From a Certain Point of View (Star Wars)

I've only read the first few stories in the book, but I am loving these glimpses of the daily lives of minor characters. Some are written from hilarious points of view, such as an administrator dealing with paperwork on Darth Vader's star destroyer. Each story gives enough information to identify the character from the movies and then brings out who that person really is and how s/he impacts the plot. It expands the universe by saluting the ordinary people (and other life-forms) that populate it.

I laughed, I cried, I cried some more.

This book was all I had hoped for it to be and more. Every single story within it provided so much depth to all that occurred in A New Hope, a loving ode to characters both on screen, not in the film at all, and Star Wars as a whole.

From fun nods to the fans (The Holiday special gets so many fun nods and of course... Fake Wedge! Fake Wedge!!!) to taking you inside the head of one of the troopers who stood by and did nothing as Vader tortured the 19 year old Princess Leia to witnessing the destruction of Alderaan from the perspective of Queen Breha Organa herself to Old Ben Kenobi's thoughts as he died and figured out that whole Force ghost thing... this book does an amazing job of deeply enriching the canon.

I really can not say enough how much I loved it.

All 40 stories within it were amazing. All 40 make A New Hope that much richer.

Del Rey, LucasFilm, all of the many authors... thank you so much for this incredible book.

I've only read the first few stories in the book, but I am loving these glimpses of the daily lives of minor characters. Some are written from hilarious points of view, such as an administrator dealing with paperwork on Darth Vader's star destroyer. Each story gives enough information to identify the character from the movies and then brings out who that person really is and how s/he impacts the plot. It expands the universe by saluting the ordinary people (and other life-forms) that populate it.

I laughed, I cried, I cried some more.

This book was all I had hoped for it to be and more. Every single story within it provided so much depth to all that occurred in A New Hope, a loving ode to characters both on screen, not in the film at all, and Star Wars as a whole.

From fun nods to the fans (The Holiday special gets so many fun nods and of course... Fake Wedge! Fake Wedge!!!) to taking you inside the head of one of the troopers who stood by and did nothing as Vader tortured the 19 year old Princess Leia to witnessing the destruction of Alderaan from the perspective of Queen Breha Organa herself to Old Ben Kenobi's thoughts as he died and figured out that whole Force ghost thing... this book does an amazing job of deeply enriching the canon.

I really can not say enough how much I loved it.

All 40 stories within it were amazing. All 40 make A New Hope that much richer.

Del Rey, LucasFilm, all of the many authors... thank you so much for this incredible book.

I’ve always loved anthology books set in the galaxy far, far away. TALES FROM THE MOS EISLEY CANTINA and TALES FROM JABBA’S PALACE are still some of my favorite Star Wars books from any continuity. The new slate of novels that have come out since 2015 haven’t impressed me, but I was hoping this collection of forty stories told about events from the original STAR WARS but from the perspective of ancillary characters—some known to movie-viewers, some brand new—would win me over.

And some of the stories did. I would say most of the stories in A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW are good or great. Only a handful are boring or poorly conceived, I think. The bigger problem is, even among some of the really strong stories, many of them are stories that didn’t need to be told. Was anyone clamoring for a story that shows Leia watching the destruction of Alderaan told from the POV of a random Imperial trooper in the background? The story gives fans of the franchise no new information, and sadly, that can be said for about two-thirds of the stories in this collection. It doesn’t pave any new ground. It doesn’t expand the story of Star Wars. It just makes it repetitive.

Still, as I said, some of the stories are really good. Maybe A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW should have been a collection of eighteen stories instead of forty.

I'm 11-years old again in that SRO movie house, sitted at front right aisle, for nowhere else to watch. My siblings and I won't forget, can't forget...and it's been 40 years. Thanks to all who preserve the lore of Star Wars. The Force will be with all of us - always!

Some stories are boring. Some are depressing. I had high hopes for this book - it's hardly a original idea, Star Trek did it years ago with Distant Shores, but I was eager to see it work with Star Wars. I was disappointed.

It is getting 2 stars instead of just 1 because partially it was my own expectations that it would be from different parts of the Star Wars films (at least the original trilogy), where it only actually covers the original film. Which means - stories about Tatooine and stories about the Imperial troops. I just don't really care about the inner life of a Jawa particularly much, or some odd feminist deconstruction of Tusken Raiders. But again, that's my preferences, not directly reflective of the quality.

Of the more interesting ones - they ultimately are just so nihilistic and depressing. A father being sent to his death making a recording for his daughter he will never see again. Aunt Beru talking beyond the grave about how depressing her life is, except for raising Luke. In these cases, we are supposed to have the knowledge of, "well, these things all led to the Rebel victory" (well, at least what we thought was...) but that excuse doesn't really change the feeling of the resolution of a short story and the characters featured.

It was a great idea, but again - either the stories were boring/didn't feel like they needed to be told, or just left you with a rather empty feeling of despair for the characters. I'd say I would look forward to them doing another edition for the other films, like Empire Strikes Back, but I fear we would be left with a story of some poor suffering Ugnaughts picking on the runt, or the story of the guy who disabled the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon and the paper work he had to fill out after.

Whereas Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina focused on the characters in the cantina and presented their back stories and actually made you care about them this book is a tedious chore to read. Not all the stories are bad but they never do get you to care about many of the characters at all.

Back story for the characters is rather limited instead we get to see what happened during the movie from the viewpoint of the cannon fodder and the extras. Trouble is without expanding who they are it's really not ground breaking or interesting.

As others have said there are way too many cantina stories which is ironic because 20 years ago they managed an entire book of them. The cantina stories are a particular chore and show a lapse of editing as in many ways they contradict one another. One story saying Greedo never ever made a bounty, another story about the band saying Greedo made many bounties and would set his bounties up to be freed so he could continue to recapture them. Really poor work to allow such glaring inconsistencies.

It has taken me a very long time to finish the book, one more of my benchmarks for a poor book.

Stick with the original tales series from 1995 and the next few years rather than this one. Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba's Palace are both superb.

I have been a Star Wars fan since I was 15, when the original movie first came out in theaters. I am also an avid reader and have read every adult Star Wars novel that has been published from the, now, Legend stories to the current Canon. To say I was excited when I learned of this book would be an understatement. It would also be an understatement to say I enjoyed this book as much as I had expected. Most of the stories are good but some are soooo far off what it means to be a Star Wars story that they are painful to read. As much as it hurts me to say this, Disney is also a lifelong favorite, I am concerned with the direction Star Wars fiction is going since Disney began overseeing the novels. Some of this, I realize, is me finding it difficult to give up the 120+ stories and threads coursing through the old Expanded Universe but some of it is just the fact that characters in a lot of these short stories don’t act, speak or use the colloquialisms that have become part of Star Wars Universe over the last 40 years. Yes, they’re just stories but for most of the last 40 years we have become used to stories that were consistent. Now . . . it almost seems like the editor(s) reading and approving these short stories (and recent Canon novels) have never read a Star Wars novel before. To quote a favorite phrase, “I’ve got a bad felling about this. . .”

