Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves, James A Corey

Interesting to discover that "James A. Corey" is a pseudonym for a duo of writers: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves
James A. Corey
ISBN: 9780345546852

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Kenobi, but it was fun.  I like reading books set during or between the original trilogy (yes, even Splinter of the Minds' Eye) because they don't get into the irritating spectrum of freaky weird and overly dramatic crap that started infecting the rest of the EU like a fungus.  Especially now that Disney has declared that all of these books are "Legendary" anyway, I prefer to deal with "legends" of people that I know and love from the films (and ok, let's be honest, the older books) rather than "legends" of people that I might have started to like before they got all unnecessarily angsty and started killing each other for no good reason.

Sorry, that got a little ranty, didn't it?

Back to the actual book:  Han is still on the run from Jabba and trying to come up with the necessary coin to pay him off, Luke is deep into x-wing pilot giddy excitement, and Leia is frantically trying to raise money and support for the Rebellion after their first victory.  A call comes in for an extraction mission for a Rebel spy deep in the Core, and Han is the best pilot out there.  Of course, the mission goes sideways, a plot to recover a galaxy-altering device is discovered, and our fearless (and endlessly snarky) heroes head out into the far reaches of the galaxy to save the day!

Things I didn't like:
The dialogue and descriptions were occasionally very clunky, and the plot-wheels were a little too thinly disguised at times.

The locations: we get a rebel base, a multicultural cityscape, a lot of bars, a swamp, and a temple complex.  Does that line-up of locations feel sort of familiar to anyone else?  Part of what's nice about Star Wars is that there are shitloads of planets and systems and habitations and settlements.  Why is there always a temple and a swamp?

The characterizations were a bit on the thin side.  I especially feel like Leia got really shafted: her planet and family JUST GOT EXPLODED, and there's no real effort made to represent the toll that would take on a person.  Granted, the book is from Han's extremely self-centered viewpoint, but it was still grating as an omission.

The invented main character kept edging towards Mary Sue territory.  She's pretty, she's smart, she's the best at her job, she's not interested in Han (because she's a professional) she speaks Wookie (ok, understands Wookie, haha, no human can really speak Wookie).   Ok I get it, the DM's insert character is a little obvious.  Don't get me wrong - I like her.  Just, somewhat like my reaction to Corran Horn, I now have a deep and abiding desire to watch someone outsmart her and then punch her in the head a few times.


Now that's all out, here's what I did like.

Han's voice was pretty authentic throughout.  I liked his snarky internal monologue.  I liked how he constantly interrupted people.  I liked the interrupting-and-understanding-and-finishing-each-other's-thoughts conversations between him and some of the other characters - that's very much like real human interaction, and it was represented well.

Likewise Chewie's snarls and growls and grunts were done well - that has to be really tough to accomplish, and it was expressive without being too cutesy or repetitive.

I felt like a certain character was a direct verbal translation of a certain pirate from a certain blockbuster Disney pirate franchise.  This did take me out of the book a little, but it was amusing, and I enjoyed the character's dialogue more because of it.  I will leave the interested reader to make their own connections, savvy?

I liked the running joke leading up to the rebel base on Hoth.  It was very well-played, and not overdone.

I liked that Luke was competent, affable, and totally in the background, and that the Force was not really addressed (although he did add another impressive outline to his x-wing kill tally).

I liked that the invented character (Mary Sue tendencies aside) is a professional spy, AND a woman.  Major props for letting her come and play, and very specifically for not relegating her to being a love interest or damsel in distress (cough cough Mara Jade cough) for a main character.

A fun, fluffy addition to what are now only "legends" of the Star Wars universe.