Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: From a Certain Point of View (2020)
Just finished reading this collection of 40 stories to celebrate the 40 years since Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was released. Hoping for a bit of the "look and feel" of the old Tales From... series of books; a good crop of modern back story pieces. One neat thing is that the stories go in chronological order with the events in The Empire Strikes Back: starting just before the movie opens and continuing through 'til the end.
Proceeds from the sale of this short story collection benefit the non-profit group First Book. All contributors have forgone any compensation for their work. So that's nice.
What's inside, you ask? Well, here are some short thoughts about these short stories. Of the 40 tales, I really like 15 of them and actively dislike 7. The other 18 are neither here nor there. I'm glad I bought the book, and I am pleased to have read it. Wide variation in quality and seriousness found herein. [Side note: here's my breakdown from the A New Hope version of this book: 18 really like, 11 actively dislike, 11 ok].
1. Eyes of the Empire (Kiersten White)
A nice twist on the "Imps are just regular, good people trying to do their jobs" type yarn. Once you see what the Empire is doing, you'd better change your tune.
2. Hunger (Mark Oshiro)
An ok story. A wampa-eye view of the Alliance on Hoth, from before they arrived to after they left in a hurry.
3. Ion Control (Emily Strutskie)
A very good story of betting on an intra-office romance and sacrifices made in a time of war. Always fun to get the perspective of junior officers adjacent to the main action and characters from the movies. Just the sort of thing I'm looking for in this type of story collection.
4. A Good Kiss (C.B. Lee)
Awesome! Another wonderful look behind the scenes on the movie set, so to speak. And someone (apparently C.B. Lee) finally gets how to write a gay relationship into a Star Wars story without it sounding odd or shoe-horned in to meet a quota. Bravo!
5. She Will Keep Them Warm (Delilah S. Dawson)
Another animal-eye-view: this time from the (almost) sentient tauntaun perspective. Not quite my cup of space tea, particularly as the tauntaun Luke was riding was, according to this story, pregnant, and the tauntaun Han was riding was the first tauntaun's mother. Uh oh.
6. Heroes of the Rebellion (Amy Ratcliffe)
Erstwhile reporter for the Rebellion wanted to interview the big names stationed on Hoth- but realizes Rebellions are built on hope.
7. Rogue Two (Gary Whitta)
A good background tale from Zev "Echo Base, this is Rogue Two. I've found them! Repeat, I've found them!" Senesca.
8. Kendal (Charles Yu)
Choking with Admiral Ozzel, an intimate one-episode miniseries.
9. Against All Odds (R.F. Kuang)
Flying with Dak and Luke. Some factual errors early on (like saying star destroyers carry hundreds of TIE fighters each) paired with another "Let's ride along inside someone's psyche as they die" story. Ummmmmmm.
10. Beyond Hope (Michael Moreci)
Man the trenches in front of Echo base as the AT-ATs approach. Good read.
11. The Truest Duty (Christie Golden)
Ride along with General Veers. He'll have the shield down momentarily, then you may start your landing. Nice.
12. A Natrualist on Hoth (Hank Green)
A naturalist and (former) rebel decides to not evacuate. Ok, dude. You do you.
13. The Dragonsnake Saves R2 (Katie Cook)
A one page comic
14. For the Last Time (Beth Revis)
Now spend some time with recently field-promoted Captain --> Admiral Piett. A very good sense of Star Wars, here, as evidenced in part by this line: "And so Piett had watched and waited, as patient as a lyxine watching a bouf rat." Just different enough to be not from our world, but similar enough to be easily understood via context clues and purposely similar word structures. Kudos for not saying "bantha"or mentioning "Tatooine".
15. Rendezvous Point (Jason Fry)
No, no, no, no, no! Fake news alert! Incorrect backstory for Wedge, Hobbie, others. Incorrect size of "flight" of starfighters (3 vs 4). Wrong members of Rogue Squadron. By subject matter this should be my favorite story. By bad ideas this story earns the death sentence on nine systems.
16. The Final Order (Seth Dickinson)
Let's take a Imperial-class star destroyer into the asteroid field. Bad idea. Good story.
17. Amara Kel's Rules for TIE Pilot Survival (Probably) (Django Wexler)
Life in a TIE squadron. Another excellently written gay romantic relationship. Size of a squadron is wrong (they say 24, it's 12). Most of this story was a joy to read.
