Hungarian Han Solo Novels in Translation!

Hi all! I am the translator working with Joe on this project, and wanted to clarify some things (and provide some of my own interesting finds from the books so far). I will be translating the four Han Solo novels, starting with Han Solo: Imperial Agent (given the fake name of Han Solo's Gambit on the copyright page) as it was apparently the first of the original Solo books published, then going back to Han Solo: Nomad (actually a prequel, otherwise known as Han Solo at Doomsday's Edge), and finishing out with Han Solo and the Bounty Hunters and Han Solo's War before delving into Power of the Jedi. As I finish with each book I will send them to Joe for proofing and editing, and he will host the completed work on his website. We've also reached out to the Hungarian author of the second trilogy, Zsolt Nyulászi, to see if he would be interested in reading my translations and giving his blessings (I am not a native speaker of Hungarian, and started teaching myself the language after realizing Google Translate can only do so much). Sadly, András Gáspár, author of Han Solo: Nomad, passed away January this year. Because this project will be a rather extended process, we are not providing a timeframe for completion as of yet, although my own estimate is roughly three and a half months for each book at my current rate (I started at the end of March before reaching out to Joe).

The books seem to have a way of being weirdly prescient and connective to other EU works. Kirra Mallowy is indeed a character in Han Solo: Nomad, and is at least mentioned in Han Solo: Imperial Agent. She seems to be a love interest of Han's that tries to convince him to join the Rebellion, managing to anticipate both Qi'ra and Brea Tharen. Imperial Agent also features a Star Destroyer by the name of Hammer, predating the one by the same name from the video game TIE Fighter by several years. The Tagge and Valance references that you discovered in Han Solo: Nomad really intrigue me. I've only just recently gotten into the Marvel comics after buying all of the A Long Time Ago... Volumes from Dark Horse, so seeing that connective tissue will be fun. I believe Joe will keep an eye out for any serious continuity issues as he edits.

Power of the Jedi is a bizarre case, as I believe (but can't verify) that it wasn't actually published by Valhalla, given that Valhalla published a Hungarian translation of Dark Force Rising that would have competed against it. But, at the same time, there are books listed as Valhalla publications at the beginning of Imperial Agent that may be fake. I can find no reference to an author named "Wayne Chapman," who supposedly wrote two novels called "The Northern Flames" and "Carnival," so who knows! I also have a sneaking suspicion that the reason some Hungarian fans consider the books to be poorly written is that the publisher(s) asked the authors to intentionally write as if their books were translated from English, and not in perfect Hungarian, to maintain the facade for Hungarian readers. Won't be able to confirm that until I ask Mr. Nyulászi.

 

I'm trying to piece together the timeline of Imperial Blood from the rough translation. To put it anywhere on the timeline might be difficult as there's no inherent connection, but I'm starting to form an idea.

There is an empire called the New Galactic Empire; there is no name for the dynasty, but I think the last name or regnal name of the Emperor is Ramraquor. The Old Emperor died 20 years ago. The current emperor's son ran away. Apparently, the Old Emperor was very powerful with some unnamed magical ability, as is the current Emperor. The Church of Ecclesia is the state religion and opposes magical abilities. Maia Dai, the main character, also has strange abilities which the first page called "the sophisticated sixth sense."

There is a planet that the translation renders as Calmori (Calamari?); they are aligned with the New Galactic Empire. It is implied that the Old Emperor replaced some other Empire. There is no Republic or Rebellion.

With all this in mind, the New Galactic Empire could exist in a post-Legacy era where the Imperial Knights have largely faded but the ruling dynasty and the Emperor's bodyguards are still Force-sensitive. There are zero mentions of Jedi, Sith, or any familiar aliens that I could think of and locate with ctrl+F. Also, the inside of the book yet again claims to be a translation by Zsolt Nyulászi (cited as translating some of the other books) but I really doubt that this is a translation. It may very well be that this was never intended to be a Star Wars story, but there are some remarkable similarities and of course it was advertised with Star Wars on the cover.

 

Hi, Go Rien! Glad to have the translator on the thread! You're right about Power of the Jedi not being published by Valhalla. Instead the book was published by Brillant, which I'm assuming is just another fake Valhalla name. I have recently been using the website Moly.hu to find some interesting information. One of the things I found was that Malcolm Webster, the supposed author of The Power of the Jedi, had also written a series for Valhalla called The Alien. This is in no way related to the Ridley Scott film. I'll have a search for Wayne Chapman on Moly. Might bring something up. And thanks for the extra info on the book. The back cover does translate as something like Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Power of the Jedi, Episode VII being Heir to the Empire. I actually only thought that TPOTJ wasn't published under the Valhalla name because of Lucasfilm discovering the fake Hans. But I was wrong. Also, thanks again for helping make these books a reality for English-speaking fans like I.

 

First off, thank you for working to translating these lost works.

