Last Shot was written by Daniel Jose Older and published by Del Rey on April 18th, 2018. The novel takes place both in the “present day” of about 2 years after the Battle of Jakku as well as in the past, with its earliest point being about 20 years prior. For the sake of clarity, I will summarize the book in chronological order rather than in the order it is presented.
Synopsis
Twenty years ago, on Utapau, a brilliant medical student (Fyzen Gor) and one of his classmates, are kidnapped by a Pau’an gang. While travelling through the harsh outback of the planet they are attacked by a rival gang. Gor and several droids, including at least one medical unit, are the only uninjured survivors. Living in isolation, Gor tends to his gravely injured friend. He begins to contemplate the fragility and arrogance of organic life. He sees how droids serve organics, how they are superior in so many ways, and thinks that maybe things should be different. That organics should serve droids, that droids should benefit from organics. With that, Gor severs the arm of his friend, lets him bleed to death, and attaches it to the medical droid (who was previously operating with only one arm), and eventually dubs him Number One. I should mention that Gor has figured out a way to sustain organic flesh after grafting it to a droid body. Well, all good things must come to an end and eventually a powerful gangster named Cli Pastayra finds Gor and his robot pals (who have been raiding and fighting off counter raids from the Amani), destroys all the droids except #1 and forces Gor into working for him.
Fifteen years ago, Lando Calrissian is at a party about to seal the deal with a lovely lady when his L3 pulls him away on an urgent mission. They take the Falcon to the Mesulan Remnants, basically a big ice asteroid field. When they arrive, they see Imperials attacking some sort of cube (No, it’s not the Borg). A lone figure in a space suit exits the cube, Lando and L3 destroy the TIE’s and infiltrate the cube. There they find a horror show of dissected and dismembered organic and droid parts. L3 locates a droid called D9. He tells her that the person who did this is constructing something called the Phylanx Redux Transmitter. L3 seems to know what this means and D9 has been tracking it for her, so she and Lando rush back to the Falcon to catch up with the person (it’s Gor) who left in the jet-pack. In space, they witness Gor in his space suit and jet-pack, along with some organically enhanced droids, going up against TIE fighters and an Imperial shuttle and winning. In the Falcon, they locate the PRT (which at this point is described as about the size of a speeder) and head for it. Gor, who, again, is in a space suit, chases the Falcon, keeps up with it, and almost damages it with hand weapons. Nevertheless, the Falcon gets to it first. L3, now outside the ship gets hold of it long enough to transmit something to it. The Falcon then leaves it behind (although that is not made very clear in the text).
Ten years ago, Han is on Takodona, because heaven forbid anyone should do anything anymore that doesn’t somehow include Maz Kanata, when Sana Starros approaches him about a job that could make them rich. Han agrees and, sometime later, Sana comes rushing into (sigh) Maz’s castle with something tucked under her arm. See, what had happened was Sana had gone to an auction to represent a buyer where Cli Pastayra (Gor’s kidnapper/boss) was auctioning off the PRT. However, it was at the auction where Gor chose to use his ability to turn any droid into a kill-bot to inflict his revenge on Pastayra. Also, the PRT wasn’t actually there anyway. Sana actually made off with diminutive crime lord Mozeen Parapa. Mozeen knows where the last known location of the PRT is and tells Sana and Han to go to a satellite orbiting Hosnian Prime. Han and Chewie stake out a diner called Freerago’s; also there is an annoying Imperial Admiral. Anyway, the Admiral gets into it with a couple of Ithorians and then all of a sudden the kitchen droids start trying to kill everybody. Apparently, even though he couldn’t have gotten there much sooner than Han because he was just at that auction, Gor has secured a job in charge of the droid staff. So, Han and Chewie chase Gor into a filthy motel, droids try to kill them, they eventually catch up to him outside where he is under fire from Imperials led by that Admiral. Gor tries to let the PRT escape by flying off on its own, but Sana swoops in and takes it up into the Falcon (it’s small enough to fit under your arm now). Han and Chewie get on board and Gor is arrested by the Imperials. Onboard the Falcon, parties interested in “purchasing” the PRT arrive; but, of course, they really just want to steal it. Blaster fire erupts and Han dumps the thing out a garbage chute. Everybody seems to give up because apparently it’s too much trouble to look around the vicinity of where they are. Meanwhile Gor is taken to an Imperial prison called Substation Grimdock. The aforementioned Admiral, whose name is Fastent, tries to break Gor and becomes obsessed with tracking the PRT. Instead, Gor converts him to the belief that droids are superior and should rule the galaxy.
