Star Wars: Tales

Star Wars: Tales #1-3

by Kevin J. Anderson (Editor)

This omnibus Anthology collection of 40 short stories, novelettes and novellas set in the fictional Star Wars universe provides background and information on many of the characters in the popular Star Wars universe. If you've ever wanted to know more about the Bounty Hunters that appear in The Empire Strikes Back, this is the book!

Contents:
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina [Star Wars: Tales] (1995) 16 short stories / anthology by Kevin J. Anderson: In a far corner of the universe, on the small desert planet of Tatooine, there is a dark, nic-i-tain-filled cantina where you can down your favorite intoxicant while listening to the best jazz riffs in the universe. But beware your fellow denizens of this pangalactic watering hole, for they are cutthroats and cutpurses, assassins and troopers, humans and aliens, gangsters and thieves...

Tales of the Bounty Hunters [Star Wars: Tales] (1996) 5 novellas / anthology by Kevin J. Anderson: In a wild and battle-scarred galaxy, assassins, pirates, smugglers, and cutthroats of every description roam at will, fearing only the professional bounty hunters-amoral adventurers who track down the scum of the universe...for a fee.

Tales from Jabba's Palace [Star Wars: Tales] (1996) 19 short stories / anthology by Kevin J. Anderson: In the dusty heat of twin-sunned Tatooine lives the wealthiest gangster in a hundred worlds, master of a vast crime empire and keeper of a vicious, flesh-eating monster for entertainment (and disposal of his enemies). Bloated and sinister, Jabba the Hutt might have made a good joke -- if he weren't so dangerous. A cast of soldiers, spies, assassins, scoundrels, bounty hunters, and pleasure seekers have come to his palace, and every visitor to Jabba's grand abode has a story. Some of them may even live to tell it...

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Genres: Star Wars, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Short Stories, Anthologies

851 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Connor Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is one of my favorite books of all time. Because it tell tales about the bounty hunters and the king of them Jabba the hut. My favorite part was when you find out that Boba Fett is alive. Because last time you saw in the movie Boba get eaten by a weird creature. That is why i like this book.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read these as separate volumes. I liked how they opened up small moments from the films into multiple perspectives.

[Boy King]

When I read Star Wars: Tales edited Kevin J. Anderson, I thought it was interesting enough, even though it wasn’t exactly the most exciting book I’ve ever picked up. The short stories focus on background characters from the original movies, which was a neat idea, but some of the chapters felt a little slow to me. Still, I did like getting a bit more detail about characters I never really paid attention to before. It made the Star Wars universe feel a little fuller, even if not every story grabbed my attention.

One thing I appreciated was how the book tied into moments from the original trilogy. A few stories gave new perspectives on scenes I already knew, and that helped make some parts of the movies feel a bit more meaningful. I wouldn’t say the stories changed everything I thought about Star Wars, but they did add some context that I hadn’t considered. It was kind of cool seeing how small characters might have had their own motivations, even if the book didn’t always make me care a whole lot about them.

After finishing the book, watching Episodes IV, V, and VI felt slightly different, but not in a dramatic way. I noticed background characters more than I used to, and I found myself thinking about their little side stories during scenes like the Mos Eisley cantina or the bounty hunter lineup. It didn’t make the movies better or worse for me, but it did give me a bit of a new perspective. Overall, the book wasn’t amazing, but it added just enough to make rewatching the original films a little more interesting.

[Chris White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Disney is retconning Star Wars, this omnibus collection of short stories will live on in the "Legends" category. They are entertaining taking in the background characters and fleshing out their place in the Star Wars Universe. I did find myself going to Wookiepedia to visualize some of these species. A fun read.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these collections when they were first released in the mid-90s and loved them. Reading them again now, with the addition of the prequel movies and mucho other novels and stories, gives me a new appreciation for the creativity and foresight that these authors and the editor showed in compiling these collections. Written and released in that strange but wonderful time of the early to mid-90s when all things Star Wars were just coming back into the forefront of culture, these three collections pad out the Star Wars universe (that was known at the time) with the stories of many of the background characters seen in the Mos Eisley Cantina, the bounty hunter scene in "The Empire Strikes Back," and in Jabba's Palace. Centered around a core event, each group of stories revolves in its own ways and within the stories to give a much broader look at what might have been going on outside of the camera's view. The cohesiveness of most of the stories directly interrelating to each other is a great touch, allowing us opportunities to see the same events or things (such as the Cantina Band's music) through various eyes and viewpoints. There is also a nice thread that runs throughout the three collections themselves, with certain characters reappearing and seeing multiple events with the benefit of having seen the others. This omnibus collects all three "Tales" books; you can read them individually, if you'd like, and get wonderful reading experiences, but I suggest reading them in order, as the editor chose them to appear that way for very specific reasons.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty much exactly what I expected and what I wanted it to be.

[Wouter Rosario]

A must-read for any die-hard Star Wars fan that wants to know the story behind this or that character appearing in the background for a second.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for those immersed in the Star Wars universe