I'm very interesting in this Power of the Jedi publishing debacle. Who published a translation to Heir to the Empire first? Valhalla or Brilliant? is it possible that Valhalla actually lost the license after LFL figured out the whole fake Han book scheme, and then the license to publish translations went to Brilliant? It would be very ironic if Valhalla lost the rights due to making fake books only for Brilliant to make a fake book themselves.

Also, could you ask Mr. Nyulász for details about Imperial Blood, if that's indeed a book he wrote?

 

Thank you both for the support! So, the publishing timeline is absurdly complicated. It appears that Valhalla published a translation for Heir to the Empire in 1991 and another for Dark Force Rising in 1992, although I can't find specific dates (it's a pretty quick turnaround since the English originals were both published in June of those respective years). The translation of at least Heir to the Empire was done by none other than András Gáspár, author of Han Solo: Nomad. Both of the official Thrawn books are mentioned as "currently published" on the first page of Han Solo: Imperial Agent, and both that book and Nomad were apparently published in 1992 per their copyright pages. Power of the Jedi was *also* supposedly published in '92 as well (good year for Hungarian fans!). Whoever was responsible for Power of the Jedi managed to crank it out within a fairly short span of time in 1992; and since Han Solo and the Bounty Hunters and Han Solo's War were published in '93, Valhalla may have gotten away with the books for several years before LFL caught on. Here are the bookstore listings:
https://www.antikvarium.hu/konyv/timothy-zahn-a-birodalom-orokosei-2040
https://www.antikvarium.hu/konyv/timothy-zahn-sotet-erok-ebredese-2060
https://www.antikvarium.hu/konyv/malcolm-webster-a-jedi-hatalma-2077

As for Imperial Blood, I'm curious too and will ask him what he knows about it. I've heard of the book before, but assumed it had nothing to do with SW beyond the Han Solo reference on the cover. The non-SW Brian Daley books that were re-branded and published by Valhalla are completely new to me, so this rabbit hole clearly runs deep!

 

Hi Golbolco. After looking through Moly.hu again, I found that Brillant had only published one Star Wars novel, which is The Power of the Jedi. But Valhalla couldn't think of any other fake names, so they used Malcolm Webster, who they had used for their The Alien series.

 

Hi Go Rien. Thought you might want to check out this document here. It's a rough timeline of Valhalla (and Brillant's) Star Wars publications. There are no dates, but it does (at least from what I know) include all of the books, including Bill Smith's RPG book, Imperial Blood and the "second Brian Daley trilogy." Hope you like it!

 

Hi again Go Rien. I think you'll be interested to look at this link. As I said the other day, I took a look at Moly to see if anything came up for "Wayne Chapman." The link above has a list of his books, and from what I know, at least most of them are published by Valhalla. A further Google search of "wayne chapman author" revealed the name of "Wayne Chapman" as just another pseudonym of András Gáspár, author of Han Solo at Doomsday's Edge. Oh, and Gobalco, you might one to see something quite funny that I also found on Moly. Go here and you can see the "long list" of books published by Brillant.

 

Okay, I have attempted to add the next Easter Egg to my Star Wars Legends timeline, which can be found here. I've added an entry (under an approximate date of 150-200 ABY) for Imperial Blood, even though it isn't a Star Wars story. Just thought I'd add it in, as I have already added the fake Han books and TPOTJ. Oh, and thanks for the Star Warsey info on Imperial Blood, Golbolco!

 

I did happen across a listing for “Wayne Chapman’s” book Két Hold (Twin Moons) last night, but assumed it was a one-off. It’s fascinating just how prolific András Gáspár and Zsolt Nyulászi actually were in Hungary during the ‘90s. Thanks for the info! I haven’t heard back yet from Mr. Nyulászi, but Imperial Blood has captured my interest enough that I may end up translating it too (a long way off at this point! ) and trying to adapt it into a “proper” Star Wars novel.

 

That would be really cool! Although Imperial Blood isn't actually Star Wars, it would be a really cool read, especially if it can be adapted into a Star Wars novel, but of course, the Han books (and possibly The Power of the Jedi) come first.

 

Hi all. It's been a while. There hasn't been much news about the translations, so I haven't posted anything. Although, I have started making some changes to the list of Valhalla Star Wars books. You can find the updated one here. I'm still going to add publication dates, Hungarian series names and English series names, which I am working on now, possibly even where they are placed in the Star Wars Legends timeline. Other than that, I'm just waiting for any new info on the books, or old info. That's fine too.

