Paradise Snare...The Review

Okay, so Zyra and I both finished ‘The Paradise Snare’ this week.  We don’t plan on keeping up a book per week schedule, but it happened - so here is my review for ‘Snare’.  Zyra will certainly add her comments, I’m sure.

At the start of the book we meet Han Solo as an 18 or 19 year old orphaned boy who has been living under the thumb of a cruel shyster who collects kids and uses them for various schemes and rip offs.  There is a mention of perhaps a previous escape attempt by Han and the severe beating that he got in return.  I know when people are kidnapped or held hostage it is very difficult for them to leave especially when they don’t know anything different, as in the case of the very young Han Solo.  BUT, I just couldn’t help thinking that at 18 or 19 years old, Han would’ve escaped already.  Add to that, the first chapter just read like Han was a lot younger than 19 years old.  To me, he sounded more like fourteen and I would've rathered it that way. 

I don’t plan on delving into each chapter like this, but for me, Chapter One was very disappointing and I was not looking forward to reading the rest of the book after I finished it.  And we’re not done with Chapter One yet.  I had always heard of Dewlanna, a ‘motherly’ type Wookiee that had taken care of Han.  Well, we barely get to meet her and she meets her demise while trying to help Han escape from Garris Shrike. 

I know that the loss of Dewlanna was supposed to be a very pivotal moment in Han’s life, but the entire thing was a disappointing to me.  We really had no emotional investment in this character yet whatsoever.  And then Han swears an oath to her 'to help her kind', which was just a cheap, blatant foreshadowing to his relationship with Chewie, IMO.  Unfortunately, that just prepares the reader for the over-the-top foreshadowing that the author, I guess, felt was necessary to tell Han’s childhood story. 

Okay, so that was Chapter One and I was about ready to just not read anymore (but, in the end, I’m glad I did).  The most moving part of Chapter One was the hints of Garris Shrike's abuse.  Han's horrible life up until this point that we meet him really did pull at my heartstrings.  The good thing about Chapter One?  He does escape and heads to a planet named Ylesia for a pilot’s job.

Chapter Two and beyond…

Okay, so now we get some flashbacks to Han's childhood and his first meeting Dewlanna.  We find out that she is the one that found out his last name for him (which he didn’t know) and with that information, Han escapes and tries to find his family (I wish I would've known that a few pages ago, maybe I would've cared more about her death).  He finds the dysfunctional Sal-Solo family instead (a relation) and it does not go very well for him.  It is hinted that Han actually had a nice life and family, which makes me want to find out what happened to them (but I don't think we ever do - ever).  

It isn’t until Chapter Three that Han makes it to his destination and lands the pilot job that he had hoped for.  He finds a strange cult of factory workers that make illegal drugs during the day and get some kind of spiritual fix at evening ceremonies.  Han is able to fend off the mind-altering experience that the 'pilgrims' undertake as he attends the 'ceremony."

Han gets assigned a bodyguard who shadows him at all times, complicating Han's thoughts of escaping once he gets enough money.  Han’s deepest wish is to join the Imperial Academy and become an officer.  He talks to his new bodyguard and we start to find out that he is searching for his missing soul mate.  Somewhere in here, he tours the drug making factory and meets a female worker, ‘Pilgrim 921’, that we all know is Bria, but Han doesn’t yet. 

Well, Han looks up Bria and talks to her.  He finds out that she studied archeology and wanted to be a museum curator.  He goes on his first job and is attacked by pirates but does some fancy maneuvering; shooting down one ship as the other pirate escapes and Han's bodyguard gets knocked unconscious and needs medical attention.  I will say that as soon as the author put Han behind the controls of a space ship, he sounded more like Han than he had ever before.  

Han has to find a nearby planet to get medical help for his bodyguard and have his ship worked on.  Guess what the nearest planet was?  Alderaan, and when Han approaches the planet he watches a welcome video that includes Bail Organa and his young princess daughter.  Han contemplates selling his illegal cargo and claiming to his employers that the pirates took it, but he is unable to offload it in honest Alderaan where nobody does the drugs he’s selling.  Han finds himself on the Alderaanian University campus and flirts with a college girl a little bit on his way back to his ship.  He shows some animosity towards the affluent college students who are his same age but living such a different life.  I found that very believable.  In the end, his copilot recovers and Han is rewarded when he returns to Ylesia with his cargo still in tow (his employers expecting him to swindle them).

