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A review by horizon_brave
From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back by Elizabeth Schaefer
3.0
*As per all of my reviews, I like to preface by saying that I listened to this book in audiobook format. This does indeed slightly skew my rating. I have found that audiobooks, give me a better "relationship" with the characters if done well, but also kills the book for me if narrated poorly. Also due to the nature of listening to the text, names and places may be spelled incorrectly here as I often do not have the physical volume in front of me.
Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronicle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.**
Return of the Point of View books! This one being set in the Empire Strikes Back movie... I really enjoyed the first. Some hits and some misses, but overall the novelty of it, and the plethora of new, interesting and creatively written content is a boon in itself. And seeing the movie play out from background and off camera characters is hilarious. ( and tragic at times...) So the ESB book starts off with many stories set during the Hoth Evac. Some are trying a tad too hard here..the Ozzel story strikes me as someone really stretching and trying to create some fake emotion where honestly none is needed or warranted.
We just had a story about the sob story of the plight of the Wampa....I'm going to call it, I have not checked or looked ahead..but i'm willing to bet that there's going to be a story from the Exogorth's perspective...and I'll double down on it being a sob story about how misunderstood it is...If this turns out to not actually happen...I'll be surprised...pleasantly.
However there's a lot of great stuff as well like the story of Toryn Farr (who as a kid, I always had a weird crush on, given her like 8 words in the entire movie) and the hilarious idea that the entire Echo Base knew that Han and Leia were an item and had bets going on when Leia would either blow him off or accept his advances. So what I really like is how tight this section was. Three stories all fed into this shared idea of the betting. It was set up in the first story, where they were all betting on the outcome, then later in another story, as Rouge 2, Zev walks into their meeting room, he wipes away the bettings on the whiteboard with their numbers for and against Solo's move on Leia... hilarious.
So yea there's a large chunk of stories that deal with the Hoth Evacuation...and after a while it does get a bit repetitive, but still good...we even get a Wampa perspective story... like the Admiral Ozzel story...it's a bit trying too hard to create a sense of sympathy for it..like the Dianoga story in the first book, but that one worked a bit better for me. I think cause I've seen it before now...
Okay, one of the main centerpieces of this book is obviously Wedge's story "Rendevous Point". This actually could have been the start of an independent series, and I would not be surprised in the least if it was picked up and continued later, dealing with the struggles of getting the Rebellion reunited after they flee from Hoth.
There's also a reverse side story from a TIE fighter 'rules' log. Basically a pilot who lays out the guidelines and suggestions for being a TIE pilot. A bit more humor based, but still fun. It does however bring up a glaring point that I think is pretty hard to swallow... the TIE fighter just does not make any sense. It's just unable to compete against any Rebel ship. The Rebels who have so little resources. And it's not like we ever see TIE's used in such gross numbers (expect Battle of Endor granted) but if I were a pilot, it's literally going off to die. The ship does nothing, except be extraordinarily maneuverable....which we rarely see examples of.. Anyway this was a good story, i'll say this, they're really hammering the bi-sexual relationships in the books nowadays. Not a complaint, but it's pretty apparent.
Oooh we have some Sloane action... her coming back from being away on a pretty time wasting side trek, to find that the battle of Hoth happened while she's gone and she's pissed, loved her interaction with Piet, despite it coming off as a bit one sided "I know everything". I like Sloane to be a bit more subdued and not so over the top with bragging, however, I can't say getting more of her story, and is a bad thing in anyway. We also get to see how she gets her new ship.
There's also a...very long, but moderately interesting Bosk story here.. Apparently before he went to go to the Empire to help get Han, he was having his own adventure hunting a criminal who was intercepting Wookie prisoner ships, and setting them free. He suspected the person was a Wookie himself, but apparently it turns out to be not only a Trandoshian, but his...brood sister... Again, fairly interesting..
Damn...I gotta say it is bizarre and weird to hear "Don Draper" talk about Boba Fett and Darth Vader. This was pretty much a throw away story, not a fan of the stories where we just see the movie scene play out with nothing added...
Hoo kay, we come to the crowning jewel of this book...I'm listening to this on audio..and I hear this lispy character speaking, and I'm thinking, what the hell is this? Jaxxon?? I've only encountered Jaxxon the Rab-...Lepe a few times, mostly from seeing him referenced. For those who don't know he's a smuggler character that is associated with Lando. He resembled a big rabbit in our world, but has this chip on his shoulder about it. There's this hilarious moment where someone offers him carrot juice, and he's so offended because of his appearance. The humor in this one is spot on, as Jaxxon matter of factly defends himself against naysayers, offers sarcasm, and dry wit at times...and the other the top gag of him walking into the lunch room with Vader is silly but so funny when the mental image is conjured. We need a standalone Jaxxon book...also the narration helped a lot.
Ha, I love the story of the computers in the Falcon...I think we needed this one. This carries on the story of L3 and her 'death' in Solo and then her being uploaded into the Falcon. When we see Lando see and sit in the falcon again, it should be a moment that needed to be called attention to. Seeing her and the two other computers interact and have this almost familial relationship is pretty comforting in a type of closure that I didn't even know I wanted. And clever in that scenes like when Han is trying to find a place to run to after escaping the Star Destroyers, L3 slips the screen of Bespin onto the screen..which really matches up with Han's reaction that he see it pop up...well done...
