Let's Read: The Han Solo Adventures (1979)

[Peelee]

I haven't read other Star Wars books so I don't know how it compares, but one detail I like about Daley's stories is that he keeps track of ammo. Whether it's charge on a blaster or fuel for a flamethrower, it's a limited resource and that fact influences the story and the characters' choices.

Another result of Daley being a veteran himself, I'm sure.

Late to the party on this, but generally blaster power packs carry a huge amount of shots, and generally tracking ammo isnt worthwhile. Its purely done for the sake of never needing to reload unless the plot demands it but still.

[Velaryon]

The climax and ending to Lost Legacy is the part that I really remembered, and I still think it was really well done. I liked the way that the Han/Gallandro rivalry ended, because I think it really keeps Han's character a little more grounded. Plus I just always found Gallandro cool. He's influenced at least two of my TTRPG characters over the years, both in Star Wars and D&D.

Fun fact: Gallandro has a daughter that shows up in the Young Jedi Knights series.

[The Glyphstone]

Wait, did we end the book without the obligatory romantic fling? It seemed like Hasti was being set up as The Girl to go along with Han's other conflicts.

[pendell]

Wait, did we end the book without the obligatory romantic fling? It seemed like Hasti was being set up as The Girl to go along with Han's other conflicts.

'Fraid so. But she's already made her point of view clear; she's not interested in someone who's here one day and gone the next. She wants a keeper, which Han at this stage isn't. We've had two romantic interests in two other books and they both cleared the stage pretty quickly.

In the Thrawn Trilogy it takes Han several years to mature into a responsible man willing to stay with one partner for life. And in the sequel trilogy, of course, he never did. One more reason I don't especially like the ST.

I've just ordered the lando books and we can start a new thread with them -- probably next week sometime. The due date for the book to arrive is 6 May. New thread around that time.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, she did say that but I was still expecting a last-minute reversal because of genre conventions. So its surprising that she stuck to her guns instead of succumbing to his rugged charm against her better judgement, etc.

[PontificatusRex]

Yeah, she did say that but I was still expecting a last-minute reversal because of genre conventions. So its surprising that she stuck to her guns instead of succumbing to his rugged charm against her better judgement, etc.

I think Daley wanted to have that possible-romantic tension in the story, but the novel wraps up so close to the beginning of New Hope that I imagine he didn't want to put it so much on Han's recent past.

[runeghost]

I did remember the climax of this one, even all these years later. It's actually a really good one, and I think a good Star Wars story as well.

Star Wars, as pendell mentioned above, owes more than a little to western and adventure films and serials. And we get that here in abundance - a wild-west style showdown, and a lost treasure (that the heroes don't end up with). But the showdown is magnificently subverted in a fitting way, and the reason our heroes don't get "more wealth than they can imagine" is equally fitting (and would work great in an SF-RPG, where the PCs get enough they come out a little on the positive side of the ledger, but not anywhere near the massive haul they were hoping for). It really is well-done on so many levels.

And Daley's writing is so elegant and economical, I wish we had more stuff like this today - too many doorstoppers, and not enough elegant little tales like these.


Thank you for doing these re-reads, pendell!

[pendell]

You're welcome! New thread for Lando Calrissien adventures is available. See you there!

Respectfully,

Brian P.