‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Han Solo and the Lost Legacy’ (1980) (Book review)

“Han Solo and the Lost Legacy” (1980) completes a perfect 3-for-3 for Brian Daley writing about our favorite “Star Wars” scoundrel. While “Han Solo at Stars’ End” was a solid double and “Han Solo’s Revenge” was a home run, I’d say this one is a sliding triple.

Most of the action takes place on the planet Dellalt, where our heroes embark on a “Lord of the Rings”-esque quest across the landscape with the end goal of finding the lost treasure of warlord Xim the Despot. They encounter corrupt docking officials, feuding sentient sea creatures who pull people across a big lake on rafts, rival treasure-hunters and finally the gunman Gallandro, seeking revenge for being shown up by Han in the previous novel. A lot of Daley’s humor and verve is in place; the only negative is that some action sequences drag on a bit more than I cared for.

The supporting cast is good, notably Skynx, who serves roughly the same purpose as Jar Jar Binks in “The Phantom Menace” but comes off a lot better. He’s a small, multi-legged furry scholar who tentatively seeks adventure — and is also a talented one-man band. Because everyone (even Han, who requests to hear some music!) seems to like him for all his quirks, there’s no annoyance factor. While Badure, the old-timer who talks Han and Chewbacca into the treasure hunt, is underexplored, his young ally Hasti makes for an effective almost-love-interest for Han (although sparks don’t fly as much as they did with Fiola in the previous book).

Hasti nicely summarizes our hero’s flaws (and the reasons we love him as a character) on page 113 of the paperback:

“You run over people like you never take anything seriously, for starters. You joke through life with that silly smirk on your face, so sure of yourself I want to bounce a rock off your skull! (Chewie) is your friend, but he’s a Wookiee. And you’ve got that pair of mechanical cohorts, Max and Bollux, and that hotshot starship of yours, but the rest of us are just temporary cargo. Where are the people, Han? I’m sure you drive the portside girls wild, Solo; you look like you just stepped out of a holo-thriller. But I’m not one of them; never was, never will be.”

As with the previous two entries, “Lost Legacy” fits nicely into the “Star Wars” canon even though Daley was working only from “A New Hope.” Although the action moves away from the Corporate Sector, it still takes place in an isolated corner of the galaxy, and thus the story doesn’t step on any Empire-versus-Rebellion toes. There are small oddities, such as calling the language Standard instead of Basic. And if Daley had known George Lucas’ future plans, perhaps he could’ve tied in the ancient robot warriors with the Clone Wars era’s droid armies.

“Lost Legacy” showcases one trivial but very cool bit of continuity: We find out how Han got the scar on his chin. Of course, Harrison Ford has a scar on his chin, and it was explained in one of the “Indiana Jones” movies; here, Daley provides the “Star Wars” answer to that.

The final pages of “Lost Legacy” provide closure that’s unusual for “Star Wars” books that often have an eye on the next chapter of the grand story. Although I wish the “Han Solo Adventures” had gone on for way more than three books, Daley was only commissioned for three, so he wraps things up with Badure, Hasti, Bollux and Blue Max accepting university jobs with Skynx.

Appropriately, that leaves Han and Chewie to board the Falcon and seek out their next adventure, which — as we would learn almost two decades later — would be chronicled in the back half of A.C. Crispin’s “Rebel Dawn.” (Crispin’s “Han Solo Trilogy” is high on my list of candidates for this flashback series.)