The Adventures of Lando Calrissian (Mass Market Paperback)

These are odd little stories who chief virtue is that all 3 cover only 408 pages, they can therefore be read quickly. If only someone would edit the Black Fleet Crises down from 900 to 400 pages, but I dream...

Mindharp is the first story and the best of the three. This tells how Lando got the falcon learned to fly it. Flamewind is a bit confusing but a worthwhile read. Starcave may be one of the stupidest plots I have ever read. What saves it is Lando and his interaction with the creatures.

If yo decide to skip reading these books, you'll be missing nothing regarding the SW EU. Mindharp is worth the price of the book, if you can find a copy.

Lando Calrissian and the MindHarp of Sharu
Lando just got the Falcon, and has little ability as to how to fly it, you see, this is several years before A New Hope, and Lando is the only character you know of that will be mentioned of in these 3 books. He goes to a system, gets a droid, Vuffi Raa (Don't call me Master) and goes looking for treasure. He makes folks mad at him. This is one of my all-time favorites. The combination of Adventure, mirth, star Wars and Lando himself make this a great book. Read it, and may the Force be with you.

Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
Lando gets arrested. His punishment: deliver some goods, though he's not supposed to during the time when the Flamewind is occuring, making it dangerous. He cuts some deals, gets into trouble and gets away. It's good but not the best of the three. Read it anyway.

Lando Calrissian and the Starcave at Thonbaka
This is very interesting. Several new concepts are introduced by this book. These creatures that live in vaccuum are very interesting. Lando begins to Learn how to control the Falcon. As You read on it gets better. He even gambles with these creatures. It's throughly well written and I think should be read by all who claim to have seen, heard of, or had anything to do with Star Wars.

For the first couple pages, I chuckled along with probably everyone else who's read the book. The narrative was humorous and the conversations entertaining, but if sarcastic humor and colorful insults are the only thing L. Neil Smith has up his sleeve, well, I certainly won't be reading the last two stories.

For a moment or two I really did care about our characters, but soon it was obvious that they had nothing more than their sarcastic wit to get them out of jams. None of the situations seemed 'real' enough to me, since either the narrative or Lando himself had some comment that completely downplayed the whole thing, had dismissed the danger. Such comments I believe weren't necessary. This revelation reversed my opinion of the story. "Ok, when does this start to get serious, here?" was a frequent thought in my head.

Apparently, since the narrative's only strength is the humor, it goes down in burning flames when one begins to consider what other positive aspects there are in the writing style. It's simple: there aren't any. The writing quality itself really isn't that great in the first place. I suppose this last idea is a product of my reading of Tolkien, Dumas, Homer, Dickens, and Shakespeare that I just experienced an amazing bathos in picking this book up.

If I'd've been warned beforehand (such as on the front cover perhaps) that this book was a PARODY, well then I certainly would have enjoyed it, and it would have succeeded with great praise.