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Star Wars: Tales #2
Star Wars. Kopfgeld auf Han Solo.
In a wild and battle-scarred galaxy, assassins, pirates, smugglers, and cutthroats of every description roam at will, fearing only the professional bounty hunters---amoral adventurers who track down the scum of the universe...for a fee. When Darth Vader seeks to strike at the heart of the Rebellion by targeting Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, he calls upon six of the most successful---and feared---hunters, including the merciless Boba Fett. They all have two things in common: lust for profit and contempt for life....
Featuring original stories by Kevin J. Anderson, M. Shayne Bell, Daniel Keys Moran, Kathy Tyers, Dave Wolverton.
Featuring original stories by Kevin J. Anderson, M. Shayne Bell, Daniel Keys Moran, Kathy Tyers, Dave Wolverton.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
237 people are currently reading
2452 people want to read
About the author
Kevin J. Anderson
963 books3,044 followersYes, 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.
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.
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February 6, 2017
This took an unusually long time for me to read because I have been going through some life changes, so I didn't have much time to read and review. I put Catalyst - A Rogue One Novel on higher priority because Rogue One was coming out and I wanted to read that book before I saw the film. But once I finished, I went back to reading Tales of the Bounty Hunters.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader hires the most famous bounty hunters in the galaxy to find Han Solo and the Millenium Falcon in order to set up his trap for Luke Skywalker. Each of the despicable goons that appear in the meeting scene aboard the Executor gets their own little story in this anthology, with varying degrees of quality.
I rated this book differently from most other books/comics I review: there's 5 stories, so for each story that I enjoyed, I awarded one star to the book as a whole. Hence, I gave the book 2 stars because I enjoyed 2 of the stories.
THEREFORE I AM: THE TALE OF IG-88- *1 star
The first story, focusing on the cone headed droid IG-88, is easily my least favorite story in the book.
IG-88 is revealed to be an experimental model built by the empire, but it goes the way of the classic monster creation route as IG-88 turns on his creators. He then sets out to start a droid revolution and take over the galaxy. The second part is almost entirely why I found this story so stupid.
What makes the stories in this book worth reading, aside from entertaining adventures, is the backstories, personalities, and traits given to these characters, and I disliked just about everything given to IG-88, except for the origin.
The traits given to this droid were pretty ridiculous, the storyline was extremely dumb, and IG-88 himself had no personality whatsoever.
I really liked Kevin J. Anderson's contributions to Tales of the Jedi, but if this kind of nonsense is prevalent in his writing for other Star Wars entries, I can understand some of the hate that he gets among the Star Wars EU fan community.
PAYBACK: THE TALE OF DENGAR- ****4 Stars
After the stupidity of IG-88's story, Dave Wolverton's take on the white-hooded human bounty hunter Dengar restored my faith in this book.
Dengar's tale opens on Aruza, a planet occupied by the Empire, as he is hunting down an Imperial named Kritkeen. It turns out that Dengar was given cybernetic enhancements to make him a more efficient killing machine, which he uses to be an effective Bounty Hunter. During his misadventures on Aruza he rescues a native dancer named Manaroo, and his evolution to regaining his humanity begins here.
Wolverton's background from writing The Courtship of Princess Leia definitely shows with the sappy romantic ending here, but I couldn't help but find it really sweet. Other than that though, I really dug this story.
Dengar is given interesting character traits that connect excellently with his story of rediscovering humanity and human emotions through his romance with Manaroo, as well as his desire to take the mission of hunting Han Solo from Darth Vader.
Most of the new characters introduced in these stories are quite bland and forgettable, but Manaroo is enjoyable and makes a great companion to Dengar.
THE PRIZE PELT: THE TALE OF BOSSK- **2 stars
Kathy Tyers, writer of The Truce at Bakura, and New Jedi Order entry Balance Point, provides the next story, centering on the Trandoshan Bounty Hunter Bossk.
Honestly, I forgot what the story was about because it was pretty boring, even if there are some good aspects. The things we learn about the Trandoshan species and culture are definitely great. Even though I already knew about the Scorekeeper stuff from Quyzen Fess in SWTOR, it was neat to see where that information came from. I also really liked the creative spin that Bossk was actually more interested in hunting Chewbacca than Han Solo- but because Chewie is Han Solo's inseparable sidekick, Bossk still has motivation to take the mission from Vader.
Aside from that though, we get a forgettable plotline with equally forgettable side characters. It would be fine if Bossk himself was more interesting, but he is given no characterization outside the things we learn about the Trandoshan species and culture, making his character an idea instead of an actual character. I learned about the trandoshans, but not enough about Bossk. And when I read this story to learn about Bossk, that's a big problem.
OF POSSIBLE FUTURES: THE TALE OF ZUCKUSS AND 4-LOM: ****4.5 stars
M. Shayne Bell is given not one, but two bounty hunters from the bounty hunter meeting scene, so he pairs them up a-la Dash Rendar and Leebo, only more evil.
I'm not going to give a summary for this one because it would just be a spoiler. I think it is better if you go into this one not knowing what to expect. This is an excellent story, my favorite of the five, and the only one in the collection I found better than The Perfect Weapon, Delilah S. Dawson's canonical short story starring Bazine Netaal.
This story is close to perfect. 4-LOM is well characterized, staying a bounty hunter and staying a droid but still having a loyal and distinct personality. Zuckuss was easily the most memorable character in this entire collection, feeling like a threatening bounty hunter at points but also being very sympathetic. His backstory, and as a result his motivations for hunting Han Solo are compelling and drive the story forward extremely well. Toryn was also a decent side character.
THE LAST ONE STANDING: THE TALE OF BOBA FETT: ***2.5 stars
The final entry in the book, written by Daniel Keyes Moran and starring everybody's favorite awesome armored Boba Fett, was probably the biggest let-down of the book. Parts of it were great but coming from the most important and popular bounty hunter in the group, I expected alot more from his short story.
Most of "The Last One Standing" takes place post return of the jedi: Boba Fett is older now, and he's much more experienced.
The problem with this story is the writing: it doesn't focus on the right elements. Han Solo gets alot of page time in this book, and I really disliked that aspect. I wanted to read about Boba Fett, not Han Solo's midlife crisis! Han and Boba do eventually meet up in the story, but the payoff is just not big enough to justify all the focus that Han Solo took from Boba Fett.
Another problem I had, while not the writers' fault, is that the fact that the prequels changed Boba Fett's backstory and it really took me out of this. With Heir to the Empire by comparison, many of the snippets of pre original trilogy backstory may have been outdated when the prequels were released, but the story and characters were strong enough for me to forgive that aspect, as well as the fact that Timothy Zahn did such a great job keeping the focus going forward instead of relying on going backward and filling the gaps.
Here, the past is part of why I want to read this story. But more importantly, it's just not written well. Even if the backstory is outdated, i would have at least given the story credit if it was well written. Instead, we get a pointless POV from young Han Solo and the backstory is way to glossed over regardless. The stuff concerning the events surrounding Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is also barely adressed, and I would have really liked to see more of that. I liked the scene he had with Princess Leia in Jabba's palace, but his POV at the great pit of Karkoon and how he handled being in the Sarlacc Pit would have really helped developed the character and give us an interesting angle from that seen in Return of the Jedi.
There are some good things in this story though. Great, even. Boba Fett is given a distinct and interesting personality, and provides a unique perspective on the Empire as well as the life of a bounty hunter. His dialogue is really good, making the conversations with Leia and Malloc some of this entire book's better character moments. It was also cool to read about his exploits after escaping the sarlacc (this is the biggest piece of legends aside from anything Old Republic Related that I want to see back in canon- I like the idea of Boba Fett surviving and thought his death in RotJ was lame).
I can understand somebody else liking this story more than I did, but it just didn't work for me.
THE CONCLUSION: Some of the stories are great, some are awful, but the book as a whole is not good. I enjoyed the stories about Dengar and 4-LOM/Zuckuss, but I would not have been happy with the purchase if I had to pay full price for this (thank you Crystal Starr Light for sending me the book! :D).
If you want to read the book to know more about these characters, it's fairly pointless because of the book's non canon status, unless that does not bother you and/or you are a strict legends-only person.
If you just want some fun adventures about your favorite intergalactic space-scum, I can't fully say that the book is good for that purpose. However, perhaps the book will resonate more with you than it did for me. Even so, there's 5 stories here, so you should at least find one or two that you'll like. The book has its good entrees, as well as bad ones, so take it for what it is.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader hires the most famous bounty hunters in the galaxy to find Han Solo and the Millenium Falcon in order to set up his trap for Luke Skywalker. Each of the despicable goons that appear in the meeting scene aboard the Executor gets their own little story in this anthology, with varying degrees of quality.
