Star Wars The Han Solo Trilogy #2: The Hutt Gambit »

Here is the second novel in the blockbuster new trilogy that reveals the never-before-told story of the young Han Solo.  Set before the Star Wars(r) movie adventures, these books chronicle the coming-of-age of the galaxy's most famous con man, smuggler and thief.

Solo is now a fugitive from the Imperial Navy.  But he has made a valuable friend in a former Wookiee slave named Chewbacca, who has sworn Han a  life debt.  Han will need all the help he can get.  For the Ylesian Hutts have dispatched the dreaded bounty hunter Boba Fett to track down the man who already outsmarted them once.  But Han and Chewie find themselves in even bigger trouble when they agree to lend their services to the crime lords Jiliac and Jabba the Hutt.  Suddenly the two smugglers are thrust into the middle of a battle between the might of the Empire and the treachery of their outlaw allies...a battle where even victory means death!

VOYA

Veteran science fiction author Crispin has produced a trilogy about the slightly shady smuggler and con man Han Solo that is perfect for the legions of fans of the movies and their spin-offs. The books should be read in order as a unit. In the first novel, Han Solo is "rescued" from the slums of Corellia to serve in Garris Shrike's roving band of space criminals. Han escapes Shrike's brutal rule only to take a pilot's job serving the grotesque t'landa Til and their overlords, the Hutts, on the slave planet Ylesia. How Han and his new friends, Bria and Muuurgh, outsmart the Hutts and escape from Ylesia with a fortune makes for an exciting and fast-paced story. The second volume of the trilogy opens with Han's life in a shambles. Not only has he been kicked out of the Imperial Navy for saving the life of a slave, the ex-slave-a huge, hairy Wookiee-has attached himself to Han to whom he now owes a "life debt." When the still resentful Hutts set bounty hunter Boba Fett on his trail, however, Han will be grateful for the friendship of the gigantic alien. In the concluding book of the trilogy, Han has just won Lando Calrissian's speedy Millennium Falcon in a game of sabacc. He and Chewie are now the best of all the smugglers, even though the Empire and the mysterious Darth Vader are growing threats. A sure opportunity at enormous wealth and the reappearance of an ex-girlfriend and her group of Rebel insurgents result in Han and Chewie penniless and wanted throughout the galaxy. The novel concludes as Han and Chewie, broke and with prices on their heads, contract a charter night for an "old guy in the Jawa robe, and the kid in a moisture farmer's outfit." Readers who love good space opera and Star Wars will devour this trilogy the way the Hutts devour nala-tree frogs. Note: This review was written and published to address three titles: The Paradise Snare, The Hunt Gambit, and Rebel Down. VOYA Codes: 4Q 2P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).