Review: From a Certain Point of View

From a Certain Point of View By Various Authors

From a Certain Point of View is a collection of short stories written in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. When I first heard of the book, I was amazed to find out that there are 40 short stories and they are all about Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV). The stories are told from the perspectives of the background characters in the movies.

As you can guess, for 40 stories, there are going to be some exceptional ones and some that are just phoned it in.

It’s also an opportunity for the stories to “ret-con” some of reasons behind the choices made by the side characters.

Exhibit 1 - There is a story on why escape pod containing R2-D2 and C-3PO was not shot down.

Exhibit 2 - Why did R2-D2’s memory remain intact after the encounter with Jawas?

I especially enjoyed the following stories

• Captain Antilles of the Tantive IV
• The one from Qui-Gon Jinn (this one is really in the background :))
• Story from Wuher the bartender at Cantina in Mos Eisley
• Boba Fett’s POV is short and sweet!
• Sardis Ramsin - a Stormtrooper in the foot patrol that encountered Obi-wan and Luke. Quite amusing view from inside the bucket
• Breha and Bail Organa’s last moments
• The one about the mouse droid is funny, but it was terrible to listen to on the audio book
• Obi-Wan and Yoda’s POVs are great, too. Although, Yoda’s POV is a bit too whiny!

As a whole, this is an extremely enjoyable book and any fan of Star Wars would not want to pass it up.