I rated this book differently from most other books/comics I review: there's 5 stories, so for each story that I enjoyed, I awarded one star to the book as a whole. Hence, I gave the book 2 stars because I enjoyed 2 of the stories.
THEREFORE I AM: THE TALE OF IG-88- *1 star
The first story, focusing on the cone headed droid IG-88, is easily my least favorite story in the book.
IG-88 is revealed to be an experimental model built by the empire, but it goes the way of the classic monster creation route as IG-88 turns on his creators. He then sets out to start a droid revolution and take over the galaxy. The second part is almost entirely why I found this story so stupid.
What makes the stories in this book worth reading, aside from entertaining adventures, is the backstories, personalities, and traits given to these characters, and I disliked just about everything given to IG-88, except for the origin.
The traits given to this droid were pretty ridiculous, the storyline was extremely dumb, and IG-88 himself had no personality whatsoever.
I really liked Kevin J. Anderson's contributions to Tales of the Jedi, but if this kind of nonsense is prevalent in his writing for other Star Wars entries, I can understand some of the hate that he gets among the Star Wars EU fan community.
PAYBACK: THE TALE OF DENGAR- ****4 Stars
After the stupidity of IG-88's story, Dave Wolverton's take on the white-hooded human bounty hunter Dengar restored my faith in this book.
Dengar's tale opens on Aruza, a planet occupied by the Empire, as he is hunting down an Imperial named Kritkeen. It turns out that Dengar was given cybernetic enhancements to make him a more efficient killing machine, which he uses to be an effective Bounty Hunter. During his misadventures on Aruza he rescues a native dancer named Manaroo, and his evolution to regaining his humanity begins here.
Wolverton's background from writing The Courtship of Princess Leia definitely shows with the sappy romantic ending here, but I couldn't help but find it really sweet. Other than that though, I really dug this story.
Dengar is given interesting character traits that connect excellently with his story of rediscovering humanity and human emotions through his romance with Manaroo, as well as his desire to take the mission of hunting Han Solo from Darth Vader.
Most of the new characters introduced in these stories are quite bland and forgettable, but Manaroo is enjoyable and makes a great companion to Dengar.
THE PRIZE PELT: THE TALE OF BOSSK- **2 stars
Kathy Tyers, writer of The Truce at Bakura, and New Jedi Order entry Balance Point, provides the next story, centering on the Trandoshan Bounty Hunter Bossk.
Honestly, I forgot what the story was about because it was pretty boring, even if there are some good aspects. The things we learn about the Trandoshan species and culture are definitely great. Even though I already knew about the Scorekeeper stuff from Quyzen Fess in SWTOR, it was neat to see where that information came from. I also really liked the creative spin that Bossk was actually more interested in hunting Chewbacca than Han Solo- but because Chewie is Han Solo's inseparable sidekick, Bossk still has motivation to take the mission from Vader.
Aside from that though, we get a forgettable plotline with equally forgettable side characters. It would be fine if Bossk himself was more interesting, but he is given no characterization outside the things we learn about the Trandoshan species and culture, making his character an idea instead of an actual character. I learned about the trandoshans, but not enough about Bossk. And when I read this story to learn about Bossk, that's a big problem.
OF POSSIBLE FUTURES: THE TALE OF ZUCKUSS AND 4-LOM: ****4.5 stars
M. Shayne Bell is given not one, but two bounty hunters from the bounty hunter meeting scene, so he pairs them up a-la Dash Rendar and Leebo, only more evil.
I'm not going to give a summary for this one because it would just be a spoiler. I think it is better if you go into this one not knowing what to expect. This is an excellent story, my favorite of the five, and the only one in the collection I found better than The Perfect Weapon, Delilah S. Dawson's canonical short story starring Bazine Netaal.
This story is close to perfect. 4-LOM is well characterized, staying a bounty hunter and staying a droid but still having a loyal and distinct personality. Zuckuss was easily the most memorable character in this entire collection, feeling like a threatening bounty hunter at points but also being very sympathetic. His backstory, and as a result his motivations for hunting Han Solo are compelling and drive the story forward extremely well. Toryn was also a decent side character.
THE LAST ONE STANDING: THE TALE OF BOBA FETT: ***2.5 stars
The final entry in the book, written by Daniel Keyes Moran and starring everybody's favorite awesome armored Boba Fett, was probably the biggest let-down of the book. Parts of it were great but coming from the most important and popular bounty hunter in the group, I expected alot more from his short story.
Most of "The Last One Standing" takes place post return of the jedi: Boba Fett is older now, and he's much more experienced.
The problem with this story is the writing: it doesn't focus on the right elements. Han Solo gets alot of page time in this book, and I really disliked that aspect. I wanted to read about Boba Fett, not Han Solo's midlife crisis! Han and Boba do eventually meet up in the story, but the payoff is just not big enough to justify all the focus that Han Solo took from Boba Fett.
Another problem I had, while not the writers' fault, is that the fact that the prequels changed Boba Fett's backstory and it really took me out of this. With Heir to the Empire by comparison, many of the snippets of pre original trilogy backstory may have been outdated when the prequels were released, but the story and characters were strong enough for me to forgive that aspect, as well as the fact that Timothy Zahn did such a great job keeping the focus going forward instead of relying on going backward and filling the gaps.
Here, the past is part of why I want to read this story. But more importantly, it's just not written well. Even if the backstory is outdated, i would have at least given the story credit if it was well written. Instead, we get a pointless POV from young Han Solo and the backstory is way to glossed over regardless. The stuff concerning the events surrounding Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is also barely adressed, and I would have really liked to see more of that. I liked the scene he had with Princess Leia in Jabba's palace, but his POV at the great pit of Karkoon and how he handled being in the Sarlacc Pit would have really helped developed the character and give us an interesting angle from that seen in Return of the Jedi.
There are some good things in this story though. Great, even. Boba Fett is given a distinct and interesting personality, and provides a unique perspective on the Empire as well as the life of a bounty hunter. His dialogue is really good, making the conversations with Leia and Malloc some of this entire book's better character moments. It was also cool to read about his exploits after escaping the sarlacc (this is the biggest piece of legends aside from anything Old Republic Related that I want to see back in canon- I like the idea of Boba Fett surviving and thought his death in RotJ was lame).
I can understand somebody else liking this story more than I did, but it just didn't work for me.
THE CONCLUSION: Some of the stories are great, some are awful, but the book as a whole is not good. I enjoyed the stories about Dengar and 4-LOM/Zuckuss, but I would not have been happy with the purchase if I had to pay full price for this (thank you Crystal Starr Light for sending me the book! :D).
If you want to read the book to know more about these characters, it's fairly pointless because of the book's non canon status, unless that does not bother you and/or you are a strict legends-only person.
If you just want some fun adventures about your favorite intergalactic space-scum, I can't fully say that the book is good for that purpose. However, perhaps the book will resonate more with you than it did for me. Even so, there's 5 stories here, so you should at least find one or two that you'll like. The book has its good entrees, as well as bad ones, so take it for what it is.
December 18, 2017
Read this many years ago, so I can't be specific on this review. What I do remember is loving it!
June 5, 2012
I have to say... one of the best Star Wars books I've stumbled upon.
The different stories are so magical I loved each and every one of them.
Boba Fett's story is very entertaining and catches you from the first pages, although George Lucas decided to take the character in a totally different direction, which I have to say thought was soooo lame, because the Boba Fett of "Last Man Standing" is so awesome there are no words to describe it.
Dengar's story is also very interesting, as he is a character of whom we knew so little about, and the story manages to give us a very good insight of the characters personality.
Although I must point out the my favourite one of the book is IG-88's story "Therefore I Am". I never though that a full story, a completely serious story, based around a droid would work so surprisingly well. Anderson has managed to give IG-88, a droid that has less than 3 screen minutes on the film, such a profound and strong personality. I totally fell for the story from the first lines and could not stop until I had read the full story through.
"Therefore I Am" and "Last Man Standing" are with no doubt whatsoever, two of my most cherished all time Star Wars moments, and I will carry on reading the whole book over and over again.
The different stories are so magical I loved each and every one of them.
Boba Fett's story is very entertaining and catches you from the first pages, although George Lucas decided to take the character in a totally different direction, which I have to say thought was soooo lame, because the Boba Fett of "Last Man Standing" is so awesome there are no words to describe it.
Dengar's story is also very interesting, as he is a character of whom we knew so little about, and the story manages to give us a very good insight of the characters personality.
Although I must point out the my favourite one of the book is IG-88's story "Therefore I Am". I never though that a full story, a completely serious story, based around a droid would work so surprisingly well. Anderson has managed to give IG-88, a droid that has less than 3 screen minutes on the film, such a profound and strong personality. I totally fell for the story from the first lines and could not stop until I had read the full story through.
