From a Certain Point of View
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode IV, the editors of this book collected forty short stories, each of which retells a scene from the movie from the point of view of a minor character in that scene. The stormtrooper who stunned Leia, the sand person who attacked Luke, Aunt Beru, etc. I've been wanting to get my hand's on this book since I heard about it.
This was a really fun concept, and a lot of the stories were very inventive. It was interesting to consider different points of view, and some of the stories were really out there. Nnendi Okorafor tells her story from the point of view of the trash monster, for example. And being incredibly familiar with the movie only made it that much more fun to see other people's takes on both well-known and unknown characters.
But the lack of cohesion was a little frustrating. Especially in the sections that took place in Mos Eisley and Yavin 4. There were so many characters to choose from in Mos Eisley, from Greedo to the bartender, the stormtroopers to the bounty hunters, that a ton of authors chose to set their stories here. And a lot of them ended up directly contradicting each other, which was a bit frustrating at first. Once I made peace with the lack of cohesion in the book, I was able to enjoy it more. But part of me still wishes that the authors had been encouraged to work together. As it stands, this feels more like a collection of fanfiction than something that could possibly be considered canon. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not what I was expecting.
Still, this was a fun collection that I'll probably keep in mind as a gift in the future. It's an easy read, and there's probably at least one story in here for everyone.
This was a really fun concept, and a lot of the stories were very inventive. It was interesting to consider different points of view, and some of the stories were really out there. Nnendi Okorafor tells her story from the point of view of the trash monster, for example. And being incredibly familiar with the movie only made it that much more fun to see other people's takes on both well-known and unknown characters.
But the lack of cohesion was a little frustrating. Especially in the sections that took place in Mos Eisley and Yavin 4. There were so many characters to choose from in Mos Eisley, from Greedo to the bartender, the stormtroopers to the bounty hunters, that a ton of authors chose to set their stories here. And a lot of them ended up directly contradicting each other, which was a bit frustrating at first. Once I made peace with the lack of cohesion in the book, I was able to enjoy it more. But part of me still wishes that the authors had been encouraged to work together. As it stands, this feels more like a collection of fanfiction than something that could possibly be considered canon. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not what I was expecting.
Still, this was a fun collection that I'll probably keep in mind as a gift in the future. It's an easy read, and there's probably at least one story in here for everyone.
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