18. The First Lesson (Jim Zub)
Yoda's perspective as Luke arrives on Dagobah.
19. Disturbance (Mike Chen)
Inside the mind of Palpatine.
20. This Is No Cave (Catherynne M. Valente)
More (!) animal-eye-views...this time from the giant space slug who's no cave: the asteroid field exogorth. Ok, because it is pretty creative. But let's try to cool it with the sentient animals, please (I am thinking ahead to what will probably be a Force-sensitive and just misunderstood rancor in the third "From a Certain Point of View" book).
21. Lord Vader Will See You Now (John Jackson Miller)
Piett vs Sloane, Animal CSI. This story confirms that the action in The Final Order (above) was, in fact, a bad idea. By the way, if you need a pet autopsy in a galaxy far, far away you might want to find Sloane.
22. Vergence (Tracy Deonn)
Luke! Remember your failure in the cave! Who's up for more stories about inanimate objects or space beasts? Not me.
23. Tooth and Claw (Michael Kogge)
Bossk, turning over a new leaf? Interesting.
24. STET! (Daniel José Older)
Bad attempt at humor (?) involving Zuckuss & 4-LOM. Factual errors aplenty. Bounty hunting is not an "illicit activity", for instance. Certified Guild Bounty Hunters are not gangsters or criminals. Get it together, people.
25. Wait for It (Zoraida Córdova)
Spend some time with Boba Fett? Very good. Hear him call Lord Vader "Lord Huff and Puff" in an internal monologue? Very bad. Near instantaneous hyperspace travel times...Bro-- do you even Star Wars? Then the author goes on to wreck Boba's brilliant "put Slave-I out with the trash" tactic. No good, my friend. No good. The conversations and interactions between Fett, Dengar, and Bossk seemed decent.
26. Standard Imperial Procedure (Sarwat Chadda)
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Former head of engineering on a star destroyer is now a sanitation engineer who spots Han's trick of using the landing claw to affix the Falcon to the Avenger. Nearly cons Boba Fett into splitting the bounty. Makes it seem like dumping Slave-I with the trash wasn't Fett's idea. Cool ending to this story.
27. There Is Always Another (Mackenzi Lee)
Not a good characterization of dead Obi-Wan. Next.
28. Fake It Till You Make It (Cavan Scott)
A fun story with an annoying species at its heart: a Lepi, or giant green space rabbit. In this case, the original giant green space rabbit, Jaxxon Tumperakki. To be fair, this character is from 1978, specifically issue #8 of the Marvel Star Wars comic. So there's that.
29. But What Does He Eat? (S.A. Chakraborty)
Cooking at Cloud City; specifically for a tall man dressed in all black. Who breathes ominously through a respirator. Interesting story. Pairs well with a Star Wars cookbook and a fine Alderaanian wine.
30. Beyond the Clouds (Lilliam Rivera)
A bounty hunter wannabe has a change of heart. Ok.
31. No Time for Poetry (Austin Walker)
32. Bespin Escape (Martha Wells)
Ain't no party like a Ugnaught party 'cause an Ugnaught party don't stop. I have spoken.
33. Faith in an Old Friend (Brittany N. Williams)
Now we're talking! The Millennium Collective, the trio of droid brain personalities that run the Millennium Falcon, including the lovely L3-37. Very good.
34. Due on Batuu (Rob Hart)
The story of Cloud City's ice cream machine prop, and the newest old Star Wars word, camtono. It must be saved from falling into Imperial hands.
35. Into the Clouds (Karen Strong)
A Bespin socialite and noble has to make a choice as Cloud City falls apart around her. Great story.
36. The Witness (Adam Christopher)
Stormtrooper-eye view. Always a Star Wars story premise fraught with danger. This one's mostly done right.
37. The Man Who Built Cloud City (Alexander Freed)
The crackpot of Cloud City gets caught up in galactic events. Ok.
38. The Backup Backup Plan (Anne Toole)
Imps, the Mining Guild, Cloud City freedom fighters, a pair of lady lovers, and a hard to follow plot tangle together in this story.
39. Right-Hand Man (Lydia Kang)
A very uncharacteristically talkative 2-1B medical droid replaces Luke's lost hand, consoling and counseling him along the way.
40. The Whills Strike Back (Tom Angleberger)
Another not-funny comedy attempt to riff on the opening crawl. No thanks.
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