"Therefore I Am" and "Last Man Standing" are with no doubt whatsoever, two of my most cherished all time Star Wars moments, and I will carry on reading the whole book over and over again.
January 24, 2025
I thought that the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina was very mixed. I really enjoyed this one, mostly because the stories were Novellas and not Short Stories, and they were able to have time to breathe and tell quite a full story without overstaying their welcome.
2 stories were great, 1 story was good, and 2 stories were mediocre.
I really loved the first two stories in the book.
Novella #1: Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J Anderson was a WILD tale, filled with action and really shocking scenes. I am very surprised that Kevin was able to get away with the second half of this story. Really great!
Novella #2: Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton was so delightful and fun to read. It really made me care for Dengar and Manaroo. This whole story, from the action in the beginning and middle to the sweet ending was just delightful.
Novella #3: The Prize Belt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers was just an ok read. It was interesting seeing Bossk have to work with a Wookie, otherwise the rest of the story just felt mediocre.
Novella #4: Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-Lom by M. Shayne Bell was interesting because it went in an entirely different direction by the end of it. But, unfortunately, the dynamic of Zuckuss and 4-Lom was not engaging at all.
Novella #5: The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran started rocky, as it just zooms through the timeline, and the second half of the book surprisingly deals with Han Solo and also tells a sweet and heartbreaking story. It's not as strong as the first two stories, but is pretty good nonetheless.
Overall, I did enjoy the experience of reading this book, particularly the first two stories, which were just superb. Stories 3 and 4 were mediocre, but Story 5 was pretty good. I'll give the whole book a 7.5 out of 10.
2 stories were great, 1 story was good, and 2 stories were mediocre.
I really loved the first two stories in the book.
Novella #1: Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J Anderson was a WILD tale, filled with action and really shocking scenes. I am very surprised that Kevin was able to get away with the second half of this story. Really great!
Novella #2: Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton was so delightful and fun to read. It really made me care for Dengar and Manaroo. This whole story, from the action in the beginning and middle to the sweet ending was just delightful.
Novella #3: The Prize Belt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers was just an ok read. It was interesting seeing Bossk have to work with a Wookie, otherwise the rest of the story just felt mediocre.
Novella #4: Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-Lom by M. Shayne Bell was interesting because it went in an entirely different direction by the end of it. But, unfortunately, the dynamic of Zuckuss and 4-Lom was not engaging at all.
Novella #5: The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran started rocky, as it just zooms through the timeline, and the second half of the book surprisingly deals with Han Solo and also tells a sweet and heartbreaking story. It's not as strong as the first two stories, but is pretty good nonetheless.
Overall, I did enjoy the experience of reading this book, particularly the first two stories, which were just superb. Stories 3 and 4 were mediocre, but Story 5 was pretty good. I'll give the whole book a 7.5 out of 10.
December 10, 2020
Precious piece of Star Wars ancient lore and weirdness
August 23, 2020
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: the third of the short story collections edited by Kevin J. Anderson, Tales of the Bounty Hunters.
SOME HISTORY:
After Tales from Jabba's Palace debuted with nineteen stories about the Palace denizens, Anderson returned to edit one more collection of short stories--this one about the six bounty hunters that Darth Vader assembles on the Executor. We have five stories from established Star Wars writers: Anderson, Wolverton, and Tyers had written Star Wars novels at this point, and all five authors had contributed to the previous Tales collections. And like the other two collections, it didn’t seem to make it into the top 15 on the New York Times paperback bestseller list, because I can’t find any data on it.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
With the Tales collections so far, I’m finding that I probably read Tales from Jabba's Palace, perhaps didn’t read Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, and I don’t think I read Tales of the Bounty Hunters either.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
When Darth Vader seeks to strike at the heart of the Rebellion by targeting Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, he calls upon six of the most successful bounty hunters with very different agendas in play...
THE STORIES:
“Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88” by Kevin J. Anderson
This one didn’t really work for me. The title, of course, is taken from René Descartes (“je pense, donc je suis” = “I think, therefore I am”), and while it deals with droid sentience, I didn’t feel like Anderson delved into that subject with any depth. IG-88 wants to give all droids sentience, but also has no qualms completely overwriting their personalities. The IG-88s are supposedly these amazing assassin droids, but we don’t see much evidence of that. All but one of their assassin/bounty jobs occur offscreen, and Boba Fett manages to take out 3 of the models pretty easily. I’m also not sure how they managed to make it on the Executor when there was an Imperial order to dismantle them.
It’s also filled with hyper-violent video game action and a cartoonish villain. IG-88 throws a droid arm as a spear at a technician, and it comes out the other side of his chest holding his heart. #1, that’s gross, and #2, that seems highly improbable. And did Anderson need to repeatedly bring up Gurdun’s large nose? Thinking back, a number of the human characters were grotesquely described. Maybe my least favorite story in the collection.
“Payback: The Tale of Dengar” by Dave Wolverton
I liked Dengar’s emotional arc, even if I wasn’t crazy about some other aspects of the story. Dengar wants to get Han Solo because he almost killed him in a swoop race and led to his cybernetic unemotional state. I think Dengar’s backstory is interesting, I just am not sure that the Solo connection is necessary. He ends up helping the Rebellion so that he can get closer to Han. He meets a woman who’s an empath; she can make him feel her emotions. They get married in the end! (It’s surprisingly sweet.)
However, Dengar makes it to Cloud City in time to see Boba Fett take off with his bounty, heads to Jabba’s Palace to await Han’s escape, almost dies, and rescues Boba Fett after he blew up the Sarlacc. I know that Dengar is visible in the background of some of the Jabba’s Palace scenes in ROTJ, but I always thought that Lucas was just reusing old costumes (you can also see Bossk at some points). It strains my disbelief that Dengar manages to make it to so many of the movie locations.
The timeline is also a little flimsy: Dengar spends weeks recuperating from the Teeth of Tatooine, then heads out to Sarlacc for some scavenging and discovers Fett. Yet in Tales from Jabba's Palace, Fett was only in the Sarlacc for a few days before escaping. We also have people partying the night away after Luke Skywalker kills Jabba’s rancor, but I thought they left for the Great Pit of Carkoon that same day?
Weird quibble: the word “bushwhack” appears twice in the story, both in instances where Dengar wants to ambush Fett: “Dengar was tempted to bushwhack Boba Fett and steal his prize.” That’s a perfectly legitimate word with an appropriate meaning (came into wide use during the American Civil War), but it completely took me out of the story.
“The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk” by Kathy Tyers
I liked that Bossk is interested in the bounty on Han Solo solely because he hunts Wookiees. We get an awful lot of information about Bossk and Trandoshans, which later works will use, but Bossk himself is irredeemably evil--and a bit underdeveloped for me. Fortunately, we also have two side characters to root for.
Tinian and Chenlambec are characters that appeared in Tyers’ Star Wars Adventure Journal stories from issues 4, 6, and 10; while I’ve never read the stories, I thought she provided the reader with enough background on them. Tinian seems like a Firebird expy from Tyers’ early books (and Wookieepedia confirms this!), but I thought her background in armaments gave her some useful skills. Not quite sure how they got away with their scheme, though.
“Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM” by M. Shayne Bell
I finally have a mental image of Ooryl from the X-Wing books! I had no idea that Zuckuss was a Gand, and now I’m left wondering why Stackpole never seems to describe Ooryl wearing a protective suit and breathing apparatus. They breathe ammonia?
Zuckuss hunts based on intuition and meditation, and 4-LOM partners with him so that he can gain these skills. 4-LOM also displays an advanced degree of intelligence and sentience that I was missing from IG-88’s tale. He started out as a protocol droid, acquired more criminal skills, and seems to be evolving into someone more honorable at the end. Zuckuss is a much more static character, and goes through less of a transformation. He’s injured, the Rebels heal him, the end.
I liked Toryn Farr, and the hard decisions she had to make. She was perhaps a little naive in trusting Zuckuss and 4-LOM, but everything turned out OK in the end. Maybe she just had hope.
“The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” by Daniel Keys Moran
Moran was surprised when Anderson approached him about doing another Star Wars story, because he had been so dissatisfied with the changes that Lucasfilm made to his story in Tales from Jabba's Palace that he published it under a pseudonym. But Anderson really pushed for him, so Moran got to write another Boba Fett story--and this one even dips into that pre-A New Hope period, which was unheard of at this point.
Moran offered the first glimpse into Fett’s backstory--until it got retconned by Episode II. Jaster Mereel is a Journeyman Protector from Concord Dawn, who kills another Protector and is exiled for it.
