Book Review: Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves

Book: Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves (Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion book #2) by James S. A. Corey

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Rating: 3 stars

Review:

"Honor Among Thieves" takes place some time after the movie "A New Hope", I thought this was good but I felt like it could have been much better especially with the way Han Solo was portrayed sometimes as an incompetent goon. I also didn't like that Chewbacca took a back seat in this story so it could focus more on newly created character Scarlet Hark who I found to be really annoying and bossy (yeah, I know Leia is bossy but she's likeable). She was also way too perfect and it was annoying because she was this perfect spy who can do just about anything.

This was a fun read but I felt like Scarlet may have gotten too much focus especially since this was mainly supposed to be about Han Solo. I guess what annoyed me was how Scarlet treated Han as if he was at her beck and call and was pretty much an idiot. She was basically calling all the shots and Han was just there to follow along. But I did like how Han finally showed up Scarlet while a portion of the group were walking through the jungle. What I did enjoy was the banter between Han and Leia, the author had a good feel of the voices and personalities for those two characters.

The story had Han Solo and Chewbacca going out to an Empire controlled planet to pick up Scarlet Hark, a rebel spy who had been stationed there to find out information. However, before Han and Chewbacca could locate the spy they were ambushed by a former friend Baasen who was planning on taking them back to Jabba for a nice reward.

But after a very daring escape, Han (minus Chewie who was back at their ship) was on the trail of the spy so he could find her and quickly leave. Once he found her the plan of immediate departure was changed so that Han and Scarlet could try to retrieve some important information from the Empire. The information told of a legendary device that if the Empire could acquire it will gain them control over hyperspace travel.

Things took another turn when Scarlet realized that the information that they needed was going to be taken to the summit which is were Leia was. But before Han, Chewie and Scarlet could leave the space system they had to get away from Empire ships as well as from Baasen.

Once the trio got to the summit they had to track down the guy who had the information but that didn't quite work out they way they wanted it to but they did get the information they needed. And with Empire ships quickly approaching, Han, Leia, Chewie, Scarlet and Baasen had to make a fast getaway along with the other attendees from the summit.

To get to the device the group wound up regrouping with Luke who with several other Rebellion flyers had been stuck out in the Seymarti system with no way to return thanks to the hyperspace device.

My annoyances aside, I really did enjoy this and it felt like a good addition to the Star Wars universe. I still wish there was more of Luke in this, he was reduced to being nothing more than pilot guy with a few one-liners.

So, in the end this is a good story but it put too much focus on new character Scarlet Hark and turned Han, Chewie and Luke into secondary characters. Well at least Leia wasn't turned into a damsel-in-distress.