Scoundrels

by Timothy Zahn.

Shortly after the destruction of the Death Star at Yavin, Han Solo hears about a job with a payoff so spectacular it would not only allow him to settle his debt to Jabba the Hutt but also set him and Chewbacca up for a very comfortable retirement. The trouble is that it's a job that calls for a number of highly specialized skills that neither Han nor Chewie possess. So Han sets about putting together a team of specialists.

Star Wars meets Ocean's Eleven: how can you go wrong with that concept? When it's written by the man who launched the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels twenty years ago, you can't go wrong, really. I haven't been keeping up with the EU at all, but Zahn makes it pretty easy to follow the threads that tie into other novels that I haven't read.

Among all the online rumors and speculation about the upcoming Star Wars movies, a number of people have pointed out that the producers of such sequels could do a lot worse than to look to Timothy Zahn's novels for inspiration, and I have to concur. It's not likely they will, but we can dream, right?