Star Wars: Last Shot Book Review
Star Wars: Last Shot was written by Daniel Jose Older. This tale takes place a few years after Aftermath: Empire’s End. However, the story transitions back and forth through time to cover certain events in Han and Lando’s life.
SUMMARY: Lando Calrissian is attacked and threatened by a manipulated reprogrammed droid and a mysterious figure! A threat is made on the life of Lando and the imminent massacre coming to Cloud City. Unless, the owner of the Millennium Falcon hands over the location of the Phylanx Transmitter, to Fyzen Gor, which was stolen some 10 years ago.
Lando goes to Chandrilla, angry, because the owner of Falcon 10 years ago, was Han Solo! Lando express his anger and his plea for help in this situation to his old buddy. Han has the yearning to right this wrong, he can’t sit back and leave Lando to a horrible fate.
Lando, Han, and an assembled crew of all new characters go on a wild adventure to find the Phylanx Transmitter. This device is an apocalyptic mechanism with the capability of reprogramming droids across the galaxy, turning them into homicidal machines! Fyzen Gor is the madman behind this destructive power. Fyzen desires to unleash this device, to reconstruct the galaxy to his design.
CHARACTERS: There’s a new bundle of characters in the book, like an Ewok slicer named Peekpa and a Twi’lek named Kaasha. Even Sana Staros from the comic series makes an appearance! But, I’m going to talk about Han, Lando, and Fyzen Gor.
Han Solo: He’s a scoundrel, war hero, husband, father, and finally… head of the Republic Pilot Union. He’s the same old Han, his mind always drifting to open space, missing action. He’s full of regret for signing up to head the union, he can’t stand meetings and doesn’t understand how Leia enjoys political banter of her own position in the New Republic. Han struggles with being a father to Ben, who’s two years old now. He doubts himself at every turn, with fear of screwing up his family by not being there mentally and emotionally. When he gets pulled into the Phylanx mess, he feels at home, though he does indeed miss his wife and child.
Lando Calrissian: He’s also a scoundrel, war hero, not a husband nor a father… but he’s head of his own droid manufacturing company. He likes to wear a cape and tight pants that show off his butt in the back and support his bulge in the front (seriously… what the heck Del Rey?) For the first time, we see Lando speechless and lovesick. Lando really starts to think about his life. If he survives this Phylanx fiasco, he wonders if he’s capable of putting aside his scoundrel lifestyle to settle down. He may be a scoundrel, but his desire to keep bad people for doing harm to good people, is strong. He truly is a hero.
Fyzen Gor: He’s a Pau’an, which is a humanoid being from Utapau. He’s gone mad, wanting to set off a droid apocalypse, meaning he’d use his Phylanx Transmitter device to reprogram droids to go on a killing rampage. Fyzen is demented, he redesigns droids using parts and limbs from organic beings like humans and other alien species. His goal is to reshape the state of the galaxy and come out on top.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: The main character or headliner of the book, in my opinion, is Lando Calrissian featuring Han Solo. It’s nice to finally get a meaty story staring Lando! I believe the characters were consistent throughout the book and true to who they were in films. However, I was not thrilled with the new cast of characters. The idea of an Ewok slicer is a little goofy, but it did lend to some humor. I believe the chemistry between Han and Lando was realistic, their on this adventure together and over time they get irritated with each other, so Jose Older did get there.
There are a few things I was confused about. Back in the day when Lando had the Falcon, he also had a droid called L3. While everything about Lando is sleek and stylish, his droid is a mess of unpolished covering and lose exposed wires. This droid is also a bit odd, didn’t like it at all, most of what happens in the book could have been prevented by this droid. I found that very irritating.
As I got to the last quarter of the book, a sudden realization hit me. The plot of the book is very similar to a legends book, The New Rebellion. In that book, the villain also wants to cause chaos throughout the galaxy by reprogramming droids. I have to admit, this revelation took me out of Last Shot once it crossed my mind. Was this plot point hijacked from legends or is it merely coincidental? I’m going to hope it’s a coincidence.
Overall though, it was an okay book. The climax was pretty anticlimactic. When we know for certain what characters are in other films or books, why would we have any concern or worry? Fyzen Gor, was a pretty lame character, he comes off like a villain of the week.
I think this may be the first Canon book that has absolutely no mention of Jedi or Sith, and maybe only one mention of the force. But hey, I could be mistaken though, there might be another book without those things.
Do I recommend that you pick up Star Wars: Last Shot? Sure, it brings a few things from legends into canon. If you’re a big Lando fan… this is the book for you.
RATING: Will I give this book a rating based on the size of Lando’s bulge? No, we didn’t get that much info…. thankfully. I will give the book a C+.