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Review Summary: One of the First and Very Best Star Wars Novels |
Date: 2008-11-17 |
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Details: The other reviews here tell the story well, so I'll just focus on why this book is so worth your time.
First, Daley's Star Wars credentials are superb - he wrote all three of the radio scripts that are now considered canon. (And well worth checking out - 12-hr versions of Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi as broadcast on NPR: Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama.) Daley was also a Vietnam veteran from the 11th Armored Cavalry, so his novels carry plenty of authentic combat details and dialogue.
This gives his writing a wonderful texture that puts you right there, seeing through Solo's eyes. Here, in the first chapter, Han steps out of the Falcon to make a delivery to a band of rebel aliens.
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Han wore his side arm, a custom-model blaster with rear-fitted macroscope, its front sight blade filed off to facilitate the speed draw. His holster was worn low, tied down at the thigh, cut so that it exposed the weapon's trigger and trigger guard.
...He also made certain that the interrupter-templates had automatically slid into place along the servo-guides for the belly turret, so that the quad-mounted guns wouldn't accidentally blow away the landing gear or ramp if he had to fire them while the ship was grounded.
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As a kid I ate that up. Now I simply admire the care Daley put into his writing and research.
Lucas must've been impressed by this book as well, for he not only had Daley write all three Star Wars radio series, but he took at least two scenes from this book and used them in "The Empire Strikes Back." First there's the one where Han sets the Falcon down on an asteroid, and then this one, from the opening chapter, where Han tips the Falcon on its side to fly through a narrow mountain pass:
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Han tightened his grip on the controls, feeling the press of his flying gloves against them. "Pass, nothing - that thing's a slot! Hold your breath, Chewie, we'll have to skin through."
He killed all shields, since they'd have struck rock and overloaded, and wrenched his controls, standing the Millennium Falcon on her portside. Sheer crags closed in on either side, so that the roar of the freighter's engines rebounded from the cliffs... There was a slight jar, and the shriek of metal torn away as easily as paper. The long-range sensors winked out; the dish had been ripped off the upper hull by a protrusion of rock. Then the needle's eye was threaded sideways, and the Falcon was through the mountains.
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Han is fleshed-out well here, and it adds much to his character. There's not only his cocky attitude (mostly for show), shrewd business dealings, and sharp military experience, but also a hint of his compassion for the underdog, as when he gives advice to the rebel aliens about using the weapons he just dropped off.
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"Now, the Security Police here use those riot guns, right? Sawed-off, two-handers? They're real fond of using constant fire, because they can afford to waste power, just hosing it around. You can't. What you do is, lock all your carbines on single shot. And if you get into a firefight at night or in the deep jungle where visibility's poor, shoot at the constant-fire sources."
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Finally, knowing the Authority ship is waiting for him to reappear, Han makes a quick getaway:
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He fired her up, stood her on her tail, and opened main thrusters wide. The starship screeched away into the sky, leaving the river steaming and the jungle smoldering. Duroon fell away quickly, and Han began to think they had the problem licked.
Then the tractor beam hit.
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To escape, Han aims directly at the Authority ship (again, just as Lucas did in "Empire") and narrowly escapes.
All that, and all in the first chapter. In the next chapter Han's buying something like a cross between a skunk and a badger to repay a bad debt, and ends up in a shoot-out in a bar. Later on there's infiltrating an enemy prison base, dealing with a hired gun, and a stunning ten-page aerial battle over an outlaw spaceport.
There's a density to Daley's writing, a perfect weight/mass ratio, that makes every page worth your time. He also has a great ear for authentic, engaging dialogue, which at times sounds like Elmore Leonard or Tarantino: "I'm tapped out, Doc. Get yourself some machinery; we'll play them one last chorus."
Alan Dean Foster's "Splinter of the Mind's Eye," the only Star Wars spin-off before this one, is also a great adventure, focusing on Luke and Leia, and Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" trilogy is excellent in terms of a grand epic with intricate plotting, politics, and space battles (including the Z-95 Headhunters Daley created). But of all the Star Wars books I've read, this one and its two sequels are the most true to the original film - the action, gadgetry, aliens, humor, and edge-of-your-seat adventure.
