I pre-ordered this book when I heard that Nendi Okorafor had story in it. A story about a thing with tentacles. Then my brother gave me a hardcover version for Christmas. After reading, I’ve decided to keep the hardcover even though I have the kindle edition.
The book is a collection o short stories that present an event or some of the events of Star Wars (A New Hope) from the point of view of minor or background characters. So, we have the red droid, the Jawas, Sand people, and so on. The stories run from serious, to referencing current real-world issues, to humor. There is a story by Wil Wheaton, making the collection both a Star Wars and a Star Trek book. Best of all, it is for the support of First Book.
And the stories are damn good.
Ken Liu’s short story “The Sith of Datawork” might just be the best one in the collection and presents the paperwork that must be filled out when you don’t shoot an escape pod. Or perhaps it is Meg Cabot’s short story about Aunt Beru – which is the reason why I now want to try the Princess Diaries. Or perhaps it is the one about that red droid, R2-D4, though it will make you look at R2-D2 in a different way.
Or perhaps it is all the ones about Leia. The torturer one, or the stormtrooper, or the one that takes place during the medal ceremony.
Or perhaps the best story is about the love affair that occurs on the Death Star.
Nope, it must be the incident report one.
The one weak part, if weak part it is, the number of stories that cover the Cantina. On one hand, this is interesting because of the whole editing of Han shooting first. But it also feels like a bit too many stories covering the same material over and over.
That aside though, this is a really good collection
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