my favorite character in the franchise

So, almost a month ago now, I read the Lando Calrissian trilogy by L. Neil Smith, and because it was radio-serial pulp schlock psychedelia, I found it to be pretty much perfect, in the same vein as the original movies, if not as much the later EU.  Lando is a free-wheeling gambler who hates guns because he finds that people who use them forget about other methods of problem-solving.  Only, I think, once in these books does he deliberately resort to personal violence as part of a deliberate plan.  He's gentlemanly, much put-upon, conflict-avoidant, and cunning.

Great space opera.

Now, the villains were overdramatic, needlessly complex, and undercompetent.  The first book brought him in on a weak pretext.  The second book was contrived.  The third book felt like it started in the middle.  Whatever, man:  this is the kind of thing that pulp stories are made of.  They were brilliant and swashbuckling.

And Lando's complete inability to competently operate a spaceship without assistance, combined with a lack of understanding about import/export business, was very endearing.  Gambling and conning he understands, psychology he understands, technology?  Not so much.  Guess he has some things to learn about business before he becomes Baron-Administrator of Cloud City.