Hey everyone, how are you all doing today? I'm doing pretty good. I finished the third book in the Han Solo trilogy just now and so here I am to talk about it briefly. So let's get right into it and talk about Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin.
This final book in the trilogy is kind of like Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith in that most of what we knew about Han's past from previous Expanded Universe novels and comics is shown here. From him winning the Millennium Falcon from Lando to dumping Jabba's spice and making the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs, it's all here. Like The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones for the prequel movie trilogy, The Paradise Snare and The Hutt Gambit add more details that weren't REALLY necessary but it bulks up the character's history in ways the movies couldn't. Even the truncated version that we got in the 2018 film, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
I first read this book back in the fall of 1998 when my friend, Garrett, lent it to me along with The Hutt Gambit. I was in grade 6 and he was in grade 5, but we were in the same class because we were in a grade 5/6 split class. He lent me a ton of Star Wars novels during that school year, piquing my interest in owning more than just The Paradise Snare, Eaten Alive (the first book in the Galaxy of Fear YA series), and the junior novelization of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. I think I finished the books in a week which amazed Garrett because I read them so fast.
Unlike the previous two books in this trilogy, Han and Chewie aren't really the focus of this book. In fact there are several chapters where they don't appear at all because they're over in Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy from the 80s, which are used as brief interludes. Instead we focus on Bria Tharen, Jabba the Hutt and Besadii leader, Durga the Hutt, who was first introduced in Darksaber by Kevin J. Anderson. Oh and Teroenza, the High Priest of Ylesia is also a bit of a focus. Other characters pop in like Boba Fett and Prince Xizor, Guri, and Dash Rendar from Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry. Of course we also get resolutions to characters from The Paradise Snare like Muurgh and Mrrov, and Jalus Nebl, the Sullustan pilot that Han met on Ylesia in the first book.
Rebel Dawn also isn't really a cohesive story either. Five years worth of events take place in this book, so they're almost little vignettes rather than a full blown, cohesive plot. So there isn't very much to talk about plotwise. Even character wise there really isn't a whole lot to say. I mean the book ends with Han entering the Mos Eisley Cantina, just before he meets Luke, Obi-Wan, Threepio, and Artoo, which is where he debuts in A New Hope. Even Bria didn't have much change in this book compared to where she was in The Paradise Snare to where we see her in The Hutt Gambit. The Hutt politics is still fascinating though and I do like how Jabba and Durga come out on top of their respective crime syndicates.
I forgot that Han's Kessel Run came right after the assault on Ylesia and Bria's betrayal. I thought it was a little bit after that. But the attack on the planet is so late in the book that there really isn't that much time for there to be an inbetween time. It was an interesting sequence, but the end result is kinda dumb, especially since in the Legends continuity it's the reason Han and Lando didn't talk to each other again until The Empire Strikes Back. Supposedly, since they do interact in the 2013 novel, Scoundrels written by Timothy Zahn.
Personally, I think this last book tried to do too much in such a short amount of time. The book is only 389 pages and sixteen chapters and some of those chapters were taken up by the interludes that accounted for Han's time away by having Brian Daley's novels take place during that time. Especially when you had stories like Han and Salla's history that was hinted at in Dark Empire #3 and Bria's attempts to combine all of the disparate resistance groups into the Rebel Alliance.
Speaking of Bria, I kinda really don't like where she ended up going at the end. She was basically Leia, if Leia's life had taken a much darker path, and at this point it felt extremely intrusive. Not to mention it made Han look pretty stupid because he instantly fell in love with her all over again, even though they hadn't seen each other for TEN YEARS!!! Like really? If I were to meet an ex-girlfriend after not seeing her for ten years, there's no way I'd be in love with her again. I'm not the same person as I was at the time this person and I broke up, and neither is she. And it's the same with Han and Bria. They are very different people than they were in The Paradise Snare and them getting back together, albeit briefly, really doesn't make sense. Not even on shows airing on The CW. One of the smartest things that Arrow did, aside from a brief moment near the end of the first season, is to not have Oliver and Laurel get back together after they'd both changed during the five years that Oliver had been away, and then in the four seasons leading up to Laurel's death, they never got back together. It didn't make sense for them to do so, and it doesn't make sense for Han and Bria here.
I make it sound like I hate these books, but I don't. I love them. But they're cheesy 90s Star Wars novels that don't hold up very well in some aspects over the course of the 23 years since this book was published. Even Star Wars novels that were published ten years ago don't all hold up after that long. The Han Solo Trilogy is still my favourite novel trilogies that Bantam published in the 90s though and I'm glad I finally reviewed these books. I'm not sure what my next book review is going to be, but I'm taking a break from the Star Wars books to read something else.
Anyways, that is all for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of the full season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the finale drops tomorrow morning. Until then have a great day and I will talk to you later. Take care.
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