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A review by jaredkwheeler
Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka by L. Neil Smith
2.0
Star Wars Legends Project #207
Background: Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of ThonBoka was written by [a:L. Neil Smith|93656|L. Neil Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215548322p2/93656.jpg]. It was published in November of 1983. It is the third of Smith's Lando Calrissian Adventures trilogy.
The StarCave of ThonBoka takes place about a year after The Flamewind of Oseon (my review), around 3 years before the battle of Yavin. The main characters are Lando Calrissian and Vuffi Raa, along with Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer of Tund. There are also a couple of surviving minor characters from the last book.
Summary: While vagabonding about the galaxy, Lando and Vuffi Raa stumble across an undiscovered sentient species that can survive and travel through vacuum . . . without a spaceship. Sensing an opportunity to make a fortune in trade, Lando scrambles to put together a cargo and return, but in the meantime, the Empire has learned of them as well, and have decided they are a threat. Meanwhile, old enemies continue to stalk Lando, intent on destroying him, even if they have to commit genocide to do it.
Review: Let me just begin this review with a quote from early in the novel that I think really underlines the effort and care that went into the series as a whole: "the Millennium Falcon stolidly boring her way through the interstellar void straight toward the ThonBoka, which translated roughly into human languages as the StarCave." That's right. The title of this novel is actually Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of StarCave.
I mean, if you've read the first two books and still decided to pick this one up, you pretty much deserve what you get at this point. That said, in terms of its premise, this may be the least bad of the three. There's a halfway decent 50-page novella buried inside this 180-page novel. The conclusion of both this story and of the trilogy as a whole is fairly satisfying if way too drawn out. Frankly, all three of the books are 3 or 4 times longer than they should be for the stories they tell, but that aspect is more noticeable in this one because the story is actually kind of okay.
Here's a good taste of the kind of nonsense you'd have to wade through if you read this book:
"Seventy-six hours, Master. That's a new correction: this region is so clean we've gained another four hours since I made the last estimate. I apologize for my previous inexactitude."
Inexactitude! Lando thought. The Core-blessed thing talks prettier than I do, and I'm supposed to be the con artiste around here!
The Millennium Falcon's velocity, many times greater than that of light, was limited only by the density of the interstellar medium she traversed. Ordinary space is mostly emptiness, yet there are almost always a few stray molecules of gas, sometimes in surprisingly complex chemical organization, per cubic kilometer. Any modern starship's magnetogravitic shielding kept it from burning to an incandescent cinder and smoothed the way through what amounted to a galaxy-wide cluttering of hyperthin atmosphere. But the resistance of the gas was still appreciable through a reduction in the ship's theoretical top speed."
Okay, so first of all, how thin-skinned and petty is Lando here? He's annoyed that a droid used a big word. And why is he annoyed? Because using big words is . . . "talking pretty" . . .? And that's apparently something con artists are good at, so Vuffi Raa is encroaching on Lando's space by . . . For crying out loud. Speaking of which, I haven't talked much about Vuffi Raa in my other reviews, which is wrong of me. He's easily the best thing to come out of this trilogy. These books are as undeserving of a character of his caliber as Lando is undeserving of a droid of his quality. He's awesome, and Lando goes out of his way to be unappreciative for the entire trilogy. Of course, it's mostly to cover over how much affection he actually feels for the droid . . . but that doesn't make it better. It just makes Lando an emotionally-stunted jerk.
Anyway, then there's the whole rest of that passage . . . "what amounted to a galaxy-wide cluttering of hyperthin atmosphere." No, dude. That's . . . That's not how space works. Granted that Star Wars is a lot more fantasy than it is science-fiction, and it has only at best an uncomfortable relationship with science at any given time. But that doesn't mean Smith gets to go out of his way to be openly dumb about stuff. Come on.
So now this trilogy is behind me, thank goodness. I'm excited to read almost anything else. Praise the Force no one ever asked L. Neil Smith to write for Star Wars again.