Not a bad book, but come on, be original please...huge galaxy and they keep going or using the same planets ( one author had jakku juice or something and naboo salad or another) and then some author named tom angleberger used the word dude in star wars, be real guy and use your creativity

I rarely give up on a book, but I just couldn't get more than half way through this book. Some of the authors are fantastic, some are abysmal. But even for the great authors, the story lines they have to work with are insignificant and lack depth. I will say, though, that Pierce Brown's story was very well done.

Hubby LOVES these. HE says he "...reads the audio books on the way to work". :) Huge Star Warsian that he is, he really likes new takes on the Star Wars standard, especially stories that tie in Star Wars cannon.

This collection of stories fill in the unanswered questions of episode 4. Each chapter is a story from a point of view that was not used in the movie and beautifully adds to the we all know so well. A highly entertaining read even if you have never read a Star Wars book before.

Overall I agree with most of the other reviews, the book is a good read with some slow drawn out stories. The worst story in the book was the one from Palpatine/Emperor, it was almost like torture because it was more like reading a Dr Seuss book than a Star Wars Novel.

The stories are a bit uneven and who would expect that I would enjoy the one featuring an introverted jawa the most! Gifted this to my 13 year old nephew and he loved it. And I recommend the audio version as well.

I enjoyed the stories, it was interesting to read about the backstories of the characters. Now in going back and watching the film I have a better understanding of their thoughts and motivations, it helps in making the story more developed.

A lot of good stories here. The big name authors like Claudia Grey and John Jackson Miller knock it into the cheap seats, but the randoms brought in to do cantina stories really make the book drag in the middle. From a Certain Point of View does appear to make Miller's Kenobi official canon though, which is awesome and something I've wanted to happen since the Disney acquisition. All and all I'm happy with the purchase, despite all the filler that made me sleepy.

I like how in the list of contributors they have "Trendsetters" probably because there isn't really any other way to describe Griffin McElroy (except maybe 30 under 30 media luminary). Basically this book is full of a bunch of really cool creators all approaching the world of Star Wars from their unique perspective. There were a ton of names on the list I was unfamiliar with, and I'm sure you will feel compelled by different creators than me, but they are all well established in their own right. I'm a comics guy, so Charles Soule, Kieron Gillen, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Greg Rucka, and Matt Fraction all stand out (they're all amazing). I loved their contributions, but this is a book of 40 short stories, so some are gonna be good, some great, and some you probably wont care for. But it is all about seeing SW through the eyes of someone else, so even though there were a few stories I felt didn't speak to me personally, there was still merit in experiencing their perspective.

So if you are a star wars fan , or a fan of any of these creators then it is definitely worth the read, but as with most things are, "pobody's nerfect".

Anthologies are a potluck type of genre when it comes to storytelling. One perspective is that there is bound to be some enjoyment found if there is enough there, but another is the amount of enjoyment can depend on who is organizing the affair. A good anthology needs a strong editorial hand to make sure none of the stories contradict others and that a certain tone and flow is established.

Sadly, whoever was in charge of editing this book wasn't up to the task. One can imagine that since noone was getting paid since this book and its proceeds are going to charity, the editor got the job by virtue of drawing a short straw, losing a rock, paper, scissors tournament, or just simply had the least amount of seniority in the office, and thus felt he needn't put much effort in his role.

On a technical level, this anthology is something of a mess. I found more than a few typos, Some stories are seemingly unfinished and end in the middle of being told. Stories set around the same time period or events directly contradict each other, One story named, "Incident Report" is just that. An Incident Report. How this qualifies as a worthwhile entry into an Anthology, I don't know. But at forty stories plus, many of which struggle to be complete, emotionally affecting, or have a point to tell, I'd like to know how or why the decision was made by the editorial powers to keep that particular story in there.

The execution of the Anthology would be a minor quibble if the stories themselves managed to draw me in. Sadly, save for a select few, many of these stories made me check the page counter on my kindle to see how much longer was left. One story has a storm trooper who, after 12 pages of hating Tatooine, decides to go native in the final few paragraphs. This is followed up by a interesting look at Long Snoot, the Spy that reports the droids to the empire in Star Was, but just as the story reaches a high mid point, it ends with no conclusion to any of its threads. One story is a gradeschool level poem written by the emperor about the death of Obi-Wan. To sum up, 2/3rds of the book show what can be considered as either a lack of care and effort, or a lack of ability, in writing their stories. Three of the better tales focus on Obi-Wan, and the beginning of the book starts up immediately from the last frame of Rogue One and gives a cliched, yet well realized tale about the Captain that got leia to Tatooine.

If only the sins of the book ended there, I would feel okay of giving the book a 2 1/2, but one thing that I feel lowers this to a 1 1/2, is the practice of a certain kind of retconning that has become popular and common in todays comic book industry. Its the type of Retconning that happened to a certain member of the X-men two years back, and the kind of retconning certain more socially minded readers are pining to see in Winter Soldies/Captain America's relationship. And While I applaud diversity in storytelling and a respectful representation of any kind of trod upon minority,(hence why I enjoy Dr Aphra's ongoing comic series) this kind of retconning is misplaced at best, and pandering/grandstanding at its worst.

The practice of a retcon is a tricky thing. It is necessary to keep ongoing franchises fresh and relevant, but to go too far or do it poorly betrays current fans, the character, the franchise, and the story itself. I feel it is poorly handled in this Anthology both times it happens. Not only that, but I'm certain George Lucas would cough up blood were he to find characters from the (QUOTH THE LUCAS: IT NEVER HAPPENED!) Star Wars Holiday Special are being dug out of their crypt. I understand its not his franchise anymore, but to go against a policy the founder of this franchise has so passionately upheld for decades shows that the writers involved cared more about getting their names on a high profile project, and perhaps deducting it on their tax return, than genuinely doing right by the franchise.

To close this review out, I have often spoken to many fellow fans that I am very dissatisfied with this new literary Star Wars universe. The older one was two decades old and held back by its own massive continuity baggage, but it had its heart in the right place and was focused on delivering the best stories it could. This new take has been, thus far, woefully unambitious. Satisfying itself with smaller focused character pieces for its books, failing to look beyond the original trilogy and tell the stories that shaped the Universe that these new Star Wars Movies, and failing to have any kind of larger story happening. It seems this focus on marketing rather than storytelling made its way into its first anthology. The idea of the first Star Wars book published as a charitable effort is a good hook, but the storytelling and scope of these stories are as mediocre and unimpressive as ever.

I'm normally not really into short stories or anthologies (this is both), and I'm normally not into audiobook fiction. I've found that several of the newer Star Wars books are almost audio dramas with multiple actors voicing characters, background music & sound effects. In this case, I would recommend the audiobook over the print edition. Some of the best stories in this anthology were made even better by superb voice acting & effects, and some of the mediocre ones were made more tolerable.

The GREAT:

Out of the 40 stories, there are a few that are so superbly written & voiced that I would recommend the book for these alone:

Wil Wheaton's "Laina" almost brought me to tears! I replayed it later and it had the same effect on the second listen. It's not often that a book, especially a short story containing all original characters has this kind of effect on me. I tip my hat to you sir - well done!

