Book Review: Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy- by A.C. Crispin

Star Wars: The Han Solo Omnibus by A.C. Crispin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read these three books back-to-back and because the lines between them are a little blurred I'm going to review them all together here.  I will try to comment on each one separately, but there might be spoilers between the books.

This Han Solo trilogy, which differs from The Adventures of Han Solo trilogy by Brian Daley, introduces a young Han Solo and fills in many of the gaps left by other works.  The gap filling is nice, but also causes the books to jump around a lot and be a little sporadic because they assume you know the backstory from other places.  For example, we don't get to see a lot of Han's time in the Imperial Academy or his meeting of and bonding with Chewbacca.  Also, there are fairly large gaps of time in-between the books that make these books more like three stand-alone novels, than a coherent trilogy.  These books also mark the first time, in-Universe chronology, where we leave the comfort of modern MP3 and CD audiobooks that are unabridged to slightly abridged and enter the uncomfortable territory of really abridged cassette tape audiobooks.  The reader and audio quality went way down.  I was also surprised how much the sound effects that I loved as a teenager got in the way of following the book as an adult [although this could be because of low analog to digital conversion quality or because I listen to most audiobooks at x2 speed].  That being said, I'm going to attempt to briefly review each book individually now that I've introduced the series.

Paradise Snare:

Growing up, my library had this book, but not the two sequels, and so I listened to this one dozens (if not hundreds) of times before I ever found the other two, which I have listened to twice each.  The book explains Han's rough childhood and his escape from being a con-artist.  It also explains his affinity for, and understanding of  Shyriiwook.  From there we meet a new, temporary, furry sidekick as Han develops his piloting skills running spice instead.  There is also the first of several love interests that we see develop in the book, which serves as the driving plot for this novel and the only thread loosely holding together the whole trilogy.  Like many novels, Han's past catches up to him, but in the end [no surprise] he prevails and goes into the Imperial Academy.

The Hutt Gambit:

By the time this book starts Han has already left the Imperial Academy, and although this is discussed elsewhere, it seems like a hole in this series.  We see Chewie serving a reluctant Han, which seems to go against the personality of Han Solo that was established in the first book.  Although, yes Han is a loner, he also has deep friendships with people he has just met.  These friendships come fast, but are hard and true.  As seen with, Bria, Muuurgh, and to a lesser extent Dewlanna.  In fact, Dewlanna should be a motivator for Han to bond to Chewie.  Of course, they do come together, and pretty quickly.  The book also explores Han's joining the smuggling trade again, despite trying to flee from it several times and get his life straight, and his introduction to Lando and other familiar smuggler friends.  Through this we get to see the infamous run that led to him getting boarded and what resulted in the debt he owed to Jabba the Hutt.  The book closes on an (view spoiler)[odd little bit of rebellion and unification amongst the smuggler's as they resist the Empire at the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. (hide spoiler)]

Rebel Dawn:

The book opens with another famous scene where we get to see Han win the Millennium Falcon from Lando.  From there (view spoiler)[we see Han hook up with Bria again and begin to flirt with the Rebellion. For me this was unbelievable because it seems from the movies [although it is not explicitly forbidden] that Han is unfamiliar with and [is certainly] unsympathetic to the plight of the Rebellion (hide spoiler)].  As the story continues, we see the falling out that Lando and Han had in an event that not only wasn't Han's fault, but is hard to see how Lando could possibly interpret it another way.  As the story closes the scene is perfectly set for the actions at the Mos Eisley Cantina, even better than some of the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina told it.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Kenobi- by John Jackson Miller

Kenobi: Star Wars by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was very disappointing

Ewan McGreggor made me fall in love with Obi-Wan. I never felt that I had a connection with Alec Guinness because he wasn't around that long, and later I came to learn that he was not a huge fan of the movies that he was so instrumental in. However, when the prequel trilogy came out the first thing that really grabbed me was how much Ewan McGreggor sounded like Alec Guinness. I enjoyed his performance there, but it wasn't until the beard and the brotherly camaraderie in Episode II and III that I fell in love with McGreggor and Obi-Wan Kenobi. In fact, it was McGreggor and Portman who were among the few shining lights of the prequel trilogy. One of the most moving scenes in Episode III were when Padmé and Anakin were staring across the large distance at one another and she was crying, however much of the ethos there came from the music. The most moving scene however was Obi-Wan's speech to Anakin on Mustafar at the end of the lightsaber battle, "You were the Chosen One....You were my brother." I teared up there. And in so many other ways I loved Obi-Wan, and so I had high hopes for this book.

