Hutts have come a long way, baby, since we first met Jabba the Hutt in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” I remember being excited by the notion of meeting Jabba’s dad in the 1993 kids’ book “Zorba the Hutt’s Revenge,” although I remember nothing about the specifics of that story.
In 1997, I was shocked to learn that, in his younger days, Jabba was not only less corpulent, but that he could pace around with Han Solo in Docking Bay 94 in the “Star Wars Special Edition.” Young Jabba (and even younger Rotta) also played a major role in the “Clone Wars” movie (2008), and eventually, we met the fairly fleet-afoot (or fleet-aslug?) Ziro and many other kinds of Hutts (including the insanely obese Mama the Hutt) in “The Clone Wars.”
Jeff Grubb’s interest in Hutts dates back to 2002, when he detailed the species’ culture in the “Star Wars” role-playing game, but “Scourge” (May, paperback) marks his first foray into “Star Wars” novels. And while previous works showed Hutts of various sizes and shapes, and the fact that they can transition between male and female and produce offspring asexually, they also stuck to a cultural truism: Hutts are, by definition, shady businessbeings.
Grubb challenges that notion in “Scourge,” where we indeed get shady Hutts, but we also get one that’s actually a nice guy, Zonnos the Hutt, and a couple more that aren’t easy to pin down. (Still further, Grubb introduces a Hutt in full body armor who lives for the hunt in a short story in the latest Star Wars Insider.)
The author is interested in challenging stereotypes across the board, in fact. The main character, Mander Zuma, in contrast to, say, Ahsoka Tano, would rather pore through the Jedi Archives than go out on missions. A blue-skinned Pantoran spacer (not to be confused with “Avatar’s” Pandorans, although I definitely imagined a visual connection), Reen Irana, keeps calling Mander a “librarian.” He bristles at that, but takes a certain pride in his job as archivist. He could be a poster boy for Yoda’s maxim that a Jedi doesn’t crave adventure, but for obvious reasons, not many yarns have been told about cerebral types like Mander.
Meanwhile, Mander’s apprentice is a drug addict, another trait rarely seen in Jedi (although one could argue that many of them are high on religion). And it’s the underground drug trade of a hard spice called Tempest — the scourge of the title — that provides the novel’s mystery and also brings us to the seedier side of the galaxy. “Scourge” is set during a relatively stable time in the New Republic, just before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, but it could take place just about anywhere on the timeline. As you’d expect, Nal Hutta and the Smuggler’s Moon, Nar Shaddaa, figure into the story, as does the Hutt’s mystery-shrouded original homeworld of Varl — very cool. Also, I like how Grubb’s portrayal of the Corporate Sector, which borders Hutt space, is consistent with Brian Daley’s vision, rather than the comic adaptation of “Han Solo at Stars’ End”: It’s a separate entity from the Empire.
Grubb ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack of “Star Wars” authors. I’d say he’s a notch below Michael Reaves, another author who likes to explore the underworlds and backwaters of the galaxy but who has a better feel for character interactions. The camaraderie between Mander, Reen, the Bothan Eddey and the Corporate Sector official Angela (not a very imaginative “Star Wars” name) is a little less warm than what you’ll find in books by Reaves or Paul S. Kemp.
Still, I enjoy a fun paperback like this peppered in with the more serious, galaxy-shaking fare of something like the just-wrapped “Fate of the Jedi” series. I’m up for more wild and crazy times in Hutt Space if Grubb is asked back for another entry.
What did you think of “Scourge,” and what are your favorite Hutts through the years?