oswaft are a potential threat to galactic security. Rokur Gepta has been designated by the Emperor to control fleet operations in this sector, setting up the final conflict between the EVIL Sorcerer and our hero Lando. The plotline from the second volume concerning old fighter pilots from the Renatasian system hunting down Vuffi for vengeance is also resurrected and concluded. Even Ottdefa Osuno Whett resurfaces from Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu and is pivotal to the book's climax.
My favorite addition to the Expanded Universe to come from this series is Vuffi Raa, the one-meter tall starfish-shaped wunderkind of a droid. His sparring with Lando is amusing, if a bit relentless, and his storyline turns out to be one of the most intriguing parts of the trilogy, especially when his past and purpose are revealed in this book. We'll probably never see another book feature Vuffi in any substantial way, but it would be fun to see him return and play a role somewhere in the post-Return of the Jedi era.
Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of ThonBoka and the Lando Calrissian Adventures as a whole are a somewhat peculiar and left-field addition to the galaxy far, far away, but it's nice to see a different perspective occasionally and read stories that try for a more light-hearted tone.
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