Claudia Gray has become my favorite author for the new cannon novels (for the uninitiated, these are the novels that have been published since Disney bought the rights to Star Wars). So far everything she does for the SW universe is GOLD. Here she contributes "Master and Apprentice", in which the spirit of Qui-Gon is communing with Obi-Wan in the deserts of Tatooine.

Rae Carson's "The Red One" gives backstory to a certain red R5 astromech that makes him an unlikely hero of the rebellion.

In "Not for Nothing" Mur Lafferty writes from the perspective of one of the members of the band from the Mos Eisley Cantina (Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes), crafting a tale that was a lot of fun! Definitely one of my favorites.

"Eclipse" by Madeleine Roux follows Breha Organa as she and her husband Bail deal with the disappearance of their daughter following the interception of the Tantive IV in the opening act of Ep IV: A New Hope

The bad and the weird:

The longest story, "The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper" might be the one story that was adversely affected by being acted out. One of the main alien characters of the story is read in a squeaky voice that was like fingernails on a chalkboard. Halfway though the tale, I realized I really didn't give a rip about the characters or the story, making this the only tale in which I hit the skip button and did not finish.

"The Baptist" - which is all about the creature that lives in the trash compactor on the Death Star. [eye roll]

"Palpatine" by Ian Doescher is Palpatine's reaction to the destruction of the Death Star - sounds interesting, right? Well, I was really interested for as many seconds as it took to figure out that it's written in metre, using antiquated verbiage, as if to imitate Shakespeare. Um.... No, thank you.

"Of MSE-6 and Men" by Glen Weldon just pissed me off to no end. It was beyond ridiculous. In this story from the perspective of a mouse droid on board the Death Star, we find that Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin is basically passing notes back and forth via mouse droid with stormtrooper TK421 in attempt to have an illicit affair with him. Why, oh, why, are we retconning Tarkin to make him gay? Beyond that, him having an affair with a stormtrooper is the equivalent of the American Secretary of Defense being engaged in an illicit relationship with a private (ain't gonna happen). The whole thing was out of character for Tarkin. It was a train wreck, in the style of watching Jerry Springer. How this made it into the book, I can only imagine. We had a major character in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy who was gay, and Sinjir was actually my favorite character. If there's going to be a gay character, that's how you do it. You make a new character. You don't go and retcon it into the story of a character from the beginning of the saga via a short story buried in an anthology.

As for the rest of the stories that I've not mentioned specifically, there are many that are good and enjoyable to varying degrees. I'm not going to try to review every story. I'm only remarking on those that stood out for various reasons, good and bad alike.

Slipshod, uneven and leaves you wondering, "These folks are paid to write, right?" While this book features some of the finest writers in the sci-fi (and comics) genre, some of them come out of left field and their lack of writing skills drags the book down. Most of the stories read like high-school writing assignments while others can be both fascinating genuinely brilliant. The problem is, the bad really outweighs the good here. As others have stated, "Tales from Mos Eisley Catina" did it first and did it far better. This book would have been better if they had not tried to retread old areas and maybe done a similar type of thing, but focused on "The Empire Strikes Back" timeline instead.

With all that said, I would like to point out three absolutely wonderful things about this book. One: The story featuring the conversation between Obi-Wan and Yoda is fantastic, especially the explanation of a certain piece of forgotten cloth. Two: Finally settling the argument (in canon) about who shot first. Three: The very last story in the book. If nothing else, when you pass this book on the rack or at the library, pick it up and read that last story. It is five minutes of Star Wars brilliance! These three bright points earn this book 3 stars, though I am probably being too generous.

I cannot recommend this book as a buy. Get it at the library if you're curious. That's what I did and I am glad.

I have a hard time reviewing anthology books, because how do I quantify a review of different stories by various different authors with different writing styles? I usually do an overall review for these collections, but I find it so hard! Mostly because what if there is one great story, but all the rest in the collections are kinda "meh". How do you write a review for that? Do you give it a good review, just for that on story? I wasn't really sure how to broach this collection. Do I just call out what I liked? Or do I break it down by each story and give a review separately? I know Greg at Greg's Book Haven did it that way, and I liked his review, but boy is that A LOT of work! So I want to talk about this collection has a whole, and I want to pull out my favorite stories and that ones that I just didn't care about to show the difference between the stories.

Some of the stories in this collection just didn't make me feel anything. I read them and just thought, "okay." and flipped the page to the next story. I'm not really going to talk about those here, because I just don't have any feelings about them. But let's start with the misses and which stories just didn't work for me.

Whills by Tom Angleberger might have been my least favorite. It's a little funny on a really meta level, and I understand why they ended with it, but I just thought it was so unnecessary. It didn't do anything for me to enhance my love of A New Hope. Of MSE-6 and Men by Glen Weldon was another I just didn't really care for. I think for me it was just super distracting to read in the droid's processing language. I mean on some level it was cool because I don't think I've read that in a Star Wars book before, but it also gave me a headache so I have to put it in the "miss" pile. This last one that was in the "miss" pile for me hurts my heart because it's from my favorite author, but I can admit when one of her stories just doesn't work for me. Beru Whitesun Lars by Meg Cabot was just kind of boring and repetitive, and that makes me really sad. On one hand I know a lot of women were glad that there was talk about Beru being infertile in this story and I think that is great to have that here. I always kinda wondered why the Lars didn't have any children, and it's cool to see something like that in the Star Wars Universe. On the other hand she talked about making Blue Milk Cheese TOO much, and I just didn't care.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, I want to talk about the "Hits" in this collection and why I loved these particular stories. I also want to point out these aren't all the stories that I liked, just the major ones that I was really drawn to and want to point out for the purpose of this review. I also am listing them chronically, not by order of how much I liked them.

I think Stories in the Sand by Griffin McElroy was the first story in the collection that I really enjoyed. I feel like we don't really know that much about The Jawas, so it was really interesting to read from the perspective of one and get a little more insight on their culture. Reirin by Sabaa Tahir was a cool story, especially if you want to hear the Tusken Raiders side of the story. This one is a little frustrating because now I have more questions, but that also made me love it. Reirin is a Raider that wants to leave the planet and she has to find some sort of rock in the Jawas' Crawler (I think it's supposed to be a Kyber Crystal). I also think that it's heavily implied that she is force sensitive. Um...where is the rest of this story?? I want to know more about this character's journey. I liked John Jackson Miller's Rites story for a similar reason, it's also about The Tusken Raiders. If you read Kenobi (now part of legends, even though it totally should be canon) the character of A'Yark should be familiar. She's the Chief of her tribe, and I really need a novel about her too. I kind of love that Miller was able to make this character canon. That's really interesting to me and I definitely am more interested in reading about the Tusken Raiders in the Star Wars Galaxy and hearing their side of the story. Another one I really loved was The Trigger by Kieron Gillen. This was my first introduction to Doctor Aphra (I don't think she has a book, but she is in the comics) and I definitely need to get my hands on her comics now!

