Books

Book Review: Han Solo and the Lost Legacy

I’m wrapping up the Han Solo Adventures series with part 3 – Han Solo and the Lost Legacy.

Writer: Brian Daley
Publication Date: August 12th, 1980

The Han Solo Adventures Trilogy is available on Amazon.com

Plot Notes

Han Solo and Chewbacca have skipped out on the Corporate Sector Authority and are now in the Tion Hegemony, and have just pulled off a successful job for an academic institution and are ready to chill for a while, when they run into an old buddy of Han’s, a smuggler named Badure. Han owes Badure a solid… and apparently Chewbacca owes a life debt for some reason, so Badure ropes them into their current plan.  Badure’s friend, Hasti Troujow has come across a map to the legendary treasure of the warlord Xin the Despot, presumed lost when his flagship, the Queen of Ranroon disappeared into the ether. Or, rather, Hasti’s sister found the map. Hasti’s sister, Lanni, stashed the map in a lock box before she was killed by the sinister J’uoch, who runs a slave mining camp nearby. Hasti and Badure have also brought in a historian, Skynx, to help with their search for the treasure. Our band of heroes set out on a treasure hunt, which results in the Falcon getting stolen from Han by J’uoch, Han stealing it back, our heroes nearly getting sacrificed by the descendants of the crew of the Queen of Ranroon, and a desperate battle against an army of battle droids.

Also, Han squares off again with a gunslinger from the last story, Gallandro. Han had gotten the better of him there, but had left Gallandro alive, and consequently Gallandro was holding a grudge.

In the end J’uoch is dead (killed by, Hasti), Gallandro is dead (tricked into being killed by one of the traps near the treasure chamber), and the treasure turns out to have been valuable when the ship set out, but is not as valuable now. However, the historical value of the find is so great that Bollux and Blue Max decide to stay with Hasti, Badure, and Skynx, to research the find and bring it back, as “It Belongs In A Museum”

Worldbuilding

  • This is the first lost starship or lost fleet we’ve encountered in the Expanded Universe. It will not be the last.
  • We now have a third power group in addition to the Empire and the Corporate Sector Authority. Also, it’s implied that the Empire isn’t doing so hot at the moment – perhaps implying that the construction of the Death Star was something of gamble for the Emperor (this will be retconned)
  • The introduction of the concept of the Corellian Bloodstripe.
  • There were pirates and other sinister evil warlords during the days of the Old Republic. Presumably if Xan hadn’t managed to disappear into the space lanes with the Queen of Ranroon, the Jedi would have come after him.

Character Development

Back in the military Han performed an act of considerable heroism to earn that Bloodstripe. Also Han has always been something of a brash, reckless hotshot pilot.

Other Notes

It’s implied that Han’s job that got Jabba after him wasn’t due to a situation where the cargo Han dumped was Jabba’s (in the sense that the cocaine carried by smugglers belonged to Pablo Escobar), and more that Jabba was an investor in a run that went bad (much like the situation with Kanjiklub and the Guavian Death Gang in The Force Awakens).

My Thoughts

I had to check to see if this book came out after Raiders of the Lost Ark (it came out before). The first story was a sort of Jailbreak/Heist story. The second was the closest you get with Star Wars to Hardboiled Adventure. This story is straight up Pulp Thrilling Relic Hunting Adventures In The Wild. I almost wonder, if this story had gotten published after Raiders, would it be too on the nose?

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