“Just wait, Solo, he thought. You are a dead man. You just don’t know it… yet” (116).
Since the end of Ann Carol Crispin’s first novel in the “Han Solo Trilogy,” The Paradise Snare, a great deal has happened in the life of everyone’s favorite roguish scoundrel. The Hutt Gambit picks up five years later as Han Solo is suddenly working as a smuggler alongside a clingy Wookiee named “chew-something.” What has happened in the ensuing years? Apparently, for the past half-decade, Han was studying at the Imperial Academy, rising to the rank of Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, however he has since been dishonorably discharged following an incident in which he took a brave stand against slavery and abuse. Han was sent to assist the sadistic Commander Nycklas on Coruscant in overseeing a crew of enslaved Wookiees who were ordered to construct a new wing on the Imperial Hall of Heroes. But when Commander Nycklas decided to torment the Wookiees with an energy whip, one Wookiee resisted and Han decided to help him. He was, no doubt, remembering his beloved Dewlanna from The Paradise Snare. Anyway, Han and the Wookiee managed to escape together and now the Wookiee follows Han everywhere he goes, claiming he owes Han a “life debt” –a sacred Wookiee custom. Interestingly enough, A.C. Crispin was not allowed to directly describe Han’s first meeting with Chewbacca (as directed by Lucasfilm at the time), but she was granted permission to allude to it in a flashback. Perhaps Lucasfilm had bigger plans for this story down the road. At any rate, now without a job, Han has lost his pay, his pension, and no one in the galaxy is willing to hire a disgraced former pilot who has been blacklisted by the Empire.
Thus, Han and Chewie start working under the table as smugglers –piloting a ship of contraband to Tralus, then to Duro, then another transport job for a Sullustan to Kothlis (a Bothan colony world), then taking a large nalargon from Kothlis to Devaron. Han tells Chewie to leave him and return home to Kashyyyk, but Chewie refuses. They grow closer after Chewie rescues Han from a raucous sabacc game that goes awry (in this scene, there are some fascinating details about the game of sabacc on display). The two then get tied up in the Hutt underworld when a Duros starship merchant known as “Truthful Toryl” on Tralus gives them a job delivering a ship to Nar Hekka, a cold technological world that orbits a dim red star at the edge of the Y’Toub system (the Hutt system). The one rule is that they must not allow any Imperials to board. Han and Chewie deliver the mysterious cargo to Tagta the Hutt, Jiliac the Hutt’s highest-ranking subordinate on Nar Hekka.
From here, Han and Chewie make their way to the “Smuggler’s Moon” of Nar Shaddaa in the Hutt system using the aliases of Garris Kyll and Arrikabukk aboard a ship called the Stellar Princess, and they look up an old friend of Han, Mako Spince, an upperclass cadet with black hair, a mustache, and a scar down his jaw line (he appeared in the Dark Empire comics). Through Mako, they find smuggling work and get connected to many of the key players in the smuggling world, like Shug Ninx, a humanoid with two fingers on each hand and owner of the “Space Barn” –a garage and gathering place for ships in the trade. Shug Ninx also first appeared in the Dark Empire comics. Han has a couple romantic dalliances, one with a magician named Xaverri, who later leaves Han to pursue a vendetta against the Empire for killing her family (she appeared in the novel The Crystal Star), then with a woman named Salla Zend (another Dark Empire character), a colleague of Shug Ninx. Also, Han encounters a fortune teller who makes a dark prediction –that Han will one day face betrayal and he will eventually become rich but only when he doesn’t care about wealth anymore. Naturally, he pays it little mind.
Han and Chewie start working for the Hutts under Jiliac the Hutt (relative of Jabba the Hutt) and in these scenes, Crispin adds considerable detail and lore to the Hutts. For example, the Hutts once fled their home world of origin (a planet called “Varl”) before claiming Nal Hutta as their new home world. Politically, the Hutts are divided into crime families called “kajidics.” Jabba and Jiliac are members of the Desilijic kajidic and they are bitter enemies of the Besadii kajidic, which is helmed by the 900-year-old patriarch Aruk the Hutt, a massive worm who oversees operations on the planet Ylesia –a steaming, fungal, religious world as featured in the first book in A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo trilogy, The Paradise Snare. Ylesia has been promising pilgrims supposed religious sanctuary, but as Han previously learned, the leaders of Ylesia have actually been ensnaring potential slaves via an addictive “exultation” religious ceremony. The whole project is led by a race known as t’landa Til, creatures who are distantly related to the Hutts only with four tree-trunk-line legs, huge horns protruding from their heads, and otherwise bodies that resemble the Hutts. Recall that previously, in The Paradise Snare, Han went by the alias “Vykk Draygo” when he and his lover, Bria Tharen (who became addicted to the exultation), fled Ylesia after causing a mass act of terror, destroying a factory and killing Zavval the Hutt.
