Better than the movie, but not by much. ( )

Not much more than the movie ( )

All things considered, there was nothing considerably "wrong" with this or the story. Its completely the script for the movie with just a few scenes added, sadly lacking much "depth" to many things. I believe the biggest amount of depth added to the novelization compared to that of the movie is L3's "death" and then integration into the Falcon. Which is something that REALLY needed expounding on, given how little play it was given in the movie.

Qi'Ra is still very flat, diminished, and her choices and thoughts aren't portrayed well. Especially the ending.

In fact, the whole Dryden Vos/Beckett/Qi'Ra/Han ending is basically a cluster*. And handled very poorly, and once things are done, you wonder why they just didn't do X from the get go. Especially when you realize just how simple it all turned out to be.

The DM reveal at the end gets even less play in the novel and is left completely vague-ish, even moreso than the movie.

The writing style is typical for the new novels and new EU canon. "Contemporary", littered with new euphemisms and vernacular with the times (2010s) and aimed at a millenial / youthful audience (teens/mid-twenties) compared to a lived in universe like the old EU and more of a 'literature' basis. I really don't feel like the current EU writing style (Wendig's trilogy, Last Shot, From a Certain Point of View, this novelization, etc.) will hold up on further readings in years to come, whereas the old EU will hold up based on the writing style. (I could be wrong, but this is just my perspective/point of view.)

This is a "fine" novel, in the same way that the movie is "fine". Sadly it just took me forever to read it, having to get it out of the library about 8 different times just to try and force myself to read it, since it's such a copying of the movie that there's so little extra to learn from it, with having seen the movie it all felt unnecessary. ( )

This is the story of Han Solo prior to the movie saga. It start with his life on Corellia. It goes through his first encounters with Chewbacca and Lando, getting into his smuggling career and his acquisition of the Millennium Falcon.

The book is an action story. Han goes from one event to another. Parts of the book really bothered me, character actions didn’t seem quite right, some events seemed to be just plot points. Some of Han’s schemes didn’t seem quite reasonable, even if they failed, it seems he could come up with a better bluff or idea. It wasn’t particularly bad, it just should have been a lot more. ( )

I am one of the few (it seems) who truly enjoyed the movie. This book was...disappointing. The story was right. The characters were okay. But something about the story was...off. Maybe I didn't like the writing style, or maybe I just felt this book didn't do the story justice. ( )