Last Shot is a 2018 Star Wars Expanded Universe novel written by newcomer Daniel José Older (Shadowshaper series). It serves as a prequel/sequel to the then-upcoming Solo.
Back then, it was one of the galaxy's most dangerous secrets: a mysterious transmitter with unknown power and a reward for its discovery that most could only dream of claiming. But those who fly the Millennium Falcon throughout its infamous history weren't your average scoundrels. Not once, but twice, the crew of the Falcon tried to claim the elusive prize — first, Lando Calrissian and the droid L3-37 at the dawn of an ambitious career, and later, a young and hungry Han Solo with the help of his copilot, Chewbacca. But the device's creator, the volatile criminal Fyzen Gor, wasn't interested in sharing. And Gor knows how to hold a grudge...
Now, it's been 10 years since the rebel hero Han Solo last encountered Fyzen Gor. After mounting a successful rebellion against the Empire and starting a family with an Alderaanian princess, Han hasn't given much thought to the mad inventor. But when Lando turns up at Han's doorstep in the middle of the night, it's Fyzen's assassins that he's running from. And without Han's help, Lando — and all life on Cloud City — will be annihilated.
With the assistance of a young hotshot pilot, an Ewok slicer prodigy, the woman who might be the love of Lando's life, and Han's best and furriest friend, the two most notorious scoundrels in the New Republic are working together once more. They'll have to journey across the stars — and into the past — before Gor uses the device's power to reshape the galaxy.
It was released on April 17, 2018.
Tropes in this novel include:
- Agony of the Feet: Han one time stepped on several of Ben Solo's scattered cyrilform cambiblocks, which are essentially the Star Wars equivalent of LEGO bricks. This leads to him whispering "kriff" repeatedly.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A kill order is transmitted to droids across the galaxy, driving them into bloodlust and violence towards organics.
- Anachronic Order: The book jumps between multiple different storylines spanning over two decades.
- Body Horror: You know how cyborgs work? Well Fyzen, in a sense, does the opposite. Crafting decapitated organic limbs to droids, limbs mind you, that decay over time. And to add to the creepiness, he gets them by having his droids kill organics and taking their body parts.
- Call-Back:
- Conder Kyl from the The Aftermath Trilogy returns, and his now-husband, Sinjir, is mentioned.
- When Han blasts Fyzen in half with the Chevalier's guns, Taka points out that such a method isn't always a guaranteed success, possibly referring to how Darth Maul survived being bisected by Obi-Wan on Naboo. In response to this, Han destroys what's left of the Pau'an.
- Call-Forward: BX receives the kill order and pulls a knife on Ben from behind his back before snapping out of it, which sounds a lot like when Luke would ignite his lightsaber in front of Ben behind his back and change his mind too late years later.
- Canon Immigrant:
- The SoroSuub Luxury 3000 space yacht was made canon through Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but it wasn't until this novel that Lando Calrissian's Lady Luck, the most famous of this ship model, was reintroduced.
- The history of the Ugnaughts working with Ecclessis Figg to make Cloud City is now canon.
- Alzoc III, the homeworld of the Talz species in Legends, is mentioned. However, given that Orto Plutonia is now established as the Talz homeworld, Alzoc's connection to the Talz is ambiguous.
- Doomsday Device: The Phylanx Redux Transmitter.
- Evil Power Vacuum: While the intentions behind it were noble, Mon Mothma's demilitarization of the New Republic proves problematic even before what happens nearly three decades later. With the government having barely any army, the various criminal organizations are almost on equal grounds with them and they try to take advantage of it. Even some of Mothma's closest advisors (the heroes of the Original Trilogy) thought demilitarizing so soon after the Empire's defeat was a bad idea.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Lando tries pulling one to destroy the Phylanx. He succeeds, but is saved from exploding at the last minute.
- Hypocrite: Fyzen's plan to liberate droids is to force them into killing organics on what are essentially his orders. Both Han and Lando note the hypocrisy of this.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Two year old Ben Solo is left home alone with a babysitter droid, BX, which nearly kills him after receiving the kill order that overrides its usual programming. Luckily, BX snaps out of it before Ben is seriously harmed and is confused more than anything, not remembering what took place, but it was an extremely close call. It's not clear if Ben's parents ever learnt how close he came to a grisly death or if he himself recalls any of this.
- Meat-Sack Robot: Fyzen Gor's modus operandi. He grafts organic components from living beings onto his droids in the belief that mechanical life is superior, while organic life is inferior.
- Papa Wolf: Knowing that his family wouldn't be safe with a madman like Fyzen kicking about the galaxy, Han wastes no time pursuing his gunship once the Phylanx is lost, eventually destroying him for good.
- Series Continuity Error: Possibly. Although the chapter segments dealing with young Lando and L3-37 flying the Millenium Falcon are stated as taking place about 15 years before the present-day events which take place two years after the Battle of Jakku, this appears to be an error, since the young Lando segment must take place before the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story. It's likely that the dates were counted from around the start of A New Hope, which took place seven years before the present-day part of the story in Last Shot.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Droids that have caught the kill order have this.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: How Fyzen finally dies. Han blasts him in half using the Chevalier's laser cannons, then blows what's left of him to kingdom come for good measure.
- We Can Rebuild Him: Fyzen likes to invert this by repairing droids using organic body parts.