I like anthologies because it allows you to jump around and if you don't like one story, you can just move on to the next one. I generally enjoyed this one. There were some I hated, some I loved, but I think that is just the nature of anthologies.

This is a short story collection that slowly moves through A New Hope, but told entirely from peripheral viewpoints, and often ones we don’t get to explore. This is a bold experiment. I enjoyed the stories best when they focused on that perspective rather than delivering fanservice. “The Luckless Rodian” rose above that by confirming that Han Shot first. “Bump” by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker included some of my favorite fanservice of the Stormtrooper who bumped his head, with excellent audio production. “By Whatever Sun” is a great eulogy to Carrie Fischer via Princess Leia. The victory music just added that extra oomph to the story.

Many of these opened a window into peripheral characters getting to be heroes in their own small way, like R5-D4 in “The Red One”. The ancillary service droids in “Eclipse” were delightful. “The Secrets of Long Snoot” by Delilah S. Dawson presents some great murky ethical situations in a tightly paced story.

“The Baptist” by Nnedi Okorafor is excellent stuff. On the surface, it’s an interesting story about the monster in the trash compactor and how its encounter is critical to Luke’s spiritual journey. I was expecting something different from a story featuring my first movie monster, and was pleasantly surprised at the turns this story took. On a meta-level -- just under the surface of the swamp -- it smartly addresses the colonialism of the Empire without being intrusive.

“The Sith of Datawork” by Ken Liu is a nice response to movie logic nitpickers while providing a fun bureaucratic character sketch. “Not for Nothing” by Mur Lafferty was a fun perspective from the Cantina band. I could hear all the music in my head while this one was unfolding. I’m glad Mur is writing the novelization of Solo.

Some of the best stories were exceptionally peripheral to A New Hope. “The Trigger” by Kieron Gillen was an excellent story about a character on Dantooine that strongly overlapped with Indiana Jones (which is arguably an alter ego for Han Solo). This story excellently delivered tension and pacing, while sneaking in a message that was present but didn’t take center stage away from the story. This would make an excellent stand-alone comic book. “The Angle” was an excellent Lando gambling story, and coupled with the Solo film, made me realize there’s a great need for more fun Lando stories.

This collection of short stories will satisfy every Star Wars fan alive. The premise is genius. It takes small, seemingly unimportant moments from A New Hope and zeroes in on them. It provides names and backstories, tragedies and victories, motivations and inclinations. It satisfyingly adds to a universe already well developed.

One of these stories in particular proved among my favorites. Do you remember the guy standing lookout in the crow’s nest of a pole? You saw him as the X-Wings took off to intercept the Death Star? His story is written by Will Wheaton, entitled “Laina,” and it is absolutely heartbreaking. There is another called “Time of Death” which features Obi-Wan Kenobi’s final moments and thoughts as he faced certain death at the hands of his former apprentice. Speaking of such, Claudia Gray wrote “Master and Apprentice” which explores Qui-Gon Jinn’s spirit visiting Obi-Wan on Tatooine. Still another is called “There Is Another,” and it’s about Yoda living on Dagobah and wishing he could train one last Jedi–someone he believes has great potential.

Of course, as you can see, not all stories are directly related to a moment in A New Hope. Such as with the Yoda story, some of the stories check in on characters technically not introduced in the original 1977 classic. Boba Fett, for example, offers a first-person account during a bounty hunt. We have a story starring Lando trying to swindle someone. We have another with Doctor Aphra, a relatively new character, in the lead. Yet another stars the Emperor himself.

However, these are all pretty big names in the Star Wars mythology. Most of the short stories actually utilize characters that are essentially unknown. Remember the red R2 unit that Luke and Uncle Owen almost bought? He’s got a story. Do you recall the Tusken Raiders who knocked out Luke? Yep, they have a story, too. That bartender who told Luke to get the droids out of his tavern? You guessed it. Even one of those little mouse droids in the Death Star has a story.

Are all forty of these short stories great? Not in my opinion, no. However, those that didn’t speak to me personally may very well be your favorite. I will say this, though, the vast majority of them were exceptional. The writers’ ability to take seemingly irrelevant characters and develop them into engaging, charismatic figures proved uncanny.

I highly recommend this book for any Star Wars fan.

Before reading this book, you really need to have seen Star Wars: A New Hope (and if you haven’t yet, what’s wrong with you??). This book relies on readers’ familiarity with the film, so anyone that tries to read this but hasn’t seen the movie is going to be lost.

The short stories in this book are arranged to follow the film’s chronology. The first story is set shortly after the events of Rogue One and the final story is set during the celebration on Yavin IV. The usual stable of writers of licensed Star Wars novels (Claudia Gray, Greg Rucka, Chuck Wendig) provided some of the stories, but the work of professional nerds (Wil Wheaton), comic book, movie, and television writers (Paul Dini, Ben Acker, Gary Whitta), and professional Fantasy/Sci-Fi writers (Pierce Brown, Ken Liu, Nnedi Okorafor) is also included in this collection.

The stories don’t have a consistent “vibe.” Some of them are informative, filling in plot-holes from the films. Others are light-hearted romps. And others are sad, tense, or meta. The length of the stories varies from one page to about twenty pages.

The diversity of perspectives, the nuanced portrayals of the people of the Empire, the plausible explanations for A New Hope’s plot holes, and the variety of emotional experiences provided to the reader make From a Certain Point of View a good book.

There a some flaws, however. Not all forty stories in the collection are winners. I did not finish three or four of them. Fortunately, you can skip right over any story that you don’t like because (1) none of the stories rely on each other and (2) they follow the plot of A New Hope. Also, I had a bit of a problem with the editing. The arrangement of the stories implies that they should work as a seamless experience, a consistent whole. But some of those stories directly contradict the ones that precede them. Those contradictions cannot be explained by “inconsistent eyewitness accounts” or “unreliable narration.” For example, in one story, there are not enough fighters for all of the pilots so a pilot is left out of a battle. In the next story, there are not enough pilots to fly all of the fighters. They both can’t be true. It’s jarring and takes away a bit from the experience. Ultimately, the book is still worth a read, and I recommend it to any fan of Star Wars.

40 years of Star Wars celebrated with 40 short stories compiled into one 400+ page compilation. That’s the basic premise of “From a Certain Point of View,” and if you like Star Wars at all, then this book is fantastic. Obviously there are some misses in here, and a couple sections start to drag a little when there’s too many stories set in the same scenario from “A New Hope”—there’s a *lot* of pages devoted to Mos Eisley, for example—but overall the vast majority of these short stories range from “good” to “great” to “holy-crap-I’m-crying-this-is-so-perfect.”

Each story focuses on either a background character from the Star Wars films that started it all, or gives us a glimpse as to what a character we don’t see in the movies is up to while Luke, Han, and Leia do their thing. And again, they’re almost all really good. It's a lot of fun to see how the events from the film play out from an unexpected perspective, and I was surprised by the kinds of emotions the writers' were able to extract from me within just a few pages. I was laughing out loud on multiple occasions, and even shed a couple tears—which is not something that happens very often for me.

