Star Wars Dark Legends

So I actually did not read this release by George Mann until after I just read this years release, SW Dark Legends.
Each story has a unique and beautiful watercolor painting at the beginning (much the same as, Tales From the Galaxy Far Far Away: Vol. 1: Aliens) and this hardcover does a great job with these giant, wonderful title cards and gold plates for the first letter or every story that don't look cheesy or see-through. Another win for Disney Lucasfilm Press honestly.


The Knight & The Dragon: 4A dragon vs. a jedi?! Come on! And it's so obviously meant to be Kenobi. I dig it. This was cool as hell. In a universe that has so many different races and beasts, why couldn't there be dragons as well? The Droid with a Heart: 2
Grievous now too?! Honestly though I thought this story would have been much cooler than I thought it was. I know there's more than one canon story involving characters from the free-droid movement or whatever they call it but this fell very flat for me and was kind of about nothing at all.

Vengeful Waves: 3I think this is my first experience with Glee Anselm other than it being mentioned in Solo (I think?).This was a cute fable, nothing amazing though. The Wanderer: 4
I really liked this one and honestly this is probably my favorite piece of art too. A jedi with a shield to look stylized like an actual knight? I dig it very much.
These tales feel almost exactly like what I wish jedi stories often were—people need help, boom, there's a jedi. Help is given, they walk away. No conversation or glory needed.

The Black Spire: 3I believe I said this in one of my last SW reviews but we now have more Batuu/Black Spire content than we can fathom and no one asked for it. I get there's a park but it didn't even make an appearance in the final film and it was supposed to be a resistance base... Regardless I enjoyed this story. The young child with a knife disguising her voice to save the day gave me Peter Pan vibes. Gaze of Stone: 4
I liked this story and that it had characters that are also in his Dark Legends book. I do wish though that we'd get more jedi/Sith stories without them having to be myths or fables. It's like Disney way to call something canon-non-canon

The Witch & the Wookiee: 3Just another cute fable, not greatThe Dark Wraith: 2
So another story on Cerosha, this time about an even wraith, and this story doesn't include the jedi Knight from the other one?
A semi-crappy fable about being a good kid?

Chasing Ghosts: 3*
Batuu... again. Disney really doesn't get that the place is absolutely pointless.
Also if every single story is about a gangster, smuggler, or bounty hunter, are there any actual normal people in the entire galaxy??


Some of these stories are just hurt by being short, or being meant for young readers/YA. But some are also just very bleh

Loved the audiobook narrator. Liked the ties to certain characters we're familiar with in the universe