Zorba the Hutt's Revenge
by Paul Davids and Hollace Davids

Published by Bantam Publishing

Scott's Rating:   1 out of 4

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This is the third book in this Young Reader's series. Zorba the Hutt, Jabba's father, escapes from jail and discovers that Princess Leia killed his son. Zorba vows revenge (hence the title) and then begins reclaiming his son's properties with Jabba's hidden will. This includes a casino on Cloud City. It also happens that this is where Trioculus, the new leader of the Empire, has a factory that is creating weapons and air pollution around Cloud City. (Each of these books seems to have an environmental theme like saving the whales or the rainforests, and this is it.) Trioculus has fallen in love with Princess Leia and vows to make her his Queen. He is also trying to capture Ken, the Jedi Prince. Is Ken related to KENobi? And as luck would have it, they are all at Bespin for Han's "Dream Sky Housewarming Party", and thus they duke it out.

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Scott:

    This is a really great cover by Struzan. It's a nice rendition of Leia, and he even manages to make that stupid bearded Hutt look decent. The pictures inside have nice hidden touches. In the last book, the Ark of the Covenant and Indiana Jones' hat were hidden in one drawing. In this book, at a droid sale, Iron Man and a Terminator are hidden in the picture. Kind of a "Where's Waldo" touch. Also, the idea of having Jabba's family take revenge on Leia is a good concept, but better explored by other authors.

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Scott:

    Rather than try to find my own words to say why this book is bad, I'll yet again let the book speak for itself:

"Who lives in Jabba's palace now?" Ken inquired. "It's vacant," Luke said, "except for the Ranats that scurry around chewing on the furniture and drapes. You see, when Jabba died, they never found his will. So the government of Tatooine took possession of his palace. For awhile they turned it into the Tatooine Retirement Home for Aged Aliens. But there wasn't enough money in the budget to keep it open."

Ken squinted and tried to pick out more details, but he could scarcely see the house, the air was so brown with haze. "We call it BRAZE," Lando explained, as if reading Ken's thoughts. "Short for brown haze. It's air pollution. And it's becoming a serious problem here in Cloud City."

Every few minutes Han had to jump up and run to the kitchen to check on the gourmet feast he was cooking on his nanowave stove. Then Chewbacca put on a chef's apron and took over the cooking, so Han could dance with Princess Leia. The band knew all of Han's favorite Corellian folk dances. Han even taught Leia how to do the Space Pirate Boogie

(To Princess Leia) Trioculus took a few steps toward her. "Is it so wrong to be a murderer?" he asked. "Or a liar? Or an inhuman monster? I may be all of those things, but I still have a heart."

Man, that Trioculus is one smooth talker. He should write cards for Hallmark.

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Scott:

    Any time Leia and Trioculus were around together, I wondered what incredibly stupid thing he was going to say to her. No wonder three-eyed guys never get the chicks. If you ever need to boost your self esteem about your romantic life, you'll always have Trioculus to make you feel like Casanova.

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