A little too action-packed without much of anything else for my taste, but it gets points for its accurate portrayal of Han and Chewie's friendship and loyalty to each other, and Han's bleeding heart.

Just as good as I remembered it to be.

I read these books in an effort to get hyped for the release of Solo, this more than any other book was the one I wanted to read. A Han Solo novel written when only A New Hope existed,even though I read many many years ago. It is cool because when author Brian Daley wrote this he had no rich canon or universe to rely on. He just had this one movie and the Han Solo in that movie was the one who shot first and tipped the bartender for cleaning up Greedio's corpse. I read this book the week before seeing Solo.
The rest of the efforts to write Han Solo in movies, books and comic were writing about General Solo. In the light of the character who rightly was changed by seeing the sacrifice of Luke and Leia. It makes sense that Han Solo is a changed person. Solo as a movie rightly writes a character who is the foundation of both those sides of the character we know now, what makes this book special is the author Brian Daley had only the super rogue Han solo to go off of.
Han and Chewie are a little more simple in this book but it doesn't suffer for it. AC Crispin who was a excellent tie-in writer did books that address the wider EU and I like both series in different ways. I like the artifact nature of the sorta-out of date Star wars book. In this book Han is not afraid to get his hands dirty, a lot of attention is paid to the operation of the Falcon. I got the feeling that the Falcon in this book was slightly more important to Han than Chewie. Then again this is early in their friendship.
This part of the star wars universe is a creation of Daley, as he didn't have much to go on. The corporate authority is never seen again, and neither are the interesting two droids Bollux and Blue Max. I found myself liking them more than I expected. While there for greed of course Han and Chewie end up being reluctant heroes.

It was okay. Not great, but not awful either. It seemed like the author didn't get Han Solo's character quite right.

This book is a delight. I was worried childhood nostalgia might color my view of it, as it was the first Star Wars book I ever read. I still remember the unspeakable joy that overcame nine-year-old me when I discovered it lurking at the tiny public library in my hometown. A novel of additional adventures of Han Solo, my favorite Star Wars character?! How could such a wonderful thing even exist? The trilogy that was the Han Solo Adventures became my favorite Star Wars book of all time. I used to have a boxset copy of all three that I read so many times, pages started to fall out.

I purchased the ebook awhile ago in a fit of longing, wishing to do a larger reread of the Star Wars EU that I loved as a kid. I've gotten through a few of them from the 90s era, but on a whim decided to crack Han Solo at Stars' End. It did not disappoint. It has everything I want: not only from a Star Wars book, but sci fi in general. It's fun, it's ambitious, it swings for the fences in terms of world-building and contains wonderful, colorful characters, both alien and human. And it's well-written — I was actually quite surprised how sophisticated the language is in this book, and how complex the themes. Nine-year-old me was a precocious little shit, I guess.

Han Solo and Chewbacca are smugglers, just trying to make their way in a galaxy ruled by the iron fist of the Empire. When the father of a contact goes missing, they find themselves roped into a mystery bigger than either of them bargained for, caught between the political forces of the ruthless Corporate Sector Authority. Blaster fights, kidnapping, treasonous colleagues, wacky schemes to rescue civilians and other assorted hijinks ensue. It's fantastic.

One thing I did not realize until returning to this book as an adult: it was written while only the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, had been released. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, it has some incredibly refreshing characterization, particularly of Han but also Chewbacca. It's difficult to portray a main character who communicates in only growls and roars, but Brian Daley manages to do it with ease, and effortlessly portrays the deep, abiding friendship in the iconic duo. And Han is pitch perfect — this is my Han Solo: brash, impulsive, quippy, in turns brilliant and recklessly short-sighted, and just a touch morally ambiguous. Yet he always has his heart in the right place, albeit begrudgingly. The author blurb for Brian Daley on Goodreads says that he felt compelled to write stories about Han because he's the only character who makes a moral choice in A New Hope, and that through line is evident in this book. Han can talk a big game about being cutthroat and self-serving, but his conscience always wins out. There are some seriously poignant scenes that put this on full display, from Han's bitter recollections of his ousting from the Imperial Navy, to his philosophical discussions with Rekkon (whom I would pay good money to see Idris Elba play in a film, but that's neither here nor there), to his confrontation with Torm — a scene I can recall playing out nearly in its entirety from childhood, so searing was it on my young psyche.

Anyone hoping to see Jedi or lightsabers in this book will be disappointed, but I always found the Corporate Sector to be a fun, interesting premise for a setting, and somewhat prescient, given the rise of Silicon Valley and mega-corporations in the decades since this book was written. There is some rad social commentary on classism and the inherent evil of corporations in this novel, something you'll never see from modern Disney iterations. I think the magic of a book like this is that it was written before Star Wars was truly a brand — there are no obligatory glimpses of Darth Vader, no cameo by preteen Luke Skywalker, no reductive answers to questions no fan actually had (I'm looking at you, Solo: A Star Wars Story. I always assumed Han just had a last name, like most people), no side character shoehorned in who's going to have their own show on Disney+ next season. This is just a good novel written by someone who loves the characters involved and the possibilities of the universe they inhabit. It looks outward to tell a compelling story, not inward to maximize brand integrity and sell more merch.

Forget the ten upcoming Disney shows. Forget the joyless prequels. Forget the tonal and narrative mess that were the sequels. If you want something that captures the heart of Star Wars while expanding its universe, read this.

2.5. This was a quick, fun read. Something we already had in the house. Lots of action, but most of it is pretty skimmable and you'll still get the gist of what is going on.

When I started reading the Star Wars books (at least, once I committed to reading all of them), I decided to read them in chronological order. Past experience with other series suggested this wasn't the best idea, but it seemed like a good way to introduce myself to the Expanded Universe. Now that I'm starting to get into some of the older books, though, I see that I've made a mistake.

In Han Solo at Stars' End, one of the plot points revolve around Doc, a mechanic for criminals and other scoundrels, having gone missing. What's cool is that A.C. Crispin's Han Solo trilogy, which precedes this chronologically but succeeds it in publication order, ends with a reference to Doc, setting it up to flow directly into this series. In a way, it's neat to see how a later author uses an earlier story to support their own, but in another, I feel like I'm missing a lot of other Easter eggs by reading these all out of order.

The book itself is okay. It's written well, and has an engaging plot, but it doesn't have much of an emotional connection. I found myself checking out a lot during some of the longer narrative bits, which is something I found happening a lot with The Adventures of Lando Calrissian, though I think Daley's book is written better and feels more like Star Wars than Smith's books did. I feel like I missed some portions of the story, but at the same time, I feel like I didn't miss anything at all, since there weren't any loose plot points that I could see. It just didn't feel significant at all.

I get the feeling that had I read this when it was first published (1979; it was the second EU book, written even before The Empire Strikes Back), I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Now, though, that the Star Wars universe is so expansive and rich, it feels oddly constrained, given that it wasn't as dependent on anything that came before it. It's a quick read, by any means, and it's a neat piece of history when it comes to Star Wars. I wouldn't recommend it for casual readers, though.

Thankfully Han and Chewie don't have the hots for each other in this one. Or would that have made it better? Hmm.