When I heard about an anthology-style book that told the story of Star Wars (or A New Hope,) from the perspectives of side characters, I just had to get my hands on it. That being said, it took me a very long time to read this book because every bookstore I visited never had it. So when I found it in a little independent bookstore during a trip to New Mexico, of course I had to buy it, instantly abandoning my TBR pile and starting this lovely looking compilation.
Did Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View fulfill my expectations? Yes and no. Was it 100% amazing? No. But was it fun? Absolutely!
Filled with a mix of comedies and tragedies, moments for laughing out loud and tearing up, From a Certain Point of View is a downright fun read no matter which type of Star Wars fan you are. Although not all of these short stories were a hit, there weren’t a ton of misses, and I’d say that the majority of them were good, and some were great. Here are my favorites.
Raymus. This short story did a magnificent job of displaying a key theme in Star Wars: hope. Although the pages about Captain Raymus Antilles were few, they left a bigger impact than the longest stories in this anthology. “In his final moment, he hoped.”
Master and Apprentice. Come on…you can’t expect me not to like a story with the unexpected appearance of Qui-Gon. But seriously, this one was great.
Beru Whitesun Lars. I’ve never heard of Meg Cabot, but I commend her for creating such an engaging, bittersweet story in only 4 pages.
Not for Nothing. This one was just plain fun. It was an entertaining, often hilarious tale that has no significant meaning to the story of Star Wars but was great nonetheless.
Eclipse. Like the one about Beru, this is a bittersweet tale. While most of these stories are about things or characters I had never thought about before, “Eclipse” was one that I’d been wanting for a long time.
The Trigger. Another fun one that was very entertaining. It also touched on some pretty deep stuff…“It’d take a real monster to pull the trigger if Alderaan had a face.”
Time of Death. At first, I had mixed feelings about this one, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to appreciate it.
I also really enjoyed “An Incident Report” “Far Too Remote” “Palpatine” and “The Whills” because they were all so unique and creative in the way they told their stories. I would’ve loved more comics spread throughout the book.
While there were certainly some short stories that I enjoyed quite a bit, there were also a few that fell flat.
The Luckless Rodian. This one didn’t add anything new. Somehow, I ended up reading about Han shooting Greedo like four times in this book, so this one was just..meh.
The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper. Unnecessarily long and disappointingly bland.
Of MSE-6 and Men. Too long and too confusing. Reading this one felt like a chore.
The Baptist. I know lots of people like this one, but I thought it was terrible. Sorry. It’s probably the most unnecessary story in this book, and that’s really saying something because this book is basically a compilation of unnecessary stories.
I think the biggest problem with some of these stories is that they don’t feel like short stories. A lot of them didn't have a clear theme or plot or, more importantly, a satisfying ending that made me feel like I just read something worthwhile. This applies to those least favorites I talked about above, but also a ton of the mediocre tales that had the potential to be great if they only learned how to work in the short story format. “You Owe Me a Ride” for example, had an interesting premise but never went anywhere with it. The characters didn’t accomplish anything, and the story pretty much ended right back where it began.
Despite all that, I still enjoyed the majority of this anthology, and I’d recommend it to any Star Wars fan who wants something a little more silly and fun. Here’s my advice to those of you who haven’t yet read From a Certain Point of View but are thinking about it: go into it knowing that you will not like every story, so just have fun with it. If you don’t like the idea of something in this book being canon, don’t worry about it too much. After all, it’s only canon from a certain point of view.
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