Star Wars, Return of the Jedi: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina

Star Wars: Tales #1

by Kevin J. Anderson

Sixteen stories from the most infamous cantina in the universe...by some of today's leading writers of science fiction.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....Featuring original stories Kevin J. Anderson * Doug Beason * M. Shayne Bell * David Bischoff * A.C.Crispin * Kenneth C. Flint * Barbara Hambly * Rebecca Moesta * Daniel KeysMoran * Jerry Oltion * Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens * Jennifer Roberson* Kathy Tyers * Tom Veitch & Martha Veitch * Dave Wolverton * TimothyZahn

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

Library Binding

First published August 1, 1995

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

[Jakob J. 🎃 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it nothing short of uproariously hilarious that we have a canonical redemption arc for the cantankerous, spiked blue milk serving bartender based on his one cinematic line that he doesn’t serve droids in his wretched hive of scum and villainy—which seems reasonable to me because droids can’t drink and would be taking up space of potential paying customers in his establishment—by having him befriend one and renounce his robo-racism.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina is a Star Wars anthology edited by Kevin J. Anderson. The hook that links all the stories is really from the one scene in the first Star Wars movie, (really Star Wars IV) A New Hope. The one scene common to all the stories here, is the scene where Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker enter the cantina with the droids in tow, and they are told to leave the droids outside. The stories all involve characters that were present whose stories needed telling, satellites to that one cinematic epiphany. Such characters as: the band, Greedo, a stormtrooper, the bartender, a Jawa, Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba, and a moisture farmer neighbor to the Skywalkers. Some of the writers are science fiction allstars like Barbara Hambly, A. C. Crispin, Dave Wolverton, Timothy Zahn, Judith, and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. This was an enjoyable read that provided me the opportunity to Geek Out on Star Wars.

[TK421 · Rating 3 out of 5]

So you may be asking yourself why a 30 year old man would read Star Wars books when he could be reading something else of substantial value. I mean, the poor guy doesn't realize that his life is getting farther and farther away from being 1/3 over and into the first stages of middle-life (I gave myself to 81). And, you know, I would be right beside you and berating myself too if these books weren't so fun. Ya see, about five years ago I got down from my pedestal of high-brow literary thinking and went slumming.

And, let me tell you, that will be a night not soon forgotten. Since then, my tastes have been eclectic and varied. These Star Wars books along with King or Koontz or name your thriller author, clean my palate. They entertain me enough that when I go back to a Tolstoy or Dickens or someone of contemporary status today, I'm looking at you DeLillo and you, too, Pynchon, that I can appreciate these more.

If you've never been on the other side of the tracks, today is as good a day as any to venture forth. Oh, and the book...interesting approach to telling what the other characters saw and experienced that day as Solo and Skywalker and Obi-won walked into thier lives. Closer to a 2.5 star, but I rounded up. I mean, this stuff used to entertain me for hours when I was younger. (HONEST MOMENT: It still entertains me today.)

RECOMMENDED

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some great stories here, some ok stories here, and some bad stories here. Overall, a 6 out of 10.

Here is my review of eachs story.

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina Review



1. "We Don’t Do Weddings: The Band’s Tale" by Kathy Tyers is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follow Figrin Dan and the Modal Nodes, who are hired to play music for a wedding, which they do not like having to do. However, shennanigans ensue and the band must figure out how to dig themselves out of a financial hole. It’s an ok story to lead off the collection, I’ll give it a 6 out of 10.

2. "A Hunter’s Fate: Greedo’s Tale" by Tom Veitch and Martha Veitch is a short story from the collection Tales of the Amos Eisley Cantina, from Star Wars. This story follows Greedo, and explains his backstory of where he came from, why he became an bounty-hunter, and why he is hunting Solo in A New Hope. The authors do a good job of making the audience understand where Greedo is coming from. Despite its length it’s a fun story that really covers a lot of ground. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10.

3. "Hammertong: The Tale of the “Tonnika Sisters”" by Timothy Zahn is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos a Eisley Cantina, from Star Wars. This story follows Shad’s and Karoly, who are assigned to move a secret scientific project for a research group by Dr. Kellering. They find themselves forced to go to Tatooine to find a pilot, when their past catches up to them. It a fun story that has a cool connection to the movie A Mew Hope that you probably wouldn’t expect, but the first half is not as strong as the second half of the story. I’ll give it a 7 out of 10.

4. "Play it Again, Figrin D’an: The Tale of Muftak" and Kabe by A. C. Crispin is a short story in the collection “Tales of the Amos Eisley Cantina”. This story follows Muftak and Kabe, a duo who is intent on finding a way out of Mos Eisley. It’s a fun story that is made extra fun by the main characters dynamics. I’ll give this one an 8 out of 10.

5. "The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead’s Tale" by Dave Wolverton is a short story from the collection “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follows Momaw Nadon, an author Ian Priest whose family was killed by the empire. He works to exact his revenge on those responsible, even though expressly forbidden by his religious order. This is an excellent story and I really connected with the main character. 9 out of 10!

6. "Be Still My Heart: The Bartender’s Tale" by David Bischoff is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This book follows Wuhur, the bartender who has a particular dislike of Droids. We see the events of the movie from his perspective, and we see his opinion of droids challenged as he decides to help out an interesting droid. This story is short and fun and well worth the read. I’ll give it a 9 out of 10.

7. "Nightlily: The Lover’s Tale by Barbara Hambly" is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars. This story follows a Gotal, Trevagg, who is enchanted with a beautiful female H’menthe named “Nightlily”. This story is fun and sweet, but my goodness is the ending of this story bold, and it was enjoyable in the end. 8 out of 10.

8. "Empire Blues: The Devaronian’s Tale" by Daniel Keys Moran is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follows a Devaronian named Kardue who is a former military man who trades in information, and helps Wuher get access to Figrin Dan and the Modal Nodes. This was an excellent story, and one of the best in the collection. 9 out of 10.

9. "Swap Meet: The Jawas Tale" by Kevin J Anderson is a story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story features Het Nkik, a Jawa who realizes the changes that Jawas need to make in order to survive. His reforms are not popular, and he is largely separated and ostracized by his clan. It’s a fun sweet story, but not amazing. 8 out of 10.

10. "Trade Wind: The Rabat’s Tale" by Rebecca Moesta is a story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follows Reegesk the Rabat who is conducting a trade in the cantina. This is a very short story, only 6 pages long, the shortest in the book, and by far adds the least backstory and value. 3 out of 10. Not great!

11. "When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtroopers Tale" by Doug Beason is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follows Davin Felth, a stormtrooper on his journey from trainee to soldier, and we see his detachment on Tatooine. It’s a serviceable story, but isn’t particularly striking. 6 out of 10.

12. "Soup’s On: The Pipe Smoker’s Tale" by Jennifer Roberson is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follows Dannik Jerriko, an Anzati Bounty Hunter in the Mos Eisley Cantina. This story really doesn’t add anything and I’m curious why it is present in the story. 2 out of 10.

13. "At the Crossroads: The Spacers Tale" by Jerry Olion is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina”, from Star Wars. This story follows BoShek, a pilot who claims he beat Han and Chewie's Kessel Run record. He also introduces Obi-Wan to Chewbacca. It’s an ok story that adds some context to the movie, but the story isn’t really enjoyable as a whole. 5 out of 10.

