Greatly Belated Book Review: The Lando Calrissian Adventures

The Lando Calrissian Adventures, as mentioned previously, are a very imaginative romp on what are now the margins of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Most Star Wars novels imitate the movies heavily in tone and style. The Lando Calrissian Adventures accept the basic premise of Star Wars-that it's a modernized form of the venerable space opera. (For reference, I've done a number of book reviews of space opera. Click the "greatly belated book reviews" tag for more such-it's at the point where I don't particularly want to bother linking the dozen plus I've done.) But beyond that, its connections to Star Wars as a whole are tenuous.

There are only three points of continuity between Star Wars in general and the Lando Calrissian Adventures: The Galactic Empire, Lando Calrissian (obviously), and the Millennium Falcon. And these are all subtly different from their film appearances, though the differences are subtle. (For instance, Lando has only finished growing his moustache in the second of the three books.)

There are several recurring characters that are important. Most obvious of these is Vuffi Raa, one of the most unique droids ever to grace Star Wars fiction. Vuffi Raa (whose name actually is a number, it's just that it's a number in an alien language) is shaped like a starfish, with endlessly branching "fingers" at the end of each of his tentacles. Also unique is his ability to detach any or all of his limbs, which are fully self-mobile and remote controllable, and equipped with eyes on the ends. Also unique are his considerable self-repair abilities and his tiny internal fusion power plant, which allow him to operate all but indefinitely without repairs or recharging. He's also a Class Two droid, meaning he's as smart or smarter than a human being. Where did Lando get such an incredible little droid? He won him in a card game, of course! (What did you expect? Or were you wondering where he came from? That would be a spoiler you can look up for yourself on the Wookieepedia page.)

Also important is the ancient Sorcerer of Tund, Rokur Gepta. The Sorcerers of Tund are an ancient Force-using group (though this is a mild retcon) who are masters of illusion. Or rather, were, as Rokur Gepta (seemingly) killed the rest of them with their own secret weapon, a deadly mysterious substance that kills all life instantly and spreads out to seek it. (Yikes.) And then, he died too (SPOILERS HA!). So, yes, were a group. Anyway, Gepta was apparently a bazillion years old and planned to conquer the galaxy primarily by outliving his enemies, but every now and again he ran into a more troublesome enemy. Unfortunately for him, Lando Calrissian was this century's more troublesome enemy.

There are is also Lehesu (EDIT: ...whoops, I was talking about an individual as if he was multiple entities, how did that happen?), the gigantic space jellyfish/manta ray creature from ThonBoka (he isn't a recurring character, but he's among the most distinctive nonrecurring ones for obvious reasons) and a small army of dudes who blame Vuffi Raa for the extermination of their home system who are led by Klyn Shanga. (Long story.)

What the author writes, as noted, is pure space opera at its finest. There are earth-shaking events (such as the sudden re-emergence of the ancient and powerful Sharu), exploding planets (okay, not quite, but still), bizarre space stuff (the Flamewind of Oseon would probably be better termed "really intense solar wind of Oseon"), and the fate of entire races hanging in the balance (the Oswaft [Lehesu's people] would have been exterminated if not for the timely intervention of... somebody spoilery).

It's not quite as over the top as older space opera; whether that makes it better or worse in your mind, or whether that doesn't matter to you, is, well, your own call. I still think it's one of the better pre-Zahn portions of the Expanded Universe, if not the best.

-Signing off.