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A review by twilliamson
Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina by Kevin J. Anderson
3.0
In 1995, Kevin J. Anderson edited the first anthology of Star Wars short fiction, featuring characters from the Mos Eisley Cantina scene from the original film. Here, a number of well-known science fiction authors--many of whom worked with Lucasfilm to craft their own novels set in the Star Wars universe--give life to the diasporic characters seen in the background. The stories are as varied as one might imagine, from atmospheric noir to unconventional time-warping science fiction.
The stories are all of fairly similar quality, with only one or two truly standout entries. My favorite two stories, "Drawing the Maps of Peace" (which is a remarkably good Western) and "One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina" (which serves up a delectable slice of ethereal science-fiction), don't appear until the end of the anthology, but the stories are surprisingly interconnected and fit together well tonally.
Nevertheless, because this anthology is so heavily focused on one particular scene set in Mos Eisley, every single one of the narratives can feel like they start to slog when it comes to the cantina scene. Having to read the fight between Luke and Evazan and then see Ben Kenobi swing a lightsaber 16 times in one anthology is just too much. These narrative hiccups keep many of the stories from really ramping up into their own weird and exciting conclusions.
That said, there's a lot of richness to this first anthology, and I wish more Star Wars fiction focused on the regular folk inhabiting the greater universe of the franchise. Though I won't likely remember most of the stories in this anthology, I think the book still delivers some of my absolute favorite Star Wars to date.
Just... don't show me that fucking cantina scene ever again, please.
The stories are all of fairly similar quality, with only one or two truly standout entries. My favorite two stories, "Drawing the Maps of Peace" (which is a remarkably good Western) and "One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina" (which serves up a delectable slice of ethereal science-fiction), don't appear until the end of the anthology, but the stories are surprisingly interconnected and fit together well tonally.
Nevertheless, because this anthology is so heavily focused on one particular scene set in Mos Eisley, every single one of the narratives can feel like they start to slog when it comes to the cantina scene. Having to read the fight between Luke and Evazan and then see Ben Kenobi swing a lightsaber 16 times in one anthology is just too much. These narrative hiccups keep many of the stories from really ramping up into their own weird and exciting conclusions.
That said, there's a lot of richness to this first anthology, and I wish more Star Wars fiction focused on the regular folk inhabiting the greater universe of the franchise. Though I won't likely remember most of the stories in this anthology, I think the book still delivers some of my absolute favorite Star Wars to date.
Just... don't show me that fucking cantina scene ever again, please.