I like the stories that don’t just follow canon events, but this story was all over the place and thus a little too broad in scope. We see Fett right before he’s exiled; a glimpse of a young Han Solo; the bounty scenes from Empire Strikes Back; and then the narrative picks up 15 years later. Fett captures Labria the Devaronian from Moran’s previous story in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, hears about Han Solo from an informant, and it ends with a standoff between Han and Fett.
In this story at least, Boba Fett is a weirdo. He’s obsessed with justice, which makes it hard to reconcile his desire for money. He doesn’t do spice or other drugs, he doesn’t drink, he’s apparently celibate--which leads to an odd conversation with Leia in Jabba’s Palace. I don’t understand fans’ idolization of him, because here he’s just outright strange.
I also could have done without his obsession with Han Solo--like Dengar’s story, I don’t think it’s necessary here. And would Fett really still want to kill Han after fifteen years.
But while I didn’t enjoy “The Last One Standing,” I can see how it was pivotal and influential when it came out, and it was probably a lot of people’s favorite.
ISSUES:
This is really nitpicky, but I’m confused about the logistics of Darth Vader gathering bounty hunters to search for Han Solo. They seemed to arrive pretty quickly after the Battle of Hoth. How did he get the word out? Were only these six invited, or was there a general call sent out? (Tyers’ story suggests that some were turned away from the hunt.) How long had Vader been planning this? Bell’s story contains an initial bounty on Rebels during the Battle of Hoth, so perhaps the bounty hunters were already in the area?
Multiple stories mentioned that the bounty hunter had almost caught Han Solo on Ord Mantell (I think Dengar and Bossk brought this up), but Han’s bounty hunter run-in on Ord Mantell is complicated...and involves neither of those guys: http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2015/07...
IN CONCLUSION:
I think that Tales of the Bounty Hunters was an easier read than the first two collections, mostly because there were only five stories to wade through instead of 12-19. The first and last stories were not my favorites for widely different reasons, but I thought the middle three were OK. They all gave me a better sense of the various bounty hunters, so if you want to read more about that degenerate lot, I think this collection is worth a try.
Next up: the fourth X-Wing book by Michael A. Stackpole, The Bacta War.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/bCnCq-rzkJw
This week’s focus: the third of the short story collections edited by Kevin J. Anderson, Tales of the Bounty Hunters.
SOME HISTORY:
After Tales from Jabba's Palace debuted with nineteen stories about the Palace denizens, Anderson returned to edit one more collection of short stories--this one about the six bounty hunters that Darth Vader assembles on the Executor. We have five stories from established Star Wars writers: Anderson, Wolverton, and Tyers had written Star Wars novels at this point, and all five authors had contributed to the previous Tales collections. And like the other two collections, it didn’t seem to make it into the top 15 on the New York Times paperback bestseller list, because I can’t find any data on it.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
With the Tales collections so far, I’m finding that I probably read Tales from Jabba's Palace, perhaps didn’t read Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, and I don’t think I read Tales of the Bounty Hunters either.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
When Darth Vader seeks to strike at the heart of the Rebellion by targeting Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, he calls upon six of the most successful bounty hunters with very different agendas in play...
THE STORIES:
“Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88” by Kevin J. Anderson
This one didn’t really work for me. The title, of course, is taken from René Descartes (“je pense, donc je suis” = “I think, therefore I am”), and while it deals with droid sentience, I didn’t feel like Anderson delved into that subject with any depth. IG-88 wants to give all droids sentience, but also has no qualms completely overwriting their personalities. The IG-88s are supposedly these amazing assassin droids, but we don’t see much evidence of that. All but one of their assassin/bounty jobs occur offscreen, and Boba Fett manages to take out 3 of the models pretty easily. I’m also not sure how they managed to make it on the Executor when there was an Imperial order to dismantle them.
It’s also filled with hyper-violent video game action and a cartoonish villain. IG-88 throws a droid arm as a spear at a technician, and it comes out the other side of his chest holding his heart. #1, that’s gross, and #2, that seems highly improbable. And did Anderson need to repeatedly bring up Gurdun’s large nose? Thinking back, a number of the human characters were grotesquely described. Maybe my least favorite story in the collection.
“Payback: The Tale of Dengar” by Dave Wolverton
I liked Dengar’s emotional arc, even if I wasn’t crazy about some other aspects of the story. Dengar wants to get Han Solo because he almost killed him in a swoop race and led to his cybernetic unemotional state. I think Dengar’s backstory is interesting, I just am not sure that the Solo connection is necessary. He ends up helping the Rebellion so that he can get closer to Han. He meets a woman who’s an empath; she can make him feel her emotions. They get married in the end! (It’s surprisingly sweet.)
However, Dengar makes it to Cloud City in time to see Boba Fett take off with his bounty, heads to Jabba’s Palace to await Han’s escape, almost dies, and rescues Boba Fett after he blew up the Sarlacc. I know that Dengar is visible in the background of some of the Jabba’s Palace scenes in ROTJ, but I always thought that Lucas was just reusing old costumes (you can also see Bossk at some points). It strains my disbelief that Dengar manages to make it to so many of the movie locations.
The timeline is also a little flimsy: Dengar spends weeks recuperating from the Teeth of Tatooine, then heads out to Sarlacc for some scavenging and discovers Fett. Yet in Tales from Jabba's Palace, Fett was only in the Sarlacc for a few days before escaping. We also have people partying the night away after Luke Skywalker kills Jabba’s rancor, but I thought they left for the Great Pit of Carkoon that same day?
Weird quibble: the word “bushwhack” appears twice in the story, both in instances where Dengar wants to ambush Fett: “Dengar was tempted to bushwhack Boba Fett and steal his prize.” That’s a perfectly legitimate word with an appropriate meaning (came into wide use during the American Civil War), but it completely took me out of the story.
“The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk” by Kathy Tyers
I liked that Bossk is interested in the bounty on Han Solo solely because he hunts Wookiees. We get an awful lot of information about Bossk and Trandoshans, which later works will use, but Bossk himself is irredeemably evil--and a bit underdeveloped for me. Fortunately, we also have two side characters to root for.
Tinian and Chenlambec are characters that appeared in Tyers’ Star Wars Adventure Journal stories from issues 4, 6, and 10; while I’ve never read the stories, I thought she provided the reader with enough background on them. Tinian seems like a Firebird expy from Tyers’ early books (and Wookieepedia confirms this!), but I thought her background in armaments gave her some useful skills. Not quite sure how they got away with their scheme, though.
“Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM” by M. Shayne Bell
I finally have a mental image of Ooryl from the X-Wing books! I had no idea that Zuckuss was a Gand, and now I’m left wondering why Stackpole never seems to describe Ooryl wearing a protective suit and breathing apparatus. They breathe ammonia?
Zuckuss hunts based on intuition and meditation, and 4-LOM partners with him so that he can gain these skills. 4-LOM also displays an advanced degree of intelligence and sentience that I was missing from IG-88’s tale. He started out as a protocol droid, acquired more criminal skills, and seems to be evolving into someone more honorable at the end. Zuckuss is a much more static character, and goes through less of a transformation. He’s injured, the Rebels heal him, the end.
I liked Toryn Farr, and the hard decisions she had to make. She was perhaps a little naive in trusting Zuckuss and 4-LOM, but everything turned out OK in the end. Maybe she just had hope.
“The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” by Daniel Keys Moran
Moran was surprised when Anderson approached him about doing another Star Wars story, because he had been so dissatisfied with the changes that Lucasfilm made to his story in Tales from Jabba's Palace that he published it under a pseudonym. But Anderson really pushed for him, so Moran got to write another Boba Fett story--and this one even dips into that pre-A New Hope period, which was unheard of at this point.
Moran offered the first glimpse into Fett’s backstory--until it got retconned by Episode II. Jaster Mereel is a Journeyman Protector from Concord Dawn, who kills another Protector and is exiled for it.
I like the stories that don’t just follow canon events, but this story was all over the place and thus a little too broad in scope. We see Fett right before he’s exiled; a glimpse of a young Han Solo; the bounty scenes from Empire Strikes Back; and then the narrative picks up 15 years later. Fett captures Labria the Devaronian from Moran’s previous story in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, hears about Han Solo from an informant, and it ends with a standoff between Han and Fett.
In this story at least, Boba Fett is a weirdo. He’s obsessed with justice, which makes it hard to reconcile his desire for money. He doesn’t do spice or other drugs, he doesn’t drink, he’s apparently celibate--which leads to an odd conversation with Leia in Jabba’s Palace. I don’t understand fans’ idolization of him, because here he’s just outright strange.
