Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures
(A Del Rey book) by Brian Daley
Three Of The First And Very Best Star Wars Novels
Han Solo soars again--in this awesome trilogy of his extraordinary exploits.
Ride with him as he rides to the rescue, narrowly escapes certain death,
and foils evil in its ruthelss tracks!
Personal Review: Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures (A Del
Rey book) by Brian Daley
The other reviews here tell the stories well, so I'll just focus on why this
book is so worth your time.
First, Daley's Star Wars credentials are superb - he wrote all three of the
radio scripts that are now considered canon. (And well worth checking out
- 12-hr versions of Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi as broadcast on NPR: Star

Wars: The Original Radio Drama.) Daley was also a Vietnam veteran from
the 11th Armored Cavalry, so his novels carry plenty of authentic combat
details and dialogue.
This gives his writing a wonderful texture that puts you right there, seeing
through Solo's eyes. Here, in the first chapter of the first book, Han steps
out of the Falcon to make a delivery to a band of rebel aliens.
------------
Han wore his side arm, a custom-model blaster with rear-fitted
macroscope, its front sight blade filed off to facilitate the speed draw. His
holster was worn low, tied down at the thigh, cut so that it exposed the
weapon's trigger and trigger guard.
...He also made certain that the interrupter-templates had automatically
slid into place along the servo-guides for the belly turret, so that the quad-
mounted guns wouldn't accidentally blow away the landing gear or ramp if
he had to fire them while the ship was grounded.
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As a kid I ate that up. Now I simply admire the care Daley put into his
writing and research.
Lucas must've been impressed by these books as well, for he not only had
Daley write all three Star Wars radio series, but he took at least two
scenes from Daley's first book and used them in "The Empire Strikes
Back." First there's the one where Han sets the Falcon down on an
asteroid, and then this one, from the opening chapter, where Han tips the
Falcon on its side to fly through a narrow mountain pass:
------------
Han tightened his grip on the controls, feeling the press of his flying gloves
against them. "Pass, nothing - that thing's a slot! Hold your breath, Chewie,
we'll have to skin through."
He killed all shields, since they'd have struck rock and overloaded, and
wrenched his controls, standing the Millennium Falcon on her portside.
Sheer crags closed in on either side, so that the roar of the freighter's
engines rebounded from the cliffs... There was a slight jar, and the shriek
of metal torn away as easily as paper. The long-range sensors winked out;
the dish had been ripped off the upper hull by a protrusion of rock. Then
the needle's eye was threaded sideways, and the Falcon was through the
mountains.
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Han is fleshed-out well here, and it adds much to his character. There's not
only his cocky attitude (mostly for show), shrewd business dealings, and
sharp military experience, but also a hint of his compassion for the

underdog, as when he gives advice to the rebel aliens about using the
weapons he just dropped off.
------------
"Now, the Security Police here use those riot guns, right? Sawed-off, two-
handers? They're real fond of using constant fire, because they can afford
to waste power, just hosing it around. You can't. What you do is, lock all
your carbines on single shot. And if you get into a firefight at night or in the
deep jungle where visibility's poor, shoot at the constant-fire sources."
------------
Finally, knowing the Authority ship is waiting for him to reappear, Han
makes a quick getaway:
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He fired her up, stood her on her tail, and opened main thrusters wide. The
starship screeched away into the sky, leaving the river steaming and the
jungle smoldering. Duroon fell away quickly, and Han began to think they
had the problem licked.
Then the tractor beam hit.
------------
To escape, Han aims directly at the Authority ship (again, just as Lucas did
in "Empire") and narrowly escapes.
All that, and all in the first chapter of the first book. In the next chapter
Han's buying something like a cross between a skunk and a badger to
repay a bad debt, and ends up in a shoot-out in a bar. Later on there's
infiltrating an enemy prison base, dealing with a hired gun, and a stunning
ten-page aerial battle over an outlaw spaceport.
There's a density to Daley's writing, a perfect weight/mass ratio, that
makes every page worth your time. He also has a great ear for authentic,
engaging dialogue, which at times sounds like Elmore Leonard or
Tarantino: "I'm tapped out, Doc. Get yourself some machinery; we'll play
them one last chorus."
Alan Dean Foster's "Splinter of the Mind's Eye," the only Star Wars spin-off
before this one, is also a great adventure, focusing on Luke and Leia, and
Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" trilogy is excellent in terms of a grand
epic with intricate plotting, politics, and space battles (including the Z-95
Headhunters Daley created). But of all the Star Wars books I've read,
these are the most true to the original film - the action, gadgetry, aliens,
humor, and edge-of-your-seat adventure.
So check them out. Three of the earliest Star Wars novels ever printed,
they're still some of the very best out there.

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