Adventures in Hyperspace: Shinbone Showdown, penned by Ryder Windham and featuring illustrations by Robert Rath, represents the second installment in the Star Wars: Adventures in Hyperspace Legends series aimed at young readers. Published by Scholastic Inc. on June 1, 2010, this volume recounts the escapades of smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca while in the service of Jabba the Hutt, set before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Han and Chewbacca, having just completed transporting some ill-mannered aliens and peculiar flora for Jabba Desilijic Tiure the Hutt, are hoping for a straightforward assignment. However, their hopes are dashed when Jabba dispatches them to the mining planet Shinbone for a delivery and a pickup, making them realize that any job for Jabba is bound to be complicated.
Han Solo and Chewbacca paid a visit to Jabba the Hutt at his Mos Eisley headquarters. Jabba proposed that Solo undertake a smuggling job for him, but with the stipulation that he bring along a translator. Solo reluctantly conceded and departed for Gamorr accompanied by his Wookiee companion and the droid TC-72. While traveling through hyperspace, Solo grew weary of TC-72's incessant chatter and confined the droid to the cargo hold. Upon arriving on Gamorr, Solo offended a Gamorrean farmer, who would have killed the smuggler if TC-72 hadn't been present to translate. Subsequently, Solo attempted to negotiate with the farmer, but she remained unyielding.
Upon his return to Tatooine, Solo provided a report to Jabba. Jabba then used blackmail to coerce Solo into accepting another assignment, citing Solo's breach of contract, which stipulated a payment to Jabba for any personal business dealings. When Solo inquired about Jabba's knowledge, TC-72 appeared. Aware that he had to settle his debt with Jabba, Solo reluctantly consented to travel to the mining planet Shinbone to collect gemstones. Carrying a shipment of plants, Solo and Chewbacca landed on Shinbone and encountered Jabba's contact, Torkil Mux. The miner was utilizing an unidentified walking plant species to extract gems. Mux provided the two smugglers with fewer gems than originally agreed upon, citing a difficult season, and accepted the delivery of the plants, which, as it turned out, were the aforementioned walking plants. These plants were cultivated in soil. Later, Chewbacca began tracking one of the walking plants, which guided them to Mux's ship. Solo and Chewbacca then deduced that Mux had been secretly taking gems from Jabba, and they devised a scheme for revenge.
Solo created a diversion by informing Mux that the plants he had delivered were diseased. Chewbacca gathered all of the walking plants and placed them aboard Mux's ship, then departed upon receiving Solo's signal. Mux, enraged by the disappearance of his ship, demanded that Solo retrieve it. Solo denied any involvement and suggested that he and Mux's security droid should draw their weapons and fight. Mux started counting to three, but Solo fired first, then departed from Mux and made his way back to the Millennium Falcon. In orbit, he rendezvoused with Chewbacca and instructed the walking plants to take Mux's ship to Kashyyyk. Upon returning to Tatooine once more, the two smugglers presented the extra gemstones to Jabba.
- ISBN 9780545213592 ; June 1 , 2010 ; Scholastic Inc. ; US paperback [1]