By now Teroenza, the High Priest and unofficial master of Ylesia, has managed to track down Han’s true identity and he puts out a bounty on him. For much of the novel, Han is fending off bounty hunter attacks from Bothans and Twi-leks and so on, until one highly competent Mandalorian manages to kidnap Han using a particular poison from Ryloth that compels him to obey orders. This bounty hunter is none other than the famed Boba Fett –hanging off his armor are two Wookiee scalps, one black and the other white. He has been offered Mandalorian wrist darts for agreeing to interview with Teroenza, and a boatload of money in exchange for bringing Han Solo to Ylesia where he sure to face unimaginable suffering. Just as Han is very nearly taken aboard the Slave I, he is rescued by a mysterious figure in the shadows who stuns Boba Fett and injects him with the same serum he had given to Han. The man in question? None other than a young Lando Calrissian (sans mustache). He has been tracking Han down all day because he is in need of a good pilot. The two of them disarm Boba Fett and instead of killing him, they simply strap him down to his chair in the Slave I and send him on autopilot deep into Imperial space. But… why not just kill him like all the other bounty hunters? This was a bit befuddling to me.
Anyway, Lando explains that he recently won a ship called the Millennium Falcon, a model YT-1300 Transport, in a sabacc game on Bespin –“But as Han stared at this particular ship, something strange happened. Without warning, he fell suddenly, irrevocably, irretrievably in love. The ship called to him, she sang to him a siren song of speed, of maneuverability, of narrow escapes and adventures and successful smuggling runs galore… That ship is going to be mine, Han thought. Mine. The Millennium Falcon will be mine…” (143). Then Han amusingly remarks: “What a hunk of junk!” (there a few nice little nods to the original films in this novel). After this, Lando gives Han and Chewie their first ship, which Han names the “Bria” after his long-lost lover (it is a SoroSuub freighter, Starmite-class). In the novel, Han and Bria briefly see each other, but unbeknownst to Han, she has secretly started working with the Corellian Resistance against the slavers on Ylesia.
Han runs a great many smuggling missions throughout the bulk of this book –such as running contraband from Nar Shaddaa to Ryloth or transporting a pregnant Jiliac the Hutt (it is explained that the Hutts are hermaphroditic can reproduce at will)—and as Han does so, he becomes friends with the other smugglers, like Zeen Afit, who shows Han how to fly through an asteroid field like the infamous Smuggler’s Run. And other smugglers in this colorful cast of characters include Wynni, Kid DXo’ln, Roa (who coaches him on how to make the Kessel Run, where Han learns about the Maw and the Pit, as described in Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy trilogy).
In time, Han becomes a trusted pilot of Jabba and Jiliac –he is sure to tell the Hutts he will transport anything, like spice or glitterstim or ryll, but he will not deal with slaves. Shortly thereafter, Jabba the Hutt becomes aware of Han’s backstory and he pays Boba Fett not to return and claim his bounty on Han… at least for now.
