Since it's #starwarstuesday I'll just say, I finished this book last night.
Since it's #starwarstuesday I'll just say, I finished this book last night.
The timeline of the book is after A New Hope and before Empire Strikes Back, starring Han Solo, Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian as well as a few other people from the Expanded Universe. Aside from a few references to Alderaan, the Death Star, Luke and Leia, there is really no connected to the previous installment.
I was kind of torn on this book. Timothy Zahn has been very good to the Star Wars universe bringing a level of sophisticated sci-fi where most authors were writing at a GED level. However, he does something with this book I wouldn't have thought Han, Chewbacca or Lando would be involved with: a heist.
Yeah, in a very Ocean's 11 kind of way, with Han playing Danny Ocean, Solo is promised wealth beyond his dreams if he can break into an unbreak-in-able safe: a safe that's made out of a material a lightsaber can't cut through, constantly moving while it's floating around the room, a room guarded inside and out by guard droids and biological security guards, in the middle of a mansion belonging to a crime lord who's organization rivals the Hutts, in the middle of a multi-acre compound with security at every door and entrance.
I've seen the movies and I've read most of the EU books, and Han's just not that smart. He's more bull in a China shop, than tactical mastermind.
The supporting cast are good and a few them were introduced in earlier books (later timelines), but none of them are really fleshed out characters in this novel, and while the plan goes awry a few times, they do manage to pull of the heist.
And then there's the twist at the end. Ugh.
All in all, this book didn't really bring anything to the Star Wars universe in regards to character development, back story or foundations for later stories. Unless you count why Lando and Han might not be friends in Empire, but this whole book barely touches that subject, just noting time and again they had a business dealing fall out before A New Hope.
http://books.google.com/books?id=k-ew0CPMDOAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
The timeline of the book is after A New Hope and before Empire Strikes Back, starring Han Solo, Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian as well as a few other people from the Expanded Universe. Aside from a few references to Alderaan, the Death Star, Luke and Leia, there is really no connected to the previous installment.
I was kind of torn on this book. Timothy Zahn has been very good to the Star Wars universe bringing a level of sophisticated sci-fi where most authors were writing at a GED level. However, he does something with this book I wouldn't have thought Han, Chewbacca or Lando would be involved with: a heist.
Yeah, in a very Ocean's 11 kind of way, with Han playing Danny Ocean, Solo is promised wealth beyond his dreams if he can break into an unbreak-in-able safe: a safe that's made out of a material a lightsaber can't cut through, constantly moving while it's floating around the room, a room guarded inside and out by guard droids and biological security guards, in the middle of a mansion belonging to a crime lord who's organization rivals the Hutts, in the middle of a multi-acre compound with security at every door and entrance.
I've seen the movies and I've read most of the EU books, and Han's just not that smart. He's more bull in a China shop, than tactical mastermind.
The supporting cast are good and a few them were introduced in earlier books (later timelines), but none of them are really fleshed out characters in this novel, and while the plan goes awry a few times, they do manage to pull of the heist.
And then there's the twist at the end. Ugh.
All in all, this book didn't really bring anything to the Star Wars universe in regards to character development, back story or foundations for later stories. Unless you count why Lando and Han might not be friends in Empire, but this whole book barely touches that subject, just noting time and again they had a business dealing fall out before A New Hope.
http://books.google.com/books?id=k-ew0CPMDOAC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
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