2007 film tie-in science fiction. After the Battle of Yavin, Han and
Leia are meeting suppliers who can provide the materials for a new
hidden base.
I think this was commissioned before the Disney takeover, but
published after it; it seems to have been one of the last to escape
before the Great Decanonisation, but I assume it still had to pass
the implacable gaze of New Corporate Overlords. Which I suspect
contributes to the fact that this is based on the films, the six of
them that existed at this point (and in fact just the original
trilogy), rather than on the greater continuity that had grown up
round the RPG, novel series, etc.; and for someone like me who mostly
hasn't read that other stuff, this makes life much easier.
Also, while there is certainly an Imperial threat, this book is mostly
Han and Leia trying to escape from pirates. Which means that the
restrictions of greater continuity are much relaxed: perhaps the
pirate chief will be killed, perhaps not, but all we be sure of is
that Han and Leia will ultimately escape, and will not yet have
admitted their love for each other. Everything else is up for grabs,
which certainly helps maintain tension.
Apart from the action, this is still a Martha Wells book, so we get a
ship of the Alderaanian Navy that survived the destruction of that
planet but has now turned pirate. Ethical pirate, of course, but that
turns out to be rather harder than the captain had hoped, and the
portrayal of this high level of stress in captain and senior officers
is not the sort of thing I tend to expect in a Star Wars story.
Nor are lots of women with major roles to play. And in general these
characters act like grown-ups rather than action figures. The less I
thought of it as part of the overall Star Wars Property and the more
I took it on on its own terms, the more I enjoyed it.
There's only one other book in this sub-series and it's by the writing
partnership of James S. A. Corey, so I probably won't seek it out.
Apparently the third one got re-seriesified into New Canon, but I'm
not su enthused by Star Wars as to buy a book by an author
completley unknown to me (Kevin Hearne, who mostly writes fantasy)
just because it's Star Wars.
.