Scoundrels

AUTHOR: Timothy Zahn
COPYRIGHT: 2013
TIME FRAME: Rebellion

Scoundrels was released about a year ago, which makes it the most current Star Wars novel I have read or reviewed so far. And boy is it a welcome change from the short story anthologies. Nothing too serious or political in this one, it's just pure fun. Essentially, it's about Han Solo organizing a sort of Ocean's Eleven team to help him pull off a heist. The book has a cinematic feel to it with all the sort of spy tricks and escapes you'd expect from that type of story.

Lando Calrissian is brought in, and the novel does a good job of, if not answering, at least referencing the event(s) that caused the rift between him and Han. It's a good bit of set-up for Empire Strikes Back. From just a few lines in that movie ("That was a long time ago, I'm sure he's forgotten all about that", "You've got a lot of guts coming here after what you pulled"), Timothy Zahn has managed to craft story turns and character moments that work well but never undercut the lighter feel of the novel. And of course the title itself is a nod to Empire Strikes Back.

What I most appreciated at first is that the book makes a point of addressing one of my biggest criticisms of the original trilogy: why doesn't Han pay off Jabba? We know he didn't leave immediately at the end of the first movie because he saved Luke at Yavin. And then Empire starts with him leaving because, "If I don't pay off Jabba the Hutt, I'm a dead man." But I never understood why he hadn't already paid them off before the Rebels all moved to Hoth. And when we factor in now the in-universe notion that just like in the real world three years went by between movies, WHY didn't he go already? He hasn't paid off Jabba in three years? Zahn neatly finds a way to explain away these discrepancies and I am grateful for it. It turns out that Han lost the reward money from the end of A New Hope to pirates. So right away that gives a nice in-universe explanation so I'm not lead to believe it's been sitting in a cargo hold for three years. That also provides Zahn with the impetus for this novel's story, with the promise of a take so large that when split eleven ways Han could still pay off Jabba and to spare. And if that wasn't enough, Zahn works events into the story that lead Jabba to increase Han's debt exponentially, making it understandable why it would take longer for Han to scrounge up that amount of money, and why he would turn back to the Rebels for it.

It's nice to see Han back to his more independent rogue self, not quite fully tied to the Rebellion as he will be later. Zahn has a lot of practice now in writing the character, and you can really hear Harrison Ford in the way he's written.

Scoundrels is full of the kind of twists, double-crosses, and secret agendas that I've now come to expect from Zahn's work. And yet for all the fun, there are some very nice character bits from the other members of Han's team. Winter is still recovering from the destruction of her homeworld Alderaan. She remembers Princess Leia and hasn't heard yet if she survived. I very much enjoyed the relationship between the twin sisters Talia and Bink, each of whom has very reasonable explanations for the way they live their life, even if the other sister can't see it. These are little moments in the book, but the add a nice flavor of depth to the proceedings, just enough to humanize and keep things relatable. The book certainly could have proceeded without these few quiet moments, but they are wonderful enhancements.

I don't want to spoil the story too much, as that would detract from the joy of reading it. But it's the most fun I've had reading Star Wars in awhile. My only criticism is a reveal that comes at the very end of the book which I consider completely unnecessary. It's not enough to sour me on the entire book, though I was left wondering why it had to be there. It's the sort of thing that might have seemed really cool back in 1997, but now elicits an eye-roll from me.

Scoundrels is all the fun of a heist movie with all the fun of Star Wars. It's Han Solo, Chewie and Lando, what more could you ask for? I highly recommended it.

GRADE: A