Legendary Adventures: Han Solo – The Hutt Gambit

Han Solo, on the run from bounty hunters, enslaving priests, and the Empire, takes a job with the Hutts – how could any of this possibly go wrong? Join us as the Legendary Adventures follow Han on his Hutt Gambit!

A lot of times, the Legendary Adventures are designed to read Legends with a fair eye toward connections. Every once in a while, there is a lot of fruit to be had to read these in order and see connections that the authors couldn’t have had in mind. (Spoiler alert: with the birth of the Rebellion immanent, we’ll see a lot of that coming up, too!) But sometimes the Adventures have to turn a somewhat critical eye toward the books (these are still, to some extents, still book reviews). This review will hopefully be a fair instantiation of the latter, as The Hutt Gambit feels like a “who’s who” of Han Solo’s life. Han makes quite a few lifelong connections here, connections that seem very coincidental for how much they affect his life.

A lot happens in each of the books of this Han Solo trilogy. Because of this, you might forgive me for failing to note that Han joins the Imperial Academy at the end of the previous Adventure, The Paradise Snare. As a quick refresher, you’ll remember that Han saved a slave from t’landa Til priests and met her parents. He was summarily rejected by her parents and, essentially, the slave (Bria) herself. This drives Han to join the Imperial Academy: with no girl and no money, what’s a guy to do?

Well, apparently, Han is cut out for the life of an Imperial. Between the two books (and no story starring Han takes place in Legends canon between them), Han meets Chewbacca. Oh, and Chewbacca is about to be executed by an Imperial guard. Han saves Chewie from being killed, so the two become fast friends – and fugitives. Unfortunately, Han is not only a fugitive of the Empire – t’landa Til priest Teroenza hasn’t forgotten his grudge against Han for wrecking his slavery ring and collection of fine artifacts.

As Han makes his getaway from the Imperials, he is tracked down by the greatest bounty hunter ever: Boba Fett. Fett sticks Han with a toxic dart, immobilizing him! But Han was tracked by another, as well: Lando Calrissian. Lando hits Boba with Fett’s own toxic darts, and Lando and Han program the Slave I to take Boba as far from them as possible. So, yeah, that’s where their lifelong animosity starts and quickly ends.

Han gets a hold of a new ship, which he christens the Bria. Lando also hires Han to teach him how to pilot his new ship the Millennium Falcon, which Han falls in love with immediately. The two bicker about it, but then their paths separate when Han, Chewbacca, and the Bria take a new job, working with the Hutts.

Turns out, Hutt Space has been running pretty wild and free since the birth of the Empire. They had good relations with the Republic, so it seems like the Empire is mostly willing to turn a blind eye toward their antics, until now. That, and really, they haven’t been as big a public nuisance as the Black Sun. But now, Emperor Sheev Palpatine has told Moff Sarn Shild to stop taking bribes from the Hutts and to make an example of their criminal empire. Han Solo is hired by the Hutts to be an ambassador between the Hutt clans and the Empire, and he bribes the Moff into revealing his attack strategy.

Han then takes control of a consortium of smugglers and Hutt employees to lead an attack on the Imperial Navy and repel their strikeforce. Turns out, Han is a pretty good leader – wonder when that will come in handy again? His partnership with Chewbacca becomes well settled here, and two are content to make the galaxy a better place. Well, at least for them.

But there is one minor complication: Bria Tharen. Having rejected Han on Imperial Center, she now works as a spy for a small organization standing up to the Empire. Her most recent job? Acting as a certain Moff Sarn Shild’s mistress, trying to take down his operation from within. When Han joined Moff Shild’s ship, he couldn’t help but be somewhat flustered by her. Whom does she work for, and what does this organization have up their sleeve? Stay tuned to the Legendary Adventures as we move into the story of the Starkiller and the Empire’s plan to destroy their remaining enemies…

Legendary Travel Tips:
-This book is preceded by The Paradise Snare, the first in this trilogy, but we won’t visit the final book in the trilogy for a while. The next books are the Force Unleashed duology, where we will see the official birth of the Rebel Alliance…
-While this book talks about the meeting between Han and Chewbacca, it seems as if Crispin was explicitly prohibited from showing the scene. Looks like the Legendary Adventures crew won’t see the meeting as is!

You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!

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The Last Jedi