Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (edited by) Kevin J. Anderson (1995)

 Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina

Some of these people have stories in the book.
Wail that Jizz

Summary: This is a collection of (surprisingly connected) short stories set at the cantina around the time of Luke and Obi Wan's visit during A New Hope.

What it introduces: This is the archetypical "give a name and two sentences of detail to every single thing" book. I guess the biggest things are:

Chalmun's Cantina: The cantina from ANH gets a lot of detail. It's owned by Chalmun, a wookie with a funny mustache.
From Galaxy Guide 7
He's got to notify his neighbors when he moves into 12 systems. 

Jawa and Sand People biology/culture: Jawas have fortresses as well as sand crawlers. Sand People have some of amount of trade/language. Neither one are human, biologically.

Jizz: It's bar music.

Tatooine Politics: Lady Valarian is a rival crime boss based out of a space ship on Mos Eisley 

Speed Round:

With 16 stories, I'm just going to speed round each one with a mini summary/commentary/review

We Don't Do Weddings: The Band's Tale by Kathy Tyers-- 2/5 How the cantina band left Jabba and got there.

A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale by Tom and Martha Veitch-- 1/5 Han shot first. Scattered and awkward. Makes Greedo even more pathetic.

Hammertong: The Tale of the "Tonnika Sisters" by Timothy Zahn-- 2/5 How some mercanaries found part of the Death Star's Super Laser. Doesn't connect that with the rest of the set well. Zahn's a fun writer, but this feels more like a novel chunk than its own story.

Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe by A. C. Crispin-- 1/5 Heist, I guess? Sloppy, didn't really make sense. Doesn't fill in much compared to the others.

The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead's Tale by Dave Wolverton: 3/5 Little shop of Star Wars Horrors. Passable as a short story, could've probably been better if expanded.

Be Still My Heart: The Bartender's Tale by David Bischoff: 3/5 Wuher the bartender learns that racism is bad.

Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale by Barbara Hambly: 2/5 Douchebag picks up a preying-mantis lady at the bar. He dies. Too long, even for a short story.

Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale by Daniel Keys Moran: 3/5 Good detail, very weird. This is the story that links a lot of the others.

Swap Meet: The Jawa's Tale by Kevin J. Anderson: 3/5 A Jawa goes postal.

Trade Wins: The Ranat's Tale by Rebecca Moesta: 3/5 This is really just part of the above story. They're a husband and wife team, so I guess it fits.

When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale: 2/5 "Look Sir! Droids!"

Soup's On: The Pipe Smoker's Tale by Jennifer Roberson: 1/5 Awkward vampire story.

At the Crossroads: The Spacer's Tale by Jerry Oltion: 1/5 Random background character is Force sensitive is the worst stock Star Wars plot. 

Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba by Kenneth C. Flint: 2/5 Meh. Mediocre generic Frankenstein story.

Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer's Tale by M. Shayne Bell: 4/5 A moisture farmer tries to arrange coexistence with the Jawas and Sand People. It goes poorly. Best story in the collection.

One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens: 2/5 Pred smut+ Live Die Repeat

Not bad overall, probably best book of the year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

13: A New Hope Radio Drama (1981)

Image
ANH Radio Drama I've talked before about how the radio drama is my favorite adaptation of the OT. In many ways, it serves the role often played by a novelization by expanding on the original story moreso than the actual novels (particularly ANH). If you haven't listened, bounce over to Youtube: Or The Internet Archive  and have a listen. George Lucas cut the University of Southern California (his alma mater) a sweetheart dollar deal to license the story, music, and sound effects. Brian Daley (who wrote the Han Solo trilogy earlier) did the scripts. In the modern era of big budget podcasts and audiobooks, it's a little harder to express how freaking cool these were as a kid into Star Wars in the 90s (though the Jedi adaptation wasn't produced until 1996). I literally wore out my cassettes. Long story short, these are professionally produced, well directed, and make great use of John William's score (with a few additional cues recorded for the occasion) and a full cas...
Read more

9. The Lando Calrissian Adventures Part 3: The Starcave of ThonBoka (1983)

Image
      The Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka How inaccurate is the cover? is a great game to play with the Star Wars novels (even the good ones!) Today we have another appearance of the non-existent DL-44, the Starcave being a literal cave (it's a nebula) and some questionable ship depictions.   (Wookiepedia) Summary:  Lando and Vuffi Raa find a space stingray starving to death. They feed it literal shit and garbage, and it agrees to make them precious gems (it can/cannot convert matter as the plot demands) and it flies off. A short while later, it contacts them to tell them about a blockade of their nebula by "The Navy" (The Centrality is/is not related to the Empire and is less characterized than the Corporate Sector Authority in the Han Solo books). Lando cons/sneaks his way through the blockade in the one of the book's requisite Sabacc scenes (taking place in the middle instead of the beginning. Smith is stretching his craft to the max here). They...
Read more

1. Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978) by Alan Dean Foster

Image
Splinter of the Mind's Eye Sweet Ralph Macquarie cover art, courtesy of Wookiepedia! Summary: Luke and Leia crash on a swamp planet. Leia has PTSD. Luke has a crush on her. They go looking for the Kaiburr Crystal with cranky Force grandma and replacement Chewie twins. Darth Vader shows up and mostly kicks their asses, but he falls in a hole. What it introduces: Naming things X of the Y : Which would hold for 4 of the 9 movies, 70ish novels, and numerous video games, comics, etc. The Kaiburr Crystal: Shards of which would become the most desirable lightsaber focusing crystals in the later EU. Kyber crystals would make an appearance in the new canon as both lightsaber crystals and part of the Death Star's superlaser.  Commentary:   Splinter of the Mind's Eye is widely considered the first book in the Expanded Universe. It was published in 1978, about half a year after the original release of Star Wars/A New Hope.  Preceding it are a few of the Marvel Comics (which I'll be...
Read more