Rebel Dawn: Volume Three in The Han Solo Trilogy

"Rebel Dawn" is the final chapter in A. C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy, and is a solid ending to an outstanding series. It meets expectations far more often than it comes up short.

Basically this story takes place during the last few years preceeding the events that transpired prior to The Battle of Yavin. It opens up with a sabacc tournament in which Han Solo wins The Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian, allowing Han and Chewie to become an unstoppable and uncatchable duo. However, the Empire is starting to tighten its grip on smuggling in the galaxy, and all good things come to an end. So then, for a time, Han and Chewie head off for the Corporate Sector in search of riches in a realm beyond the grasp of the Empire.... (This is basically where "The Han Solo Adventures" by Brian Daley take place) ....meanwhile, the rebellion against the Empire is growing, and among its leaders is an old flame, long lost but not forgetten by Han Solo, who has an offer for han that he couldn't possibly pass up - an incredibly large fortune. If Han can manage to corale his friends in the galactic underworld to help out the fledgeling rebellion, they can all split up their share of the rewards. But unknown to Han, the Rebels have plans of their own which could lead to his smuggler friends turning their backs on him.

This book, like the other two in the series, reads fast, has that Star Wars feeling, and is action packed from begining to end. They're all the kind of books that are just downright hard to put down. However, as I said earlier, this book meets most expections, but where it comes up short is what I'd like to just discuss for a little bit here. I guess I feel that this book really would have worked better had it taken place either before or after Brian Daley's books. Although I have to admit that by interjecting Daley's work into her own, Crispin takes a bold and somewhat risky step at trying to tell two different stories at the same time. But I'm not saying that this book was unsuccessful at interjecting the two tale, I just felt that this story should have taken place before "The Han Solo Adventures", at least in part. And that perhaps Crispin should have written a fourth book that linked the Adventure books with ANH. Because she combined everything into one novel, it often feels as though it was rushed and that many things were left out just to keep the story under a certain length. Furthermore, some of the connections to ANH that were made just seemed too convenient. I think the author tried to make everything too nice and neat at the end that she ended up compromising the overall quality of her work. Don't get me wrong though, she still can write a bad book that would be better than the best of any of Kevin J. Anderson's books.

A. C. Crispin was an excellent fit for writing tales of the Star Wars Universe, and I truly she comes back to write something again in the Star Wars genre. I recommend that anyone who has read the previous two installments of this series (I'm assuming most of you have) to read this book, as it brings to a conclusion the adventures of Han Solo before his days with the Rebellion and New Republic.

Sean's Rating