I also could have done without his obsession with Han Solo--like Dengar’s story, I don’t think it’s necessary here. And would Fett really still want to kill Han after fifteen years.
But while I didn’t enjoy “The Last One Standing,” I can see how it was pivotal and influential when it came out, and it was probably a lot of people’s favorite.
ISSUES:
This is really nitpicky, but I’m confused about the logistics of Darth Vader gathering bounty hunters to search for Han Solo. They seemed to arrive pretty quickly after the Battle of Hoth. How did he get the word out? Were only these six invited, or was there a general call sent out? (Tyers’ story suggests that some were turned away from the hunt.) How long had Vader been planning this? Bell’s story contains an initial bounty on Rebels during the Battle of Hoth, so perhaps the bounty hunters were already in the area?
Multiple stories mentioned that the bounty hunter had almost caught Han Solo on Ord Mantell (I think Dengar and Bossk brought this up), but Han’s bounty hunter run-in on Ord Mantell is complicated...and involves neither of those guys: http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2015/07...
IN CONCLUSION:
I think that Tales of the Bounty Hunters was an easier read than the first two collections, mostly because there were only five stories to wade through instead of 12-19. The first and last stories were not my favorites for widely different reasons, but I thought the middle three were OK. They all gave me a better sense of the various bounty hunters, so if you want to read more about that degenerate lot, I think this collection is worth a try.
Next up: the fourth X-Wing book by Michael A. Stackpole, The Bacta War.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/bCnCq-rzkJw
January 6, 2020
A collection of five short stories about six bounty hunters.
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J. Anderson
Rating: ★ (1.25 stars)
I found the start of IG-88’s story to be promising and not so bad, but then it started to lose my interest not even halfway through his tale. I contemplated skipping it and moving on to the next story or using the handy text-to-speech feature to get through it. In the end I decided to do the latter. And I’m somewhat glad I did because then I wouldn’t been greatly amused with IG-88’s decision to become the second Death Star.
Payback: The Story of Dengar by Dave Wolverton
Rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
I was not expecting to like this story as much as I did. The ending was cheesy and even came across as a little forced, but overall? It was still good.
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers
Rating: ★ (1 star)
Again, this time for Bossk’s tale, I used text-to-speech in order to get through it. I should have just skipped this one altogether, however, since it just ended up going through one ear and out the other.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM by M. Shayne Bell
Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
I really, really enjoyed Zuckuss and 4-LOM’s tale. This story is my favorite out of the five in this collection. And I wish these two characters had their own novel, especially if it picked up where this left off because I’d love to see more Zuckuss and 4-LOM (and Toryn Farr)!
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran
Rating: ★★★★ (4.75 stars)
And now for the tale of my favorite bounty hunter: Boba Fett.
We know Boba Fett’s backstory thanks to the Prequel Trilogy; however, this was written before the Prequel Trilogy existed, so of course it was going to be different. That said, even though it’s not canon, his background had been done quite well. I really liked how he was written in this. He’s a bounty hunter, but he’s a bounty hunter who has morals and values.
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J. Anderson
Rating: ★ (1.25 stars)
I found the start of IG-88’s story to be promising and not so bad, but then it started to lose my interest not even halfway through his tale. I contemplated skipping it and moving on to the next story or using the handy text-to-speech feature to get through it. In the end I decided to do the latter. And I’m somewhat glad I did because then I wouldn’t been greatly amused with IG-88’s decision to become the second Death Star.
Payback: The Story of Dengar by Dave Wolverton
Rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
I was not expecting to like this story as much as I did. The ending was cheesy and even came across as a little forced, but overall? It was still good.
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers
Rating: ★ (1 star)
Again, this time for Bossk’s tale, I used text-to-speech in order to get through it. I should have just skipped this one altogether, however, since it just ended up going through one ear and out the other.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM by M. Shayne Bell
Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
I really, really enjoyed Zuckuss and 4-LOM’s tale. This story is my favorite out of the five in this collection. And I wish these two characters had their own novel, especially if it picked up where this left off because I’d love to see more Zuckuss and 4-LOM (and Toryn Farr)!
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran
Rating: ★★★★ (4.75 stars)
And now for the tale of my favorite bounty hunter: Boba Fett.
We know Boba Fett’s backstory thanks to the Prequel Trilogy; however, this was written before the Prequel Trilogy existed, so of course it was going to be different. That said, even though it’s not canon, his background had been done quite well. I really liked how he was written in this. He’s a bounty hunter, but he’s a bounty hunter who has morals and values.
April 22, 2010
I first saw Star Wars when I was nine years old. I think that is quite possibly the perfect age at which to watch it. It was fantastic and glorious! Two years later, I had matured (a little) and Empire had too (a little). Two years after that came Return of the Jedi, and suddenly I felt too old, even then. As much as I wanted to love it the way I had the original, I just couldn't do it.
Of course, that was a long time ago, in a childhood far, far away. I picked up this book on a nostalgic whim. Maybe I was hoping to recapture some of that original thrill, or maybe I just wanted to read something light and different. Sadly, it didn't hit the mark.
This book is a collection of short stories, each one revolving around one of the bounty hunters seen in The Empire Strikes Back, including the notorious Boba Fett. The stories are mostly contemporary to that scene, telling you the history of the characters plus a little of what happened afterward.
What I discovered quickly while reading this book is that I didn't really want to know that information. The mystery of how a droid became a bounty hunter fueled my imagination. Having it explained to me took away the magic. This is one of the major reasons the prequel trilogy failed in so many people's eyes. The thought of Darth Vader having once been a Jedi was thrilling and mysterious. Seeing him as a whiny brat was a bit of a let down, to put it mildly.
The stories are well-written, and I'm sure that if I were much younger I would revel in them. But I am not. I skipped through most of them just because I didn't care or didn't want to know.
What I learned from this book is that I am not as big a Star Wars fan as I thought, and that I'm no longer nine years old.
Of course, that was a long time ago, in a childhood far, far away. I picked up this book on a nostalgic whim. Maybe I was hoping to recapture some of that original thrill, or maybe I just wanted to read something light and different. Sadly, it didn't hit the mark.
This book is a collection of short stories, each one revolving around one of the bounty hunters seen in The Empire Strikes Back, including the notorious Boba Fett. The stories are mostly contemporary to that scene, telling you the history of the characters plus a little of what happened afterward.
What I discovered quickly while reading this book is that I didn't really want to know that information. The mystery of how a droid became a bounty hunter fueled my imagination. Having it explained to me took away the magic. This is one of the major reasons the prequel trilogy failed in so many people's eyes. The thought of Darth Vader having once been a Jedi was thrilling and mysterious. Seeing him as a whiny brat was a bit of a let down, to put it mildly.
The stories are well-written, and I'm sure that if I were much younger I would revel in them. But I am not. I skipped through most of them just because I didn't care or didn't want to know.
What I learned from this book is that I am not as big a Star Wars fan as I thought, and that I'm no longer nine years old.
March 20, 2024
Wow. This collection of stories was really good. And that says a lot about the content, because I've read many, many Star Wars books!! My personal favorite was the story about Boba Fett. On a side note, I'm way behind on binge watching The Mandalorian on Disney+, so that's definitely on my to-do list. Overall, this book was well worth the time spent on it. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe!!
September 2, 2020
Helped me feel better while sad and the stories were all quite good, so definitely 4 stars! :)
July 12, 2010
This is a collection of five short stories about six bounty hunters (most notoriously, the enigmatic Boba Fett) set in the Star Wars universe. Each story is a tale about one or more of the bounty hunters sent after Han Solo and the Millennium falcon during the film "The Empire Strikes Back."
Basically, one short scene in that movie is the jumping off point for all of these stories.
Since there are so many Star Wars books, many of them conflict with each other. Many of the details for these six bounty hunters set down in these stories are conflicted with in other works--notably K.W. Jeter's "Bounty Hunter Wars" series. In that series, Jeter uses some small bits of information from this collection as canon, but he disregards the rest completely.
These five stories are mediocre at best. Some are more entertaining than others. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be "Of Possible Futures," with "The Prize Pelt" coming a close second.
I suspect the writers didn't get too much guidance in what they could do, only what they couldn't. Bounty hunters are more anti-heroes than heroes in the Star Wars universe, and that shows in how the stories are written. The stories are more enjoyable when they shift focus off the nefarious deeds of the bounty hunters. Or when the bounty hunters are redeemed by the choices they make.
Trust me, I'm all for anti-heroes and moral ambiguity. But it has to be done well. Here, it really isn't. You have to be able to cheer for the anti-hero if they are the protagonist, which is hard to do in these stories.
The fact that several books have been written about Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, 4-LOM, Zuckuss and Dengar show how popular the bounty hunter character and concept is with the fans. It's too bad that more wasn't done by the assembled authors to make these characters even more memorable.
Basically, one short scene in that movie is the jumping off point for all of these stories.
Since there are so many Star Wars books, many of them conflict with each other. Many of the details for these six bounty hunters set down in these stories are conflicted with in other works--notably K.W. Jeter's "Bounty Hunter Wars" series. In that series, Jeter uses some small bits of information from this collection as canon, but he disregards the rest completely.
These five stories are mediocre at best. Some are more entertaining than others. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be "Of Possible Futures," with "The Prize Pelt" coming a close second.
I suspect the writers didn't get too much guidance in what they could do, only what they couldn't. Bounty hunters are more anti-heroes than heroes in the Star Wars universe, and that shows in how the stories are written. The stories are more enjoyable when they shift focus off the nefarious deeds of the bounty hunters. Or when the bounty hunters are redeemed by the choices they make.
Trust me, I'm all for anti-heroes and moral ambiguity. But it has to be done well. Here, it really isn't. You have to be able to cheer for the anti-hero if they are the protagonist, which is hard to do in these stories.
The fact that several books have been written about Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, 4-LOM, Zuckuss and Dengar show how popular the bounty hunter character and concept is with the fans. It's too bad that more wasn't done by the assembled authors to make these characters even more memorable.
January 29, 2025
This book still remains one of my favorites of all time whether it is Disney "canon" or not.
This collection is without a shadow of doubt, the Pulp Fiction of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
This collection is without a shadow of doubt, the Pulp Fiction of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
March 24, 2023
"Everyone dies. But since nobody's paid me to kill you...sleep well."
My husband is slowly fulfilling his dream of seeing me read all his Star Wars favorites from before things got all weird in the universe. He told me going in that these were a bit of a mixed bag, but that he loved reading them when he was (much) younger. I have to agree with him on the mixed bag part. Dengar's story was a straight up 5 for me, and the rest kinda hovering around 3 or 4. I averaged the scores and ended up at a 3.8. I rounded up. I'll summarize my more specific feelings about the stories here in spoilers:
Fun, flawed, and mostly enjoyable. It doesn't have to be perfect to be worthwhile to spend time with. Dengar's story alone made this whole thing worthwhile to me.
October 21, 2022
I love the "tales" books from Legends - essentially short story collections all revolving around a single theme. Even though I'm not the biggest Boba Fett "stan" as they say, the final TALES OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS story was probably my favorite. It's fun to read later (in the timeline) Legends stories and compare them to the post-ROTJ stories we have now. As I always say, Legends haven't been erased, they just exist in a different context. I actually like them a lot more now as "non-canon" because they just feel more fun and, at least to me, unpredictable and wild.
December 6, 2021
This 3 is an average of rating all the stories and then averaging it out.
I know it makes 3.8 but I shall be generous
IG88: 9/10 (-1 as it had a really slow crawl start)
Dengar: 8/10 (-2 as it had kind of a character hole that could have been better explained, Boba Fett seems very shoehorned, though I recognise that he didn't have any adult speaking roles in the movie so you can just make up however he speaks)
Bossk: 7 (-3 very slow start and development. Progression was interesting but not written well enough to flow properly.)
4LOM and Zuckuss: 5/10 what happened?
story ended a bit abruptly, I wanted to be invested in Toryn, 4LOM and Zuckuss but I couldn't.
Fett: 9/10, the story was more about Han Solo. Exciting one though.
I know it makes 3.8 but I shall be generous
IG88: 9/10 (-1 as it had a really slow crawl start)
Dengar: 8/10 (-2 as it had kind of a character hole that could have been better explained, Boba Fett seems very shoehorned, though I recognise that he didn't have any adult speaking roles in the movie so you can just make up however he speaks)
Bossk: 7 (-3 very slow start and development. Progression was interesting but not written well enough to flow properly.)
4LOM and Zuckuss: 5/10 what happened?
story ended a bit abruptly, I wanted to be invested in Toryn, 4LOM and Zuckuss but I couldn't.
Fett: 9/10, the story was more about Han Solo. Exciting one though.
November 24, 2015
My second EU/SW book! It took me a while this time because there are fewer stories than in Tales from the Empire (and sidenote: fewer female authors :(), which means they're much loooonger... and if you're stuck in one that you're not enjoying, you're gonna be dragging your heels for a while.
This collection is background to all of the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to hunt down Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. Once again, I love background on minor characters like this, now knowing all of their names and histories and what their deal is.
From left-to-right: Dengar, IG-88, Boba Fett, Bossk, 4-LOM, Zuckuss. (See also their action figures!)
Since there are so few stories here, I'll review them separately. I was originally leaning 3 stars, but the last story bumped the collection up as a whole.
---
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 (Kevin J. Anderson)
WONDERFUL. A strong start to the collection (and penned by the editor). Admittedly, I'm pretty biased because I love artificial intelligence: IG-88 is kind of hilarious in his matter-of-fact, almost-bored destruction of organics, and the bumbling station administrator is a great foil.
And can we talk about that ending:
Payback: The Tale of Dengar (Dave Wolverton)
A guy who raced Han Solo as a kid, got into a horrible swoop race accident, and was then rebuilt by the Empire to be a killer. Ehhhhhh. It starts off interesting with Dengar's first hit, but then slows way the hell down. Sociopath learns to feel through the power of ~luuuuurve~. I'm very, very picky about my "caring empathetic female heals broken man" tropes, so I wasn't particularly invested in this one. The story's redeeming quality was the ending with Boba Fett, which I liked.
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk (Kathy Tyers)
By the same author of "Tinian on Trial", so Tinian makes a return; I loved seeing her reappear, finding out more about her continued adventures and where she's got to. I loved learning more about the Trandoshan hunter, his biology and how that informed Bossk's view of the world, his reptile cunning in navigating this deal. Flirt is a fantastic lil' character and I loooved her hacking/flirting with the Hound. All of the characters are great! All of the double-blinds and fake-outs and double-crossing gets a little convoluted at the end, though, and I couldn't really track what their scheme was.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM (M. Shayne Bell)
LOVED THIS ONE. LOVED. Bounty hunter partnership between a supernaturally prescient Gand (what an interesting species, I'm obsessed with them now) and a droid who overcame his shackles and became a bounty hunter. Loyalty! Partners! 4-LOM learning and bettering himself! His analytical way of looking at the world, in contrast to Zuckuss' intuition!
The entire sequence with post-Hoth rebels trying to escape their shipwreck before the Empire collects them, while their life support steadily dwindles!
The whole thing was just so well-written. And then the ending:
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett (Daniel Keys Moran)
FAVE. This one was straight-up beautifully-written (I highlighted so many quotes), and reveals so much about Boba Fett and Han Solo. This cat-and-mouse relationship over the decades. Aging and injury and obsolescence; youth and glory; two old men facing each other, wondering if they can trust each other. Han and Leia being adorable and pitch-perfect. The Butcher and his fate. I seriously could not get enough of this story.
Apparently it's also considered by many to be the best Star Wars short story, and the author, Moran, has this to say about it: "The Last One Standing is not merely my favorite Star Wars piece; that's a limited universe. It's one of my favorite pieces of writing, overall."
So, basically: y'all, it is SO GOOD. The Lucasfilm folks had to do some complicated narrative gymnastics after Attack of the Clones to keep this short story canon, but I like that they did, because I loved what we learn about Boba and his characterisation here.
--
So, all-in-all: 3 great stories, 1 okay, 1 meh. Those are alright odds. I looooove bounty hunters -- I should totally follow this up with The Bounty Hunter Wars, because I want more Boba and 4-LOM and Zuckuss.
I'll edit in favourite quotes later, once I have a chance to type them up at home.
This collection is background to all of the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to hunt down Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. Once again, I love background on minor characters like this, now knowing all of their names and histories and what their deal is.
From left-to-right: Dengar, IG-88, Boba Fett, Bossk, 4-LOM, Zuckuss. (See also their action figures!)
Since there are so few stories here, I'll review them separately. I was originally leaning 3 stars, but the last story bumped the collection up as a whole.
---
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 (Kevin J. Anderson)
WONDERFUL. A strong start to the collection (and penned by the editor). Admittedly, I'm pretty biased because I love artificial intelligence: IG-88 is kind of hilarious in his matter-of-fact, almost-bored destruction of organics, and the bumbling station administrator is a great foil.
And can we talk about that ending:
Payback: The Tale of Dengar (Dave Wolverton)
A guy who raced Han Solo as a kid, got into a horrible swoop race accident, and was then rebuilt by the Empire to be a killer. Ehhhhhh. It starts off interesting with Dengar's first hit, but then slows way the hell down. Sociopath learns to feel through the power of ~luuuuurve~. I'm very, very picky about my "caring empathetic female heals broken man" tropes, so I wasn't particularly invested in this one. The story's redeeming quality was the ending with Boba Fett, which I liked.