All the writers included in this compilation are obviously passionate and excited about this universe, and their enthusiasm shows on nearly every page. These are stories written by fans, and that adds an innate sense of love and precision to the stories that are largely responsible for the book's overall success. I would love to see this kind of book become a tradition with all of the Star Wars film's momentous anniversaries.

I need to give special mentions to Gary Whitta, Rae Carson, Wil Wheaton, Madeleine Roux (seriously, her story broke me into teeny-tiny pieces), Pablo Hidalgo, Kieron Gillen, Glen Weldon, Nnedi Okorafor, Cavan Scott, Gary D. Schmidt, Pierce Brown, and Charles Soule—I know, that’s a lot of names—whose entries here rank among the very, very best.

So it's 12:40 a.m. as I write this. I have just finished this book and my mind is racing with my thoughts. I thought that I would share them here, as surprisingly, my thoughts are not completely "Oh man this was amazing!" I fully admit upfront that I am a huge Star Wars nerd, but ever since the old Expanded Universe was scratched, I've had trouble getting back into the books. It's hard to just pretend that the past twenty plus years of what I've read didn't happen. Even more frustrating is knowing that there's a huge time gap now between the movies and it is not being filled in fast enough, because we have to wait for the movies themselves to come out.

But I picked this book up because it dealt with A New Hope, which we all are already familiar with. Plus, this sounded like a fun idea. Telling the events of Star Wars from the point of view of the people in the background.
And for the most part, it was a fun read. I tore through it pretty quickly, finishing it in a week. However, it wasn't all rose-tinted glasses. There are some issues, ranging from technical stuff (like how to do basic math), to pacing and just all-around relevance. Let's get into it, shall we?

For the most part, I enjoyed these stories. I liked how a few of them even made me feel sympathy for Stormtroopers, even ones stationed on the Death Star. It was fun reading about the thoughts of the soldier that stuns Leia, and how angry he is at Leia for just judging him based on his outfit, and not seeing him as a living being. I also liked the story about the red droid that Uncle Owen almost buys, and how his accident wasn't exactly an accident.
There is also a soul crushing chapter about a father recording a message for his two year old daughter, and we get to see what Leia's parents' final moments were. I think the writer for this story did a fantastic job of capturing the utter feeling of helplessness and dread that must have been going through everyone's minds in those final seconds.
There's also a story where one of the black Death Star Troopers realizes Leia is lying--it's never really explained HOW he figures it out and everyone else misses it, it's just stated that he would do the same thing--and he doesn't turn her in. It makes you wonder: how many others on the Death Star would have joined the Rebellion, or wanted off at least, and never got the chance?
But perhaps my favorite story--and I can't believe I'm saying this--is one of the final ones with Mon Mothma. It's kind of like Star Wars Infinities, where a bunch of different "what ifs" play out in her head, and all of them are dark. Very, very dark. And it portrays this strong leader in a weakened and defeated state. I would not be surprised if some people are actually offended by this, saying she would never do what she ALMOST does at the end, and she would never give in like this: but her reasoning is solid, cold, and cruel. The Empire has just shown that it is willing to murder billions of people in the blink of an eye. If the Death Star wasn't destroyed, how long could the Rebellion really have continued?

And now we come to the...not so great stuff. Let's start with the stories themselves.
A few of these stories are boring to me. In fact, I fully admit that I skipped one completely. It was the one about the Gold Horn or something like that. I just didn't care, and it didn't seem like it was adding anything to the lore. And the way it was written, constantly jumping between styles and characters, made it too much of a hassle to keep straight.
Another one I didn't care for was a story about a Tusken Raider stealing what (I think) was a kyber crystal from the Jawas. Okay, that's cool...but I don't recall anything like that ever even being hinted at in the movie, and the fact that her story just kind of ends after she steals it leaves me wondering why this story was even here. It added nothing.
Next, we spend way, way, WAY too much time in the cantina. Like holy cow, it seemed like a third of the book was devoted just to that one area. I wanted to leave. I was sick of hearing how the arm was cut off after the fifth time I read about it from a different point of view. Move along. There are other places to visit! Ugh. If I never read another story set in that place, it will be too soon.

And now we come to the part that I'm sure many of you may scratch you head at or just roll your eyes. The space combat chapters.
Full disclosure: I live for the space combat in Star Wars. I can recite line for line the Battle of Endor off the top of my head, and probably 98% of the Battle of Yavin (I have trouble getting the call sign order correct). So when I got to the chapters dealing with this part of the movie, I was loving it. I liked knowing the names of the pilots and comparing them to their pictures so I could see who was who. I liked reading the dialogue between them and hearing in play in my head. I liked being able to see what was happening as I read about it from the point of few of the crew chief on the planet.
But because of this, I noticed a few things. Dialogue is changed. It's not, "Red One, turn to point oh five," it's "Red Leader, turn to point oh five". Dex never says, "The guns...they've stopped!" in the book. Gold Five's followup of, "Stabilize your read deflectors, watch for enemy fighters!" is completely omitted. But Dex suddenly gets new dialogue just before he's killed--which if you know the movie, you know he doesn't have time to say anything. This was nails on a chalkboard for me, and it happens a lot in the space combat scenes--changed or omitted dialogue.
Green Squadron is mentioned, even though they should be nowhere near this place.
Gold Five is listed as saying, "Lost Hutch" when Vander's nickname is actually "Dutch", making it seem like someone didn't do their research (although personally, I always thought it sounded like "Hutch" myself).
When we get to the chapter called Duty Roster, four pilots are grounded because there are not enough ships, yet two chapters later it's mentioned that there are three perfectly good X-wings, but no pilots to fly them. So which one is it? Not enough ships, or not enough pilots? Another problem arises when it's mentioned that 15 ships were destroyed in the past week. Two didn't come back from the bombing run on Eadu. Two didn't make it through the shield gate at Scarif. Two more were shot down above the planet. And then eleven more were destroyed at Scarif. Two plus two plus two equals 6. 6 plus 11 equals SEVENTEEN. I reread this several times, thinking I missed something (and if I did, I apologize right now for it and looking like a fool), but nope. And then, in the very next paragraph, it says that fifteen ships were lost--and nineteen pilots, which I don't get either. How do you lose more pilots than ships? Heart attacks? Or were some of those Y-wings rolling with a pilot and a gunner?
In one story Wedge tries to make a second run after pulling out. In another, he goes to help the surviving Y-wing pilot. So which is it?
But my favorite blunder, the one that literally made me open my mouth and laugh, was that Red Seven is TWO DIFFERENT PILOTS! Like seriously guys, maybe you all should have at least compared notes. How does something like this slip by?
So yeah, many of you might think this is me being silly, but like I said, the space combat is my life, and seeing so many mistakes is like hearing someone say, "No....I am your mother!" instead of the correct line.

Bottom line: if you like Star Wars, I recommend this book. Some of the stories drag or are pointless (seriously, what did that kyber crystal have to do with anything?), but I feel the good outweighs the bad. And while I may have come down a little harsh on the space battles, it is still a joy to finally, officially, get these characters' names. I just can't help but feel like this book maybe should have had a bit more of a once over in certain areas, and that maybe some stories should have been dropped (so tired of the freaking Cantina!) or changed around some.

