Star Wars: The Lando Calrissian Adventures

Star Wars: The Lando Calrissian Adventures is a Legends novel series from author L. Neil Smith. It includes The Mindharp of Sharu, The Flamewind of Oseon, and The Starcave of ThonBoka, which were published by Del Rey in 1983. The complete series was compiled in The Lando Calrissian Adventures (1994).

Plot Summary

Lando Calrissian, card player, Scoundrel, and captain of the Millennium Falcon, is in the Oseon asteroid belt, a systemwide trove of valuable minerals and also home to the galaxy’s super wealthy in an area of space called the Centrality. He is attempting to win a fortune in a game of sabacc, but ends up with a meager haul of credits and a droid of unknown origins that he must pick up from Rafa IV. The droid is unlike any Lando has ever seen: with the unusual moniker of Vuffi Raa, the chrome-plated starfish-shaped automaton has a vivid and keen personality.

On Rafa IV, Lando is arrested by local authorities on trumped-up charges. Rafa's governor, Duttes Mer, and his enigmatic ally Rokur Gepta force Lando to procure a mystical artifact of unspeakable power: the Mindharp of Sharu. With few options, Lando and Vuffi embark on this treasure hunt, starting with Rafa V's enormous pyramids. A bizarre, mind-twisting journey later, they inexplicably emerge from a pyramid back on Rafa IV, with the eye-defying Mindharp. Governor Mer confiscate the Mindharp, which Gepta plans to use for his own nefarious ends. The instrument, when plucked and tuned accordingly, can control every sentient mind in the system.

The artifact is more than it seems. The pyramids that cover the worlds of the Rafa system are actually the hidden cities of Sharu, a long-vanished species that disappeared in fear of a coming invasion from a powerful alien force. The Sharu disguised themselves as witless subservient beings, the Toka, by transferring their higher intelligence into the crystalline orchards of the system. By activating the Mindharp, Governor Mer inadvertently returns intelligence to the Toka, though he is destroyed by an outburst of energy from the artifact. Rokur Gepta barely survives this reversal and swears vengeance upon Lando.

Lando next tries his hand as a freelance freighter captain, but he finds he doesn’t have the knack for that business. He returns to playing cards in the Oseon system. The asteroid field is about to experience its Flamewind spectacle, a seasonal flaring of the star Oseon that is a galactic tourist draw. Lando once again finds himself forced into government dirty work when local law enforcement exhorts him to serve as transport captain in a drug raid. The Flamewind makes travel in the Oseon treacherous, but Lando has no option except to comply.

He smuggles a shipment of the drug Lesai along with an Imperial narcotics agent to the home of Bohhuah Mutdah, one of the wealthiest beings in the galaxy. The operation is a trap – Mutdah is Gepta in disguise. Gepta has arranged Lando's capture and subjects him to insidious memory torture – forcing him to relieve his most horrible moments. Gepta's vengeance is cut short when his asteroid base is attacked by starfighters of the Renatasian Confederation, who are also bent on revenge. Led by Klyn Shanga, the fighter group is seeking out Vuffi Raa, calling the droid the “Butcher of Renatasia”. Lando and Vuffi escape in the confusion. Gepta allies with the Renatasian Confederation, as they are both targeting the crew of the Millennium Falcon.

When Lando learns that the Centrality fleet is blockading the peculiar sack-shaped nebulosity called the ThonBoka and effectively starving the space-dwelling creatures within, he and Vuffi are compelled to intervene. The Oswaft are sentient, large, gelatinous, winged-looking gas feeders capable of deep-space travel. To the Centrality, these aliens represent a new threat – a living starfleet of undefined power. Lando, looking to save the Oswaft, uses his charm as an independent salesman, offering a variety of wares to move through the fleet.

Rokur Gepta challenges Lando to a one-on-one fight, and Lando defeats the sorcerer, revealing him to be a sluglike Croke concealed beneath Gepta's robes. Shanga, upon finally understanding that Vuffi Raa is a droid, ends his misguided vendetta – it was Vuffi Raa's former master, Osuno Whett, who ordered the devastation of Renatasia. Vuffi Raa's originators – a race of enormous saucer-like sentient machines – arrive at the ThonBoka to collect their observer scout. Lando says farewell to Vuffi and ends his adventures with a vessel full of precious gems, enough money to buy a city.

Continuity

Like The Han Solo Adventures published earlier (1979-1980), The Lando Calrissian Adventures trilogy of novels set its focus on a scoundrel in an isolated sector of space prior to the events of his cinematic exploits. The unique locale, in this case the Centrality, allowed the author to world-build without fear of continuity conflicts with the larger Galactic Empire. The Lando novels were most notable for describing sabacc, the preeminent galactic card game. West End Games expanded on the details of these novels to make a playable version of sabacc in 1989. All depictions of sabacc that have appeared in the Expanded Universe were built on the foundations of the Lando books.

The enormous mechanical beings that collected Vuffi Raa were introduced but not explored in detail in these novels. They were given the name Silentium in The New Essential Guide to Droids (2006). Although art commissioned to depict this series often showed Lando as he looked in The Empire Strikes Back, Lando did not grow a mustache until the second book.[2]

Contents

Sources

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Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Essential Reader's Companion
Star Wars: The Lando Calrissian Adventures
(compendium)
Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka