Like so many “risky” concepts, “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina” (1995) ultimately proved to be a brilliantly obvious one. Up to this point on the “Star Wars” publishing schedule, every adult book had featured at least one of the main characters from the movies. Comics, “Star Wars Adventure Journal” short stories and young-adult books had branched into side characters or brand-new characters, but this was the first adult book to embrace the concept.
Of course, to “Star Wars” fans, a collection of stories about Chalmun’s Cantina denizens didn’t need a hard sell — the coolness was right there in the title. Editor Kevin J. Anderson deserves credit for hiring the 16 authors, assigning characters to each of them and making sure everything fit together. Obviously, the events in the film — highlighted by Obi-Wan cutting off Ponda Baba’s arm, which everyone in the place noticed — are a common touchstone. But there are also other incidents that appear in multiple tales; for example, Anderson’s “Jawa’s Tale” links to Rebecca Moesta’s “Ranat’s Tale,” which links to Doug Beason’s “Stormtrooper’s Tale.” You have to read all three to find out the Jawa’s fate; luckily, they are positioned all in a row.
Yet there’s flexibility for the authors. All of the tales feature the character’s movie appearance, but the importance of that appearance, and the cantina setting in general, varies. Some tales start with the cantina scene, some have the scene in the middle, and some finish in the cantina. There’s never any sense of repetitiveness, because the point of view changes.
Furthermore, “A New Hope” editor Richard Chew’s philosophy was not to dawdle by showing off a setting. Just give a flavor and tell the story. This was picked up in all subsequent motion-picture depictions of the saga, right up through “The Clone Wars.” But books allow for dawdling — in a good way. Already intrigued by the cantina and wondering “What in the world is THAT guy’s story?,” many fans savored all 16 of these tales.
Here are my picks for the eight best:
1. “Empire Blues: The Devaronian’s Tale” by Daniel Keys Moran — Moran may not be the best story writer or even the best character-arc writer, but few “Star Wars” authors are so good at getting into a character’s head (see also “Boba Fett’s Tale” from “Tales of the Bounty Hunters”). Here, he does that with Labria, a wanted war criminal who loves the music of the galaxy and telling bad jokes at the bar. If Moran had ever branched into “Star Wars” novels, he could’ve been on par with Matthew Stover.
2. “Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba” by Kenneth C. Flint — Basically, this is the Dr. Frankenstein yarn given a “Star Wars” spin as we learn why Dr. Evazan has the death sentence in 12 systems. It’s deliciously grisly and darkly humorous.
3. “Be Still My Heart: The Bartender’s Tale” by David Bischoff — Maybe it’s species-ist of me (I guess I can get away with it because we’re basically a one-sentient-species planet), but this tale resonates a bit more than others because Wuher is human. His depression, bitterness and gruffness — so clear on the actor’s face — become palpable as we learn why he hates droids: He actually hates everyone, but it’s safe to speak out against droids. The tale has a great final twist that gives a dark coda to “Greedo’s Tale.”
4. “One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens — It’s the style that’s impressive here, as Lak Sivrak’s tale does some time-jumping while retaining its emotional through-line with his love story with Dice Ibegon. Interestingly, two years later, Sivrak would be digitally removed from the “Special Edition” and replaced with a different alien — so now it’s Ketwol who’s flirting with Dice. George Lucas apparently thought Sivrak looked too much like werewolves from horror movies. Somewhere in fan-fiction land, there must be a tale that fits the disappearing Sivrak in with the weird time-jumping of this yarn.
5. “Nightliy: The Lover’s Tale” by Barbara Hambly — What’s funny about the aforementioned tale and this one is that if you look up the female characters on Wookieepedia, they are hideous. Hambly, though, describes Nightlily as a female so beautiful that Imperial tax collector Feltipern Trevagg can hardly control himself around her. It all builds up to a twist that fable-writer Aesop would be proud of.
6. “A Hunter’s Fate: Greedo’s Tale” by Tom Veitch and Martha Veitch — Pretty much the entirety of “Greedo’s Tale” is now apocryphal. The Veitches describe him as a green (figuratively as well as literally) bounty hunter who is in way over his head by going after Han Solo; we also get flashbacks to Greedo’s life with his fellow Rodians on a jungle world. Four years later, Lucas would decide that Greedo grew up on Tatooine — he bullies Anakin in a scene from the “Phantom Menace” novelization — thus making him middle-aged in “A New Hope.” Still, a good yarn is a good yarn — and truthfully, I like the Veitches’ better, even if it’s not “true.”
7. “Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer’s Tale” by M. Shayne Bell — Bell shows that he understood the Empire’s status as a stand-in for corrupt totalitarian regimes throughout Earth history even before Lucas spelled it out in the prequels. He uses moisture farmers, Jawas and Sand People as stand-ins for age-old stories of warring neighbors on the frontier. Oddly, moisture farmer Ariq Joanson is the only character in this book who can’t be spotted in the movie; although we do see a human identified on Wookieepedia as “unknown moisture farmer,” Lucasfilm hasn’t officially ID’d that guy as Joanson.
8. “Soup’s On: The Pipe Smoker’s Tale” by Jennifer Roberson — This is the tale that stuck with me most from my first reading of this book. It’s not necessarily outstanding — it’s basically just first-person observances from Dannik Jerriko — it’s just that the Anzati species, with their cheekbone proboscis that suck out people’s brains, are so frighteningly disgusting. Other authors, notably Paul Kemp, have since made use of this creepy species.
A few other notes about “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina”:
- Like most fans, I love Timothy Zahn’s novels. But I don’t think he does as well with short stories. If you want the backstory on Shada, who features in the “Hand of Thrawn” duology, you’ll find it here in the “Tale of the ‘Tonnika Sisters.’ “
- Davin Felth, the title character in “The Stormtrooper’s Tale” (and the one who says “Look, sir, droids!”) totally seems like he should’ve become a major player in the EU, considering how his yarn ends with him vying to fight the Empire from the inside. Alas, this is his only story so far.
- In “The Spacer’s Tale,” BoShek (the astronaut-looking guy who Chewbacca is briefly talking with) has an interest in the Force, similar to someone wanting to dip into religious studies. Obi-Wan tells him that perhaps they can chat sometime; I hope BoShek didn’t wait too long for old Ben to come back.
- Perhaps to cash in on the success of this book, Dark Horse published the one-shot comic “Tales from Mos Eisley” in 1996. It’s a collection of three stories from Star Wars Galaxy Magazine. Unfortunately, considering how many cantina denizens are seen but not chronicled in “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina” — and considering that the Wolfman is on the cover — none of these three yarns features anyone from the cantina scene.
What are your favorite tales from this book? Share your thoughts below. (I reviewed “Tales of the Bounty Hunters” in a previous entry, and of course, my flashback to “Tales from Jabba’s Palace” is forthcoming.)
Comments
Stumbled across this review recently and had to comment. I’m a big fan of Star Wars books but ‘Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina’ might be favourite of all, or at least the one I found most fun to read. It is just so evocative.
“Empire Blues” is probably my personal favourite but I also liked “The Band’s Tale” with it’s mix of humour and action.# Posted By Ross | 8/21/13 11:11 AM
Indeed, the Band’s Tale is a fun one. It took ninth place in my rankings. I personally favor “Tales from Jabba’s Palace” due to the way it uses the setting, but all three “Tales” books are a lot of fun.# Posted By John Hansen | 8/21/13 10:18 PM