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk (Kathy Tyers)
By the same author of "Tinian on Trial", so Tinian makes a return; I loved seeing her reappear, finding out more about her continued adventures and where she's got to. I loved learning more about the Trandoshan hunter, his biology and how that informed Bossk's view of the world, his reptile cunning in navigating this deal. Flirt is a fantastic lil' character and I loooved her hacking/flirting with the Hound. All of the characters are great! All of the double-blinds and fake-outs and double-crossing gets a little convoluted at the end, though, and I couldn't really track what their scheme was.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM (M. Shayne Bell)
LOVED THIS ONE. LOVED. Bounty hunter partnership between a supernaturally prescient Gand (what an interesting species, I'm obsessed with them now) and a droid who overcame his shackles and became a bounty hunter. Loyalty! Partners! 4-LOM learning and bettering himself! His analytical way of looking at the world, in contrast to Zuckuss' intuition!
The entire sequence with post-Hoth rebels trying to escape their shipwreck before the Empire collects them, while their life support steadily dwindles!
The whole thing was just so well-written. And then the ending:
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett (Daniel Keys Moran)
FAVE. This one was straight-up beautifully-written (I highlighted so many quotes), and reveals so much about Boba Fett and Han Solo. This cat-and-mouse relationship over the decades. Aging and injury and obsolescence; youth and glory; two old men facing each other, wondering if they can trust each other. Han and Leia being adorable and pitch-perfect. The Butcher and his fate. I seriously could not get enough of this story.
Apparently it's also considered by many to be the best Star Wars short story, and the author, Moran, has this to say about it: "The Last One Standing is not merely my favorite Star Wars piece; that's a limited universe. It's one of my favorite pieces of writing, overall."
So, basically: y'all, it is SO GOOD. The Lucasfilm folks had to do some complicated narrative gymnastics after Attack of the Clones to keep this short story canon, but I like that they did, because I loved what we learn about Boba and his characterisation here.
--
So, all-in-all: 3 great stories, 1 okay, 1 meh. Those are alright odds. I looooove bounty hunters -- I should totally follow this up with The Bounty Hunter Wars, because I want more Boba and 4-LOM and Zuckuss.
I'll edit in favourite quotes later, once I have a chance to type them up at home.
December 5, 2019
Algunas historias son más interesantes que otras. Y luego quedan las que son absolutamente soporíferas. Como no puede ser de otro modo la mejor historia es la dedicada a Boba Fett. Un libro de relatos curiosos para aquellos que quieran indagar más en el antiguo mundo de Leyends.
January 1, 2019
I greatly enjoyed this anthology of star wars bounty hunters short stories. Everyone of the short stories went into a new character that in the end felt familiar, they all however had an overarching plot that carried through, which was really nice and gave each story a different perspective of the ongoings in the star wars universe.
My only gripe is I had a difficult time trying to read Bossk's story, all other stories and authors were amazing, but I could not find personal interest in his character, side characters, or the writing style.
My only gripe is I had a difficult time trying to read Bossk's story, all other stories and authors were amazing, but I could not find personal interest in his character, side characters, or the writing style.
March 12, 2022
Great extended universe reading. My 11 year old son and I loved it. I feel like I know the characters from that famous scene in Empire Strikes Back now, with extensive backstories and details that the general public doesn't know. Each story was very different, and each bounty hunter had unique personalities and motivations that kept the book entertaining and interesting.
January 13, 2023
Fun experience. Most of it is non-cannonical at this point with the new Disney entries, but they are nice companion stories for the original trilogy movies
October 25, 2012
Tales of the Bounty Hunters is a collection of five stories by different authors concerning bounty hunters who captured our attention in Star Wars - IG-88, Dengar, Bossk. Zuckuss and 4-LOM, and, last but certainly not least, Boba Fett. The stories are well written and generally very entertaining. The common ground for the tales is that all of the bounty hunters have been given the opportunity by Lord Vader to find Han Solo and bring him in. Their approaches vary widely. Of course, we know already which of the hunters actually gets Solo and what happens after that, but that advance knowledge does not spoil the stories.
The first story is about IG-88 and his plan to claim the galaxy as his own domain. As a sideline to his more important goals, he also participates in the search for Han Solo under the orders of Darth Vader. I found the story to be completely absorbing. It shows a side to IG-88 that I had never expected. He is designed and built as an assassin droid and appears to be virtually unstoppable, especially when he develops three exact clones of himself. Basically, his plan is to deal no longer with the frailties of biological beings and simply to have droids take over the entire universe. He even snickers to himself at some of the efforts of Emperor Palpatine. (Question to readers: Can droids snicker?) Eventually he runs into serious problems when trying to deal with Boba Fett and even more serious problems when he inserts his intelligence into the second Death Star shortly before the Rebels take care of it. Never underestimate the power of the Rebel Alliance.
The second story stars Dengar and was the weakest tale in the book to me. Dengar is a cybernetically enhanced Imperial assassin who has been surgically stripped of all superfluous emotion. This makes him a highly effective bounty hunter, but also means that he experiences almost none of the normal emotions that humans take for granted. So the main plotline for the story is Dengar's reacquisition of emotions and his surprising realization that he can fall in love. A bounty hunter's love story was just not what I was expecting with these tales.
Bossk is the main character in Tale #3. He is a lizardlike Trandoshan hunter who has been slaughtering Wookies for their pelts. He agrees to a joint venture with two competitors in the search for Solo. His unlikely companions are Chenlambec, a silvertip Wookie, and Tinian L'att, a small human female. The partnership does not go smoothly as double crosses are frequent, plus Chenlambec's sole motive in joining forces was to stop Boskk's career and obtain a measure of revenge for the Wookie slaughtering that had happened in the past. Things do not go well for Bossk.
The fourth tale is that of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, a Gand intuitive and his logic-driven droid partner. Their hopes for being the ones to nab Solo are based primarily on the intuitive powers of Zuckuss who always seems to be able to discern whatever they need to know. 4-LOM is great fun to listen to as he has a quick statistical analysis for any question that arises.
The last tale in the book lets us travel through the years with Boba Fett. As we all know, he is the one who succeeds in grabbing Han Solo, albeit with a major assist from Darth Vader and the Imperial forces. As many of us did not know, he survived his fall into the Great Pit of Carkoon and the digestive system of the Sarlacc. This tale focuses on Fett in his later years as he is hampered by injuries suffered from years of bounty hunting and as he comes to grips with the realization that his best days are behind him. He does manage to collect a huge bounty offered for the capture of the Butcher of Montellian Serat. That is followed by a chance that he never expected to have again, i.e., another shot at killing Han Solo. This chance is primarily the result of Han's boredom at living on Coruscant and not being involved in smuggling and fighting bad guys any more. He takes off in the Millennium Falcon in search of adventure and finds it the form of a face-to-face encounter with Boba Fett at the end of the tale. Good stuff.
The first story is about IG-88 and his plan to claim the galaxy as his own domain. As a sideline to his more important goals, he also participates in the search for Han Solo under the orders of Darth Vader. I found the story to be completely absorbing. It shows a side to IG-88 that I had never expected. He is designed and built as an assassin droid and appears to be virtually unstoppable, especially when he develops three exact clones of himself. Basically, his plan is to deal no longer with the frailties of biological beings and simply to have droids take over the entire universe. He even snickers to himself at some of the efforts of Emperor Palpatine. (Question to readers: Can droids snicker?) Eventually he runs into serious problems when trying to deal with Boba Fett and even more serious problems when he inserts his intelligence into the second Death Star shortly before the Rebels take care of it. Never underestimate the power of the Rebel Alliance.
The second story stars Dengar and was the weakest tale in the book to me. Dengar is a cybernetically enhanced Imperial assassin who has been surgically stripped of all superfluous emotion. This makes him a highly effective bounty hunter, but also means that he experiences almost none of the normal emotions that humans take for granted. So the main plotline for the story is Dengar's reacquisition of emotions and his surprising realization that he can fall in love. A bounty hunter's love story was just not what I was expecting with these tales.
Bossk is the main character in Tale #3. He is a lizardlike Trandoshan hunter who has been slaughtering Wookies for their pelts. He agrees to a joint venture with two competitors in the search for Solo. His unlikely companions are Chenlambec, a silvertip Wookie, and Tinian L'att, a small human female. The partnership does not go smoothly as double crosses are frequent, plus Chenlambec's sole motive in joining forces was to stop Boskk's career and obtain a measure of revenge for the Wookie slaughtering that had happened in the past. Things do not go well for Bossk.
