Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View 2

My favorite Star Wars books as a kid were the “Tales of…” series edited by Kevin J. Anderson. Those books imbued the Galaxy Far, Far Away with the sense that Greedo, Dengar, Bib Fortuna, and the hundreds of minor background characters from the films each had stories of their own. Those books – and the fan hunger for more stories – are a major part of the reason why the Star Wars franchise has been able to grow beyond the Skywalker saga through shows like The Mandalorian.

The “From a Certain Point of View” books continue that tradition – but in both more expansive and limited ways. The first book, released in 2017, celebrated the 40th anniversary of A New Hope by collecting stories from a variety of science fiction and fantasy authors. As the title suggests, the stories are told from the point of background characters. This latest volume does the same for The Empire Strikes Back.

“Poe Dameron: Free Fall” by Alex Segura

“You were a spice runner?” 

JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio wanted to create conflict between the main characters in The Rise of Skywalker and so gave each one a secret they were hiding. For Poe, this meant he now had a shady past as a drug dealer. This proved controversial. Some fans pointed out that the new backstory seemed to contradict other Star Wars stories about Poe Dameron, such as the novel Before the Awakening. Others noted that making the first Latino lead in the franchise a drug runner played into some unfortunate stereotypes. In the film, Finn and Rey seem to quickly forgive and forget Poe’s shady past, but Alex Segura’s Poe Dameron: Free Fall seems to exist largely to explain this new backstory.

“Star Wars: Dark Disciple” by Christie Golden

I am writing an article about Star Wars Expanded Universe references in the animated TV shows for an upcoming book, and so decided to reread Christie Golden’s Dark Disciple. This book is a fascinating case study in transmedia storytelling and adaptation. Dark Disciple is based on scripts written by Katie Lucas for The Clone Wars animated show before it was canceled in 2013. However, the seeds of the story originated in the Dark Horse Comics Republic line, which was part of the Clone Wars multimedia project in the early 2000s. The book both draws upon and contradicts the comics in interesting ways.