Solo: A Star Wars Story: The Official Guide by Pablo Hidalgo
Solo: A Star Wars Story: The Official Guide by Pablo Hidalgo
This book was great and provided lots of insight, but the formatting didn't play well with the way the actual story evolved. It was in fully chronological order which is weird since we begin thinking Enfys Nest and the Cloud-Riders are bad guys but then learn they are good guys in the end. So we get a whole four-page panel on the bad guy Cloud-Riders and a whole two-page panel on the good guy Cloud-Riders. I guess that allows us to get more info with six pages total but it just didn't sit right with me. There's also two separate sections on the crew Han joins--one before we know who they are and one after...as well as two separate panels on Qi'ra...weird. And we get no discussion of Maul's place in everything...he's not even mentioned once!
This book definitely could have done better. I've for sure read more well thought out Star Wars reference books in my time. But on to the good stuff...
Han was born 13 years before the formation of the Galactic Empire...which makes him 13 years older than Leia...and people say Anakin and Padme were a big age difference!
The gang that both Han and Qi'ra work for as teenagers on Corellia is the White Worms led by Lady Proxima. Proxima and her young are Grindalids and they control the "scrumrat" population of humanoid children in their care.
The speeder bike manned by the stormtrooper (actually a "patrol trooper") in the very beginning on Corellia is an Aratech C-PH patrol speeder bike. The speeder Han steals to escape the White Worms is a Mobquet M-68 landspeeder.
Han is 19 when he leaves Corellia and joins the Imperial Academy on Carida.
Another 2-legged walker is the AT-DT (All Terrain Defense Turret). A new TIE-fighter is the TIE/rb or "TIE brute."
The on-the-ground trench warfare scenes take place on Mimban, a muddy and mucky world where the native Mimbanese live underground with practical night vision and fight back against Imperial mining interests with fierce abandon. Han's troop is the 224th Imperial Armored Division, the latest incarnation of the Clone Wars-era Mud Jumpers who fought against the Separatists on Mimban. The ship Han's new crew flies out of the combat zone in is an AT-Hauler, a ship made for deploying walkers.
Vandor is a wild planet with hardly any civilized outposts. It is known for being a place for outdoorsmen willing to brave the elements. This is the planet where the train heist takes place. Tobias Beckett is from Glee Anselm. Rio Durant is from Ardennia and is Ardennian. Val is named after the valachord which is why Beckett has promised her to learn how to play the instrument! The train they heist is called a Conveyex. The troopers guarding it are Range Troopers and they're equipment is balling.
A little tidbit about coaxium (I'm glad they finally explained this hyperfuel I've been reading about in the books and comics!) "Ancient spacefarers discovered coaxium in the organs of purrgil--huge space-traveling creatures. The purrgil inhale space gases containing traces of the gas Clouzon-36, which they metabolize into a hypermatter fuel. This enables them to jump into hyperspace." So cool they took a creature from one Star Wars Rebels episode and made it vital to the understanding of how the Star Wars universe works!!
Dryden Vos's yacht is called the First Light. The goons guarding the place are Hylobon. And as I suspected, Dryden Vos is merely humanoid and not an actual human!
The place where our crew meets up with Lando is called The Lodge and is found in Fort Ypso on Vandor. Super convenient that Lando just happened to already be on Vandor… Lando is from Socorro. He is writing the Calrissian Chronicles, thinking he has a whole trilogy in him! haha. L3-37, Lando's piloting droid, has upgraded herself over the years using protocol, astromech, and espionage droid parts and programming.
Kessel is where our heroes travel to extract the raw coaxium. This is also of course where great amounts of spice are mined. The Pyke Syndicate, made up of Pykes from Oba Diah near Kessel, runs the "sacrificied" side of the planet where mining occurs unhindered and slave labor is used in excess. The Pykes are unfortunately allergic to the Kessel air...hence all the mucusy grossness coming from the tubes on their masks.
Savareen is the final stop on our journey, a planet hosting a small offline coaxium refining plant. It is dotted with sandy landmasses amid vast oceans. A scattering of human settlements are thought to be the descendants of a lost colony from "the dark past of the Republic."
New species!!!!! So many new species...:
- Grindalids: run the White Worm gang, homeworld has a dense atmosphere that filters out most light making them "allergic" to sunlight
- Czerialan: high cranial dome, reddish upper craniums, white hair
- Ugor: blob-like, can stuff themselves in humanoid suits for containment
- Mimbanese: subterranean, from Mimban, red skinned, large unblinking blue eyes adapted to low light
- Hylobon: physical domination is a very strong social trait, they have furry beards and snarly faces
- Gallusian: the tiny green guy singing in the jar on Vos's ship, thrives off of formaldehyde
- Imroosian: come from a volcanic planet, "have evolved a flinty, chalk-like skin to resist the searing temperatures of their home"
- Dyplotid: four eyes allowing sight in infrared and UV spectrum, furry
- Nithorn: recumbent crest in males, keratin beak, feathered head
- Kerestian:
- Gotarite: mole-like, huge incisors, bulbous head, can see well in low light
- Azumel: six eyes on flexible eyestalks, chew their cud
- Nephran: look like walking lobsters
- Danzikan: a single entity with two heads, four legs, long worm-like arms
- Octeroid: tiny hands, one giant eyeball in the middle of their head
- Elnacon: breathe ammonia, hulking beings
- Dwuni: diminutive size, large mouths with sharp teeth
So all in all an obviously informative read. Although I can't help but still think it could've been more informative if formatted differently. Still worth the purchase!
