7 Essential Han Solo Stories

The forthcoming movie Solo: A Star Was Story promises to give us our first cinematic look at a young Solo, back in the days when heroism was pretty low on his list of priorities. But Star Wars comics and novels have dreamed up new adventures for the smuggler at all points of his life, from Corellian street urchin through an awkward and ill-fated fatherhood, often co-starring his furry best pal Chewie and the relentlessly charming gambler/baron administrator/galactic hero Lando Calrissian.

Last Shot, by Daniel José Older
This new novel ties into the movie while telling interconnected stories across two significant eras in the saga’s history. As Han struggles with fatherhood in the years after the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi, Lando is subject to a near-fatal attack at his home in Cloud City. Together the two discover the assassination plot involves a criminal named Fryzen Gor and a valuable bit of technology Lando and Han had each tried to claim in their notorious pasts. Han sees no choice but to leave his young family in order to help Lando uncover the truth and stop Gor’s plan for revenge. It’s a fun, standalone novel that provides insight into the new movie and gives us our first real look at Han and Leia as parents to the ill-fated Ben. It also takes us on not one, but two adventures with the galaxy’s greatest scoundrels.

The Han Solo Trilogy (The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn), by A.C. Crispin
Crispin’s three Han Solo books are among the best of the Legends era, and key for fans of the scruffy scoundrel in that, together, they offer up a fairly complete (and action-packed) life story for Han, beginning with his troubled youth on the streets of Corellia, through his days in the Imperial Academy, to the rescue of Chewbacca that lead to a life debt and unbreakable friendship. The trilogy takes us all the way up to the moments before the pair sits down with Luke and Ben on Tatooine. This trilogy is so influential, there’s no question that, canon or not, many of the details will be reflected in the new movie. The (very pretty) Barnes & Noble exclusive edition collects the entire series in one impressive volume.

The Han Solo Adventures, by Brian Daley
Not to be confused with the Han Solo Trilogy, Brian Daley’s three Solo stories (now collected together) were among the very earliest Star Wars spin-off novels of any kind, the first two having come out in 1979. There’s a real thrill to revisiting a time when Star Wars was fresh, and the galaxy far, far away was still being formed. Given that they all take place a couple of years before the original movie, the books also share the vibe we can expect to find in the new movie. And, while they’re also no longer canon, the Adventures aren’t merely curiosities: Daley (in collaboration with James Luceno) captures Han and Chewie flawlessly as they engage in a series of heists and (mis)adventures that remain a ton of fun.

Star Wars: Han Solo, by Marjorie Liu and Mark Brooks, with Jason Aaron and Stuart Immonen
This Marvel series from Liu and Brooks sees Han split off from the gang at the behest of Leia in the time between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Han is given an undercover mission involving the extraction of several important rebel informants—and the job just happens to revolve around an infamous starship race, the Dragon Void Run. Han’s always dreamed of winning the Run, and so this younger scoundrel, not yet fully committed to the rebel cause, finds himself more than a little distracted.

Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo Adventure, by Greg Rucka
Following the destruction of the first Death Star, Han and Chewie hope very much to be done with the Rebel Alliance. They’re looking to collect their reward and head off into the sunset, having done a good deed and gotten paid for it. Leia has just one small request: a mission to rescue the high-level operative of an Alliance recon unit. Reluctantly agreeing, the two come up against Imperial spymaster Alecia Beck in a battle of wits that ultimately becomes a battle. It’s a fast-paced middle-grade novel released in the run up to The Force Awakens that provides insight into why Han was still hanging around in Empire.

Honor Among Thieves, by James S. A. Corey
The writing team behind The Expanse novels offer up an ensemble story that nevertheless puts Han in the lead role. A rebel agent named Scarlet Hark has no interest in coming from the cold, having discovered a pirate has acquired a massive cache of Imperial secrets. Han has no choice but to help her relieve the pirate of the information. Through a series of double-crosses, ambushes, and dangers, Han, Chewie, Leia, and Scarlet fight to keep the data out of Imperial hands.

Scoundrels, by Timothy Zahn
The Black Sun crime syndicate cast a heavy shadow over the novel and comic book adventures of the Star Wars galaxy over the years, and Scoundrels sees Solo go head to head with the villainous organization. In-between A New Hope and Empire (a popular era), Han is determined to clear his debts to Jabba the Hutt and get on with his life. A mysterious benefactor offers all the credits he needs and more, if only he completes one tiny assignment: crack the impenetrable safe in the fortified stronghold of a Black Sun boss. With Chewie and Lando by his side, Han plans an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist that could solve all of his problems—one way or another.