Last Shot is one of the canon Star Wars novels published in 2018. It was written by Daniel Jose Older and focuses mainly on Han and Lando. The book is set in three different time periods. The "present" is in the time after Return of the Jedi, between the Aftermath series of novels and the Bloodlines novel, when Han and Leia are new parents, and the Empire has been defeated, but before the threat of the First Order is known. Then it jumps back 10 years before that between the events of the Solo movie and A New Hope, and then 5 years before that. The story essentially involves a gangster from Han and Lando's past who threatens their present with a scheme he has been working on for decades.
Overall, the book is okay but not great. The best part for me was learning about Han's fear of being a father (and, to some extent, a husband). While we do not get a ton in this book about his relationship with Ben (who is still just a toddler in the novel), it hints at what possibly went wrong in their relationship and will hopefully be fleshed out in subsequent novels. It also gives some insight into Han and Lando's post-Return of the Jedi relationship and how Lando's betrayal of Han during the events of The Empire Strikes Back affected it.
The main story of the novel is okay but nothing spectacular. Outside of what I mentioned above, the best part of everything else in the novel was the Ewok slicer and the Anti-Jar Jar Binks Gungan, who had a great line that was something along the lines of "stop with that Meesa stuff." Otherwise, the plot is really about uncovering and attempting to stop a threat to the galaxy that did not involve the Empire or its remnants in any way. Chances are, if you collect the canon novels, you will have purchased this regardless of any positive or negative reviews. I think it is middle of the pack regarding the canon novels. It's as good as anything in the Aftermath series, but not as good as Dark Disciple, A New Dawn, Battlefront II, or even the main storyline adjacent novels, such as Leia, Ahsoka, or Lost Stars (in my opinion). That is totally subjective, however.
The Hardcover version of the book is about 370 pages. While it is not really a novel I would read multiple times, it is decent enough to do so at least once. It reads fairly quickly and somewhat bridges the gap between the original and sequel trilogies.
Overall, the book is okay but not great. The best part for me was learning about Han's fear of being a father (and, to some extent, a husband). While we do not get a ton in this book about his relationship with Ben (who is still just a toddler in the novel), it hints at what possibly went wrong in their relationship and will hopefully be fleshed out in subsequent novels. It also gives some insight into Han and Lando's post-Return of the Jedi relationship and how Lando's betrayal of Han during the events of The Empire Strikes Back affected it.
The main story of the novel is okay but nothing spectacular. Outside of what I mentioned above, the best part of everything else in the novel was the Ewok slicer and the Anti-Jar Jar Binks Gungan, who had a great line that was something along the lines of "stop with that Meesa stuff." Otherwise, the plot is really about uncovering and attempting to stop a threat to the galaxy that did not involve the Empire or its remnants in any way. Chances are, if you collect the canon novels, you will have purchased this regardless of any positive or negative reviews. I think it is middle of the pack regarding the canon novels. It's as good as anything in the Aftermath series, but not as good as Dark Disciple, A New Dawn, Battlefront II, or even the main storyline adjacent novels, such as Leia, Ahsoka, or Lost Stars (in my opinion). That is totally subjective, however.
The Hardcover version of the book is about 370 pages. While it is not really a novel I would read multiple times, it is decent enough to do so at least once. It reads fairly quickly and somewhat bridges the gap between the original and sequel trilogies.
No comments:
Post a Comment