This book definitely could have done better. I've for sure read more well thought out Star Wars reference books in my time. But on to the good stuff...
Han was born 13 years before the formation of the Galactic Empire...which makes him 13 years older than Leia...and people say Anakin and Padme were a big age difference!
The gang that both Han and Qi'ra work for as teenagers on Corellia is the White Worms led by Lady Proxima. Proxima and her young are Grindalids and they control the "scrumrat" population of humanoid children in their care.
The speeder bike manned by the stormtrooper (actually a "patrol trooper") in the very beginning on Corellia is an Aratech C-PH patrol speeder bike. The speeder Han steals to escape the White Worms is a Mobquet M-68 landspeeder.
Han is 19 when he leaves Corellia and joins the Imperial Academy on Carida.
Another 2-legged walker is the AT-DT (All Terrain Defense Turret). A new TIE-fighter is the TIE/rb or "TIE brute."
The on-the-ground trench warfare scenes take place on Mimban, a muddy and mucky world where the native Mimbanese live underground with practical night vision and fight back against Imperial mining interests with fierce abandon. Han's troop is the 224th Imperial Armored Division, the latest incarnation of the Clone Wars-era Mud Jumpers who fought against the Separatists on Mimban. The ship Han's new crew flies out of the combat zone in is an AT-Hauler, a ship made for deploying walkers.
Vandor is a wild planet with hardly any civilized outposts. It is known for being a place for outdoorsmen willing to brave the elements. This is the planet where the train heist takes place. Tobias Beckett is from Glee Anselm. Rio Durant is from Ardennia and is Ardennian. Val is named after the valachord which is why Beckett has promised her to learn how to play the instrument! The train they heist is called a Conveyex. The troopers guarding it are Range Troopers and they're equipment is balling.
A little tidbit about coaxium (I'm glad they finally explained this hyperfuel I've been reading about in the books and comics!) "Ancient spacefarers discovered coaxium in the organs of purrgil--huge space-traveling creatures. The purrgil inhale space gases containing traces of the gas Clouzon-36, which they metabolize into a hypermatter fuel. This enables them to jump into hyperspace." So cool they took a creature from one Star Wars Rebels episode and made it vital to the understanding of how the Star Wars universe works!!
Dryden Vos's yacht is called the First Light. The goons guarding the place are Hylobon. And as I suspected, Dryden Vos is merely humanoid and not an actual human!
The place where our crew meets up with Lando is called The Lodge and is found in Fort Ypso on Vandor. Super convenient that Lando just happened to already be on Vandor… Lando is from Socorro. He is writing the Calrissian Chronicles, thinking he has a whole trilogy in him! haha. L3-37, Lando's piloting droid, has upgraded herself over the years using protocol, astromech, and espionage droid parts and programming.
Kessel is where our heroes travel to extract the raw coaxium. This is also of course where great amounts of spice are mined. The Pyke Syndicate, made up of Pykes from Oba Diah near Kessel, runs the "sacrificied" side of the planet where mining occurs unhindered and slave labor is used in excess. The Pykes are unfortunately allergic to the Kessel air...hence all the mucusy grossness coming from the tubes on their masks.
Savareen is the final stop on our journey, a planet hosting a small offline coaxium refining plant. It is dotted with sandy landmasses amid vast oceans. A scattering of human settlements are thought to be the descendants of a lost colony from "the dark past of the Republic."
New species!!!!! So many new species...:
- Grindalids: run the White Worm gang, homeworld has a dense atmosphere that filters out most light making them "allergic" to sunlight
- Czerialan: high cranial dome, reddish upper craniums, white hair
- Ugor: blob-like, can stuff themselves in humanoid suits for containment
- Mimbanese: subterranean, from Mimban, red skinned, large unblinking blue eyes adapted to low light
- Hylobon: physical domination is a very strong social trait, they have furry beards and snarly faces
- Gallusian: the tiny green guy singing in the jar on Vos's ship, thrives off of formaldehyde
- Imroosian: come from a volcanic planet, "have evolved a flinty, chalk-like skin to resist the searing temperatures of their home"
- Dyplotid: four eyes allowing sight in infrared and UV spectrum, furry
- Nithorn: recumbent crest in males, keratin beak, feathered head
- Kerestian:
- Gotarite: mole-like, huge incisors, bulbous head, can see well in low light
- Azumel: six eyes on flexible eyestalks, chew their cud
- Nephran: look like walking lobsters
- Danzikan: a single entity with two heads, four legs, long worm-like arms
- Octeroid: tiny hands, one giant eyeball in the middle of their head
- Elnacon: breathe ammonia, hulking beings
- Dwuni: diminutive size, large mouths with sharp teeth
So all in all an obviously informative read. Although I can't help but still think it could've been more informative if formatted differently. Still worth the purchase!
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