Those hopes were shattered. I understand Obi-Wan wanting to play down his Jedi persona in public, but even in private he seemed weak and incapable. The action of the novel revolves around local land disputes and a backwater crime/mafia group trying to establish a foothold. Obi-Wan, the compassionate and self-sacrificial Jedi, tries hard to avoid getting invovled. When he does get involved it is mostly without his lightsaber or Jedi powers, and he spends much of his time doubting himself and his actions. Certain, losing a brother-like apprentice as tragically as he did is going to cause some self-doubt and caution, but I felt that there was too much self-pity and loathing. Furthermore, (view spoiler)[I expected to see some of Qui-Gon's ghost (hide spoiler)] after his appearance in the prior book chronologically and Yoda's tease of him at the end of Episode III. But even here, without Qui-Gon's ghost, Obi-Wan still seems uncertain of himself without his former Master's help.

In the end, Obi-Wan does come up with a good plan and seems to find his footing, but I felt that it was a shame that this is the only major treatment of Obi-Wan, and in the end the last treatment of him in the Legacy's Universe and he was weak throughout.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader- James Luceno

The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For a book that features Darth Vader and you expect it and him to be all badass- this one is a little disappointing. The book is good and delves into Vader's psyche a little bit as he struggles to come to terms with the death of Padmé, the limitations of living in a suit, and his struggle to continue to wield the Force. Also, like many books that focus on the villain, we are given a ragtag group of Jedi that survived Order 66 to cheer for. However, this sets up an inevitable dilemma- we don't like to see evil win [although personally, I think that is more realistic and am OK with it on occasion] and most books don't let the main characters, especially the good guys, die. (view spoiler)[This leads the book into the obvious conclusion of yet another Jedi surviving the extermination order and Vader's attempts to hunt and track down this individual. Like the Darth Maul books, we see the Sith antagonist weakened to the point where it is almost unbelievable, especially when we know that the Jedi were all but wiped out and Vader is given credit. I suppose that not all of the main Jedi survived and so that makes it better, but I found it hard to connect to newly introduced Jedi. (hide spoiler)] The coolest part of the book however, is that James Luceno was given the opportunity to be the one to reveal (view spoiler)[to Obi-Wan that Anakin survived and also to give us the only real appearance of Qui-Gon's ghost in the Legacy Universe (hide spoiler)]. Although, Luceno is normally masterful at weaving in other storylines, this book was a little lacking. It is a good, but incomplete, glimpse into Darth Vader and the time between movies III and IV.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader- James Luceno

The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For a book that features Darth Vader and you expect it and him to be all badass- this one is a little disappointing. The book is good and delves into Vader's psyche a little bit as he struggles to come to terms with the death of Padmé, the limitations of living in a suit, and his struggle to continue to wield the Force. Also, like many books that focus on the villain, we are given a ragtag group of Jedi that survived Order 66 to cheer for. However, this sets up an inevitable dilemma- we don't like to see evil win [although personally, I think that is more realistic and am OK with it on occasion] and most books don't let the main characters, especially the good guys, die. (view spoiler)[This leads the book into the obvious conclusion of yet another Jedi surviving the extermination order and Vader's attempts to hunt and track down this individual. Like the Darth Maul books, we see the Sith antagonist weakened to the point where it is almost unbelievable, especially when we know that the Jedi were all but wiped out and Vader is given credit. I suppose that not all of the main Jedi survived and so that makes it better, but I found it hard to connect to newly introduced Jedi. (hide spoiler)] The coolest part of the book however, is that James Luceno was given the opportunity to be the one to reveal (view spoiler)[to Obi-Wan that Anakin survived and also to give us the only real appearance of Qui-Gon's ghost in the Legacy Universe (hide spoiler)]. Although, Luceno is normally masterful at weaving in other storylines, this book was a little lacking. It is a good, but incomplete, glimpse into Darth Vader and the time between movies III and IV.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith- by Matthew Woodring Stover

Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is the longest of the prequel trilogy and although it is written the best it is also the book the deviates most from the movie. I don't think that this inconsistency is the fault of the author, Matthew Woodring Stover, but rather the fault of George Lucas's changing vision for the prequels. According to other accounts, Lucas rewrote the script numerous times, even as production began. It is painfully obvious that Stover was working from an early version of the script. As such it deviates from the movie several times in big ways. None-the-less, the writing is masterful. There are times where there is maybe too much narration, but overall those narrative segments give us a deep look into the personality, character, and relationships of the main Jedi. We see the hope of the Republic resting upon the partnership, brotherhood, and success of Anakin and Obi-Wan. Or Mace Windu's love of the Republic [in fact, this was a very narrow bit of writing, but it was so powerful and impactful that I was surprised how short it was in this book and that it was lacking in Stover's other Clone Wars novel, Shatterpoint]. Overall, I don't hate the prequel trilogy as much as many others, but there was a lot about it that was lacking and that could have improved. In general, they got better each step of the way, as did the accompanying novels.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil- James Luceno

Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is hands-down my favorite Clone Wars era novel. It is written by a master author, James Luceno, who is always phenomenal about integrating multiple storylines. Some people have complained that weaving together storylines makes the universe less expansive, but somehow Luceno always pulls it off. In addition to writing a good story, Luceno also hits some many other things just spot-on. From the first chapter, we see how fondness has developed between Clone Trooper leaders and the Jedi, we see the deepening of Obi-Wan and Anakin's friendship and comradery (really the brotherhood that Obi-Wan refers to on Mustafar during his final speech to Anakin), and we see new inside jokes and references to events that we haven't witnessed. The relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan seems so authentic, despite the fact that most, if not all, of the Clone Wars era novels failed to show this relationship deepen and grow- either because they were apart or because the novel focused on the negative and the antagonism between Master and student. In addition to all of this the book also features a side character with a unique name, that might be my favorite and is certainly every entertaining to hear read by an audiobook author, "t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak".
The plot of the novel focuses on (view spoiler)[a discovery of the Sith hologram chair made for a Neimoidian and the fact that this might lead the Jedi to the Sith the Count Dooku referenced in Episode II. As the noose begins to tighten around Darth Sidious, he initiates the Battle of Coruscant and orchestras the events that lead us to the beginning of the Episode III (hide spoiler)]. The only complaint I have about this novel is that it slightly contradicts the other story of the Battle of Coruscant told in The Clone Wars: The Animated Series Season 3. But I remember the first time I read this novel, literally the day that I went to watch the opening showing of Episode III at 12:01 am. I kept thinking that the novel would have to wrap up quickly because they needed to leave room for the movie to set-up itself. I didn't know that the cliff-hanger of the book was setting up the dramatic opening of the final movie in the prequel trilogy.

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A Surreal Jaunt to Chipotle

My wife had surgery today.  This surgery has been a long time coming.  Back at the end of last school year, in fact it was the day after school finished for students on the teacher work day, she was told she would have surgery over the summer.  The surgeon drug his feet scheduling an appointment, then asked that she have one more test done.  Then it was a three week wait to go over the results of the test, before they'd begin to consider scheduling surgery.  Once it was scheduled she had pre-admission testing, which turned out bad and cause the surgery to be postponed and sent us to have a visit to the Emergency Room instead.

Instead of happening one week before school started, or the middle of the summer as we had originally hoped, the surgery was pushed off until Halloween day.  The weekend was already busy enough.  My sister-in-law needed to move back in with us and that happened on Friday.  I am planning on missing the whole week of school after surgery and so I had to crank out a week's worth of quality sub lesson plans on Saturday, and some on Sunday.  Then I had to get my girls packed to spend a week with my parents and get Rachel packed for surgery.  Then finally I could settle in to do my grading, since this weekend also brought the end of the first quarter at school, and I have had many nervous students and anxious parents contacting me about being behind on grading.  I managed to finish grading Sunday night, and although I had hoped to be done putting grades into the computer by then as well, I came to the realization that I would have to spend the day of surgery typing in grades and posting updates on social media to friends and family.

Well this morning rolled around and although I got her all packed up and most of what I needed packed up, like an idiot this morning I left without the laptop charger.  I managed to get about two-thirds of my grades in and Rachel's surgery went well enough.  The doctor was only able to remove one of two bad disks in her neck and she spent the first three outs out of surgery in incredible amounts of pain.  About the time her pain began to be managed, I called the girls to tell them goodnight and Rachel fell asleep while I was out of the room.  Settling back in to continue inputting grades, the computer finally died. I arranged with my sister-in-law to meet at her work in North Dayton to get the charger from her. After that I swung one exit up to get Chipotle for dinner.

