Lit The Lando Calrissian Trilogy, by L. Neil Smith (1983)

Hey everyone. I couldn't find a dedicated, recent thread devoted to the underrated Lando Calrissian Trilogy (L. Neil Smith, 1983), so decided to create one. Mods, I hope this is O.K.

I just today got this trilogy in the new "Legends" edition (the small paperback with the blue cover). Great little book, and one I had been searching for the past several years - so, I'm glad it was made available again this version. I've never owned these books before, and the last version I saw collecting these was the oversized Trade that came out in the '90's (that's long OOP these days).

Looking forward to reading these again, something that I haven't done since the '90's. IIRC, these were great EU stories, and it was interesting reading about Lando's adventures prior to his running Cloud City.

It's too bad these were never available in one HC (at least, not as far as I know).

Anyone else a fan of these books?

 

I like them - they're odd but in a good way.

 

I read them back in September. Though the style is different to most of the EU I enjoyed them. I liked Vuffi Raa and I think he's a good partner for Lando.

 

I love these books. My copy of the trilogy is currently being held together by scotch tape, so maybe I'll pick up the new edition.

I'm still sad that Lando got left out of DH's "Star Wars Adventures" series. That would've been a great opportunity to see Vuffi Raa again. Alas, poor Lando gets no respect.

 

Maybe if you're really nice to IG_2000 he'll interview the author of this trilogy.

 

I like this trilogy better than the Han Solo Adventures.

 

Yeah, me too. These books are great fun. They're absolutely weird, but so much the better for it. Rokur Gepta was an interesting villain, and I love the Oswaft. The relationship between Lando and Vuffi Raa was hilarious and touching at the same time.

 

Yes, master.

 

An interesting point I noticed with these books: Many others have tried to deal with the question of could a droid maybe sometimes rise to the level of being like a person. In these, Lando seems to find it completely obvious on the face of it. Of course Vuffi is a person.

 

They are possibly the oddest books I've ever read.

 

Please chronicle all the names Lando calls Vuffi Raa. They're all pretty hilarious.

 

I second the word "weird," but it's more than that: I think it does a great job of remembering that it's in a galaxy teeming with all kinds of planets and forms of life, many of which would probably look very different from what humans are used to. It's like the best of the classic Star Trek episodes that gave us truly alien life forms instead of just humans in makeup - here you had the Sharu, the Oswaft, Vuffi Raa's "race" and even the Croke - plus things like the Flamewind and the Starcave. Even the less out-there parts of the book were awesome - like the Han Solo Adventures, it's obvious that they were trying to stay far from the world of the movies, but the result is that they do some quality world-building and universe-expanding.

 

they were fun, though a bit to Star Trek-like for me.

 

The blue!

And Mohs.
"All will be as has been told, otherwise it wouldn't have been told to begin with."

Genius. All of it.

 

I have fun reading them. It's super interesting to see how Lando was viewed and the types of shenanigans he would have found himself in.
I think they'd be spectacular as comics, like Han Solo at Stars End was.

 

Lando's plot in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy is, I feel, the closest anyone got to capturing the feel of these books. it had Lando and a weird sci-fi mystery (it's also one of the few trilogies to really use Lando as a character. The man was presented as a competent Baron Administrator of Cloud City and then he blew up the second Death Star, people get elected president with worse c.v. He could've been so much more than the friend with a business that ties into the plot and probably blows up at the end).

 

They were entertaining books, but I don't like the way Lando's dialog was written. I can't hear Billy Dee Williams calling a droid "old toaster."

 

"Old Pirate" "Old Toaster" not too far off.
And remember, back in the 80s, toaster wasn't the same derogatory term for droids as it is now...
Robots really need to reclaim the term "toaster" for themselves.