I'm so glad to see the return of the Journal of the Whills ending story... The hilarious idea of the start wars story being conveyed to us, but it's constantly in a state of rewriting and bickering is...so fitting. Overall liked the book a lot. There's alot of good stuff here, but I wasn't too keen on the stories that just take random characters and insert them into scenes, like the imperial trooper trying to escape Bespin, runs into the fight with Luke and Vader.
Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronicle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.**
Return of the Point of View books! This one being set in the Empire Strikes Back movie... I really enjoyed the first. Some hits and some misses, but overall the novelty of it, and the plethora of new, interesting and creatively written content is a boon in itself. And seeing the movie play out from background and off camera characters is hilarious. ( and tragic at times...) So the ESB book starts off with many stories set during the Hoth Evac. Some are trying a tad too hard here..the Ozzel story strikes me as someone really stretching and trying to create some fake emotion where honestly none is needed or warranted.
We just had a story about the sob story of the plight of the Wampa....I'm going to call it, I have not checked or looked ahead..but i'm willing to bet that there's going to be a story from the Exogorth's perspective...and I'll double down on it being a sob story about how misunderstood it is...If this turns out to not actually happen...I'll be surprised...pleasantly.
However there's a lot of great stuff as well like the story of Toryn Farr (who as a kid, I always had a weird crush on, given her like 8 words in the entire movie) and the hilarious idea that the entire Echo Base knew that Han and Leia were an item and had bets going on when Leia would either blow him off or accept his advances. So what I really like is how tight this section was. Three stories all fed into this shared idea of the betting. It was set up in the first story, where they were all betting on the outcome, then later in another story, as Rouge 2, Zev walks into their meeting room, he wipes away the bettings on the whiteboard with their numbers for and against Solo's move on Leia... hilarious.
So yea there's a large chunk of stories that deal with the Hoth Evacuation...and after a while it does get a bit repetitive, but still good...we even get a Wampa perspective story... like the Admiral Ozzel story...it's a bit trying too hard to create a sense of sympathy for it..like the Dianoga story in the first book, but that one worked a bit better for me. I think cause I've seen it before now...
Okay, one of the main centerpieces of this book is obviously Wedge's story "Rendevous Point". This actually could have been the start of an independent series, and I would not be surprised in the least if it was picked up and continued later, dealing with the struggles of getting the Rebellion reunited after they flee from Hoth.
There's also a reverse side story from a TIE fighter 'rules' log. Basically a pilot who lays out the guidelines and suggestions for being a TIE pilot. A bit more humor based, but still fun. It does however bring up a glaring point that I think is pretty hard to swallow... the TIE fighter just does not make any sense. It's just unable to compete against any Rebel ship. The Rebels who have so little resources. And it's not like we ever see TIE's used in such gross numbers (expect Battle of Endor granted) but if I were a pilot, it's literally going off to die. The ship does nothing, except be extraordinarily maneuverable....which we rarely see examples of.. Anyway this was a good story, i'll say this, they're really hammering the bi-sexual relationships in the books nowadays. Not a complaint, but it's pretty apparent.
Oooh we have some Sloane action... her coming back from being away on a pretty time wasting side trek, to find that the battle of Hoth happened while she's gone and she's pissed, loved her interaction with Piet, despite it coming off as a bit one sided "I know everything". I like Sloane to be a bit more subdued and not so over the top with bragging, however, I can't say getting more of her story, and is a bad thing in anyway. We also get to see how she gets her new ship.
There's also a...very long, but moderately interesting Bosk story here.. Apparently before he went to go to the Empire to help get Han, he was having his own adventure hunting a criminal who was intercepting Wookie prisoner ships, and setting them free. He suspected the person was a Wookie himself, but apparently it turns out to be not only a Trandoshian, but his...brood sister... Again, fairly interesting..
Damn...I gotta say it is bizarre and weird to hear "Don Draper" talk about Boba Fett and Darth Vader. This was pretty much a throw away story, not a fan of the stories where we just see the movie scene play out with nothing added...
Hoo kay, we come to the crowning jewel of this book...I'm listening to this on audio..and I hear this lispy character speaking, and I'm thinking, what the hell is this? Jaxxon?? I've only encountered Jaxxon the Rab-...Lepe a few times, mostly from seeing him referenced. For those who don't know he's a smuggler character that is associated with Lando. He resembled a big rabbit in our world, but has this chip on his shoulder about it. There's this hilarious moment where someone offers him carrot juice, and he's so offended because of his appearance. The humor in this one is spot on, as Jaxxon matter of factly defends himself against naysayers, offers sarcasm, and dry wit at times...and the other the top gag of him walking into the lunch room with Vader is silly but so funny when the mental image is conjured. We need a standalone Jaxxon book...also the narration helped a lot.
Ha, I love the story of the computers in the Falcon...I think we needed this one. This carries on the story of L3 and her 'death' in Solo and then her being uploaded into the Falcon. When we see Lando see and sit in the falcon again, it should be a moment that needed to be called attention to. Seeing her and the two other computers interact and have this almost familial relationship is pretty comforting in a type of closure that I didn't even know I wanted. And clever in that scenes like when Han is trying to find a place to run to after escaping the Star Destroyers, L3 slips the screen of Bespin onto the screen..which really matches up with Han's reaction that he see it pop up...well done...
I'm so glad to see the return of the Journal of the Whills ending story... The hilarious idea of the start wars story being conveyed to us, but it's constantly in a state of rewriting and bickering is...so fitting. Overall liked the book a lot. There's alot of good stuff here, but I wasn't too keen on the stories that just take random characters and insert them into scenes, like the imperial trooper trying to escape Bespin, runs into the fight with Luke and Vader.