The biggest tie to “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is naturally going to be Han himself. There is a sadness and resignation in Qi’ra that E.K. Johnston captures so well. Every time Qi’ra has to conjure fake happiness for her disguises, it’s Han she thinks of. The book also shows us exactly the lengths she’ll go to in order to keep her hands on Han’s dice. If you remember, he gives them to her before they’re separated and she gives them back to him on Kessel. In the film, it seems like they’ve been separated for about half an hour, but this book really helps us understand how long and how hard she held onto them.
There were two big cameos in the book that I was delighted by. The biggest is the appearance of Veers, just a lieutenant here and not yet a general. For those who don’t remember, General Veers commanded the ground battle on Hoth from the safety of his AT-AT and was played by Julian Glover. His appearance here, meeting with Dryden Vos, certainly raises more questions about his character than it answers, though.
The second was Dok Ondar. Those familiar with the Disney parks and Galaxy’s Edge should be familiar with Dok Ondar and his shop of rare antiquities. The Ithorian was name-checked by Qi’ra in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” before the park even opened. This book gives us a little bit more meat on the story of why he would be associated with Crimson Dawn.
Then, the last thing to really dive into is that E.K. Johnston took the mention of Teras Kasi in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and Dryden Vos training Qi’ra and expanded it for the book in much greater detail. For those who are familiar, “The Masters of Teras Kasi” was a “Star Wars” fighting game for the original Playstation and was much beloved, but still looked at as one of the worst fighting games ever made.