14. "Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba" by Kenneth C. Flint is a story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina”. This story follows Ponda Baba and Dr Evazan as they conduct their experiments in a castle. This was a really unique and refreshing story that surprisingly did not include the Cantina at all. I’ll give it an 8 out of 10.

15. "Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moister Farmer’s Tale" by M. Shayne Bell is a story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars. This story follows Ariq, a Moisture farmer who tries to negotiate with everyone from Jawas to Tusken Raiders. This is by far the sweetest and most exciting story in the collection. 9.5 out of 10.

16. "One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens is a short story from the collection “Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina” from Star Wars. This story follows Sivrak, a Wolfman who meets a Lamproid and ends up joining the rebellion and fighting at Endor. It’s a fun story, but it has some really strange elements that make it harder to understand and not as traditional a short story. I’ll give it a 7 out of 10.

[Damian Dubois · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to attempt to write a few lines on each story as I read them so bear with me on this one. I remember when I first received this as a gift back in '95 for Christmas and being so, so excited to finally read all the back stories of the denizens shown in what to me was the best set of scenes in the Star Wars movies - the Mos Eisley Cantina. Not every story is how I would have played them out with all the action figures I once owned as a kid but they did enough to fire up my imagination and satisfied my Star Wars cravings at that time in my life. On to the tales...

We Don't Do Weddings: The Band's Tale

In all honesty not much happens in this one. We learn the name of the band and the species of that bunch of baldies you no doubt remember from the Cantina scene in the original Star Wars (Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, Species: Bith). Band plays music, fight breaks out at a wedding, bride rips groom into pieces and the band gets new gig at the infamous Mos Eisley Cantina. For a group of Biths so paranoid about breaking their exclusive contact with the local crime boss (Jabba the Hutt) they choose a rather conspicuous new place to play... 2/5 Biths.

A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale

Ah, the infamous "Who shot first? scene plays out in all its glory here in A Hunter's Fate and thankfully, being penned pre-1997 and before all the George Lucas ret-con controversy hit the fan, has Han Solo shooting first as was originally intended!

Cut to:

EXT. AFTERLIFE DAY

GREEDO stands alone in the afterlife looking despondent.

GREEDO
If only I could have another chance to shoot first!

A figure steps out of the shadows.

GEORGE LUCAS
I think something like that can be arranged…

So, as the title implies, here we have the story of Greedo, starting from when he was a young naive little Rodian growing up on an adopted jungle world to how he came to be, shall we say, a rather unsuccessful Bounty Hunter. Greedo is nothing like the character I imagined him to be when I was calling the shots. In my little make believe world, Greedo was only second in line to the great Boba Feet and never hesitated in dispatching Han away at the first opportunity. I mean, c'mon man, the dude is green! That's damn cool, right? But in this Greedo is deplorable, a loser, a "stinking green goon" as one of the other Bounty Hunters puts it. I couldn't drum up one iota of sympathy for his plight and actually loved the scenes where Han shows him up for the fool he is. Ah, Greedo, you shan't be missed... 2/5 Rodians.

Hammertong: The Tale of the 'Tonnika' Sisters

Definitely the best of the three tales thus far - I wonder if that's because it's written by Timothy Zahn, the man who kicked off the whole Star Wars 'Expanded Universe' with the fantastic 'Thrawn Trilogy'. I can't believe that was first published over twenty years ago now. Even though the more recent films contradict some of the events in Heir to the Empire I still want to go back and read them at some stage as those books helped me get back into reading after I neglected my favourite past time during my late teenage years.

Hammertong begins with our two protagonists, members of an all female sect known as the 'Mistryl Shadow Guard', being hired to provide security detail for the transportation of a secret and important piece of Imperial equipment - the mysteriously named, Hammertong. And as you can no doubt guess, any time guards have a great reputation and come highly recommended, the best laid plans of mice and men go to rack and ruin...

To say much more about the story will probably ruin it but I will leave this hint that anyone with a good EU background may pick up on. Imprinted on the item in question is a rather important name. Lemelisk...

2 stars for each Tonnika sister, so 4/5.

Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe

Inside cover, this is how the story is sold to us...

Muftak, a spy who plots the biggest heist of his life - the plunder of a hundred worlds - but risks a one-way trip to the Great Pit of Carkoon...

Let's just say that lead in is being a tad too melodramatic. Muftak is indeed a spy and from what we are lead to believe a rather good one. You need trade secrets? You go see Muftak. But as good as he is hyped up to be he doesn't even know the name of the species he belongs to! Some random Stormtrooper fills him in on that particular piece of information. And for those interested, Muftak is a Talz. Just think of Hugo the Abominable Snowman, best known for his line “I’ll hug him and squeeze him and call him George” when he tries to keep Bugs Bunny as a pet...

Getting back on track, Muftak and his adopted Chadra-Fan companion, Kabe (a diminutive little thief and piss-pot to boot) hatch up a plan to rob the most notorious of criminals (yep, you guessed it, Jabba of course!) of his most prized possessions (the plunder of a hundred worlds mentioned above – so, not an outright lie, but sensationalised nonetheless!). And it’s while on this daring heist that they discover something even more valuable than said plunder...

Rating? I’ll give this 2 and a half Talz out of 5. Seeing as a Chadra-Fan is half the height of a Talz this fits rather nicely.

The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead’s Tale

As the title of this book tells us all of these stories are linked due to each character’s association with the Mos Eisley Cantina. In this particular tale we get another link to the preceding story through the character of Alima, a xenophobic Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy and a man who has a personal history with Momaw Nadon, an exiled Ithorian High Priest banished from his home world for revealing technological secrets to the Empire.

The Ithorians are a peace loving and intelligent species, one that has a firm connection to Mother Nature, especially plant life and all are avowed to honour their sacred code, the Law of Life. When Momaw Nadon discovers that the officer that got him banished from his home world of Ithor is also on Tatooine he finds himself facing a hard choice – to take revenge or to uphold his vow, that every life is sacred...

Here’s another character I pegged as a gun-toting thug back when I was a wee little’un. Obviously anything that didn’t resemble a human must have been a baddie in my eyes and thus won every battle that I acted out. It’s funny that my set of Rebel Alliance figures always perished in spectacular fashion...

Overall, The Sand Tender is a very likeable little tale due to containing a very sympathetic character in Momaw Nadon and one that delves into the history and culture of the Ithorian species. Star Wars factoid: Apparently the term ‘Hammerhead’ is highly offensive to them...

3.5 Ithorians out of 5 for this one.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

WHEW! It feels good to finally be finished with this one; it's been on my "Currently Reading" shelf for just about 6 months. After my 4 month hiatus from this book, I'm finally finished!

I did enjoy the book, despite the fact that the length of time that I spent NOT reading it vastly dwarfs the amount of time I was reading. The stories in this book are all interesting, and varied, and center around the (apparently) most popular watering-hole in the universe.

These aren't the best written stories I've ever read, but for what they are, they serve their purpose. This book gives the reader a chance to look into the lives of all those background characters that they see in the Mos Eisley, but who never get any speaking roles in the films. Which, come to think of it, could be due to the fact that the film-makers weren't sure where their mouths actually were. But when you hire aliens to make a movie, you are both grateful that they showed up, and grateful that they showed up without any sort of probe... that you can remember.

Anyway, this was an enjoyable read with some interesting stories. Recommended to fans of the Star Wars franchise. :)

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the book you never expected to exist and you don't need it. Try to remember stars wars the first movie.. remember that location when ben kenobi & luke skywlker entered the bar to ask for help to leave the planet?