So check this one out. The third Star Wars novel ever printed, it's still one of the very best out there.
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Review Summary: Not Free SF Reader |
Date: 2007-11-04 |
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Details: Original adventures the best.
Back then there was a novelisation, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye, by Alan Dean Foster. Then came this book, a great surprise, as it is rather good.
It details some of Han's background in a different region of Space, the Corporate Sector Authority the rulers there, and also rather unpleasant.
Spaceships, droids and gunplay to be found. Star Wars and particularly Solo fans should absolutely try and get these.
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Review Summary: Han Chewy and bollux in corporate sector story 2 |
Date: 2003-07-23 |
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Details: This is a combined review of The paper back book and the comic from Dark horse, Classic star wars - Han Solo at stars end - Volume 5. This comic is based on the stand alone novelette written by the late Brian Daley. For those who had read AC Crispens Han Solo Trilogy (my favorite of the entire EU), Crispen left time in his story to accommodate Daley's stories about Han and Chewy taking a trip to the corporate sector. Virtually nothing is known about the corp sector except what Daley told us in his 3 novels about his favorite character, Han. One of those 3 stories is HS at SE. This comic has good inking and binding but the pencil and artwork is of comic strip quality. I give the story a 5, inking a 3 and pencils a 2, then I round up because the stars are Han and chewy for 4 stars |
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Review Summary: "Inspiration is my specialty!" |
Date: 2001-02-10 |
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Details: Han Solo at Stars' End was the third Star Wars novel ever published, after the original film novelization and Alan Dean Foster's lively Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and yet it remains today, nearly a quarter of a century later, one of the best pieces of Star Wars literature ever published. This book is the first of a trilogy that has since come to be known as the Han Solo Adventures (not to be confused with A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy), which tell of some of Han Solo's greatest adventures in the years before A New Hope. In these books, Brian Daley has really captured the essence and character of Han, Chewie, and the Falcon as they were at the start of the first film. The plot of this book is fairly simple and straightforward. After a run-in with the Corporate Sector Authority (basically the equivalent of the Empire in this sector of space), the Millennium Falcon needs some repairs, so Han heads to an "outlaw tech" base to get her fixed up. When he arrives, he finds out that Doc, the head of the techs, has gone missing, and that the price of the Falcon's repairs will be to find and rescue him. Along the way, Chewbacca too is captured, making the whole affair personal. Brian Daley has really written an action-packed whopper of a Star Wars book here. There are no subplots to bog down the pace of the book, no Luke and Leia to follow around on their own quests. This is pure Han Solo adventure start to finish. There are original and inspired firefights, sometimes in zero-G, and we get to see why Han has his reputation as an excellent pilot and a quick-draw marksman to be feared. There's a dogfight in here that puts to shame most of what Mike Stackpole has written, some unprecedented maneuvers with the Falcon, buildings getting blown off the face of planets (literally!), and several very interesting characters are introduced, including a fellow named Rekkon who I'd like to see more of someday. Han and Chewie are always perfectly in character as well, and there is a droid duo introduced here that is even more unlikely, and - dare I say it? - at times even more amusing than Artoo and Threepio. Brian Daley, in this and his other books has I believe done more for the Star Wars Universe than any other author since. In this volume he introduced the Z-95 Headhunter, dinkos, the Fondor shipyards, several of Han's future friends, enemies, and companions, the Corporate Sector, and many themes and sequences that future Star Wars authors will attempt to emulate with varying degrees of success. In Han Solo at Stars' End, Brian Daley has created a masterpiece. Short but concise and relevant, this is one of the most fun, action-packed, and ultimately most satisfying Star Wars novels that I have read in a long time. |
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Review Summary: An outstanding plot!!! |
Date: 1999-08-24 |
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Details: The plot kept getting better.When I started reading it seemed the book would never end then the plot took a turn.From that point on I was hooked.Then it got better.I loved the part where the robot kicked the other well trained robots b**t(what ever its name was). |
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out of 10 Reviews
