Book Log: From a Certain Point of View
May. 16th, 2025 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scaramoucheI got this Star Wars short story collection eight years ago! But delayed reading it I think because I was put off by one of the stories in The Legend of Luke Skywalker that I found weirdly mean-spirited and feared more of the same. But now I'm determined to clear my to-read shelf, and have also just finished watching Andor season 2 followed by a rewatch of Rogue One and Star Wars, so I am having those SW feelings right now. I just double-checked that the collection was published after Rogue One came out but before The Rise of Skywalker, so it has certain elements pretty fresh in the telling.
As a collection of short content from various authors, the majority being short prose fiction, that follows points of view of characters that aren't central to the plot of Star Wars, it is a mixed bag of:
(1) meandering retellings of SW events,
(2) less meandering retellings of SW events yet still do not add much to my understanding or appreciation of the SW universe,
(3) retellings of SW events that imply a greater hand of destiny/the Force in getting certain events to happen the way they do, as if coincidences cannot just be coincidence, and minor characters cannot just be minor characters whose lives happen to intersect with the heroes but instead whose very purpose of existence is to enable destiny to happen, which makes the world smaller and less interesting to me,
(4) stories that think they're gosh darn clever by being meta;
(5) actually interesting stories (to me!) that spin-off from SW events.
I did really like some! The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction is a fun crime caper style evening in the Mos Eisley port, the Mon Mothma story by Alexander Freed especially hit well after watching Andor, and Stories in the Sand (about a curious Jawa) by Griffin McElroy is one of those outsider POV styles I like. There's a couple of others, but these particular stood out to me.
Also, shoutout to Of MSE-6 and Men by Glen Weldon, which I think might be Ground Zero of the Wilhuff-Tarkin-had-a-gay-affair-with-a-stormtrooper bit of canon that I've seen mentioned here and there? I had no idea, and double-taked when it got to that bit!
As a collection of short content from various authors, the majority being short prose fiction, that follows points of view of characters that aren't central to the plot of Star Wars, it is a mixed bag of:
(1) meandering retellings of SW events,
(2) less meandering retellings of SW events yet still do not add much to my understanding or appreciation of the SW universe,
(3) retellings of SW events that imply a greater hand of destiny/the Force in getting certain events to happen the way they do, as if coincidences cannot just be coincidence, and minor characters cannot just be minor characters whose lives happen to intersect with the heroes but instead whose very purpose of existence is to enable destiny to happen, which makes the world smaller and less interesting to me,
(4) stories that think they're gosh darn clever by being meta;
(5) actually interesting stories (to me!) that spin-off from SW events.
I did really like some! The Kloo Horn Cantina Caper by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction is a fun crime caper style evening in the Mos Eisley port, the Mon Mothma story by Alexander Freed especially hit well after watching Andor, and Stories in the Sand (about a curious Jawa) by Griffin McElroy is one of those outsider POV styles I like. There's a couple of others, but these particular stood out to me.
Also, shoutout to Of MSE-6 and Men by Glen Weldon, which I think might be Ground Zero of the Wilhuff-Tarkin-had-a-gay-affair-with-a-stormtrooper bit of canon that I've seen mentioned here and there? I had no idea, and double-taked when it got to that bit!
