Book Review: Scoundrels (spoilers)

There’s a reason Timothy Zahn is the gold standard for Star Wars authors, and this book is the prime example.  This book masterfully weaves together a huge ensemble cast representing a number of different interests, with a Sixth Sense rivaling twist at the end.

Hired to recover a huge sum of credits, Han and Chewie assemble an Ocean’s Eleven style team of theives, hackers, and specialists to retrieve it from a seemingly impossible fortress.  Most of these rogues have appeared elsewhere in Star Wars fiction, either book or comic, most notably Lando and Wynter.  Add to that the fact that the current holder of said credits works for Black Sun, and is hosting a visit from a Vigo, and being watched by an imperial intelligence agent, and you’ve got some big time paranoia all around.

I had always wished that for some reason Tom Clancy would write a Star Wars book, both for the length, and the complexity.  While sadly that is no longer a possibility, the way Timothy intertwines all the various factions and interests might almost be a tribute.  What seems like such a simple straight forward job, recover the stolen property for a big pay day, quickly devolves into near chaos as a number of different competing interests reveal themselves, as well as a possible prize that would rival the value of the credits they were hired for.  Add to that the wry humor that always bubbles up when Han and Lando are together and this book becomes an instant classic.

There’s one twist that bubbles up on the last two pages that totally turns the whole book on its side.  I’m going to save this one for you because some endings just shouldn’t be spoiled.  This is a definite must read.