On August 16, The Princess and the Scoundrel releases, telling the story of Leia Organa and Han Solo getting married after the Battle of Endor and going on their honeymoon aboard the Halcyon – where things don’t go as planned and they run into trouble.
The book, written by Beth Revis, is set immediately after the events of Return of the Jedi, filling in the story about what happened with the heroes on Endor after the battle. A series of excerpts have been released, building hype for the book by shedding light on some important scenes. The first excerpt focused on Luke telling Leia about Anakin’s redemption. The second focused on Han proposing to Leia. Now a third excerpt has recently been released, by the USA Today, focusing on another interaction between Luke and Leia, as Leia tells Luke about her engagement and the two talk about what the future might hold.
The excerpt begins with Leia telling Luke that she’s getting married to Han, and Luke is genuinely excited for his friends. He and Leia talk about what’s next, and Leia is hesitant to go there, not wanting this moment to end. Luke wants her to study to become a Jedi, telling her how many great things they could do that way, but Leia says that she would only really do that to get to know Luke better as her brother. Leia, meanwhile, wants Luke to help her build a government, with the Jedi and the Senate working together like old times, but Luke tells her that there’s so much more he needs to learn.
The excerpt basically leaves it at that, with the future very much undecided, and even though we know the broad strokes of what will happen, there are plenty of gaps to fill in and I think it’s exciting to be getting stories like this one (and Shadow of the Sith) to do exactly that. To get more interactions between Luke, Leia, and Han in this time period is incredibly appreciated, and I can’t wait to read the full story.
Because, as Revis writes in this excerpt, regardless of what the future might hold these friendships would remain:
“To her, if nothing else. Endor was not just the place where the war ended . . . because, after all, the fighting wasn’t over yet. The war wasn’t over. It might never be over, not if the Empire continued operating despite the Emperor’s death. But getting married now, here, turned the battle-that-wasn’t-actually-the-end into the day she forgot about the war and chose love instead.”
Star Wars Thoughts 