Thursday, November 9, 2017

Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View

Star Wars - From a Certain Point of View

Star Wars From A Certain Point of View is an anthology of short stories set around the time of the original Star Wars movie, or episode IV A New Hope as I guess it's referred to now. Like most anthologies it's hit or miss- there are some good stories and some not so good ones. I was really curious to see what this would be like, given the vast and eclectic author mix. I'm not going to say much about the book as a whole, but will instead rate each story below. A few introductory words though. 

As mentioned above these all take place during the original movie. They're in chronological order too, starting at the beginning when Leia's ship is captured and ending with the victory over the Death Star . Each story is about the bit players, the side characters, although there are some big names who show up. The cast list  ranges from the captain of Leia's ship to Grand Moff Tarkin, and even to the trash compactor monster from the movie. Yes, really. Do they all work? No, but some do, and there's a few gems here as well. 

I wouldn't say this is essential reading, and it provides no clues really as to the upcoming episode VIII The Last Jedi- this is firmly set in episode IV time. It's too bad we couldn't get stories from the other original movies as well- maybe we will, down the road? I would give this three stars overall. And as someone who loathes the prequels, I was not enamored of characters or situations from those movies popping up, but that's just my personal preference. So, let's take an individual look. 

Raymus - 2.5 stars. Not bad, just nothing special. Told from the POV of the captain of the Tantive IV. 

The Bucket - 3.5 stars. Told from the POV of the stormtrooper who stunned Leia on the Tantive.

The Sith of Datawork - 3 stars. A humorous look at Imperial bureaucracy. I laughed at the part about how Vader can skip paperwork. 

Stories in the Sand - 3 stars. A Jawa on a sandcrawler.who runs into a certain droid. 

Reirin - 2 stars. Not my thing. A Tusken Raider story.  

The Red One - 3 stars. Kind of touching, although a huge eye- rolling moment (or at least there was for me). A certain droid... 

Rites - 3 stars. A Tusken Raider story. 

Master and Apprentice - 3.5 stars. A Qui-Gon/ Obi-Wan story on Tatooine. I gave it 3.5 because Claudia Gray wrote it and I like her writing, but i didn't really enjoy it that much as I'm not a Qui- Gon fan. 

Beru Whitesun Lars - 2 stars. Very short, a look at Aunt Beru. Mentions blue milk too much, once or twice would have been fine, but it's overdone. 

The Luckless Rodian - 3 stars. A recounting of the cantina scene from Greedo's perspective. 

Not For Nothing - 4 stars. A fun story by Mur Lafferty, one of my favorites of the collection. A story about the Modal Nodes, the band playing in the cantina. Humorous, including an anecdote about Greedo bringing in fugitives to Jabba and then helping them escape so he can bring them in again. 

We Don't Serve Their Kind Here - 3 stars. Wuher the barkeep's story. Nothing amazing. 

The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper - 3 stars. More cantina fun, with several patrons all mixed up in each other's (illegal) business. Just okay, a bit confusing especially if you don't know who all these aliens are, but it gets better towards the conclusion. 

Added Muscle - 2 stars. Very lame Boba Fett story. Maybe 1 star. 

You Owe Me A Ride - 3 stars. Two bounty hunter sisters, had potential but doesn't really go anywhere. 

The Secrets of Long Snoot - 3 stars. Just okay. 

Born in the Storm - 2.5 stars. A stormtrooper in Mos Eisley has a run-in with the Force? Could have been good. 

Laina - 4 stars. Heartbreaking. By Wil Wheaton. 

Fully Operational - 3.5 stars. One of the better stories. 

Incident Report - 1 star. Pointless as far as I'm concerned. 

Change of Heart - 4 stars. A stormtrooper witnessing Leia's interrogation. One of the best stories. 

Eclipse - 3 stars. Set on Alderaan. So sad. 

Verge of Greatness - 3 stars. A good Grand Moff Tarkin story. 

Far Too Remote - a one page cartoon image. Not even a story. 

The Trigger - 3 stars. An archaeologist/ weapons dealer on Dantooine. 

Of MSE-6 and Men - 3 stars. The mouse droid that fled from Chewbacca on the Death Star. Find out what happened to TK-421 from the movie! I liked that it was told from the droid's perspective, but it was kind of bizarre. I did like the mention of the Death Star lighting! 

Bump - 2 stars. The stormtrooper who let the droids go in Mos Eisley may have a second chance? I thought it was kinda lame. 