There are a lot of stuff there that it's mildly interesting... per example, why the bartender hate droids that he doesn't want to serve them? Why han solo killed Greedo? What about those musicians? Why they are there? What a heck is lucifer doing there? Why that man try to confront ben kenobi and luke going all powerful "I am wanted in twelve systems" and so on... Those are the tales you never wondered but they wrote about them...

So, each of these and many more characters received tales - most of them are interconnected even follow ups. The best one, well there are two, but one made me see Han Solo as a villain and Greedo as "wrong place, wrong time situation"... His life was not easy so to survive he turn to bounty hunter and he was doing his job and han solo which is a bit of scoundrel, and never had any intention to pay Jaba just kill him.. not spoilers because of the movie. - if you didn't watch the movie -why are you here?

Then most of the stories are a bit boring and not that interesting BUT until we arrive to the last one - the moisture farmer tale - notthing to do with Mos Eisley Cantina and he wants to have peace between the farmers, jawas and sand people - but things don't go the way intended. It's a very good, sad story. Then another highlight are the the Desert Wind Turns which shows us how the alliance knew the weak spot of AT-AT and also Kevin J Anderson tale which in turn connects with his wife's tale (Moesta) caled Trade Wins.

All of these 5 tales are good but everything else is just a bit bland and boring...

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This delightful volume should be read and cherished by everyone who is interested in Star Wars, or science fiction in general. The book is actually comprised of 16 novellas or short stories all centered on the Mos Eisley Cantina. We learn that the Rebellion actually has more members than initially thought. The only complaint I have about this book is that it retells the killing of Greedo ad nauseum. Other than that, it was an awesome collection of stories.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories I didn't connect with and others were alright, but the only really brilliant one was the tale about the moisture farmer. The sticker on the back suggests that I bought my copy a few years after my obession with the Galaxy of Fear series and I vaguely remember being pleased to discover more about Momaw Nadon and Dannik Jerriko. The story I recall most from two decades ago, when I last read this anthology, is the Barbara Hambly one, which is interesting because I'm really getting into her non-Star Wars work at the moment.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cool concept. Interested in the others in this series. Some of the stories here were better than others — some really added to my appreciation of the cantina while others I would rather not have read to distort my view. Especially the one that kept saying “—soup—“. That was really weird.

[Nick Tropeano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute blast to read, everything I wanted and more

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any short story collection, there are always a few entries that leave me scratching my head ("The Pipe Smoker's Tale" just left me baffled). However, this very first official "Star Wars" short story collection makes for a surprising & fascinating read. Virtually all of the stories connect in interesting ways to the moment when Kenobi slices off an arm in the cantina, and the moment when Solo shoots Greedo, never once feeling forced or unnatural. Many of them are extremely poignant (especially "The Moisture Farmer's Tale"), and the story of Greedo is actually heartbreaking in its inevitability. One of those lovely books that delivered a much different reading experience to what I was expecting.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in A New Hope, there are little lingering looks of all kinds of weird-looking aliens. This is a collection of short stories that covers pretty much everyone in that cantina.

This was cool at the time that I read it because I had all of these aliens' cards for the Star Wars CCG. My favorite was Figrin D'an. The fact that I can write the previous two sentences is indicative of something. I probably don't want to know what that something is.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yawn. Not bad, not good. Amazing how many stormtroopers were supposedly dying in the vicinity of the Mos Eisley cantina that day.

[Octavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me lo he pasado teta. Historias de los personajes de la Cantina... Nada más que añadir.

[Mary Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lives behind all the weirdos in the tavern while Han, Luke, Obiwan and Chewie were doing their thing in the foreground. It’s just fucking awesome, read it ASAFP.

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.

This week’s focus: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, edited by Kevin J. Anderson.

SOME HISTORY:

Anderson edited the first of the short story collections, this one taking a Rashomon-like approach to Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi’s fateful visit to the Mos Eisley Cantina. Writers range from established Star Wars authors like Timothy Zahn and Tom Veitch, to future SW authors like A.C. Crispin, and then some sci-fi writers unfamiliar to me. I was initially glad to see that Kenneth C. Flint contributed a story, after Bantam cancelled his full-length novel. And for the first time, I have no New York Times paperback bestseller list data to report: Tales must not have made it within the top 15, because I couldn’t find it on any lists.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

I think the only story I remembered from this collection was “Soup’s On” by Jennifer Roberson, mostly because the revelation that the weird-looking pipe smoker was an assassin who drinks people’s brains was...well, bizarre yet memorable.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Jump into the dark and dangerous setting of the Mos Eisley Cantina with sixteen short stories about the minor characters seen there in Episode IV: A New Hope.

THE STORIES:

“We Don’t Do Weddings: The Band’s Tale” by Kathy Tyers
One of the shorter stories, and a pretty straightforward look at how the Modal Nodes ended up playing in the cantina⁠—they worked for Jabba, they took a gig for his rival’s wedding, and now they’re hiding out with no money. What elevates it above some of the other stories, though, is that Tyers is a musician, so I think she captures the relationships between band members and the tedium of playing at a wedding.

“A Hunter’s Fate: Greedo’s Tale” by Tom Veitch and Martha Veitch
This was a long story, covering Greedo’s almost entire life. He’s a young Rodian on a jungle planet, then he’s living on Nar Shaddaa, then he becomes a bounty hunter. Then he dies! Greedo doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that leads to his demise. I appreciated, though, that not everyone in the cantina is a seasoned killer.

“Hammertong: The Tale of the ‘Tonnika Sisters’” by Timothy Zahn
This was one of my top three stories, and introduced the characters of Shada D’ukal and Karoly D’ulin. They’re Mistryl guards who stole something important from the Empire, they need a ship off Tatooine, they pretend to be the Tonnika sisters, they get thrown in jail… It’s not a complex story, but I like Zahn, so I enjoyed this. (I also liked the foreshadowing of the Death Star II.)

“Play It Again, Figrin D’an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe” by A.C. Crispin
A decent story about two thieves. But I finally have a mental image of the Talz! While reading Children of the Jedi, I couldn’t picture them but was too lazy to Google. Now I know that they’re like the fuzzy white fellow with a weird tube mouth!

“The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead’s Tale” by Dave Wolverton
I was not a fan of Wolverton’s first work in the Star Wars universe, but I liked this one better. Momaw Nadon has a moral quandary: Ithorians don’t approve of murder, but the Imperial lieutenant on Tatooine destroyed his life. How can he resolve that?

“Be Still My Heart: The Bartender’s Tale” by David Bischoff
This was one of my bottom three stories. Wuher wants to brew a drink for Jabba the Hutt? Ehhhhhhhh.

“Nightlily: The Lovers’ Tale” by Barbara Hambly
Another of my top three! Hambly gave us such a distinct sense of Feltipern Trevagg’s character—he works for the Empire but he’s only concerned about himself—and I loved the twist ending. M’iiyoom seems like a naive, stupid girl, but she’s much more dangerous than she appears.

Empire Blues: The Devaronian’s Tale” by Daniel Keys Moran
I know that Moran wrote two stories about Boba Fett in the other two Tales collections, but this one is about Kardue’sai’Malloc, the devil-headed Devaronian. It was one of the longer stories. I did like the Machiavellian scheming that Malloc undertook to get the Modal Nodes in the cantina.

