Books Star Wars: Last Shot by Daniel Jose Older (Out on Apr 17, 2018)

Your lack of faith disturbs me.

 

It was a checkered book. I found getting through it very boring, but everything ties up nicely at the end which I like.

 

You were bored but you read it in a day?

 

A few notes re: subtle goofs and/or typos:

Spoiler

• The Lee romay of Mon Cala is described as a crustacean, when in fact it's a clam, and thus a mollusk;
• The book uses Endorian and Endoran interchangeably, often in the mouth (or vocoder) of the same character;
• At one point, Prita Sven is referred to as a Vice Admiral instead of Vice Grand Administrator.

This is very minor nitpicking though. If I'm down to nitpicking like that, it only means that the book is an absolute blast. Like Jello said, it reminded me of the good old EU I grew up with. I could almost smell the distinct spicy scent the paper had back then.

 

So I took off the "flip for Lando cover" sticker very slowly and carefully, but it still left a lot of sticky residue. Any ideas of how to clean that off?

 

Try non-acetone nail polish remover.

 

You can also just use a napkin or other cloth that is very lightly damp. Swipe a few times over the residue, then use a dry cloth. The covers are coated stock, so you aren't going to damage them with a damp cloth, unless you really cover them in liquid.

 

I was an English major in college, and often had to read 2 or 3 full length novels in a week. I can read a novel in a day and retain most of the info. Its my superpower lol. If I like a book I tend to read it slower though. Also, I wrote a review for Last Shot so I had to read it fast anyway.

 

Poe response: Who PMs first? Do I go first? Do you go first?

Kylo response: You PM ME!

More seriously, my copy has just despatched.

 

So, I just finished the book.

Spoiler

I thought that the book flowed very well and turned out to be a surprisingly fast read for me. Its a fun fast paced story that read a lot like you would expect out of one of the better Bantam era novels. Older wrote Han and Lando very well, and it was a lot of fun getting to see them play off each other. Lots of interesting locations and concepts here, including the nature and speed of the NRs disarmament, what they are doing with some ex-imperials and a super creepy droid worshiping cult. Perhaps most interestingly quite a bit of time is devoted to droid rights and sentience, and the book handles them very well. Quite a few Easter eggs an continuity nods here as well, loved the mention of the Lady Luck, and the brief apparence of a few characters from aftermath was great.

My personal favorite new character was Aro N'cookaala, a disgruntled Gungan middle manager absolutely fed up with the racist ex stormtoopers hes stuck working with.

There is a massive secondary cast that Older brings in and tries to manage, and they all are fun. But frankly, I don't feel that the secondary characters in the crew end up getting much, if any depth. You get a few tidbits here and there, but never enough for the characters move beyond feeling like cardboard cutouts to me.

Fyzen Gor filled his role as villain and mad scientist well enough, and his twisted half droid creations were definitely frightening, but I don't think we got to see enough of him throughout the story to really grow to hate the guy in the same way we do with say Count Vidian. We get his backstory in some rather chilling chapters throughout the book, but beyond that he really doesn't interact with the main cast at all.

It was also past the point of believably convenient that he just so happened to be stealing Wookie body parts giving Chewie a reason to come along too.

Overall I'd give it an 8/10. It was a fun read with some of my favorite characters post RotJ and the type of story i definitely wouldn't mind seeing a few more of every year.

 

I did this and it actually made it worse. Now the residue is just smeared all over that corner.

 

I used a tiny bit of vegetable oil, it work perfectly for me when water didn't.

 

Oil and petroleum based products (eg. vaseline) work to dissolve sticker residue; you can also buy something specially formulated for this called Goo Gone at most supermarkets in the cleaning aisle if you want to get all fancy.

 

Found it today at the local Waterstones. (It wasn't discounted in the store either). In reference to the sticker, it doesn't seem to be one on the UK edition - it's part of the printed cover.
Book is next on my reading list.

 

Read it all in one day.

Having the “then” part of the story as flashback chapters instead of linear like I thought it was going to be worked well.

Loved the Ewok slicer (also the return to the use of the term slicer/slicing instead of codebreaker/code breaking from TLJ that really bugged me)

The gungan guard that was also a great addition.

I hope we get more of these post RotJ stories. We also need more books in general. Been way too long since the last new book (not counting TLJ since that was a novelization)

 

Just an advice as an art conservator:
Try oil (coconut oil is especially the best) – most of the times it works. Pencil some oil over it and let it stay for a while as it works on breaking down the molecular chains of the glue and then remove it with a cloth by patiently rubbing in circular ways.
If it’s a really stubborn glue, then you’ll probably have it either use alcohol, or use a mix of oil and baking soda (although this one may be more aggressive).

 

Very good book, if the movie contains the comedy that I read in this book, it will be fine. Book was way better than I though and yes, it brought back good memories of the old legends stuff.

 

Spoiler

I give it a 6 out of 10, and I'm only putting it over the halfway mark because of how nicely everything came together at the end. In my opinion, Older got Lando all wrong, the new characters were awful, so many parts of reading it were tedious like the alien crime-lords accented basic and the Ewok's gibberish. However, I did like how Han felt unsure of his role in being a father. That felt real

 

Love this book so far, Younger Lando is fun

 

It wasn't on the shelves in my local - but since it was due out, I asked "could you check in the stores to see if you have it" (they did) and "it's a new hardback - doesn't that mean it gets a discount?" and I got a discount. Which was nice.

 

Lucky you. The one I found was the only one on the shelf. (They could have had more in the storage room).

 

I thought Jose got Lando all wrong. So many parts of the book were boring and the only part I liked was the stuff with Fyzen Gor. Lets hope its indeed Older's "Last Shot"

 

This book isn't doing much for me. It's been slow going because I'm not that into it. Some decent parts.

Sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

Wordery, you bastards, despatch the damn book.

(I was mistaken a few days back, it was a different part of the order that I got.)