Star Wars: The Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina (Book Review)

If you’ve ever watched Star Wars: A New Hope, you’d probably noticed (or know by heart if you’ve watched the movie dozens of time over the years) the crowd of different aliens just chilling as Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi arrived at the cantina in Mos Eisley. I remember asking myself, “Who are these aliens? Where do they come from?” The answer to these questions, and more, lie in this collection of short stories.

The stories in this book were written by writers who are now well known for writing Star Wars stories (particularly for the Expanded Universe, or EU for short) and was edited by Kevin J. Anderson (a name not unfamiliar to Star Wars EU novel fans).

I was not a reader of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (or Legends as what it’s labeled now). I think it was because I tried to start reading it at the wrong places on the timeline. Recent happenings have made me want to give it another try, and after watching Matt Wilkins’ 4-part review of this book on his YouTube channel, I had no second thoughts when picking this up from the bookstore.

Man, oh man, am I not disappointed. Got through the book in less than two weeks (with personal and work commitments and all). Should have started with this book back then. It tells the backstory of  almost every alien and humanoid we saw in the Mos Eisley cantina scene, including those that interacted with Luke and Obi Wan as well as the other one, with Han Solo. For me, it gives life to the Star Wars lore. If you think you know the life forms in this story, you don’t. Some stories are just not what you imagined it would be. Best part about it, the stories are written in such a way giving it a little bit of that Pulp Fiction feel.

  

 

On to my next Legends book.