End of Watch - 3 stars. A pretty good story of a shift commander finishing up her watch while Han breaks into the detention area. 

The Baptist - 3 stars. Not sure why we needed the trash compactor monster's story, but there it is. Kinda touching but kinda silly. 

Time of Death - 3 stars. From Obi- Wan's POV. 

There Is Another - 3 stars. A tale of Yoda on Dagobah. 

Palpatine - 2 stars. A poem by the Emperor, of all things. Next. 

Sparks - 3 stars. A nice story about one of the pilots on the Death Star run. 

Duty Roster - 4 stars. The trench run/ Death Star from the perspective of those on Yavin 4. 

Desert Son - 4 stars. A tale of Biggs Darklighter. 

Grounded - 4 stars. The Death Star battle again, this time from the POV of the flight crews. 

Contingency Plan - 4 stars. Mon Mothma's perspective during the Battle of Yavin.

The Angle - 4 stars. Good story! From Lando's perspective. 

 By Whatever Sun - 3 stars. An attendee's view of the award ceremony after the Battle of Yavin

Whills - 2 stars. A sort of humorous discussion between someone writing the opening crawl of the movie and someone critiquing all his choices. And it just kind of ends- pointless. 

19 comments:

  1. There are so many! I think I would like The Angle from Lando's perspective. I've always found him interesting. I love that Donald Glover is going to play him in the new Han Solo movie!

    Do You Dog-ear?

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    1. The Angle was one of the better stories, I thought. Captured LAndo's roguish charm very well. :)

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  2. I was curious about this. I might be more interested in something that covers a wider timeline than just one movie.

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  3. Not a big enough Star Wars fan to have read any of the books. I can’t believe how many stories are crammed in this one. Is it a huge book or are the stories only a few pages?

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  4. Very interesting concept for a book. I really enjoy the Star Wars movies but don't think the books would hold my interest.

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  5. I bought this and haven't had a chance to read it yet. I do like that it is in chronological order. There are a lot of authors I haven't read from yet so I'm expecting this to be a hit or miss for me too. I just had to have this because it's Star Wars lol.

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  6. I've not really been tempted to get into the Star Wars fiction world though I have watched the movies and live with 2 people who are OBSESSED. They're ganging up on me. I've felt like it'd be fun to broaden my knowledge but haven't been sure I wanted to commit to an entire book but a short story collection sounds perfect.

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  7. I'm still looking forward to reading this, but oof, I gotta say I'm a bit alarmed at the number of 2-3 star stories. Can't say I'm too surprised though, a lot of these stories seem short and I don't suppose there's much post or character development in most of them, and my past experience with various Star Wars anthologies have taught me the same. I expect I'll feel the same way about most of these!

    ~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum

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  8. I really like the idea behind this collection of story. I do see that some of these stories are as good as I would have hoped.

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  9. Despite being a fan of Star Wars, anthologies and I don't normally get along these days. I like the way you put these in order and starred accordingly. Hope all is well! HUGE Hugs...RO

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  10. So, while I really don't care a ton about Star Wars, I mostly read this because I was excited about how many authors there were (and fine, I wanted to see which ones were crappy, I enjoyed the one-star ones- and the poem, because really? A poem?) BUT you helped me decide which book to start tonight! Since you liked Not For Nothing, and Six Wakes is staring right at me... you cured my indecision, YAY thanks!! Glad it was mildly entertaining, too :D

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    1. there were a ton of hot authors. And honestly between her story here and Six Wakes, I think Mur Lafferty is a pretty good up and coming author. And ha ha yes I kinda enjoyed ripping the one stars, because... IDK, they just seemed pointless? Which is mean I guess, everyone's mileage varies. The poem though... just no.

      Yay for Six Wakes. One of the more interesting ways of opening a novel, I'll be curious to see your thoughts.

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  11. It doesn't look that awesome.. not sure it would be for me

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  12. This is one my son would probably eat up. Not really a book for me but I'd read it if I had it. LOL

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  13. Wow I'm surprised by all the authors I know from here! Also laughing at that one page cartoon. I guess that works?

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    1. I was surprised by all the authors too! And that cartoon threw me! I was like seriously, this is it?!? lol

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  14. This is such a curious collection. I don't know what to make of it, but I appreciate the breakdown

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  15. If I see this pop up on ebook sale I will definitely grab it. Thanks for sharing your reviews of each story. :)

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