Likeable enough outing within the Star Wars universe, but it doesn't rise much above average, I think. Mostly because it spends too much time on plot instead of character. Leia and Han's three young children are kidnapped, but because Leia, Han, and Luke are all in separate places and without communication, the last two don't know that the kids are missing until a couple of chapters from the end, and they only really find out by coincidence - by being in the right place when one of the missing kids pops into view.

I have to admit that I find this sort of thing a bit irritating. Not just the whole coincidence thing, and I have never enjoyed plots that hinge on coincidence (Han and Luke just happening to vacation at a slave market that traffics in children!) but because it seems such a waste. Leia is of course going frantic and hot on the trail of the kids, but we never see how her relationship with her husband and brother is affected by this enormously traumatic experience, because instead of being in it with her, they're completely unaware! And so likewise, we don't get to see how Han reacts to his children in danger, because he's off at a gambling den and bailing Luke out of trouble, none of which we have ever seen before, and it's all just a great big contrivance to keep everyone in separate storylines until any opportunity for character work has passed. As I said, irritating. It's still likeable, as I said, but because of this fairly fundamental flaw it's ultimately not more than that.