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A review by pushingdessy
From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi by Mary Kenney, Fran Wilde, Saladin Ahmed, Charlie Jane Anders, Mike Chen, Olivie Blake
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
There’s no question that the “From a Certain Point of View” anthologies were an ambitious project. 40 stories to celebrate the 40th anniversary of each movie is a really cool, fun concept on paper!
In reality, though, you end up with a bit of a bantha-sized book with a potpourri of POVs that begin to blur together after a while. I love the power of short stories, but reading too many of them at once makes it hard for any one to sink in and stand out. This is especially true, at least for me, of those stories from the POV of original characters, or canon characters you care little about. I never thought I would care about Max Rebo’s backstory, and I can’t say that I do now.
So in that sense, the Return of the Jedi edition isn’t much different from the previous installments, but it does suffer in comparison, with stories and concepts that give you a sense of déjà vu.
For example, one of my least favourite stories was “My mouth never closes”, from the POV of the Sarlacc. It’s a slug that wandered through space before settling down on Tatooine, hoping to make friends, except people keep getting into its gullet, which the slug hates because it’s a vegetarian. It’s hard not to compare Charlie Jane Anders' story to that of Catherynne M. Valente in the ESB book, “This is no cave” - which is about a space slug who wandered through space before settling down on the asteroid, hoping to make friends, except people keep getting into its gullet, which the slug hates because it’s a vegetarian. It was funny the first time; now, I was hoping for something different. Sometimes it’s fine if monsters are still monsters.
In any case, if there’s something you won’t be lacking for here is variation. We see creatures from Jabba’s Palace, Imperial officers in the Death Star, rebels in Home One, Ewoks and Stormtroopers on Endor. As a writer, I can imagine this being a fun, exciting creative exercise… but, again, it does get repetitive after a while. How many stories about Ewoks do you really want to read? How many about rebel OCs hoping to make it out alive so they can get back to their sweethearts, and Imperial OCs fighting for power? If your answer is less than two, then this probably won’t be the book for you.
One thing I appreciated is the effort at connecting some of the stories with each other - that can’t have been easy to coordinate. And yet I can’t attribute that effort to anyone but the writers themselves, as once again I’m wondering where the hell were the editors in some of these stories. The most egregious example is Piett’s story, “To the last”, as Dana Schwartz seems to think that either Piett (played by an actor who was in his 40s at the time) was no older than 30 by RotJ, or that the Empire has been ruling for 40 years instead of 24. Maybe this is why you don’t hire writers based on current popularity alone OR you provide a solid editor with knowledge of the franchise you’re writing for.
To me, the most memorable and rich stories always tend to be the ones from the POV of known characters: “From a certain point of view” by Alex Jennings (Obi-Wan), “No contingency” by Fran Wilde (Mon Mothma), “The burden of leadership” by Danny Lore (Lando), “When fire marked the sky” by Emma Mieko Candon (Wedge) and “Then fall, Sidious” by Olivie Blake (Palpatine, particularly creepy) were some of my favourites in this category.
“The ballad of Nanta” by Sarah Kuhn, about the Ewok that dies on screen, was a well-taken low blow. In “The buy-in” by Suzanne Walker (Norra Wexley) and “The Chronicler” by Danielle Paige we see familiar characters, so I enjoyed both. The latter is a concept that, again, was already executed in the ESB iteration (a rebel tasked with historian duty), but it’s one I find compelling.
“Brotherhood” by Mike Chen was good, but I wish the chance to write Anakin’s POV had gone to someone other than the person who already wrote a book about Anakin and Obi-Wan called “Brotherhood” - and if I had a dollar every time the “sun dragon-heart” metaphor was mentioned, I’d probably be able to buy a physical copy of this book.
Out of the three books, the ESB version remains my favourite, and I admit my bias falls on the focus Han and Leia got in particular. I understand the books are not about them, and we did get some glimpses, but given the state of their relationship in RotJ, I was hoping for something similar here.
All in all, this is an interesting collection for sure, with the expected hits and misses and something for everyone to enjoy.
In reality, though, you end up with a bit of a bantha-sized book with a potpourri of POVs that begin to blur together after a while. I love the power of short stories, but reading too many of them at once makes it hard for any one to sink in and stand out. This is especially true, at least for me, of those stories from the POV of original characters, or canon characters you care little about. I never thought I would care about Max Rebo’s backstory, and I can’t say that I do now.
So in that sense, the Return of the Jedi edition isn’t much different from the previous installments, but it does suffer in comparison, with stories and concepts that give you a sense of déjà vu.
For example, one of my least favourite stories was “My mouth never closes”, from the POV of the Sarlacc. It’s a slug that wandered through space before settling down on Tatooine, hoping to make friends, except people keep getting into its gullet, which the slug hates because it’s a vegetarian. It’s hard not to compare Charlie Jane Anders' story to that of Catherynne M. Valente in the ESB book, “This is no cave” - which is about a space slug who wandered through space before settling down on the asteroid, hoping to make friends, except people keep getting into its gullet, which the slug hates because it’s a vegetarian. It was funny the first time; now, I was hoping for something different. Sometimes it’s fine if monsters are still monsters.
In any case, if there’s something you won’t be lacking for here is variation. We see creatures from Jabba’s Palace, Imperial officers in the Death Star, rebels in Home One, Ewoks and Stormtroopers on Endor. As a writer, I can imagine this being a fun, exciting creative exercise… but, again, it does get repetitive after a while. How many stories about Ewoks do you really want to read? How many about rebel OCs hoping to make it out alive so they can get back to their sweethearts, and Imperial OCs fighting for power? If your answer is less than two, then this probably won’t be the book for you.
One thing I appreciated is the effort at connecting some of the stories with each other - that can’t have been easy to coordinate. And yet I can’t attribute that effort to anyone but the writers themselves, as once again I’m wondering where the hell were the editors in some of these stories. The most egregious example is Piett’s story, “To the last”, as Dana Schwartz seems to think that either Piett (played by an actor who was in his 40s at the time) was no older than 30 by RotJ, or that the Empire has been ruling for 40 years instead of 24. Maybe this is why you don’t hire writers based on current popularity alone OR you provide a solid editor with knowledge of the franchise you’re writing for.
To me, the most memorable and rich stories always tend to be the ones from the POV of known characters: “From a certain point of view” by Alex Jennings (Obi-Wan), “No contingency” by Fran Wilde (Mon Mothma), “The burden of leadership” by Danny Lore (Lando), “When fire marked the sky” by Emma Mieko Candon (Wedge) and “Then fall, Sidious” by Olivie Blake (Palpatine, particularly creepy) were some of my favourites in this category.
“The ballad of Nanta” by Sarah Kuhn, about the Ewok that dies on screen, was a well-taken low blow. In “The buy-in” by Suzanne Walker (Norra Wexley) and “The Chronicler” by Danielle Paige we see familiar characters, so I enjoyed both. The latter is a concept that, again, was already executed in the ESB iteration (a rebel tasked with historian duty), but it’s one I find compelling.
“Brotherhood” by Mike Chen was good, but I wish the chance to write Anakin’s POV had gone to someone other than the person who already wrote a book about Anakin and Obi-Wan called “Brotherhood” - and if I had a dollar every time the “sun dragon-heart” metaphor was mentioned, I’d probably be able to buy a physical copy of this book.
Out of the three books, the ESB version remains my favourite, and I admit my bias falls on the focus Han and Leia got in particular. I understand the books are not about them, and we did get some glimpses, but given the state of their relationship in RotJ, I was hoping for something similar here.
All in all, this is an interesting collection for sure, with the expected hits and misses and something for everyone to enjoy.