Han Solo and the Awesome Opportunity

It has just been announced that they are making two “spin-off” movies in the Star Wars universe.  Just to get it out of the way, I am all for this.  As far as I am concerned, this can only be a good thing.  Every new addition to the ‘verse adds new ideas that you can take or leave in your own personal version of the Star Wars universe.

Additionally, as a gamer, more interest in the property means more opportunities for (good) games to be made, and that’s good news for all of us.  Also, as someone who enjoys playing tabletops RPG’s (God-damned adjectives!) this means more visuals to incorporate into my games, so further awesomeness there.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

The two films are a Boba Fett movie (done and done, lots to work with there,) and a young Han Solo film.  This is another rich area, and I’m sure as long as a good scriptwriter is attached, it will be great.

I'm not here to talk about that either.

But some have asked if they will adapt the existing Han Solo novels.  For my money, they won’t and it will instead be an entirely new and original story.  But if they should decide to do so, there are some important things to consider, because there have been two trilogies.

The second one was written by A.C. Crispin, and it was pretty crappy.  I mean, they certainly weren't the worst things written in the Star Wars universe (The Courtship of Princess Leia,) but they were meh, and suffered terribly by comparison.

That’s because the first trilogy (what most people mean when they refer to the Han Solo Trilogy,) was written by the incomparable Brian Daley.  They are, without a doubt, the best stories in the entire Star Wars literary universe, and I will fight anyone who dares to refute that.

And THAT is what I want to talk about

Brian Daley is the author of the radio adaptations of the films, and added a significant amount of additional material absent from the film scripts (such as going into actual detail about Luke’s training with Obi Wan aboard the Falcon.)  And many people feel the radio scripts were better written than the screenplays.

The three books, Han Solo at Star’s End, Han Solo’s Revenge, and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy are all short novels (now available complied in a single volume,) and are fast paced and direct.  Daley does not waste a lot of time with ponderous backstory, but jumps right into the action, just like the pace of the movies themselves.

They were all written between the first and second film, and the author was not allowed to use pretty much anything but Han, Chewie, and the Falcon.  There are no Stormtroopers, no Jedi, and almost no mention of the Empire.  He sets them all in an autonomous portion of the Empire called the Corporate Sector Authority.

Because of this, they combine seamlessly with the rest of the stories, without having to be contrived.  Daley does not feel the need to try and shove “THIS IS A STAR WARS BOOK!” down the reader’s throat.

Sure there are droids, starships and blasters, but Daley adds plenty of new concepts, many of which have never been addressed by any other Star Wars authors.  And that’s because Daley did something with Star Wars that other authors rarely do:

He made them science fiction.

It is easy for many of us to forget (or overlook,) that the Star Wars films are fantasy, with a thin veneer of sci-fi slapped on top.   I mean, the first movie is about a farm boy who helps a wizard rescue a princess from the black knight.  Sure there are starfighters, androids and plasma swords, but those are all just trappings.

Science fiction asks questions by providing answers.  It projects forward (even if it is a long, long, time ago,) to see how changes (primarily in technology,) would affect the human condition.  They are stories about people (even if they are not human, or even made of meat,) and how they live.  The spaceships, ray guns, and replicants are merely complications to the story.

The Star Wars films are dealing with familiar, mythic stories that resonate with people because they are grand in scale, echoing the tales that humans have told for generations.  You could go back to Medieval Europe and tell the story of Star Wars in terms that peasants could get behind, and they would find it understandable, possibly even quaint.  This is a great part of the movies’ charm.

But they are not sci-fi, and that is fine.  But the universe in which they are set (the trappings again,) most certainly are, and many writers (I’m looking at you, Stackpole,) have enjoyed telling sci-fi stories set in that universe.

But no one has ever done it better than Brian Daley.  His books are sci-fi novels, and finally show Han in action as a smuggler.  He has a lot of fun with technology, especially weapons.  Rather than just say ‘blaster’ every five minutes, or going into exhaustive detail about each device, he throws out names with abandon, similar to how Douglas Adams did in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  Beam-tubes, heat rays, flechette launchers, micromissiles, and sonic disrupters, all make appearances in the books.  It makes the universe feel deeper and richer, and a lot more fun.

He plays with sci-fi concepts in a human(oid) setting, showing how advanced technology might be employed in everyday life.  Rather than focus on planet-destroying superweapons, he conjectures that if you can simulate gravity on a starship, you can simulate zero-gravity on a nightclub dance floor.  He has wine bottles that light up to provide their own advertising, and molecular bonding to create nigh-indestructible objects.

But he also shows that in a sci-fi world, there is still old, obsolete junk.  Han is constantly trying to upgrade the Falcon’s antiquated gear, and often runs afoul of the CSA’s fleet of surplus warships.  At one point, he encounters a tribe of backwards humans still using ancient equipment from nearly a thousand years previous.  These turn out to be older laser-based weapons, which Han mocks, although still points out that they can kill a person just fine, in the same way that the Hovitos’ primitive arrows were a credible threat to Indy (sorry to switch Harrison Ford references there, but it seemed apropos.)

In another instance, Han must pilot an archaic starfighter (the infamous Z-95 so often poorly represented in other media,) and asks the guy who loans it to him if he knocked over a museum.  These touches make you feel like you are in a universe with its own history, and gives the reader a sense of familiarity with the setting.

But no book, sci-fi or not, can support itself on description of technology alone.  In the end, these books are really fun stories with great characters.  Doc and Jessa, Pakka and Atuarre, Bollux and Blue Max, Gallandro, Ploovo Two-For-One, Spray, Fiolla, VicePrex Hirken and his reptilian bodyguard all provide effective allies, enemies and foils for Han and Chewie.  The interplay between the two main characters also brightens up the book with their banter (once translated.)

Will they ever be made into films?  Probably not.  But if they did, I assure you they would rock.  The only way you will get to see these awesome films (as I have,) is to go and get yourself a copy of the Brian Daley Han Solo Trilogy (NOT the other one!) and read them.  Your imagination should take care of the rest.

But whatever they do, I hope they will do justice to the character, so aptly explored by the late Mister Daley.

Or, you know, they could just adapt “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.”