“Swap Meet: The Jawa’s Tale” by Kevin J. Anderson and “Trade Wins: The Ranat’s Tale” by Rebecca Moesta
Anderson and Moesta’s stories flow very closely from one to the other. Het Nkik is a Jawa who discovers that his friend’s sandcrawler was slaughtered by Imperials. He wants revenge, so he buys a Sand People talisman from Reegesk the Ranat and exits the cantina to go out in a blaze of glory. In Moesta’s story, we find that Reegesk has stolen the power pack from his blaster, so while the Jawa goes out, there’s no glory involved.

“When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper’s Tale” by Doug Beason
This is another one of the long stories. It covers the most of the life of Davin Felth, the stormtrooper who said “look sir, droids!” I think my favorite part was that Felth was originally training to be an AT-AT pilot until he figured out the flaw with their legs; however, General Veers doesn’t want anyone to rain on his parade, so Felth is reassigned to the stormtroopers on Tatooine. (And it’s strongly hinted that he’s going to defect to the Rebellion and give them that insider AT-AT info.)

“Soup’s On: The Pipe Smoker’s Tale” by Jennifer Roberson
Who would have thought that the weird-looking pipe smoker at the bar was an assassin named Dannik Jerriko who used these things in his cheeks to drink people’s brains? (As I said above, this was highly memorable for me.) Roberson’s prose style is closer to, say, Hambly than Zahn, so there’s a certain ornate quality to her writing. I like ornate, but others may not.

“At the Crossroads: The Spacer’s Tale” by Jerry Oltion
BoShek is the guy in the spacesuit that Obi-Wan first talks to at the bar. He’s Force sensitive, he knows Han and Chewbacca, he works for the monks, he’s hiding out from the Imperials. That’s pretty much it.

“Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba” by Kenneth C. Flint
I was excited to see a story by Kenneth C. Flint, but I hated this one. Bottom three for sure. It’s set entirely after the cantina scene, on the Aqualish homeworld of Ando, Cornelius Evazan is trying to mind swap people? Ponda Baba’s just there. Nope nope nope.

“Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer’s Tale” by M. Shayne Bell
But then the last of my top three stories! Ariq Joanson is a moisture farmer who wants good relations between the humans, the Jawa, and the Tusken Raiders. (He’s usually identified as the unnamed moisture farmer in the cantina, but that’s not official from Lucasfilm.) It was a neat look into the tensions between those communities, and I loved seeing a hitherto undeveloped part of Tatooine culture.

“One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Oh boy. Another bottom three story. Lak Sivrak the wolfman and Dice Ibegon the lamproid have this epic romance, and she died in the Battle of Hoth and he died in the Battle of Endor, and most of the story is his life flashing before his eyes. Very little is set in the cantina, which you think I would like. But nope, I just couldn’t get past their relationship, because she’s like a disembodied throat with teeth??


ISSUES:

The concept behind Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina is pretty cool, in that you get to see those cantina scenes from different viewpoints and perspectives. But in reality, it just gets tedious. Everyone mentions the bar fight between the wanted duo and Ben Kenobi; everyone notices when Han shoots Greedo. I appreciated the stories that gave us more insight into their characters, other than just “observed some standoffs in the cantina.” The execution of this can also vary, however. Kathy Tyers’s band story gave us the backstory behind why the Modal Nodes are playing in a dingy cantina, and I thought it worked pretty well; Kenneth C. Flint’s story about Evazan and Ponda Baba is set at some unspecified point afterwards, and I really didn’t enjoy it.

There was also more of an attempt at cohesiveness and connectivity than has been demonstrated in the Bantam books so far. Kevin J. Anderson’s Jawa story and Rebecca Moesta’s Ranat story were a great example of two stories that fit together, with Moesta’s story giving you further insight into the story that came previously by Anderson. There were numerous occasions where things didn’t quite mesh, though, especially in the different authors’ portrayal of Greedo. In the Veitchs’ story, Greedo is a naive kid who’s completely out of his depth. Other characters seem to view Greedo as rude or pompous or threatening in a way that he absolutely does not seem in the first story.

IN CONCLUSION:

Completionism is not necessary here. If you want to read all the stories, go ahead⁠—but take your time about it. I read this book in a week, and I wish I hadn’t! I think these stories would benefit from only being read one at a time, spread out over time. Otherwise, I think it’s perfectly fine to compile a list of the best reviewed stories, and only read those.


Next up: the conclusion to the Corellian trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen, Showdown at Centerpoint.


My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/8xYHlf5H_tw

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #226

Background: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina was edited by Kevin J. Anderson and published in July 1995. It is an anthology of 16 short stories featuring the characters seen in Cantina scene in Star Wars. Just under half of the stories are written by authors who also produced at least one Star Wars novel of their own. All of them feature the events that take place in Chalmun's Cantina in Mos Eisley during the movie, and most take place during the few days before and after that scene. Greedo's story begins several years earlier, and the Wolfman and the Lamproid's story stretches all the way to the Battle of Endor.

Review: As you might expect, the execution in this collection is kind of all over the place, but the idea that every scene in Star Wars is packed with characters who are the stars of their own great stories, all just waiting to be told, was the thing that really drew me to the Star Wars universe in the first place. I'd never encountered world-building like that before. So for that alone, this anthology holds a special place for me, and I was surprised, re-reading it over 20 years later, how vividly most of these stories came rushing back to me as I read. Here's my ranking and a few words about each:

Hammertong: The Tale of the "Tonnika Sisters" by Timothy Zahn
Big surprise, Zahn's story is the best of the bunch. But leave it to him to spin such an intricate web based on the conceit that the characters we see in the movie aren't really the people they're supposed to have been (hence the quotes in the title). I would absolutely read an entire series of novels about the group he introduces in this story. Fantastic.

Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer's Tale by M. Shayne Bell
I wonder how much John Jackson Miller's excellent Kenobi was inspired by this story. Bell puts in a lot of work fleshing out the dynamics between the various factions in rural Tatooine, and this story is a real emotional rollercoaster.

The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead's Tale by Dave Wolverton
Wolverton tells a really interesting story within some pretty strict constraints about the Ithorians. His protagonist is one of the best characters we meet in this collection.

When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale by Doug Beason
There's a bit of a contrived element when we learn that the same stormtrooper popped up in just about every scene during the first hour of Star Wars, but nevertheless this is a fun little journey through the first half of the movie from the perspective of The Enemy.

Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale by Daniel Keys Moran
An interesting main character mostly saves an otherwise mediocre story. There's not a whole lot to this one, but it's bolstered by its connection to some of the other tales.

We Don't Do Weddings: The Band's Tale by Kathy Tyers
Guys, it will never not be hilarious that some genius decided to name the Cantina Band's style of music "jizz." Just some really lazy naming there, and it really came back to bite them. Nevertheless, if you can keep a straight face through a story that mentions "jizz" a couple hundred times, this story isn't half bad.

Trade Wins: The Ranat's Tale by Rebecca Moesta
This story is extremely short but delivers the punchline twist of the story that precedes it (and is also better).

Swap Meet: The Jawa's Tale by Kevin J. Anderson
This is the story that precedes the Ranat's Tale. It's fine. Really, they're basically one story told in 2 parts, and together they make for one decent tale.

Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba by Kenneth C. Flint
I could see a lot of people deeply hating this story, and I get that. I kind of enjoyed it for it's deep B-movie horror/sci-fi weirdness. There's no getting around how utterly bizarre it is, and you'll either embrace that or . . . not.

Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe by A. C. Crispin
I wanted to like this story more than I did, and in particular I wanted to like the main characters more than I did. I think either of them might have been better solo than they were in a story together.

A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale by Tom & Martha Veitch
These two went big with a whole biography of Greedo, the canonicity of which is dubious at best. The result is almost certainly too long, but it has a certain fascination nonetheless. Not half bad, really.

Be Still My Heart: The Bartender's Tale by David Bischoff
The bartender is a pretty unpleasant character and his motivations aren't that interesting. I didn't feel like this story really made a lot of sense.

At the Crossroads: The Spacer's Tale by Jerry Oltion
With this many authors in play, it was inevitable that at least one of them would try something corny with a Force-sensitive character. This one's pretty thin even by those low standards. Totally forgettable.

Soup's On: The Pipe Smoker's Tale by Jennifer Roberson
I actually kind of admire the way this story really goes for it in putting us inside the the point of view of a totally disgusting character, and it is not badly done . . . but that doesn't make it pleasant or fun to read.

One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
This is for sure the dumbest of the bunch, and also one of the dumbest Star Wars stories I've ever read. It's going for something big and profound and sweepingly-epic and it's just so spectacularly stupid. I hate everything about it and the entire concept.

Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale by Barbara Hambly
This somehow still squeaks into the bottom spot on my list by virtue of having the most hatable main character. I assume this was done in order to generate some sort of catharsis from the twist conclusion, but the whole thing is just weird and gross and it doesn't land at all. And it goes on so long and foreshadows so heavily that you're unlikely to be surprised.

B-

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of stories from Mos Eisley featuring characters in the cantina were wonderful. They all related to each other in one form or another and I really enjoyed the inventive stories about many non human and some human characters. Jawas, Sand People, Droids, the bartender, wolfman, and more. For me, not a bad story in the bunch. I had read a canon version and those tales were largely uninteresting. I was actually sorry to see the book end. I will be on the other books in the series, Tales from Bounty Hunters, New Republic, The Empire. Great series that I am really enjoying.

[Adam Roloff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to read!

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stars: Varies but in general 3
Reread? Leaning no.
Recommend to: People who think they would like short stories about everyone who was in the cantina.

I'm generally not a big fan of short stories, so this book had an uphill climb from the get-go. The best part of the book is that almost all of the stories are intertwined. By the end, many of the stories are viewed significantly differently through the knowledge you gain about them from the following stories. Kevin J Anderson seems the most likely candidate for this being well done. Like most collaborative efforts, the quality of the stories varied from really good to a waste of your time.

I really like the idea of the book, which is go to the cantina scene and come up with a backstory of nearly everyone you can see in the background. You'd miss most of them if you hadn't read this book and were watching the scene specifically looking for the characters.

My biggest complaint that spans the book is that it got really old reading about the events in the cantina that we saw in ANH. I'm assuming most people who would read a book like this have seen the movie multiple times, so it seems like a bad decision to have us repeatedly visit those same events.

I'll give a few thoughts on each story.
1. We don't do weddings: The Band's Tale by Kathy Tyers 3-Stars
It's kind of hard to judge this one as you read it because you don't know yet how subsequent stories will change your perspective on the story. You later find out that the wedding the band plays at is ruined because the cantina bartender colludes with a music aficionado to get the band on the run and willing to work anywhere, which leads them to working in the cantina so the music guy can listen to them. This change was neat.

2. A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale by Tom Veitch and Martha Veitch 1.5 stars
I didn't like this story mainly because it was one of the few that make the movie worse. Greedo wasn't a top-level bounty hunter in the movie, but I never thought of him as a complete and utter joke like he is in this story. He dies because his past with Han blinds him from taking advantage of having the upper hand and Han Solo is good enough to grasp the opportunity this gives him. In the book, everyone is taking advantage of Greedo and laughing at him. I wouldn't say he is even a real bounty hunter. It ends up being an elaborate way for some Rodians who were hunting his family to "kill him" but they can't directly kill him in public or something like that. They make a deal with his mentor to get him killed, but I don't get why they wouldn't just have him meet up in the desert somewhere where they'd be able to kill him in private without issue.
This was one of the weakest stories for me.

3. Hammertong: The Tale of the 'Tonnika Sisters' by Timothy Zahn 4-stars
I knew a story by Zahn was likely to be one of the best of the book, and I wasn't disappointed. The story had a few parts that were a bit of a stretch, but they weren't enough to ruin the story for me. It was absurd that the Empire has parts of their new Death Star, major components, that lightly protected. The team of girls fall into a trap and two immediately get killed. Then two on speeders and two in spacecraft attack this base. They take the base without loss and then take over and commandeer the ship holding the Death Star tech. I did like the action and the fact that the Emperor was already working on the second death star before the first had been destroyed. .

4. Play it Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe by A.C Crispin 4-stars
Written by the author of the Han Solo trilogy, which I really like, this story follows Muftak and Kabe. They are characters you're likely to remember seeing in the movie. The story is fun and engaging although I'm not sure it was necessary for them to run across a rebel spy who was being tortured by Jabba and had secret information about the Death Star which he gave to Muftak..

5. The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead's Tale by Dave Wolverton 4-stars
A slow (it's about a high level gardener basically) story that has pretty good backstory and is interesting throughout. The ending is a bit silly. It was a little over the top that Moma Nadon could just tell the officer that he'd told Alima about the rebels, and that the officer would just publicly execute one of his men on the word of a random person on the street.

6. Be Still My Heart: The Bartender's Tale by David Bischoff 2-stars
This story was silly. Wuher is the bartender. He hates droids, as you see in the movie, but he drops that almost immediately for a droid that has a grinder in this story. He is trying to create the perfect drink for Jabba, and it turns out the secret ingredient was...Greedo's body.


7. Nightily: The Lover's Tale by Barbara Hambly 2.5-stars
This story was just fine but you just roll your eyes at parts. The main guy is basically a Gotal rapist who preys on the weak. He tries to drug and rape this hot chick. He succeeds, but finds out too late that her species has some kind of sharp tongue and they use it during sex to kill their partner, so he dies. That was over the top enough, but it seems that if you are the kind of guy who is that ready to drug and rape women who were in need of help, you'd have heard about the kind of species that would kill you during sex. Like, one of his friends or associates at some point in his life would've made some comment like, "better stay away from those species or it'll be your last good night." Even in the story, other people who saw them in the cantina assumed he knew about it because it was common knowledge.

8. Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale by Daniel Keys Moran 3-stars
Was pretty standard. The character had an interesting backstory but the story itself wasn't much. There was also one part that was absurd. Kardue'sai'Malloc at one point takes a shower for hours if I remember correctly. This is on the planet where the bartender comments on it if you ask for something as luxurious as a glass of water. This was one one of those situations that Kevin J. Anderson should've caught and changed it to the character losing himself in music for hours or something like that.

9. Swap Meet: The Jawa's Tale by Kevin J. Anderson 4-stars
This was one of my favorite stories. It was fun learning about Jawas, and the story itself was good. I especially liked how the story intertwined with the following story. Het Nkik was a jawa that lost his best friend when the Imperials destroyed the sand crawler in ANH. He vows to fight the imperials. He buys a blaster and sets out to kill them. First, he trades with a Ranat for a bantha totem for courage. Unbeknownst to him and not revealed until the end of the following story, the ranat steals the power supply for his rifle. So you think Het either killed all the imperials or at least went out in a blaze of glory when this story ends, but in reality his gun didn't fire and he was casually shot by a stormtrooper.

