From a Certain Point of View by Ben Acker
My rating: [rating=4]
When I picked up this book to read, I had similar concerns about it as I did about the Princess Leia book. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. In fact before I even added it to my “Currently Reading” list on Goodreads, I read the first chapter. It didn’t take much after that for me to keep reading it. This book was published back in 2017 for the 40th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. It is a massive collaboration of 40 different authors (because 40 years, get it?) each writing a chapter. Some of the more well-known contributors are Christie Golden, Chuck Wendig and Wil Wheaton (yes, Wesley Crusher). Here is my book review of “From A Certain Point of View”.
No Synopsis Required
I should have read the synopsis before I picked up this book. This book doesn’t require a synopsis because it’s the plot of Star Wars A New Hope. If you don’t know the plot of Episode IV then why are you here? The unique feature of this book is the events of A New Hope are told from the perspective of background characters. As boring as that sounds, it’s actually quite interesting.
Every chapter isn’t as interesting as some of the others. In fact there are a few chapters that are really superfluous. There are too many chapters that focus on the events in the cantina. The Greedo chapter and, perhaps, the Wuher chapter are really the only ones worth keeping. There are a couple of chapters on the Death Star, during the destruction of Alderaan that are pretty uninteresting too. For example, the chapter with the MSE droid and TK-421 is probably my least favorite chapter. His personal life and aspirations of MSE racing were gratuitous; so much so I actually skipped some of it. Another chapter I felt similarly about was Omi, the trash compactor beast. Pretty dull.
A Handful Does Not Ruin the Bunch
Despite the handful of tedious chapters, there are many that more than make up for it. There is a chapter where Qui-Gon is communing with Obi-Wan that I really enjoyed. The chapter from Tarkin’s point of view as well as a couple of members of the Imperial High Council are really fun. I think my favorite chapter is the one where a stormtrooper is filing an incident report from the events at Mos Eisley. I know that probably sounds as dreary as MSE racing but the author, Daniel Jose Older, makes it very entertaining. In fact his Star Wars book, Last Shot, is on my short list to read next.
Superfluous chapters aside, this is a great book to read. I would definitely recommend it for any Star Wars fan. If you’re reading a chapter that you find especially boring, you can freely skip it without missing something important. None of the chapters really build on each other, they only accompany the main plot of the movie. I’m really glad I decided to read it.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
– Dr. Seuss