I have to be honest; I don’t know how to review this book. With 40 stories by 40+ authors, spanning across almost every genre and style, covering the full length of A New Hope (and then a little extra), the book is simply too complex for a normal review. My notes themselves are in excess of five typed single space pages; there’s just no way to capture that in a few brief paragraphs.

What I can do, however, is talk about the experience of reading this book. From a Certain Point of View is a book that is best read sequentially; while you can jump from story to story or hunt for particular authors there’s an emotional thread between the stories that has to be experienced directly. As you read, it’s impossible not to let your mind wander to the images of the film, and to the knowledge of coming events. You’ll feel pain for characters as they feel relief their family is safe on Alderaan, as they watch their friends go forth into a battle you know they won’t survive, or achieve a new sense of autonomy and purpose that you know is fated to end badly. Of course, not all the stories are gut punches; many are meditations on joy, trust, wonder, and love. More than anything, the book encapsulates a sense of hope and longing for change.

When you finish this anthology, sit down and watch Star Wars again. It’s like watching a whole new movie. And that’s no small feat for a book written 40 years after the fact.

I dearly hope there’s more like this coming from Del Rey in the future.

A great concept copied from the older “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina” book (as well as one on jabbas palace and tales of the bounty hunters) executed poorly. The prose is uneven, the stories are sometimes just dumb and simplistic (really, how much do we have to camp on the blue milk) and overall instead of a page turner like the previous works I mentioned above, reading this was a chore at times. It’s not all terrible, but it’s not worth your money either.

Overall a very disappointing effort.

I mostly rate this a 3/5 because it's very uneven. You'll read Claudia Gray's "Master and Apprentice" and probably walk away liking where she went with it and how it fits so well with the entire Star Wars saga, really. Then you'll read about Greedo dying 4 to 6 times, some of the stories being fun and others being boring or stupid. Eventually, you'll hit a single panel comic for kids. There are highs like Hidalgo's "Verge of Greatness", and there are lows like "Of MSE-6 and Men" (it read like a poor fanfic). There are serious stories that build on existing knowledge like "There Is Another", there are creative stories like "Palpatine", and there are silly stories like "Whills". It's a mixed bag, honestly. It's 3 stars.

This collection of 40 short stories basically re-tells the movie in short bites from a different perspective. The stories are lined up in sequence to match the movie so basically it's easy to follow along.

Short stories aren't my favorite medium but I enjoy the variety and the chance to discover new writers. All of the authors are donating their compensation to First Book which promote children's literacy so this is a win/win for everyone involved.

My favorite stories include:
"The Sith of Datawork" by Ken Liu - Explains why Vader's star destroyer didn't shoot the escape pod with R2 and 3PO when they headed to Tatooine.
"The Red One" by Rae Carson - The noble tale of the red astromech droid Owen Lars originally purchased from the Jawas.
"Beru Whitesun Lars" by Meg Cabot - The thoughts of the woman who loves her blue milk
"Of MSE-6 and Men" by Glen Weldon - The story of the mouse droid
"The Baptist" by Nnedi Okorafor - Adds a ton of depth and history to the trash compactor monster
"There is Another" by Gary D. Schmidt - Here's what Yoda was up to
"Whills" by Tom Angleberger - A hilarious examination of the opening crawl

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie, this book presents 40 short stories retelling the events of that film from the perspective of various minor characters -- from Jawas to stormtroopers to the thing in the trash compactor. Some include scenes lifted straight from the movie; others offer plots that have purportedly been playing out in its background this whole time. These vignettes are brief, but the writers are talented, and the project as a whole carries a certain ludicrous joy. (My personal favorite contribution is Mallory Ortberg's "An Incident Report," in which an imperial officer files paperwork regarding the time his coworker Force-choked him during a staff meeting.)

The stories in this collection correlate roughly with the timeline of A New Hope, but they're packed full of clever references to the rest of the Star Wars canon as well. It's a labor of love for fans by fans, and the 40+ authors are all donating their share of the proceeds to the First Book children's literacy nonprofit. Highly recommended for any lover of this franchise.

Overall, this was okay. Some of the stories were excellent. Some were okay. And the rest was either trash or not far from it. I love Star Wars and I thought this was an excellent idea! But the amount of repetitive stories, political agendas, and poor writing, was too evident. I would say they could have cut the stories down to twenty and it would have vastly improved this collection.

I do have to say, it’s a must read for any fan. I’m giving one star for it being Star Wars. One star for the stories that were great. And one star since the proceeds are going to a good cause.

I received this as a Christmas present (I didn't ask for the book, but they knew how much I enjoy the movies). I have never read a Star Wars book but am a huge fan of the movies. I found much of this book a very good read, it explained some back stories that I was unaware of, even having watched the movies multiple times as a kid and now as an adult. Did some of the stories drag on like others mention? Yes, definitely. I'll admit that I considered skipping a few because they were so long and tedious (and I did skip one, that just did not capture my interest). But otherwise, I found this a fun read with some great stories. I was also amazed that they could fit 40 different stories from one Star Wars movie (a New Hope). I'd definitely recommend this book.

A stirring collection of back stories by 40 renowned authors expands the characters and components of "Star Wars, Episode IV". This magnificent collection sews together the germination of the whole Star Wars epic series. While all the stories contribute and connect seamlessly to the flavor and story line of Star Wars, "The Baptist" chapter contributed by Nnedi Okorafor added a completely new dimension to the "Force" which could lure all of us to a whole new series! You must read the entire collection to understand . . . Oh and also all 40 authors took no fees. Instead they and the publisher are donating the entire proceeds of this epic collection to "First Book" which provides Books and learning materials to educators dedicated to raising the intellect of our future leaders.

'From A Certain Point of View' is a nice collection of short stories that compliment the galaxy far far away we were first introduced to in 'A New Hope.'

I enjoyed that I could pick this up and read a short story or two and set it back to revisit at another time - I have a serious problem with obsessively reading through a fiction novel (sleep be damned) that isn't always conducive to being production (or able to function the next day at work.) Your mileage and enjoyment may vary depending on your interest or involvement with the various inhabitants of Tatooine and beyond. And, for what it's worth, I really enjoyed 'The Red One' - and I hope you will too! :)

This was for the most part a good collection of stories, most of them are interesting. Some of them are meaninglessly fleshed out to the point of absurdidy, to the point where I was asking "does knowing this enrich the original story, or is it just meaningless nonsense". Most of it does in fact enrich the story. But it is very much a book written in 2017, there is no timelessness to the story or the characters. the flow of the stories keeps you from getting too bored with the bad stories by following them up with really great ones.

But here is what broke the book for me, there were some minor annoyances for me, but that is only because it really irritates me when identity politics seeps into things unnecessarily. But that's just me, to each their own.

But Palpatine's story destroyed it for me, and it should have been the stories strongest story.

When Star Wars came out, the empire was analogous to the Nazi's in WW II. Granted the book does it's best to retcon that aspect of them as well. But i digress.

