The resolution of the various plotlines started in the previous two books, Hard Merchandise is not tightly written and really does not deserve to be a book on it's own, all of the decent bits could have been integrated in to the other books. Bossk is fooled again by Fett, Neelah, an amnesic dancer for Jabba the Hutt that rescued Fett, has her past revealed and (of course) turns out to be from a very powerful family linked to the power plays at the Kuat Drive Yards. Dengar, the bounty hunter helping Fett and Neelah, gets together with his beloved Manaroo, although much more could have been made of their relationship. The aracnid assembler is replaced by his accountant node, which then sets up new deals in it's place.
There is some action and deviousness to fit in with the first two books, but this is pale in comparason to the first and it has the feeling that Jeter wanted to get it over with as little real effort as possible. I would have been much happier with a much shorter, decent finish to the series (which would have been an apology for the lower-quality second book) rather than an even lower-quality third. Rather than a triology perhaps it would have been better to have one, quite large volume with some of the superfluous sub-plots cut out, e.g. the power play at Kuat Drive Yards was quite interesting, and caused the death of Prince Xizor (which links to Skywalker's parents deaths) but was not really necessary to the story, although it did allow for some good padding.
As a series, the first book was very enjoyable but the second failed to live up to the first, the third was not really worth the effort in comparison to the first.
Review by Paul Silver, 1999
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