Okay, so Han finds out that the Ylesia slaves are sent off to other worlds once they are totally broken, which usually takes about a year.  How long has his new friend Bria been there?  Yep, almost a year.  He does meet with his bosses to request that Pilgrim 921 (Bria) be hired as a curator of the high priest’s artifacts and she gets removed from the drug making and starts working in the admin building.  She is still totally committed to this false religion though.

Han finally helps Bria realize that she is being duped by the priests and…she slaps him.  Nice girl.  That’s all I have to say about that.

Han delivers a note to a rival Hutt (yeah, the Hutts are involved in all this illegal drug making/trafficking – go figure).  Meanwhile, while Han is gone, Bria is being forced to marry someone else and Han's bodyguard (Muuurgh) – being left behind because he is still recovering – finds out that his mate is on Ylesia and that she is to be shipped to Kessel to work the spice mines the next day.  Setting it up so that everything will have to happen when Han returns.

Han returns and Bria is a sniveling whiny baby throughout their entire escape.  But they do escape and steal some very expensive items to sell and get Han into the Academy.  He and Bria bring Muuurgh and his mate to their homeworld and stick around to see them get married.  Han and Bria finally confess their love to one another with Bria saying ‘I know’.  Blah!  It wasn’t exactly like the exchange between Han and Leia, but did they really have to go there?  And Han is referred to as “scruffy” at least 3 or 4 times in this book.  Really?

So now it’s just Han and Bria and they go to Corellia to see her parents and to sell what they stole during their escape.  Han is not very welcomed by Bria’s wealthy family, except her father seems to like him okay, but you can tell that he isn’t in charge of his household anyway.  Han sells their stolen items and has the money sent to Coruscant under a ‘clean’ alias that he has.  Huh, go figure, he doesn’t get all his money in big heavy green containers…

Han and Bria leave Corellia with fears that Bria’s mother and brother are going to call CorSec officers on Han.  Bria is still struggling with her addiction to the ‘exultation’ she is used to receiving every night on Ylesia.  Han runs into trouble when he tries to get his money on Coruscant and basically is unable to.  He returns to Bria and vows to get a job and somehow get into the Academy.

Bria leaves Han with a bunch of money from her father and a “Dear Han” letter.  She says she has to fight her addiction and wishes him the best and hopes to see him again someday.  Han takes the money and goes through a retinal surgery and some other things to finally get his identity as Han Solo and apply to the Academy.  He applies to the Academy and goes through a rigorous qualifying process but finally makes it.  

Celebrating the night that he finds out he made it into the Academy he runs into none other than Garris Shrike along with a bounty hunter.  The most horrific thing is that Garris Shrike teases Han with the identity of his parents to try and get Han to let him live.  Han stands over him and contemplates killing the man that terrorized his childhood, but the choice is taken away from him when the Bounty Hunter does the job for him, killing Shrike and I guess – any hope of ever finding out what happened to Han's family.  And then Han ends up having to kill the bounty hunter. 

The book ends with him starting at the Academy.  While most of the other new cadets are being wished well by their family, Han stands alone.  He thinks of Dewlanna and Bria and overall I felt really proud of him at that moment.

After such a rocky start with Chapter One, I really ended up enjoying the book.  I personally don’t think that Han had to have such a horrible life and I wouldn’t have given it to him, but overall, he ended up being the lovable character that I knew.  I was disappointed that Bria was a psycho spice addict, but I can understand how Han may have been endeared to her.  If their relationship ended here, I don’t think I would have a real problem with her.  We all knew that Han had other girlfriends and she would’ve just been another, maybe one that particularly hurt him, but that’s all.  But since I know that she isn’t gone and she gets involved with the Rebellion and all that, I don’t like that or her.

My rating for this book is 3 out of 5 stars for Han/Leia factor.  Of course, Leia isn’t in it, so it starts off at a disadvantage, but it’s all about Han so that’s pretty cool.  It isn’t a ‘feel good’ book, in fact, I felt pretty bad after I finished it.  It is really sad, especially to think that Han had such a hard life.  But throughout the book he was a fighter and he always wanted to help other people and that is Han.

So, that’s my very long opinion of this book.  Please chime in if you’ve read it or have anything to say.

Next Book:  “The Hutt Gambit”