But I think of how chilling or how character defining it could have been to be in the head of Hitler at the peak of his power and influence. How he thought, why he thought that way. Did he see himself as the villian? Was he so far deluded that he thought he was a force for some twisted form of "good". As a character driven piece it would be fascinating to see how anyone can even think like that. That is what Sheev Palpatine's story should have been. He started out his story, not as some "evil just because" villian. But someone who wanted peace, and thought the only wan to ensure that was through control. He thought he was doing the right thing, and this is a theme that is repeated over and over through the "new" expanded universe. But when we get to that moment, to see what is going on in Palpatine's head at the peak of his power at the time of his biggest victory, what do we get?

We get Shakespearean rhyme and prose?
That pulled me right the hell out of the star wars universe almost instantly
instead of seeing how deep the darkness goes, or how it has warped his original ideals, instead of seeing how dangerous and manipulative the dark side can be (like Yoda and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan all warned us it was) we see the equivalent of a villain monologing while James Bond is strapped to the death ray. He's just evil for the sake of being evil....that's it. It's absurd, it's sad and it's basically making this character into a saturday morning cartoon villian. As a fan of the original, this was character desecration to the highest degree. and that killed the story for me.

Star Wars is one of THE BEST adventure tales of my lifetime. I will always love this story. From a Certain Point of View, which is a collection of 40 different authors, seeks to capture the feeling of those iconic Star Wars moments by telling the stories around the stories. The individual stories are well-written, but I only recommend this batch if the Star Wars world already interests you. Proximity to the main story can be interesting if that's what you're after.

These were a decent set of stories, reminding me very much of the 'Tales of...' set of books that came out 20 years ago (Mos Eisley Cantina, Jabba's Palace and Bounty Hunters). Most were good, but one in particular read very much like bad fan fiction: 'There is Another'.
This story unfortunately contradicts itself so bad, I had to reread it a few times. (SPOILERS!)
My basic gripe is this:
Ben: "I need you to train Skywalker."
Yoda: "Good! I can't wait to start her training."
Ben: "Actually, Luke is the one who should be trained."
Yoda: "Luke is headstrong, impatient, quick to anger and never focused. Leia is mature, humble, driven and focused."
Ben: "Still, Luke needs to be trained."
Yoda: "..."
Ben: "..."
Yoda: Sure, ok!
We're given all the reasons why Luke is such a bad choice that we're very much convinced that Leia is the better one. Unfortunately, the author doesn't explain this discrepancy. Even some throw away line from Ben like 'Leia has a destiny of her own to fulfill..' would've been something. But, again, Leia is shortchanged in the Force department

An interesting take on the original star wars movie (a new hope). The book has several short stories that look at the scene we all know from a secondary character (a band member in the canteena for instance).

Because there are several different stories (each by a different anther) the book is a box of chocolates - some of them are great, some can be slow and only OK. On balance the book is a fun read worth the time.

I really enjoyed these looks at Star Wars from side characters' perspectives. Everyone is the hero of their own story (even if some of them would deny it), and they all enhance the epic scope of the movies. Be warned, though: some of the stories are downright heartbreaking (I'm looking at you, Wil Wheaton and Madeline Roux). Some made me cheer (especially 'The Red One'), and lots left me thinking about them hours later. It's a great collection with amazing authors that I highly recommend to Star Wars fans.

I really enjoyed this compendium of short stories about characters in ANH. Many people will complain that it's just retconning minor/background characters, but Star Wars is known for this and I think most fans enjoy it. A lot of the stories don't really change anything, but there are some real gems that make it worth reading. The audiobook is also well-done and well-produced.

Like most everybody I love Star Wars. It was something I didn’t get to watch until I was a teenager with my brother who was obsessed but I fell in love. Leia is my hero and when Carrie Fisher died my heart broke. Reading the story from so many perspectives was wonderful and fun and I loved every minute in this book. All the various authors did a good job of connecting to their characters and telling the story, you can read the love on the page.

This fun book of short stories all take place in the Star Wars universe. Each concentrates on a minor character in the movies and what happened from his or her viewpoint. Some rebels, some imperialist and some aliens are all represented. Enjoy the creative authors of this book, well narrated for audible and all done to benefit a charity, First Book, who wants to make reading possible for every child.

This is one of the few audiobooks I've bought from Audible that I've sent back.

There are several outstanding stories - the Imperial paper-pusher helping out the luckless officer who didn't fire on the escape pod carrying R2D2 and C3PO to Tatooine, for example. But there weren't enough to offset the mediocre ones and make it worth my audiobook credit. Don't bother.

A great collection of stories. What I found most intriguing is how these stories filled out details at the edges of main storylines in the movies, addressed questions that we probably always had as fans, and delved deeper into some characters that have been given very little screen time or even time dedicated to them in the previous Expanded Universe. Glimpses into How Qui-Gon spoke to Kenobi during his isolation, the tale of R5’s bad motivator, etc, were great snippets that require only a few minutes of your time to extract an insight or different point of view. Really well done.

Well I have to say I am done. As other reviewers have pointed out there is some good ones in here. Yet the good ones seem to be short. Even worse, the good ones are the shortest ones. Paul Dini's, Boba Fett, short I am looking at you.

The thing that made this book unbearable to me is that the bad ones are also the longest. The Cantina story about the stolen instrument!!! Then we have the worst Star Wars story I have ever read. That being TK421's story. It is bad in an Epic way. If you have ever desired to know how TK421 was sleeping his way up the chain of command using a mouse droid (yes, that mouse droid) to get a cushiony placement on Coruscant then you are in luck! I found it highly inappropriate. I would say the same if they were heterosexual relationships being discussed.

This is my last Star Wars novel. If this is what the Story group is going to be approving as "Official Canon" then I will just stop reading the new books. This book deserves one star.

This book is a mixture of irrelevant stories that doesn't mean anything. At times it was good and other times it was horrible. I personally struggled to finish and if I was not a completionist I would have stopped after the first 6 stories. It was a unique way to further explain the universe but not as entertaining. Nice try but just okay for me.

There are a few good stories, from Claudia Grey and Will Wheaton, a funny story about the storm troopers on Tatooine that stop Ben and Luke about their droids. But 2 stars because 37 of the 40 stories are a waste of time.

This was a great Christmas present and one of the best anthology books of the Star Wars universe. All of the stories revolve around Episode 4 so the reader has context and in some cases get a better understanding of the minor characters found in the Star Wars universe. I highly recommend this book.

Doesn't even deserve a star. None of these stories are even worth reading. Most read like fan fiction found on the internet written by little teenagers who fantasize about little details and scenarios that don't even need to be fleshed out. Was so excited to read Boba Fett's story and it was pointless. The Of MSE-6 and Men- story was just plan fan fiction material about two guys using the MSE Droid to deliver their romantic advances. The droid repeats almost every line so you have to read everything twice and read Optimal every other word. The stories are weak and makes me miss the days of old when they made Awesome short story collections and would publish them in the Tales novels. Some of these authors should not ever write another Star Wars novel PERIOD! I was so hoping for this and am glad I checked this out from a library and not spent my cash on Disney's obvious ploy for stamping a Star Wars label on something and trying to milk money out of obvious trash!