D
Background: Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of ThonBoka was written by [a:L. Neil Smith|93656|L. Neil Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215548322p2/93656.jpg]. It was published in November of 1983. It is the third of Smith's Lando Calrissian Adventures trilogy.
The StarCave of ThonBoka takes place about a year after The Flamewind of Oseon (my review), around 3 years before the battle of Yavin. The main characters are Lando Calrissian and Vuffi Raa, along with Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer of Tund. There are also a couple of surviving minor characters from the last book.
Summary: While vagabonding about the galaxy, Lando and Vuffi Raa stumble across an undiscovered sentient species that can survive and travel through vacuum . . . without a spaceship. Sensing an opportunity to make a fortune in trade, Lando scrambles to put together a cargo and return, but in the meantime, the Empire has learned of them as well, and have decided they are a threat. Meanwhile, old enemies continue to stalk Lando, intent on destroying him, even if they have to commit genocide to do it.
Review: Let me just begin this review with a quote from early in the novel that I think really underlines the effort and care that went into the series as a whole: "the Millennium Falcon stolidly boring her way through the interstellar void straight toward the ThonBoka, which translated roughly into human languages as the StarCave." That's right. The title of this novel is actually Lando Calrissian and the StarCave of StarCave.
I mean, if you've read the first two books and still decided to pick this one up, you pretty much deserve what you get at this point. That said, in terms of its premise, this may be the least bad of the three. There's a halfway decent 50-page novella buried inside this 180-page novel. The conclusion of both this story and of the trilogy as a whole is fairly satisfying if way too drawn out. Frankly, all three of the books are 3 or 4 times longer than they should be for the stories they tell, but that aspect is more noticeable in this one because the story is actually kind of okay.
Here's a good taste of the kind of nonsense you'd have to wade through if you read this book:
"Seventy-six hours, Master. That's a new correction: this region is so clean we've gained another four hours since I made the last estimate. I apologize for my previous inexactitude."
Inexactitude! Lando thought. The Core-blessed thing talks prettier than I do, and I'm supposed to be the con artiste around here!
The Millennium Falcon's velocity, many times greater than that of light, was limited only by the density of the interstellar medium she traversed. Ordinary space is mostly emptiness, yet there are almost always a few stray molecules of gas, sometimes in surprisingly complex chemical organization, per cubic kilometer. Any modern starship's magnetogravitic shielding kept it from burning to an incandescent cinder and smoothed the way through what amounted to a galaxy-wide cluttering of hyperthin atmosphere. But the resistance of the gas was still appreciable through a reduction in the ship's theoretical top speed."
Okay, so first of all, how thin-skinned and petty is Lando here? He's annoyed that a droid used a big word. And why is he annoyed? Because using big words is . . . "talking pretty" . . .? And that's apparently something con artists are good at, so Vuffi Raa is encroaching on Lando's space by . . . For crying out loud. Speaking of which, I haven't talked much about Vuffi Raa in my other reviews, which is wrong of me. He's easily the best thing to come out of this trilogy. These books are as undeserving of a character of his caliber as Lando is undeserving of a droid of his quality. He's awesome, and Lando goes out of his way to be unappreciative for the entire trilogy. Of course, it's mostly to cover over how much affection he actually feels for the droid . . . but that doesn't make it better. It just makes Lando an emotionally-stunted jerk.
Anyway, then there's the whole rest of that passage . . . "what amounted to a galaxy-wide cluttering of hyperthin atmosphere." No, dude. That's . . . That's not how space works. Granted that Star Wars is a lot more fantasy than it is science-fiction, and it has only at best an uncomfortable relationship with science at any given time. But that doesn't mean Smith gets to go out of his way to be openly dumb about stuff. Come on.
So now this trilogy is behind me, thank goodness. I'm excited to read almost anything else. Praise the Force no one ever asked L. Neil Smith to write for Star Wars again.
D