10. Trade Wins: The Ranat's Tale by Rebecca Moesta 3-stars
This was the shortest story and was mostly relevant for how it altered the events in the previous story.

11. When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale by Doug Beason 2-stars
More interesting than some of the other stories, this one suffered from some ridiculous decisions story-wise that were too big to ignore. The first is the whole thing about the AT-AT walkers being susceptible at the legs. Davin is a brand new recruit and immediately sees they are vulnerable there. Apparently, nobody in the Empire had figured this out yet. So General Veers has Davin, who was a crack trainee, essentially banished to the infantry and sent to Tatooine so that nobody knows about this weakness. So that's absurd to the point of stupid. Then, the story ends with Davin shooting his leader in the back during the fight with Han Solo at docking bay 94. Nobody notices him shooting his boss, and nobody seems to care or be interested in the fact that he was shot in the back.

12. Soup's On: The Pipe Smoker's Tale by Jennifer Roberson 0-Stars
I was really looking forward to this story and was completely let down by it. Throughout the previous stories, people kept ominously mentioning the pipe smoker and how dark his aura was and he is obviously this crazy powerful and dark presence. I was like, heck yeah, let's see this crazy assassin in action. But no. Absolutely nothing happens. He sits in the cantina and talks about eating soup (which is something like eating their essence) and he spouts a lot of high-brow nonsense. I hated it. Definitely skip if reading again.

13. At the Crossroad's: The Spacer's Tale by Jerry Oltion 2.5-stars
An alright story that seems skippable to me. Boshek is a memorable character in the cantina scene, but I never really got into his story as he runs around Mos Eisley. I half liked that Obi-Wan sensed his force abilities and they had a short conversation about it and half rolled my eyes that they had to make yet another force sensitive person.


14. Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba by Kenneth C. Flint 3.5-stars
A bit too absurd and the character of Dr. Evazan was a bit too different than the movie. Maybe he was just really drunk in the cantina. The story was kind of cool and, unlike most of the other stories, focused on their life exclusively after the events of the movie. That was a really nice change. It was fun seeing some of his mad experimentation and how he was working to transfer the consciousness of a person from one body to another. His gelatinous pet that allows him to survive at the end from a huge explosion and a fall from a great height was dumb.

15. Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer's Tale by M. Shayne Bell 3-stars
Kind of a longer story that was alright but not particularly memorable. This one is skippable for me.

16. One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens 2.5-stars
One of the weirder stories in the book. The story follows Lak Sivrak, who is the wolfman in the movie, and it sort of confusingly tells of how he met his love in the cantina, followed her into the rebellion, and then she died on Hoth and he died at Endor. The story is as he is dying and he is have weird flashbacks to tell the story. It was kind of cool but a little hard to follow in the beginning.

[B.A.G. Studios · Rating 2 out of 5]

I talk too much; this review is split in half as a result.

See Part One Here

~

Part Two:

~

”Swap Meet: The Jawa’s Tale”
I have major issues with the structure of this book. Look, this isn’t a collection of short stories if another author steps in to write 3 pages of backstory and one paragraph of a reveal at the expense of the previous author just not finishing the story. This and the next are the same story, not like the previous times these have intersected, no this is just the same story. Yeah, it changes POV. So what? It’s the same story, but neither have an ending because they both need one another. They would be completely baffling apart from each other, and therefore they are not independent stories. This is a strange collection, maybe it’s just me, but I hate the way this book is arranged.
But as for this(/these) story(/stories)—
I really quite liked the first portion of this story. I wonder if this is just another case of having to hit that benchmark of getting the lil guy to the cantina, because it’s not all that connected. The first portion is really good, and his interaction with Obi-Wan gives me something new and awesome about my favorite Star Wars character. Anything that can do that this many years into a fandom should be commended. But it then keeps going and just ends awkwardly, leaving me with the distinct feeling “This is going to pick up in the next story, isn’t it…?”
2.3/5

”Trade Wins: The Ranat’s Tale”
Welcome to the punchline. It’s seriously like saving the punchline to the last joke for an after credit scene or something.
This is another example of the oddness of it severely detracting from the experience of reading it. It’s not like this is abysmally written, or even long enough to warrant much of a critique at all. But it’s so strange that it can’t help but be an overall negative to the whole.
These 7 pages are just setup to be able to quantify this as a separate story for the sake of explaining that the blaster didn’t fire. I presume Het Nkik is then subsequently shot dead in the street, but who knows. Maybe that’s a reveal in the next one that the stormtrooper’s aim was so bad he missed a gun-toting Jawa at point blank.
1.7/5 (to pay for its stupidity)

”When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper’s Tale”
Oh my god, it actually did. I mean, he didn’t miss, but if it had been loaded, they did nothing to stop Het Nkik from shooting them.
Two things: one, the last few paragraphs are incredibly trite and obvious, eye-rollingly groan-inducing; two, I detest the retcon that Luke and Kenobi barely escaped the stormtroopers… who weren’t looking for them. That’s just lazy, just add a line where they’re not looking for the droids anymore but they’re looking for the Nephew to see if he can tell them where he sent the droids. But it doesn’t do that, it says that they just wandered in to get out of the heat and just so happened to be that close. It also completely incorrectly conveys what Wuher does in the film and in other stories here. And this is the kind of thing I mean where this needed more editing— Just have them walk by the Tonnika sisters. Add one sentence about calling in people with active warrants to the local authorities. Because these are supposed to be the same troopers from that tale, in this volume, but that doesn’t happen. It cannot pick a lane. Is this a collection of disparate short stories that sorta line up but don’t have to? Or is it a book told in multiple POVs where the punchline of a story is in a different story just ‘cuz? You can’t be both, it’s not working.
But this story…?
I actually end up liking this one quite a bit. It’s strangely interlaced with the last two, especially considering those are the only two stories so far to not mention the stormtroopers coming into the cantina at all. But otherwise, and the lead up, I liked this. I like the addition that Veers was just a product of sheer hubris, that he knew the design flaw, and because he refused to admit it, he died by it. Adds a little som’n-som’n.
I question what exactly Owen thought was gonna happen spitting on a stormtrooper like that though. Unless he just decided it was already too late (which it probably was). But there was like… no attempt to faint and take any heat off of Luke at all hahaha. Just say he shipped off with the droids to Dathomir last night and hope it’s enough to keep him safe wherever he’s at?
It does make it doubly weird, too, that we deal with Owen, but they’re only in the cantina by coincidence, not because they’re looking for Luke. Nor even for the Jedi disturbance, which was always the assumption Han made. I liked this, but there were some strange elements that feel like they just need a second draft or something.
3.1/5

”Soup’s On: The Pipe Smoker’s Tale”
This isn’t a story. It’s a retelling of the cantina scene from someone in the back of the room whose internal monologue is really creepy. I guess he’s going to come back in someone else’s tale? He’s after Han’s soup, as the Anzati call it (maybe Midichlorians?), and last I saw, he was about to make a pass for that soup as Han leaves the cantina. I don’t get it.
Side note: This short story makes the 100th piece of Star Wars prose media I’ve consumed (novels, short stories, and audio dramas). Whoopie, glad it was a big one!
0.9/5

