2017 marks 40 years since Star Wars: A New Hope– then titled simply Star Wars— debuted in theaters, inviting millions of people to a galaxy far, far away. When Disney bought Lucasfilm, retconning everything but the main Skywalker films and the animated Clone Wars television series, a spark of life was once again reignited in the franchise.
Publishing house Del Rey has been churning out loads of new material since the release of A New Dawn in September 2014, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise, they published From A Certain Point of View, a collection of 40 short stories written by more than 40 authors. These stories are all set during the time of A New Hope and are about characters known, unknown, expected, and unexpected.
I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed most of the stories. My top favorites of which are as follows:
“The Red One” by Rae Carson- This story is about the astromech droid known as R5-D4. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, he is the droid that Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen picks from the Jawas collection of droids. He malfunctions, and is replaced with R2-D2. I didn’t know how wonderful a story about this little guy could be, but I was pleasantly surprised.
“Master and Apprentice” by Claudia Gray- I am a big sucker for Gray’s Star Wars books, “Lost Stars”, “Bloodline”, and “Leia, Princess of Alderaan”, so it should be no surprise that I very much enjoyed this one. Gray does a wonderful job of weaving a lovely tale that intertwines A New Hope and the first film in the prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace. This goes in my Top 3.
“Time of Death” by Cavan Scott- Want to know what was going through Obi-Wan’s mind when he was dueling Vader on the Death Star? This is your chance. This also goes in my Top 3.
“There Is Another” by Gary D. Schmidt- The last one of my Top 3. Have you ever wondered what Yoda was doing and thinking before we first meet him in The Empire Strikes Back? This story gives the reader insight in what he thought about Luke’s fitness to be a Jedi.
“Desert Son” by Pierce Brown- To be honest, I never was as much of a fan of Biggs Darklighter as so many other people seem to be. But the writing in this story is top-notch, and brings Biggs into a light that solidified his character for me.
“Contingency Plan” by Alexander Freed- I have always wondered where Mon Mothma was during the events of A New Hope. Where was she during the Battle of Yavin? This cleared it up quite nicely for me.
As for ones that didn’t really click with me– and there were a few–, I’m not going to get into it because I want whoever reads the book to formulate their own opinion. Thankfully, the good and great outweighed the bad, so I was extremely satisfied with this collection.
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
Evan W.S. Morgan 