#vuffi raa

[swtechspecs]

Vuffi Raa (Silentium Droid)

Source: The Essential Guide to Droids (Del Rey, 1999)

[cantsayidont]

July, October, and December 1983. The success of the Brian Daley Han Solo trilogy led to a trilogy of novels about the adventures of Lando Calrissian prior to the events of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, written by L. Neil Smith.

The first two novels, LANDO CALRISSIAN AND THE MINDHARP OF SHARU and LANDO CALRISSIAN AND THE FLAMEWIND OF OSEON, each follow basically the same formula: Lando is arrested on trumped-up charges and strong-armed into a dangerous quest, which proves much weirder than advertised (involving some surreal interludes) and turns out rather differently than anyone expects. In the course of these adventures, Lando makes a very dangerous enemy called Rokur Gepta, a strange being who is, or claims to be, a Sorcerer of Tund, a practitioner of Ancient Magics that Lando, naturally enough, assumes are entirely hogwash. In the third and final book, Lando comes to the aid of a race of manta-ray-like beings called oswaft, who live in deep space and can move at will through hyperspace — an early version of the purrgil space-whales of REBELS, albeit unequivocally sentient — and who are about to be wiped out by a military blockade.

Unlike in the movie SOLO, Smith's young Lando considers himself a gambler and con artiste, not a smuggler or soldier of fortune, making his living at sabacc (a game Smith invented for these books) and only very rarely carrying a weapon big enough to spoil the line of his cummerbund. After winning the Millennium Falcon just prior to the beginning of the first book, he's actually keen to unload the ship because he doesn't know how to fly, preferring to travel by luxury liner. Lando similarly acquires a droid who becomes his sidekick: Vuffi Raa, a mechanical starfish with his brain in his central body and five detachable tentacles that can alternatively serve as arm, leg, or "face." (This description apparently defeated cover artist William Schmidt; the droid on the cover of the first book does have tentacles, but doesn't otherwise resemble how Smith describes Vuffi.)

Smith, who died in 2021, was a Libertarian gun nut, but editorial pushback keeps that to a low boil in these novels, which makes them by far the most readable of Smith's books for anyone who's not a Libertarian crank. There's still a wry and cynical anti-authoritarian streak, however, which is perfectly appropriate for Lando Calrissian.

Smith's take on Lando is really the best part of these books. You get a clear sense of how being a professional gambler shapes Lando's outlook, and while he's not exactly heroic, you can see a nascent set of principles taking shape. Unlike Han Solo (who isn't mentioned in these novels), Lando is self-possessed but not cocky, and he's much less inclined than Han is to solve problems with violence.

The actual plots are rather strange (especially MINDHARP, whose storyline hinges on some very uncomfortable attitudes about indigenous peoples, which are eventually upended in a way that's even more uneasy), and include some departures from STAR WARS lore that are occasionally distracting. The latter were not Smith's fault (he said later that he'd been forbidden to even mention previously established characters or settings, and had to fight to be allowed to include the Millennium Falcon), but I'm not sure who should be blamed for the books' peculiar shortage of female characters. It's entirely possible that Lucasfilm and/or Ballantine were reluctant to even imply any kind of romantic subplot for Lando — antiblackness at work — but there are precious few women at all, and I think only one of them has dialogue in more than one scene.

While the Han Solo books were in many respects foundational to what became known as the "Star Wars Expanded Universe," the Lando Calrissian novels were often overlooked and treated disdainfully in later SWEU sources (for many years, Wookieepedia didn't even have synopses of them!), although there are a few references to these books in SOLO. Nonetheless, they're quite interesting and are notably better-written than most SW tie-ins. For all their plot oddities, they also remain the most thoughtful treatment of Lando, a character who was relentlessly marginalized and mistreated in the Bantam novels and most of the post-1986 comics.

[blue-mint-winter]

Vuffi Raa from The Lando Calrissian Adventures

[farmboy1]

Well that was a lie. If anything he acts more like a manchild after this.

You know that’s something I find weird. In this trilogy Lando is a lot more serious and responsible person. He also never flirts with anyone.

I find it ironic that this books that were written in the 80s portray Lando as a more complex and nuanced character than the one we see in the 90s like the Jedi Academy Trilogy and so on.

[farmboy1]

Good to know that even here the Empire is the worst.

[farmboy1]

Well having read some of the books, yeah you’re a softie like Han.

[farmboy1]

Lando would actually look good with an earring.

[farmboy1]

Now I see why people say this books are as weird as The Crystal Star. The last few pages have felt like an acid trip.