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| Credit: Pixabay.com |
No doubt that
there’s been some big Star Wars news this week! Friday was
the 41st anniversary of the
first Star Wars
movie, A New Hope, and
so the birthday of the entire franchise. The day before, Solo: A
Star Wars Story released in theatres. I haven’t seen this new
Star Wars film
yet but plan to tomorrow. But in celebration of the new movie I
thought it would be neat to list four of my favourite space opera
books that’s central characters share the same swashbuckling, rogue
archetype as the Han Solo character does.
Han
Solo’s archetype, or
primal character-type, combines
traits of the cowboy,
the pirate and the wandering adventurer. Characters who have
these traits are often loners of a sort, are daring and don’t let
the law stop them from doing what they feel they have to. Often the
legal system that they defy is one that is set up by a corrupt
establishment and, in the case of space operas, that establishment is
often an empire. Even though Han Solo has had his own novels that
star him (and his alien sidekick, Chewbacca), I prefer reading space
operas that don’t have to depend on a movie or TV franchise such as
Star Wars or Star Trek to tell their stories, as much
as I am a fan of both. Three of the books listed below are actually
pre-Star Wars, although the third one has overlap between the
two time periods. The fourth book was published after the first Star
Wars film. So here is the list of some reading that Solo
will, hopefully, inspire you to read or vice versa.
The List
“The Witches of
Karres”, by James Schmitz (1949): The hero in this short story is
Captain Pausert who pilots his own cargo ship, the Venture.
Like Han, he’s a gambler, bar hopper and debtor trying to pay off
his dues. Also like Han, Pausert is a dodger of starfighter ships and
a smuggler of a sort, only not so much of spices than of . . .
witches.
Plague Ship,
by Andre Norton (1956):
In this second book of the Solar Queen series of novels, the
hero is Dane Thorson, apprentice cargo master of the spaceship, Solar
Queen. Even though he’s not a captain of his own ship like Han,
he’s fairly close to being so--he’s only one step down from the
cargo master himself, Van Rycke. Like Han with the Empire, Dane and
Van must go rogue against the establishment, the Galactic Patrol,
when it attempts to destroy the Solar Queen along with its
crew due to a supposed alien plague on board.
Crashlander,
Larry Niven (1960s to ‘90s): This novel is actually an
interconnected collection of Niven’s stories that’s central
character is Beowulf Shaeffer, an independent contracting star pilot
who is often in debt to the point of criminality and takes on
dangerous missions to pay off his dues. Unlike
many science fiction stories with roguish heroes, this one is
a more high quality novel mostly due to the hard science going on in
the book. But what makes Beowulf distinguishable from the typical
rogue hero is that he isn’t only witty in the survival sense but is
also intelligent in science and technology. And yes, as his name
suggests, he is also based on the character of the Dark Age British
epic (who wasn’t so much rogue, but adventurous nevertheless).
Day of the
Starwind, Douglas Hill (1980): This is the third novel in The
Last Legionary space opera series. The main character, Keill, is
the last soldier of planet Moros’s legions. He battles the Warlord,
Altern (a.k.a. “The One”) and his army of clones, the Deathwing.
Keill is more like a cross between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker--the
ship he pilots is a one-man like Luke’s X-Wing fighter yet he
travels with an alien sidekick like Han does with Chewie: a winged
creature by the name of Glr who’s small enough to fit in the
cockpit with him.
Of course, because
the rogue hero is very common one in science fiction, this list is no
where near exhaustive. So if you can think of any other stories with
a Han Solo-like hero who is at least one of the main characters if
not the central one then please let me know in the box below!
Until next time . .
.
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