 

Hey! So, to provide a sort of “unofficial” update (since technically the project hasn’t been “officially” announced just yet ), I’ll give an overview of the expected timeline for the translations’ completion, just so no one’s kept in the dark. Based on my current rate, I see mid-July as a very rough but realistic date for when I will be finished with the first book, after which I will share it with Joe for editing. Beyond that I can’t give much of an estimate for the official release as it depends on Joe’s availability (the extended edition of Supernatural Encounters will be the first priority). I’ll immediately start translating Han Solo: Nomad while Imperial Agent is being edited. Unfortunately this will be a very long-term project, and I don’t project the series to be completed until summer next year. I won’t be providing regular updates, since they would probably be exceedingly boring (“I got 10 pages done this week!” ), but I will definitely share neat things I happen to find as I go along. I’m also keeping thorough notes of the translation process that I might release to the public at the end. For the next 2-3 weeks I will actually be in the process of finishing purchasing and moving to a new house, so things will be slow for May, but I will catch up on lost time in June. Meanwhile, stay tuned on Joe’s website and Facebook page for all official announcements!

 

I patiently await the final product. Y'all are doing some truly heroic work!

 

Mid-July? Wow, SpecForce Trooper is right. Truly amazing work!

 

Since it’s been a few weeks I figured I’d give an update! We have successfully closed on and moved into our new house, and I plan on starting to catch up on the translation this week. I’m currently on chapter 4 of 13 in Imperial Agent, and have shared the rough draft of the first 3 chapters with Joe to give him an idea of where things are going. I sadly haven’t heard back from the original author in regards to Imperial Blood or his other works, but he did say in a previous conversation that he is eager to read the translations. Given the legal problems surrounding the Han Solo books, he may be reluctant to have his name attached to the project in any way, which is fair. Things are looking promising though, and I’m still feeling good about finishing the first translation during the summer (still no set release dates yet, of course ).

 

Thanks for the update! Good to see the translations are back in action. Can't wait to see what the final product is like!

 

Some more good news: another user here contacted me to assist as he had begun his own translation project awhile back. If we’re able to coordinate, the translations will likely be finished considerably sooner (i.e. before this time next year! )

 

AWESOME! May the Force be with you in your translations!

 

I was just sent this file, they told me it was downloaded from scribd.

A Jedi Hatalma.pdf

 

Awesome! I'll put it through a rough translation tomorrow and see what I get.

 

So, I've had a rough look through the translation of A Jedi hatalma. For those who want to see the rough translation, download the document in Bodo Baas' post and upload it to this link. Anyway, I always look at the copyright page first. This usually has the best info, fake or not (it's more interesting if it's fake). So what the copyright page has told me is that the book was translated by Dr. Ferenc Matheidesz. I couldn't find anything on a real-life Dr. Ferenc Matheidesz or any other names he took (i.e. Zsolt Nyulazi took the alias of Dale Avery). Then there was the cover artist, Nicolae Radescu. This one was kind of interesting. A cover artist by this name or anybody associated with books or art, I could not find, but I did find a Romanian army officer by the same name. His Wikipedia page can be found here. Hope this info is good!

 

https://www.jedipedia.net/wiki/Valhalla_Páholy

Joe sent me this a few weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to share it, apparently Jedipedia (the German equivalent of Wookieepedia) have put together an article on Valhalla Páholy that’s remarkably extensive. It does seem to confirm that The Power of the Jedi was in fact published by a subsidiary of Valhalla Páholy and not a separate publisher. There are only two errors I noted, in that it states the translation project began in January 2019 (no idea where that date came from, though it feels like a year and a half have gone by since I got started!) and that Han Solo: Nomad was the first of the four Han books published when that book has a forward explicitly stating it is a prequel to Imperial Agent, though it’s possible it was commissioned first. The article’s in German, but Google does an almost perfect job translating it to English.

Speaking of which, my co-translator has been a tremendous help and his work has sped up the process significantly. We’re just shy of halfway through Imperial Agent.

 

Hey hey! Cite no. 13, 14 and 18 are to this thread! And weblink no. 4 is also this is thread! And, not meaning to brag, my blog is mentioned 3 times! I was wondering where my Germany views were coming from.

 

Figured we were overdue for an update, especially as interest in the translation project seems to be increasing on reddit. I have about 35 pages left in The Imperial Agent (which I’m now referring to by the full literal title to preserve a self-referential joke I found in the book), and my partner is well underway with The Bounty Hunters. I think the end of August is now a realistic and likely target for completion of the first translation, at which point we’ll send it to Joe for proofing. I’ve also purchased my own physical copies of all the Hungarian-only books, as well as the Hungarian versions of the Brian Daley books (after much stress and frustration with the shipping process). They’re neat! The beginning of Han Solo: Bosszúja (Han Solo’s Revenge) includes a forward by András Gáspár in which he calls out an unofficial sequel to Heir to the Empire, saying that its characters “ended up in ruin by an amateur ‘author’ hiding behind a pseudonym for good reason,” and that the characters killed in that book remain “alive and well” in the real, then-forthcoming sequel Dark Force Rising. So, I think it’s safe to say that neither András Gáspár nor Zsolt Nyulászi was the infamous “Malcolm Webster” behind A Jedi Hatalma lol.