”At the Crossroads: The Spacer’s Tale”
This is just fanfiction. It’s not particularly poorly written fanfiction, but that’s all it is.
“My character? Oh see he’s cool cuz he’s got like a super cool pilot cuz he beat Han’s record for the Kessel Run but he’s also like this super cool monk dude with the Force who’s like super cool?”
Of course he uses the Force, ain’t that cool? Of course he outflew the Falcon, why else would he talk to Chewie? Of course Obi-Wan wants to train him just immediately, why else would he talk to Obi-Wan? It’s just thing after thing that screams “tryhard.” We thought Rey mind tricked one guy too quickly, but at least there seemed to be something special about her; this guy mind trick’s 4 people as his first feat of the Force, and of course they had to be the same ones from earlier with Ben. Ugh. It’s just groan-inducing. And I’m disappointed because this was maybe the person’s story I wanted the most: Who is important enough to speak to Chewbacca and Obi-Wan and never come around again? Well apparently he’s literally the coolest person to ever be born. I dunno, it just read trite.
1.7/5

“Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba”
I’ll take it. I mean, this isn’t great, but it’s decidedly better than a lot of the recent stuff. And it’s also the single weirdest adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show that I’ll ever see.
I do think it’s a better story if Evazan actually died here, but otherwise this is a fine horror-adventure tale that mercifully doesn’t try to intersect with the rest of this at all. This is an indiscriminate amount of time later. I don’t know if Evazan shows up ever again (once: a Galaxy of Fear YA horror novella, resurrecting dead criminals as it would happen), but if he had died here, it would’ve made for an interesting coda for that character which manages to avoid too many eye rolls by not being a prequel thing. I’m sure the Galaxy of Fear book is great… but I won’t be reading that, so in my mind, he died in the rubble here haha.
2.7/5

“Drawing rhe Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer’s Tale”
This story is the first in this volume to really spark my imagination on what could happen next. Does this farmer take over the Lars Homestead when he shows up to find them dead, waiting for the day Luke returns? I don’t know whether he (or Vader, for that matter) ever returns there in Legends or not, but if they don’t or if it isn’t abandoned, my vote is that this guy Ariq is the one who’s tending it now. Mending fences, vaporators, and relations with the Sand People. This story in particular makes me wish there were a more traditional singular narrative that took place after this which showed some kind of Free Tatooine uprising or something, weaving in Wimateeka the Jawa’s clan after Het Nkik’s murder (maybe he becomes a martyr completely by accident?), Davin the Stormtrooper who is changing sides from within, Ariq the Farmer who wants to form peace between the factions by rebelling against the Empire, and the Rebel guy from “Hammertong” who I can’t remember the name of. All of them band together and kick the Empire out within the timeframe of the OT. No Imperials on Tatooine by the time of Episode VI, so maybe this band of misfits is partly responsible. Who knows? I wish there’d been something written about it, because several of these short stories’ endings would be less cheesy if they were actually leading to something instead of just “…and they set off for the twin sunset, a hero to fight another day!” Boo. More! Encore! Gimme some plot!
But anyway. Onto this story. And holy crap, what a jump in quality.
I dunno what it is about Star Wars and western settler stories, but it has several and nails almost all of them I’ve read. This is no exception, this was awesome.
A small part of me wants to headcannon the Tusken camp we’re dealing with here to be the descendants of A’Yark’s clan, those who captured Orrin in Kenobi, just because this is extrapolating off some of those same themes. Considering “Swap Meet”, some of the additions it makes, that also checks out with the way that novel ended.
I don’t have anything all that meaty to say about the story here except that I loved this for its atmosphere and its very simplistic, old-school western vibes and themes. There’s, like, a single paragraph that seemed a little on the nose with its wording. That’s it, the rest of this was just exactly what I’m looking for in a Star Wars short story. A cartographer on the quest for peace, and an Empire utterly dedicated to preventing that peace. This is a showcase for why the Empire was a malevolent entity for all the people who like to say, “Ya know, we never really saw the Empire being mean to civilians.” Here ya go. And not only that, it gives a deeper understanding of how systematic some of the problems were, no matter how directly or indirectly it was affecting the individuals. One of the best pieces of Star Wars fiction, I just wish it had all the elements of the related short stories to count for its context.
4.6/5

“One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid”
Somehow this one defies my expectations of Star Wars in general. I normally don’t like randos being Force Ghosts, but the way this approaches it makes it seem like a natural thing that happens. Maybe all who were in tune with the Force in life become one with it in death, even if they’re not all strong enough to solidify their consciousness to the physical world like Kenobi or Yoda. I dunno, somehow the writing of this was just so sincere that I liked it a lot despite so many elements being pet peeves I usually have in this franchise.
3/5

Overall this is a huge mixed bag. There were some great stories in here. And there were some pretty decent stories in here. And there were some absolutely awful ones in here too. I don’t really think I could endorse the book as a whole. And considering my issues with the editing, my recommendations for the individual pieces would have to be tempered as well. Of course being me, I’ve made a paragraph-by-paragraph reading chart to reassemble the stories I liked linearly alongside Death Star and the Episode IV novelization. If I return to this material, I believe that’s how I would do so. And I do wish more had been done with some of these characters afterwards. If we’re gonna make the Cantina ridiculously full of important people and secret Force sensitives, we might as well use them, right?
Averaged together this volume would get a score of 36.2/80, or roughly a 45%. Not the worst, certainly not the best. Held back greatly by some wacky entries that just don’t belong in fiction meant to be taken seriously, but there’s some legit greatness to be found here too. I’ll have to round down to a 2/5, but this is yet another time where I wish Goodreads let me do half-stars; this deserves a flat 50% I think. I guess since I had to split this in half and the titular story over there I rounded up on, it all worked out in the end. The Force works in mysterious ways.

[Marcus Hess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The scum and villiany from the original star wars galaxy are expanded in this short-story anthology. If you are craving more star wars lore that builds off the themes (hope, revenge, redemption)
from the OG trilogy, then you’ll enjoy this. It felt a bit bogged down by some of the stories but overall it satisfied what I’ve been missing from the more recent tv/movie installments.

[LEGO Yoda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just too hit or miss for me, there’s some great and good stuff here, but there’s also a lot of stories that are just really boring to me. I think it is cool that we get Mos Eisley characterized more, it feels a lot more living and breathing because of this book.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of short stories, and I don't read many collected anthologies, but I do read a lot of Star Wars, and since I've come this far into the project thus far, I powered on through this book. Like most anthologies, it's a mixed bag, with some stories being more impactful than others, but this one elevates itself a bit by being more than just a collection of stories.

Most of the stories in Tales are interconnected. Some are connected more than others (there's a pair smack in the middle of the book that couldn't exist without each other), and on the one hand, it's a little annoying, since I want my stories to stand well independently. Still, it's impressive to look at the stories as more than individual stories and view the effort that went into making all of them relate to each other.

Because this is a collection of stories featuring the characters in the Mos Eisley Cantina, it means we get to see that familiar scene over, and over, and over again, since that's the one moment that brings all these stories together. It's interesting to see the different perspectives on the scene (and I'm talking about the whole thing, from when Obi-Wan and Luke enter, to when Han leaves), but it does try one's patience.

