Ratings12
Average rating4
40 Years. 40 Stories. Experience Star Wars- A New Hopefrom a whole new point of view.On May 25, 1977, the world was introduced to Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, and a galaxy full of possibilities. In honor of the fortieth anniversary, more than forty contributors lend their vision to this retelling of Star Wars. Each of the forty short stories reimagines a moment from the original film, but through the eyes of a supporting character. From a Certain Point of Viewfeatures contributions by bestselling authors, trendsetting artists, and treasured voices from theliterary history of Star Wars- Gary Whitta bridges the gap from Rogue One toA New Hopethrough the eyes of Captain Antilles.- Aunt Beru finds her voice in an intimate character study by Meg Cabot.- Nnedi Okorofor brings dignity and depth to a most unlikely character- the monster in the trash compactor.- Pablo Hidalgo provides a chilling glimpse inside the mind of Grand Moff Tarkin. - Pierce Brown chronicles Biggs Darklighter's final flight during the Rebellion's harrowing attack on the Death Star.- Wil Wheaton spins a poignant tale of the rebels left behind on Yavin.Plus thirty-four more hilarious, heartbreaking, and astonishing tales from- Ben Acker - Renee Ahdieh - Tom Angleberger - Ben Blacker - Jeffrey Brown - Rae Carson - Adam Christopher - Zoraida Cordova - Delilah S. Dawson - Kelly Sue DeConnick - Paul Dini - Ian Doescher - Ashley Eckstein - Matt Fraction - Alexander Freed - Jason Fry - Kieron Gillen - Christie Golden - Claudia Gray - E. K. Johnston - Paul S. Kemp - Mur Lafferty - Ken Liu - Griffin McElroy - John Jackson Miller - Daniel Jose Older - Mallory Ortberg - Beth Revis - Madeleine Roux - Greg Rucka - Gary D. Schmidt - Cavan Scott - Charles Soule - Sabaa Tahir - Elizabeth Wein - Glen Weldon - Chuck WendigAll participating authors have generously forgone any compensation for their stories. Instead, their proceeds will be donated to First Book--a leading nonprofit that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to educators and organizations serving children in need. To further celebrate the launch of this book and both companies' longstanding relationships with First Book, Penguin Random House has donated $100,000 to First Book, and Disney/Lucasfilm has donated 100,000 children's books--valued at $1,000,000--to support First Book and their mission of providing equal access to quality education. Over the past sixteen years, Disney and Penguin Random House combined have donated more than eighty-eight million books to First Book.
Series
3 primary booksStar Wars: From a Certain Point of View is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2017 .
Series
9 primary books120 released booksStar Wars Disney Canon Novel is a 120-book series with 9 primary works first released in 1976 with contributions by Terry Brooks, R. A. Salvatore, and Karen Traviss.
Reviews with the most likes.
Short story collections are interesting things to read. Often they are difficult to read in one go due to jarring contrasts in style and content. From A Certain Point of View has to be one of the easiest to read short story collections that I have ever encountered as its concept of taking background characters from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and fleshing out their backstories means if you are familiar with the movies you are already fully ensconced in the world and can recognize and easily imagine the scenes behind the stories being told.
As always with any short story collection there is some unevenness to the quality but overall this is an impressive collection and the gems in it really do shine. My personal favourite was Ken Liu's which puts a desk jockey's perception on how to avoid the blame for not targetting the escape pod that contained C3PO and R2D2 - the bureaucracy behind the empire must have been huge and this is an amusing take on it.
There are some inconsistencies where two different authors have taken different characters from the same scene which are a bit annoying, but honestly that is my main criticism. I look forward to the next collection for the Empire Strikes Back
I enjoyed the perspective similar to Non-Player Characters but still not a fan of short stories.
Review Update
So, I'm looking at my Goodreads list for the year and it shows this is the longest book I've read this year. Except I didn't finish it. Then I came across it on Libby and decided to give it another go. Fortunately, I remember where I left off.
I let this go just at the point where the book transitions from Tatooine to the Death Star. I have to admit that I liked the stories after Tatooine better. There are only so many perspectives of watching Han hook up with Luke and shoot Greedo I care to read. In the end there are some really good stories and some that didn't grab me. And now I can know I honestly read that whole book!
Original review:
There were stories I really liked in this book. However, it quickly felt like another Tales From... book. Some of the characters I didn't care about and reading the full story was work. Many of the stories didn't resonate with me. I found myself falling asleep reading regularly. I was committed to finishing, but after failing to get traction on the fourth borrow from the library, I think I need to put it aside. Maybe it's time for me to move on from Star Wars books. They were good friends and I enjoyed them 20 years ago, and part of me wants to relive those years, but I am finding that this universe no longer holds the place it once did.