Star Wars: Most Wanted by Rae Carsen

Carsen, Rae. Star Wars: Most Wanted. Disney Lucasfilm Press, 2018. 352p. ISBN 9781368016308. $17.00 MS HS ***

This story is set before the events of the motion picture Solo: A Star Wars Story! and is essentially a prequel of a prequel focusing on both Han Solo and Qi’ra. Set on the planet of Corellia, Han and Qi’ra are scumrats, children taken in by the White Worms whose head is Lady Proxima. When Han
and Qi’ra bump into each other after being sent on what they think are separate missions they discover that they are both on the run from what is the same failed mission. They are being pursued by their boss Lady Proxima, the Kaldana Syndicate, the Droid Gotra (a subversive gang of droid separatists), the Empire and who knows who else. Han’s friend Tsuulo, another scumrat, is caught in the fray while trying to help Han elude Lady Proxima’s people. In order to survive the three must learn to respect each other’s strengths. Han relies on intuition and can relate and speak to most other intelligent life forms, Qi’ra is extremely smart and analytical and Tsuulo is a tech wizard. This combination of skills just might get them out of this mess – especially when they find themselves off planet.

This is another volume in a series of Star Wars novels by young adult authors writing “new cannon” for the franchise. This action packed Star Wars adventure is all about the character development; the characters are easily the most interesting part of the story. The rest feels pretty cursory, which is surprising considering Rae Carsen’s repertoire. This title is an acceptable SciFi action adventure story but nothing particularly special. Likely to be of most interest to an actual Star Wars fan, this reads more like a middle school book rather than a teen title.

Carla Avitabile, San Mateo Public Library