The novel culminates in a dispute between the Desilijic and Besadii Hutt clans as the Emperor announces he can no longer tolerate the Hutt dealings along the outer rim. Following an uprising on Rampa II, he declares a crackdown on contraband. He marshals forces headed for the Hutt sytem while Jabba and Jiliac secretly exploit tensions between their fellow Hutts (Aruk, his son Durga, and nephew Kibbick) and Teroenza the High Priest on Ylesia. They pay off Teroenza and arrange for Aruk the Hutt to be quietly poisoned via all the squirming nala tree frogs he eats out of his snackquarium. Then, Jabba and Jiliac further secure their power by preparing for an Imperial invasion on Nar Shaddaa. They send Han on a mission to meet with Moff Sarn Shild the regional Imperial Moff who has overseen Hutt Space for years, a taker of bribes who has allowed the Hutts to do as they please (first Han assumes the Imperial alias of Lieutenant Stevv Manosk and then as Jobekk Jonn of Nal Hutta, flying the Hutt courier ship Quicksilver). But Shild refuses to take any more bribes now that the Emperor is sending a fleet to the outer rim (here, Han briefly spots his former lover, Bria, whom Shild introduces as his “niece,” though Han believes she is secretly his mistress –it is a tragic moment in the novel, particularly for Bria). But Han is then sent off to Imperial Admiral Winstel Greelanx, the man who will actually be leading the invasion of Nar Shaddaa, to bribe him, since he is older and nearing retirement. They meet on the jungle planet of Teth in Hutt Space and he accepts the bribe, but only provisionally –he offers to give the smugglers a fighting chance (though he curiously receives an anonymous message instructing him to deliberately lose the fight). Han bribes him for the battle plans with the gift of a platinum ring set with a Bothan glitterstone and other rare gems that will be offered after the battle (this is to avoid scrutiny, instead of using credits, so that Greelanx might sell them off later).
As the battle ensues, the Hutts decide to retreat to the safety of the planetary shield around Nal Hutta, refusing to stick their necks out for a mere Smuggler’s Moon (the Emperor has said he wants the Besadii clan to remain unmolested in order to protect slave trade). Mako Spince raises an army of pirates to assist while Han reaches out to his former girlfriend Xaverri (the magician). The rest of the smugglers who remain to defend Nar Shaddaa rise up under Mako Spince and Han plus their “High Command” consisting of Chewbacca, Roa (who first appeared in the novel Han Solo’s Revenge), Shug Ninx, Salla Zend, Lando Calrissian, Rik Duel, and Sinewy Ana Blue, who first appeared in the novel The New Rebellion (together, the comprise a fairly ragtag group of experienced smugglers). As the Imperial ships approach, the smugglers conceal their ships among the heavy debris encircling Nar Shaddaa, only attacking with the element of surprise, and when the heavy Imperial ships are within range, Xaverri creates an illusion using powerful holo-projectors to suddenly make it seem as if a huge fleet was awaiting them. Han, Salla Zend, and Lando make a micro-hyperspace jump into the midst of faux fleet and begin firing upon the Imperials to further bolster the illusion. The Imperials take heavy losses and Greelanx orders a full retreat. The Battle of Nar Shadaa has been won by the smugglers.
In the end, Moff Sarn Shild is angrily summoned to Corscuant where he surely faces death by the Emperor. He decides to commit suicide, either by blaster or poison… Lando heads off to Bespin for a big sabacc tournament, while Han travels to privately meet with Admiral Greelanx to deliver him his bribe for losing the battle. However, during their meeting, a strange visitor arrives (as announced by Greelanx’s secretary). Han quickly hides in a nearby antechamber while Greelanx conceals his new credits. From behind the door, in an eerily horrific scene, Han listens as an evil, mechanical voice using a breathing respirator berates Admiral Greelanx, who shakily denies any wrongdoing. But before he can say too much, Greelanx’s throat is closed and his body hits the floor. Han is petrified but he waits a while before fleeing out of Greelanx’s office, taking only a small black krayt dragon pearl and wondering what just occurred (he has never seen Darth Vader before). He is briefly recognized by an old friend, Tedris Bjalis, but Han stuns him and stows him away before fleeing aboard the Bria with Chewie, however the Imperial spot them and fire upon them, destroying the Bria. Han and Chewie narrowly manage to escape aboard a lifepod. The novel ends as Durga the Hutt rises to fill the power vacuum left by his father, privately vowing revenge against who killed him, and in an epilogue, Han is back on Corellia, with plans to head to Bespin in ten days for the big sabacc tournament…
The Hutt Gambit is easily one of the best Star Wars books I have yet encountered, a compelling glimpse into the world of “scum and villainy” within the outer rim’s underworld of smugglers and rogues. Admittedly, it is a bit jarring to have so much exposition on the front-end (particularly the quick flashbacks of Han meeting Chewbacca for the first time) and there are a few throw-away characters here, like a sentimental child who claims to be a relative of Han’s named “Jarik Solo” whom Han takes under his wing so to speak, however this is also an extraordinary novel that features so many critical moments in Star Wars lore –the first moment Han encounters Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, the Millennium Falcon, Jaba the Hutt, and even Darth Vader! And while much of the novel is mired in Han running various small smuggling missions around the galaxy (often on behalf of the Hutts), after the closing victory in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa, Crispin tees up a third novel nicely as we anticipate Han’s forthcoming sabacc showdown with Lando in Bespin over the Millennium Falcon, we wonder if he will ever reunite with Bria again, and all the while, Boba Fett and Durga the Hutt will likely want their revenge. All things considered, The Hutt Gambit is another wonderful installment in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Notes:
- Nalargon – a very large musical instrument operated by a keyboard and foot pedals with pipes and subharmonic generators used produce sounds on many wave bands. It fulfills the demand for the musical “jizz” (as opposed to jazz) craze that swept the galaxy. The instrument first appears in Return of the Jedi inside Jabba’s Palace and is played by Max Rebo.
- Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine makes a brief cameo in The Hutt Gambit as the place where Jabba summons Boba Fett to bribe him to temporarily stop hunting Han.
- There is an ancient holy city called “Montellian Serat” on Devaron.
- The Hutt Gambit describes considerable details about the game of sabacc. While playing, Han notes that he has a six of staves and the Queen of Air and Darkness, he is worried about getting the Idiot (with a value of zero) and a card with the face value of three, if he picks up the Idiot’s card this could give him an “idiot’s array” which would beat even a “pure sabacc.” His Queen is the “Master of sabers.” The six of sabers and the eight of flasks are also mentioned, as is “Bombing out” which means exceeding twenty-three. All of these little details are fascinating. The players accuse Han of cheating, though he isn’t using skifters. Skifters are cards that assume different values when their edges are tapped.
- A Barabel is one of the creatures playing sabacc, a reptilian being from Barab One.
- Nar Shaddaa, the “Smuggler’s Moon,” orbits Nal Hutta. There is a large amount of space debris around the moon, and Nal Hutta has a large planetary shield around itself.
- Chewie once had a Wookiee lover named Mallatobuck (“Malla”). Chewie’s father was named Attichitcuk.
- This novel describes the “fully corpulent” stage of Hutt life, when they are older and fully grown. However, despite using grav lifts, Hutts still see it as a matter of pride if they can slither on their own.
- The Ylesian missionary who spots Han is named Veratil.
- Nala-tree frogs are described as the squirmy creatures ofteneaten out of Hutt snackquariums (presumably like the one Jabba eats out of in Return of the Jedi).
- The majordomo of Teroenza is named Ganar Tos (a near-human reptilian Zisian), he wanted to marry Bria in The Paradise Snare.
- Lord Jiliac’s majordomo is Dielo (a human female).
- The Tsyklen are a native species from Tsyk in Hutt Space.
- Nal Hutta means “Glorious Jewel” in Huttese even though it’s a swampy bog planet.
- “Who in the name of Xendor” is uttered by Mako Spince, and later Han says “Minions of Xendor” as an exclamation. This phrase is mentioned a few times throughout the novel.
- Polanis ale is mentioned. Apparently, it is a kind of nondescript alcoholic beverage from the Polanis system.
- Jabba’s personal space yacht is called the Star Jewel. Jiliac’s yacht is called the Dragon Pearl.
- The Ishi Tib species have oblong faces and are humanoid amphibians. They first appeared in Return of the Jedi.
- Oskan blood eaters are fearsome carnivores with a blade on each of their four arms. Jabba apparently kept one as a pet.
- Stim tea is brewed in the mornings by smugglers.
- The Hutt home world of Nal Hutta is governed by an oligarchic council
- Years ago, Boba Fett was a Jouneyman Protector named “Jaster Mereel.”
- One of Jabba’s past majordomos was a Twi’lek named Lobb Gerido.
- In this novel, Lando’s tentacled droid is Vuffi Raa (the droid first appears in Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu). At points, Vuffi Raa seems to serve as the main pilot of the Falcon.
- Han mentions cooking Traladon steaks at one point.
- The crew complement of a dreadnought totals 16,204.
- “Base Delta Zero” is an Imperial order that calls for the decimation of a world.
Crispin, A.C. The Hutt Gambit. Del Rey, New York, NY, 2015 (originally published in 1997). The Hutt Gambit was dedicated to Kevin J. Anderson “with thanks for all the encouragement.”