Chipotle was pretty packed because they had $3 burritos for customers who came in dressed up for Halloween. I started trying to find somewhere else nearby where I could go and get in and out faster. Then I noticed that the line wasn't as slow as it seemed, but instead the guy in the Donald Trump mask was holding things up by not advancing through the turnbuckles/s-turns. When he advanced the line moved fast and he was about one and a half lanes ahead of me. When he ordered I noticed two things: 1) he didn't take off the mask to talk, and 2) they were low on steak. As I contemplated trying a new meat and the line slowly worked its way forward I got to where I was at the last turn and ready for the straight-away to go order. Suddenly I was clapped on the shoulder by the fake Mr. Trump and as I paused my audiobook [Anathem by Neal Stephenson] he started to talk politics to me. I quickly realized another thing, this fake Trump was a lot older than he seemed at first and also is a Trump supporter.

He started off the conversation by saying, "You know Donald Trump is kind of a despicable guy and has a lot of personal problems, but when you get down to his policies they're great." My day had been too long to say anything in response, so I kind of just looked to my side and could see Mr. Trump's "backpfeifengesicht" face in his mask out of the corner of my eye [he was standing behind me after all- somewhat like the real Mr. Trump in the 2nd debate did to Secretary Clinton at one point]. For what seemed like forever, but was probably just 5 minutes, I watched the gap between the next person in line and myself grow as the line dwindled. I learned about Trump's policies on trade, security, Obamacare, college tuition, Russia, debt, Medicare, and a plethora of other issues. My favorite however, is that despite how old my beard makes me look and this day has made me feel, the fake Mr. Trump called me a millennial several times.

While fake Trump was talking the awesome employees at Chipotle #733 called out to see if anyone else in line wanted steak [there were only three of us left in line]. I gestured and hollered out that if it was possible I would like some and they put fresh steak on the grill for me. Fake Mr. Trump started to wrap up the conversation here, and when he asked me about myself he realized I was not as young as he thought, but encouraged me to do a good job shaping the students and wielding the influence I have over them. We shook hands and I got up to the window line just as the lady in front of me was ordering her second, and last, item.

The man on the tortilla press knew I was waiting for the steak so he and several other employees started making themselves food. The manager asked me which rice I wanted. Since I wanted white and it was low he picked the other rice. The employees were singing and having fun and beginning to get a little rowdy and one of them said something that could be offensive to the wrong person. When a co-worker said, "Hey idiot, knock it off there's still a customer here." I waved and we all laughed. As my steak came off the grill the manager thanked everyone for, "...staying late and working hard no questions asked. Well except for one person who asked one question. Five times. 'When can I leave?' And then left." Needless to say, Wes is in the doghouse next time he shows up to work with his co-workers who stayed tonight. They were dogging on him and honestly, I don't feel bad for Wes, even though he wasn't there to defend himself.

By now, my steak was ready, and someone new was on the tortilla press. As his co-workers began to put away the other meats and pack up the line, he asked me what I wanted. I made the same order I have made for years: steak burrito, white rice, black beans, no salsa, lots of cheese. It has been my experience that at times you can be begging for more cheese and they might add a dozen more thin strands. Well, it was closing time and this man knew how to make a burrito and how to treat a patient customer. After doing the rice and beans he added a scoop of steak, then a second, then said, "It's the end of the day," and scooped on a third scoop. There were maybe four cubes of steak left. Then he double fisted the cheese and puts on the biggest pile of cheese I have ever had on a burrito. But he wasn't done yet, he reached back into the container of cheese and grabbed another generous handful and piled that on as well. The man could barely fold the burrito closed and wrap it up for me. Then the wonderful lady at the checkout looked at me and thought to herself, he's wearing a hoodie and hasn't trimmed that beard in forever, so he must be dressed up as something and charged me $3 as if I was wearing a costume.

Yes I know that they probably charged everyone from fake Donald Trump to woman wearing a headband with cat ears, to normal guy like me $3 tonight instead of arguing with customers about whether they were dressed up or not. Either way after getting such a generous burrito, and having to wait past closing time to get steak cooked especially for me, I was expecting to pay normal price.

Anyway, it has been a long day, and it looks like it will be a late night. If you have read this far, thank you for letting me blow off some steam by sharing what was a very surreal, but in the end wonderful, experience. And fake Mr. Trump, if you're out there, way to go on voting absentee today, I hope to finalize my absentee ballot later this week. I'll weigh everything carefully and try to use my influence over students to encourage discourse and critical thinking, rather than trying to force my opinion into their head. Still I'm glad you're passionate and it was nice to talk to someone different about politics.