One of the best Star Wars books to date. Really ties other characters, especially those you have little time with, into the rest of the univerise. If you are a Star Wars fan (from expanded universe/LEGENDS to movies) this is for you!

Compared to the high quality of Star Wars stories written before the Disney-era (books now listed as 'Legends'), this book is a simplistic lightweight with the character of having been composed by authors only superficially familiar with Star Wars lore. Read "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" or "Tales from Jabba's Palace" to experience the concept of this book done RIGHT! Warning: Disney's not-so-subtle agenda of including homosexual references and political correctness is a part of this package as well.

This concept was great but the execution was poor. The first 100+ chapters take you to the point where Luke, Ben, and Han escape from Tatooine. The next 50ish are on the Death Star and the Alderaan explosion. Very little of Yavin 4 and the battle sequence is explored.

There were very little stories that actually added value to the Star Wars saga. Way too much of the Cantina. I skipped several stories that served no purpose.

This was a horrible book. I felt it was a slap in the face to all Star Wars fans. These stories are a waste of time. The writers are trying to rewrite Star Wars. The red one raised my blood pressure out of anger please avoid this book.

I loved these short stories and sincerely hope they put out something similar for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It addressed some continuity issues that have bugged me, mainly regarding some droids and their history. Personally, I enjoyed reading the tales of the peripheral characters, it makes it that more interesting watching A New Hope again and having some insight as to how and why those characters are where they are. There's some nice connections between prequel characters and sequel characters that were not known of when A New Hope was released, and those little bridges make it all the sweeter. Anything canon I want to read, I love absorbing and immersing myself in any and all Star Wars information, from the mundane to the amazing, and this book definitely perfectly fed that need.

I think as long as you aren't an elitist Star Wars fan (aka a jerk who is never satisfied by a single thing that has existed since the originals) you will enjoy these stories, casual and die-hard alike should enjoy these stories.

On a side note, because I have seen reviewers who seem to think this has an "agenda," it does not. Authors need not be stifled by someone else's inability to be comfortable with what is perfectly normal and has been normal for a really, really, really, really, really long time. Not every tale that involves a couple is going to be a straight couple, and I honestly don't know why that bothers people, it doesn't change anything of the original tale, it only adds to it (and if you choose to not add that to it, so be it), but if this sort of thing does bother you, this is not the universe for you, Star Wars or otherwise. Clutch your pearls in horror in private. (Seriously, nothing untoward happens in any of the tales.)

Anyway, I absolutely love this compilation, I stare at it lovingly often.

This concept was great but the execution was poor. The first 100+ chapters take you to the point where Luke, Ben, and Han escape from Tatooine. The next 50ish are on the Death Star and the Alderaan explosion. Very little of Yavin 4 and the battle sequence is explored.

There were very little stories that actually added value to the Star Wars saga. Way too much of the Cantina. I skipped several stories that served no purpose.

This was a horrible book. I felt it was a slap in the face to all Star Wars fans. These stories are a waste of time. The writers are trying to rewrite Star Wars. The red one raised my blood pressure out of anger please avoid this book.

I loved these short stories and sincerely hope they put out something similar for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It addressed some continuity issues that have bugged me, mainly regarding some droids and their history. Personally, I enjoyed reading the tales of the peripheral characters, it makes it that more interesting watching A New Hope again and having some insight as to how and why those characters are where they are. There's some nice connections between prequel characters and sequel characters that were not known of when A New Hope was released, and those little bridges make it all the sweeter. Anything canon I want to read, I love absorbing and immersing myself in any and all Star Wars information, from the mundane to the amazing, and this book definitely perfectly fed that need.

I think as long as you aren't an elitist Star Wars fan (aka a jerk who is never satisfied by a single thing that has existed since the originals) you will enjoy these stories, casual and die-hard alike should enjoy these stories.

On a side note, because I have seen reviewers who seem to think this has an "agenda," it does not. Authors need not be stifled by someone else's inability to be comfortable with what is perfectly normal and has been normal for a really, really, really, really, really long time. Not every tale that involves a couple is going to be a straight couple, and I honestly don't know why that bothers people, it doesn't change anything of the original tale, it only adds to it (and if you choose to not add that to it, so be it), but if this sort of thing does bother you, this is not the universe for you, Star Wars or otherwise. Clutch your pearls in horror in private. (Seriously, nothing untoward happens in any of the tales.)

Anyway, I absolutely love this compilation, I stare at it lovingly often.

I just don't understand why they have to have a story that tells us that Tarkin is gay. Not just that, but talk about him sleeping with a subordinate. Not everyone thinks this is appropriate for kids and Star Wars has never been something that you had to worry about. I have read many books with gay characters, but I think the Star Wars title should mean that it is family friendly. Either way, this would have been a terrible story even if the subordinate storm trooper were female. Why is this creepy story part of Star Wars?

I would have given this book 4 stars. Maybe even 5. But Disney hasn't gotten the message apparently.

See that National Football League? The impregnable and immortal monolith that is the NFL? Well, shoving a political agenda onto the fans is making it self-destruct before our eyes. Game attendance has plummeted. Television ratings are cratering. That's what happens when you insult your core audience.

And ESPN? Disney's own sports network? Its viewership has diminished magnificently. Because it made promoting a "social agenda" more important than the sports it's subscribers expect. ESPN is laying off employees out the wazoo, its revenues have evaporated so direly. When an increasing number of people are "cutting the cable", ESPN isn't giving them incentive to stay tuned.

Hollywood? It's had its worst summer in any recent memory. Maybe all that bitter liberalism in the movies and television and late-night talk shows and alleged "comedians" and those "awards shows" have finally convinced mainstream Americans that they really ARE sneered at and looked upon with condescendion by their celebrity "betters". So why SHOULD the majority of Americans hand over their money to those who can be relied upon to do nothing as solidly reliable as consistently insulting the audience and its values?

See that MASSIVE swath of red across America this past election year?

It's not the blue clinging to the coasts and the metro areas that buys the most movie tickets and action figures.

So... why is Disney allowing Star Wars to become a platform for a political agenda? ANY political agenda, at all?

And that is what From A Certain Point Of View is, more than not. It continues a troubling trend of the saga being abused and turned into a bully pulpit. And it does so at the risk of alienating a significant bulk of the core audience.

Disney had better get it together. The lesson of late is clear: we don't *need* the NFL. We don't *need* ESPN. We don't *need* movies out of Hollywood.

And if it makes it a habit of insulting an audience consisting mostly of families and children, we won't need Star Wars either.

There are a couple of good short stories, but for the most part, it was yet another big let down.
I really can't believe that your editor allowed gay porn in Star Wars. I actually stopped a production line at work, un-suited, just so I could get to my phone to skip forward to the next short story so I didn't have to listen to any more trash. There is more than one story that pushes an agenda. The Star Wars world is no place for a social experiment. You will lose more than you will gain. I for one am done with any more Star Wars books, too many bad ones as of late. I will listen to "Expeditionary Force" for my future listening enjoyment.