We get some big-name characters here -- Greedo, Dr. Evazan, and Ponda Baba the largest of them -- but for the most part we learn about the tertiary characters who flash by only momentarily. The authors take the opportunity to add their own flair and detail to the Expanded Universe, not content just to tell us about what happened in the cantina. Instead, we get authors who create worlds and cultures and characters that last longer than just a momentary glance in a cool scene. They also delve into giving Tatooine further context, with a few of the stories talking about life on the planet and what it means.

My favorites of the bunch were the moisture farmer's tale by M. Shayne Bell, Greedo's tale by Tom and Martha Veitch, and "Nightlily" by Barbara Hambly. I also liked the story that concluded the anthology, which told about the Wolfman and the Lamproid, and was written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. The rest were passable, with only one or two that didn't do a thing for me. For an anthology, that's a pretty good ratio. I like the conceit of the anthology best, and I'm hoping that the other books in the Tales series will follow this example.

[TheBookHunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Heard you were having a little trouble in here"

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, is an anthology novel featuring multiple short stories written by various authors. And as the title suggests, this Star Wars Tales book tells the tales of the creatures and denizens within the Cantina in Mos Eisley Spaceport on Tatooine around and during the time of A New Hope.

This is a great little book that you can pick up, read one or two stories, put down, and then pick back up later with no issue, and that's really nice.

It's a shame these stories are now considered non-canon because they are fun and don't contradict much considering it's all about background characters and it offers a little insight on who or what is in the background of the movie.

My favorite short story has to be "When The Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale". The stormtrooper featured is apparently the one we see in the special edition scenes of A New Hope picking up a piece of the escape pod R2 and C-3P0 crashed in and exclaiming, "Look sir, droids!" to his commander.

Besides that, there are at least 15 other stories written by various authors such as ones about Greedo and even the cantina band as well.

Pick this up if you're looking for a quick, fun read!

[Tibbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book 33 on my read-through of the Star Wars Legends books.

I am generally of the opinion that the quality of a piece of fiction is not based on WHAT it is about, but HOW it is about it.

However, this book may be an exception.

Something about this short story collection feels fundamentally wrong-headed. Or, at the very least, the approach most of these authors took feels fundamentally wrong-headed. In theory, I like the idea of providing a slice-of-life portrait of each denizen of Star Wars' famous cantina, but, in practice, almost none of these stories are actually trying to be a slice of life.

The whole point of the Cantina scene in Star Wars was that it was a random Tuesday at a random hole-in-the-wall bar, filled with the kinds of people who see a guy get his arm cut off and turn back to their drinks five seconds later. But somehow, literally every person present is having the single most important day of their life on the exact day that Luke and Ben walk into the bar. Half of these people are mixed up with the rebellion in some way. There are six or seven people who recognize Obi-wan as a jedi. And, worst of all, most of them aren't even particularly shady.

It's the equivalent of walking into a gas station in Detroit at 2pm on a Tuesday and finding out that the other people there include a prima ballerina about to make her debut, a neurosurgeon who just saved a senator, and a multimillionaire ten minutes away from dying in a car crash.

I understand the idea that everyone is the main character of their own story, but the way these stories deify the specific ten minute period during which the cantina scene in the film takes place stretches suspension of disbelief well past its breaking point. I got really sick of hearing the events from the film recounted again and again, ad nauseum. The best stories in this collection are the ones that embrace being a genuine slice of life, rather than trying to be some grand narrative intertwined with the events of the film.

My least favorite stories by far are the three "premier" stories (the ones that are 30-40 pages instead of 20), all of which fatally misread the character they're about, in a way that makes their star characters somehow less interesting than they were during their brief screentime in the film.

The Greedo backstory is just terrible -- it drags on forever and goes nowhere, turning Greedo into a fresh-faced idiot trying to do his first murder, who has barely met Han before and only has a grudge against him for literally the pettiest reason imaginable. It directly contradicts both the dialogue and the "vibe" of the scene from the movie. Look, we've all met a Greedo -- he's that scumbag co-worker at your crappy retail job who's vaguely incompetent but not quite enough to get fired. The writer succeeded in making Greedo lame, but he's not the right kind of lame, and I get the feeling that the author chickened out on letting the character be a true scumbag.

Timothy Zahn's story is even worse. His story is about those shady-looking hot girls sitting at the bar. Again, we've all met girls like this in real life -- you know exactly what these people are like based on their five seconds of screentime. And to be clear, I am not saying this to denigrate. On the contrary, this is a "genre" of person who almost always gets villainized or shunted to a side role in movies. This could have an opportunity to humanize this specific type of person, but instead Zahn turns these women into generic Mara Jade wannabe mercenaries who just stole a piece of the second Death Star because OF COURSE they did. And of course they're only pretending to be shady-looking hot girls as a disguise.

The other "premier" story is the one about the two guys who rough up Luke at the bar (the walrus guy and the "I've got a death sentence on 12 systems" guy). I give this story more of a pass, because it was clearly intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but its goofiness never felt like it had a point other than the general joke of "haha isn't it funny that the character who seemed like a small-time idiot criminal was actually a genius mad scientist".

Most of the other stories fall in the 6/10 to 7/10 range -- not terrible but generally unmemorable. However, there were a few I really liked.

The first story in the collection, about the cantina band, was excellent and was a genuine slice of life in a way that almost none of the other stories were. It was a smart idea to put this one first, although it definitely set my expectations too high for the rest of the collection.

The tale about the jawa was pretty good on its own, but the way its conclusion was weaved into several subsequent stories was clever and extremely well-done.

The story about the stormtrooper was fantastic. I really liked the glimpse into the inner workings of the empire and the way the story humanized stormtroopers while still making them look evil and incompetent. It was also one of the few stories where it felt justified for the character to be intertwined into Luke and Ben's activities.

But easily my favorite story in the collection was "Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale". I haven't read the Callista trilogy yet, so I have yet to form an opinion about Barbara Hambly's "controversial" contributions to Star Wars, but I thought this story by her was fantastic. It still fell into the trap of making this specific day the most important day of the character's life, but this story was arguably the only one in the collection that "understood the assignment" and allowed its protagonist to be as seedy and weird as you'd imagine the denizens of this cantina would be. The ending was also perfect, even if I saw it coming a mile away. This story wasn't mind-blowing by any means, but it was exactly what I wanted from this collection and I wished the other stories had followed its example.

Overall, this collection evens out to a 6.5/10 for me. Putting aside the general complaints I mentioned before, most of these stories were pretty well-written for what they were and contained some fun world-building. And a handful of them were genuinely fantastic. But, considering the three worst stories are also the longest, those positives aren't enough to push it any higher for me.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book while I was on vacation in Sun River, OR. Even though I was on vacation I probably read this book at an average of 3 hours a day because it was really good. My favorite story in this book is the one about Greedo because since Greedo is killed by Han Solo in the original Star Wars movie, he is not in many of the Star Wars books, so I did't know much about him besides the fact that he's a Rodian bounty hunter.

[Peregrine 12 · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read this book, I was well out of my sci-fi phase. Nonetheless, despite all the Star Wars and Star Trek novels I read in all the endless series, this one stands out in my memory as being ONE FUN READ.

What a great idea - focus in on all those weird, nameless monsters in that super-cool Star Wars scene at the cantina! Multiple authors did a great job of offering multiple storylines, none like the others. If you like the Star Wars type genre, check this one out.

[J.M. Brister · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pretty much for the big Star Wars fan. The tales are all interconnected, and it certainly will make you want to rewatch parts of A New Hope to pick out all of these aliens from the cantina.