No doubt that there’s been some big Star Wars news this week! Friday was the 41st anniversary of the first Star Warsmovie, 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 filmyet 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 Solowill, hopefully, inspire you to read or vice versa.

“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 . . .