• Author: Various
• Series: From a Certain Point of View #1
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• No. of pages: 477
• Dates read: 09.02.21 – 19.02.21
• Star Rating: 3 stars
• ARC: –
• Challenge: –

Plot: On May 25, 1977, the world was introduced to Han, Luke, Leia, a pair of droids, a Wookiee, an old wizard, a villain in black, and a galaxy full of possibilities. Forty years on, Star Wars remains an unparalleled cultural phenomenon, having inspired and influenced generations of fans and creators. Decades of rich storytelling were sparked by one film, in part because the Star Wars galaxy feels alive. Strange and wonderful characters fill the edges of the screen and make us wonder: What are their stories? This unique anthology celebrates that legacy, as more than forty contributors lend their vision to this retelling of the original Star Wars film. Each of the forty stories reimagines a moment from the film through the eyes of a supporting character. From A Certain Point of View features contributions by bestselling authors, trendsetting artists, and treasured voices from the literary history of Star Wars.

I want to start off by first saying, you don’t need to be a Star Wars fan to read this book. But I would recommend you watch the first film at least. I say this because the stories include side characters from all across the first movie and I have seen the first movie a couple of times and even I had to google the plot to remind myself what happened so I wasn’t confused going in.

I find reviewing anthologies quite hard because I want to talk about every single short story included but there are 40 included in this collection and that is just too much too include for a review. So, at the end of the post I am going to include some of my all time favourites.

One of the things I always look forward to when reading a short story collection is being able to read so many stories in one sitting. I really enjoy the shorter length of these stories and I felt a lot of these stories achieved that delicate balance of good page length alongside a really impactful story. Even though some of the stories were only a handful of pages the authors managed to convey so much emotion and characterisation and magic, which was so much fun to read.

One of the things that made me so glad to read this has been, the fact that I think it adds so much depth and fullness to the Star Wars Universe. This book follows so many varied characters, from all walks of life and it really made me appreciate the variety, the details and all the layers that come with this universe. Since you are branching out to all these side characters you feel more connected to the story and the world as it feels more richer that just following the main crew around. Being able to see the world from a new characters eye just makes you really sit back and take in how detailed the world is. Plus this whole book in general is a great world building tool for the Star Wars universe. It feels lived in, in a weird way.

I also liked how some of the stories were interwoven with each other, one story half way through the colletion may mention a character or place from a story at the very beginning of the novel. It was a little bit exciting to see those tiny references and remembering back to a story you read previously.

One of the final things that I thought was a great addition was including stories where the main Star Wars movie plot isn’t the sole focus of that author’s short story. Instead, we are following characters where their journey is the main focus and the adventures of Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie etc. are just in the background happening without their knowledge. That I really liked as well and again it adds to the layers of this universe watching these characters go about their daily lives not thinking about the main story.

My favourite stories from this anthology includes:

• Raymus – Gary Whitta
• The Sith of Datawork – Ken Liu
• Beru Whitesun Lars – Meg Cabot
• Laina – Wil Wheaton
• An Incident Report – Daniel M. Lavery
• Eclipse – Madeleine Roux
• Verge of Greatness – Pablo Hidalgo
• Of MSE-6 and Men – Glen Weldon
• Time of Death – Cavan Scott
• Palpatine – Ian Doescher

The next book I will be reviewing is The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. This was a book that was majorly hyped, so fingers crossed I love it.