Well I once again drifted from the 40K universe in terms of novels. The last trip was great (Ready Player One) and hopefully this time would be too. I returned to an old friend and favorite, the Star Wars universe (well at least before Episodes I-III). I grabbed Scoundrels by Timothy Zhan. Hey that guy! The dude who wrote the books post Return o’ Jedi. Yeah I remember those and liked them. This should be good then. It has Han, Chewie and Lando pulling a heist. Hell, this is like Oceans Eleven, but with Star Wars. Awesome sauce!
Well, not really.
The story is set post Death Star destruction at Yavin. Han is off doing stuff and trying to get the bounty off his head. Of course the big furry oaf is with him as always. He is recruited for a job that will give him a cut of 183 million credits (which is a lot I guess. I never learned Star Wars currency exchange rates.). All he has to do is steal some data cards from some dude name Villachoir. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it?
So Han/ George Clooney and Chewie/ Brad Pitt recruit a gang of thieves and scofflaws. You know the likes of : Tav, Bink, Kell, Winter, Dozer….wait who? Then of course Lando/ Matt Damon is thrown in the mix as well. They just have to break into a robot guarded and super secure vault/ the Bellagio during a crazy elemental festival/boxing match on the planer Wukkar (at least it isn’t on one of the usual suspect Star Wars planets). Of course this safe belongs to a member of the Black Sun criminal organization and they are bad dudes. I guess. I know very little about them since I never cared enough to read about them and their leader Prince Xizor.
What comes next is a pretty standard heist story. They plan and plot. Then stuff goes sideways. Everything straightens out. The plan you think is in the works isn’t. The “good” guys win….but wait! A twist occurs at the last minute. You know the typical heist formula. The problem is that it I just didn't care.
See this happens post Death Star and Han still has this bounty on his head from Jabba. Well if he is successful and gets the credits he would pay off his bounty. Then the events of Empire and Jedi would be screwed. Knowing this you know how the story will end. Surprise! Han doesn't get the money to pay Jabba. Huge spoiler there right?! It made it difficult to care about the events knowing when this was taking place.
I also didn't care for anyone but Han and Chewie. Lando was a douche and all the other members of the crew were just flat and boring. Maybe these are bigger characters in the Star Wars novel universe, but even so I still don't care to find out about any of them.
There is very little action, but I didn't expect a lot. However, with how dull this story was, it could have helped. The quasi-twist wasn't that great. Hell, even the last two page shocker was drek and a good bit of fanboy pandering.
Yeah I was disappointed by this book. It also made me think that maybe if I read the other Zahn books I might be just as disappointed. I mean He gave us a great bad guy with Thrawn. However, he also drug us back to Dagobah, introduced Mara Jade (gods she was awful), anti-Jedi lizards, and a plot that involved….ick..hack… cough..cloning Jedi. Yeah maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised at the outcome of this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment