All the talk of an impending Disney flop can be put to rest, as far as I am concerned. Went to see Solo last night and I was very pleased.
I rate it after Rogue One -- which I place after the OT, all of which is before the Prequel trilogy; then The Force Awakens, then comes anything else (Ewok Adventures, Caravan of Courage, SW Holiday Special, Droids cartoon, etc), then, grudgingly, comes The Last Jedi, just before anything written by Chuck Wendig.
They managed to re-tell an origin story differently, but with some "deep-cut" nods to the past sprinkled throughout (I think I heard Lando mention a 'star cave', for instance). Qi'ira is wonderfully enticing, Lando was great, Han was better than I feared, Chewie was great. Didn't mind Woody Harrelson. Loved the L3-37 droid sidekick. Intrigued by the news that Alden Ehrenreich is signed for two more movies. Also intrigued by the surprise ending 'cameo'. No spoilers here, yet.
I have the book "Last Chance" (haven't started reading it yet) and plan to get "Most Wanted" soon.
I will likely go see this movie a few more times in the theater. Nice!
As for timeline, Del Rey books claims these events take place between the novels Tarkin and Thrawn; which doesn't help much, as it makes the window 14 BBY to "before 2 BBY". The Wookieepedia article for the movie says "13-10 BBY", slotting it around the time of Rogue One's prologue (the young Jyn Erso portion, listed as 13 BBY).
Still no official word on the novelization of this film. How odd. All I found was this contested entry on Wookieepedia:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Solo:_A_Star_Wars_Story_(novelization)
