8. The Lando Calrissian Adventures Parts 1 and 2 (Mindharp of Sharu and Flamewind of Oseon ) by L. Neil Smith (1983)
The Lando Calrissian Adventures
Summary: These books are split into two parts. The better parts are where Lando gets to be Lando. He plays Sabacc, he smooth talks people, etc. In the worse parts, he's just a budget Han Solo, and stumbles along not really affecting the plot until his droid saves him.
What it introduces:
Sabacc (technically introduced in a draft for ESB and heavily revised a few years later by West End Games)
That's about it. These are aggressively disconnected from the rest of the EU, even compared to the Han Solo prior trilogy.
Commentary: Dropping these two in one week because (again, even compared to the Han Solo books), they're really samey. The third book (Starcave of ThonBoka) as a little more unique, so I'll pick it up next week. Lando pisses off someone while playing Sabacc, gets sent somewhere to try to get his money back, gets captured (Smith has to be into bondage, this is always the most detailed scene in the book), THE NOT SITH LORD SORCERER OF TUND (who can sort of Force Choke people, although Smith likes to descibe things like "magical gestures" that make it seem a lot dorkier), gets mad at him, and then Vuffi Raa (the requisite guest-star-droid of the trilogy) saves the day.
Really, these feels like a generic sci-fi novels that got just enough Star Wars slapped on top to put the it on the cover. Lando doesn't really feel in character compared to ESB/ROTJ (he's a much nicer guy in these), the tech doesn't line up (hyperspace is closer to warp from Star Trek [sometimes. Smith isn't really internally consistent within one book, let alone across the trilogy], the Falcon has some extra guns, shields ABSORD DAMAGE INTO THE ENGINES! etc.), and they intersect with the overall plot even less than the Han Solo novels did.
They're aggressively full of Earth references. This is something that started out as relatively common in early EU stuff, then got rarer and rarer (Chimera in the Thrawn books), but it's blatant here. Dinosaurs, polks dots, trout and jackelopes all show up or are referenced in the first few chapters of Mindharp of Sharu, and continue throughout. There's also some cases of things sort of getting renamed, but not settling in yet. Lando drinks Coffiene (a passable sci-fiification of coffee) instead of the Caf that Wedge will be sucking down in the Rogue Squadron books. There's all kinds of expletives like "THE CORE" or "THE ENTROPY" that don't really show up later, but at least feel on theme. Bacta's sort of there (in concept if not in name.) Shave and a haircut (two bits) is officially a thing in Star Wars thanks to these books, so we can appreciate that at least.
Review: 1/5 These are just bad. Bad Star Wars novels for the reasons listed above, and bad writing in general for a lot of reasons, some of which I'll highlight here:
1. Lando is what I like to call a "beach ball protagonist." A "pinball protagonist" is a pretty popular term (I believe originating in the Turkey City Lexicon) for a protagonist who gets bounced along by the plot, without a lot of their own drive. Lando has that issue (he's really just there to play Sabacc, not to go on semi-mystical sci-fi adventures), but has the added issue that he doesn't even affect things much when he gets bounced around. A pinball just goes where the flippers send it, but it at least knocks down targets, triggers bonuses, etc. A pinball protagonist might not really know what they're doing, but they solve a puzzle or kill a bad guy or whatever in most scenes. A beachball can whack you in the side of the head, and you might barely notice. Likewise, Lando's largest contribution to the plot most of the time is that Vuffi Raa and the other characters follow him around to actually do things occasionally.
2. Stock phrases. A lot of writers have them (I'll tease Timothy Zahn about wriggling facial features in the Thrawn books), but Smith leans into them like it's some kind of a hilarious joke. Lando is physically incapable of addressing someone without using the phrase "Old X" (insert either a bad pun, or a word that Smith pulled out of his thesaurus). All exchanges between Lando and Vuffi Raa must include VR calling Lando Master, and Lando saying, "Don't call me Master!" (always capitalized. I'm telling you, Smith is a freak)
Sometimes we get both multiple times on the same page. It's beyond obnoxious.
Skip 'em and count yourself lucky that I was here to read them for you.
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