The fourth tale is that of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, a Gand intuitive and his logic-driven droid partner. Their hopes for being the ones to nab Solo are based primarily on the intuitive powers of Zuckuss who always seems to be able to discern whatever they need to know. 4-LOM is great fun to listen to as he has a quick statistical analysis for any question that arises.
The last tale in the book lets us travel through the years with Boba Fett. As we all know, he is the one who succeeds in grabbing Han Solo, albeit with a major assist from Darth Vader and the Imperial forces. As many of us did not know, he survived his fall into the Great Pit of Carkoon and the digestive system of the Sarlacc. This tale focuses on Fett in his later years as he is hampered by injuries suffered from years of bounty hunting and as he comes to grips with the realization that his best days are behind him. He does manage to collect a huge bounty offered for the capture of the Butcher of Montellian Serat. That is followed by a chance that he never expected to have again, i.e., another shot at killing Han Solo. This chance is primarily the result of Han's boredom at living on Coruscant and not being involved in smuggling and fighting bad guys any more. He takes off in the Millennium Falcon in search of adventure and finds it the form of a face-to-face encounter with Boba Fett at the end of the tale. Good stuff.
June 13, 2024
Continuing the tradition from the ‘Tales’ anthologies, these stories are set in a specific setting in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, being this time the middle point of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, when Vader hires the services of several bounty hunters to hunt down and capture Han Solo, and his allies. Edited once again by Kevin J. Anderson (who also participates as one of the different authors in this collection), ‘Tales of the Bounty Hunters’ is split between five short-tales depicting different perspectives of the aforementioned characters from the film: IG-88, Dengar, Bossk, Zuckuss & 4-LOM, and the one and only, Boba Fett, in a short tale that practically serves as a continuation of his own very short story from the previous entry: “Tales from Jabba’s Palace”.
To be honest, I expected a little more depth within these different shorts, mostly due to the excess of characters in the ‘Jabba’s Palace’ anthology, and since these are bounty hunters, I assumed the quality in each story would’ve been superior, but to my surprise, even if ‘Bounty Hunters’ consists of only five tales, the overall experience could be easily compared to the previous book. For starters, Anderson’s contribution to the anthology is the story of the assassin droid, IG-88, basically expanding on the origins of this peculiar character, and suffice to say, this might be the most interesting entry in the collection; built under Imperial orders, the droid becomes sentient, and after an attempt of shutting it down, IG-88 takes control of the facilities where it was created, coming to the realization that its main purpose was to destroy every living creature in the galaxy, and the only way to do that would be to gain access to the Second Death Star under construction, now building a direct link with ‘Return of the Jedi’. The title is a reference to Enlightenment philosopher's René Descartes "I think, therefore I am”. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this entry is its open connection to the ‘Shadows of the Empire’ videogame, in which IG-88 makes an appearance as one of the main bosses. Not because Anderson openly calls a certain keyword or reference, but because now it is explained why there are several IG-88s throughout the galaxy. It’s your typical “AI becomes sentient, and its main goal is to wipe out humanity” trait, but with the ‘Star Wars’ approach, which doesn’t make it less interesting. The droid has a personality, and certain actions of his make for a surprising horror-oriented kind of story within the segment. It was an effective starting point for this anthology, and a fine addition.
Next, we had “Payback: The Tale of Dengar”, by Dave Wolverton, in which the backstory of the previously mentioned character is exposed, but also, his unique link to Han Solo and his own personal vendetta against him, which goes way back both characters’ youths. The interesting thing about this one is the way it is executed; part a character study, part romance, Dengar begins the tale rescuing a dancer named Manaroo, from a different race. A bond is forged between these two, but Dengar’s thirst for revenge against Solo pretty much clouds his own goals, and his own reasoning, when he could easily lead a different path by the side of this lovely new romantic interest. Eventually his decisions will place both, him and Manaroo, under Jabba the Hutt’s claws, offering some nice references and interconnectivity with ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace” (feeding the ideal practice of reading these titles almost hand to hand), and culminating in the events from ‘Return of the Jedi’. Again, with a little retro-continuity, but the general experience throughout the lecture is quite pleasing, and I’d say Dengar’s tale is the most peculiar one from the bunch.
As the third short-tale we got “The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk”, by Kathy Tyers, followed by “Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM”, by M. Shayne Bell, and unfortunately, these two shorts are the weakest part in the anthology (and the ones which took me the most to finish), the former being, as the title suggests, the story behind Bossk, the reptilian looking bounty hunter that didn’t have much to do in the movie he debuted, but in here it is explained that he’s well-known for expertly hunting down ‘Wookies’, so he is contacted by a human female known as Tinian, and her Wookie mentor, Chen, whom joins him in a hunt for Chewbacca, who is attempting to capture the bounty on Han Solo. Bossk attempts to double-cross his companions, but they have other plans for him as well. And the latter being, perhaps, two of the least interesting characters in the whole franchise: Zuckuss, and his droid companion, 4-LOM, who has the apparent ability to intuit possible futures by meditation (which is never explained how it actually gained that sentient ability), which leads him and Zuckuss to go from grabbing the Imperial bounty to hunt Solo, to actually rescue Rebels in Hoth, and basically deflect for the Rebellion. In a personal view, I think this is the story that intervenes the most with the canon, having these two ultimately joining the Rebellion, it is implied that they were present alongside the Rebels in ‘Return of the Jedi’, but I don’t have a recollection of seeing either of them. The idea of a droid who’s capable of foreseeing potential futures is an interesting one, but without an actual explanation of how that came to be, it isn’t convincing enough, and messes with the “suspension of disbelief” of the franchise.
But the story I was looking forward to, as anyone could guess, was Boba Fett’s “The Last One Standing”, by Daniel Keys Moran, who curiously enough also wrote the ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace’ segment, "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett", but under a pseudonym: J.D. Montgomery.
The story places through several points in time, with Boba in his youth fifteen years prior to ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ where he was known as Jaster Mereel, an element that was eventually superseded in ‘Attack of the Clones’, then, prior to his arrival at Cloud City, in Bespin, before the capture of Han Solo, and later on at Jabba’s Palace, when an interesting dialogue is shared with Princess Leia (now prisoner of Jabba), which enlightens us of Fett’s moral and personal motivations in a really interesting way. Moving on the events of the previous book takes place when he escapes the Sarlacc Pit, and other fifteen years pass, now under a new pseudonym, and a brand new Mandalorian armor, the older Fett takes one last bounty hunting job to pay for his retirement and encounters his former nemesis Han Solo. In the end, the two of them clash, and it’s left in ambiguity which one of them survived the encounter.
To be honest, there’s a moment where the focus for the Boba Fett tale is lost. Having Han Solo in it, fifteen years after the events of ‘Return of the Jedi’ (and plenty other ‘Star Wars’ Legends content such as ‘Dark Empire’, and the ‘Thrawn Trilogy’) felt random, but not an unwelcome addition to the story. For the way it ended it kind of makes sense, but a good chunk of the short tale is devoted to Han and his struggle to live a peaceful life post-Empire. It intertwines with Fett’s current situation, and the execution of his last bounty hunting job before retirement, so it makes it the tensest when these two are facing each other to the death. I would’ve preferred to have this tale delivered in another sequel-series, and having this colliding to what took place in Jabba’s Palace tales, maybe a few years later teasing a potential encounter with Han, but not really showing it in here. As for the whole depicting of Fett’s character, he is a completely different one compared to the modern Disney approach given in stuff such as ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, and fair enough, Keys Moran take on the mythic bounty hunter is far superior to Jon Favreau’s in his show. The mysticism, the moral complexity, the presence, and the villainous nature of his motivations, they all feel deeper, and far more fleshed out compared to his “Disneyfication”. These two shorts in the different anthologies do far more for the character’s reputation than any single chapter in the shows he has appeared in Disney+, which is a shame, and keeps showing me how superior the quality in writing the ‘Legends’ content had compared to the “new canon”. One is way less infantilized than the other, and it shows.
In the end, with all its flaws, and the variety in quality, these short stories are pleasing and gratifying to readers eager to consume truly satisfying and alternative content from Star Wars. Just as ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace’ enriched the experience of watching ‘Return of the Jedi’, so does this collection with the experience of going through- still- the best episode in the whole saga: ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. It is not a perfect set of shorts, but each one offers something special and unique to each presented character, and die-hard fans will love it.
To be honest, I expected a little more depth within these different shorts, mostly due to the excess of characters in the ‘Jabba’s Palace’ anthology, and since these are bounty hunters, I assumed the quality in each story would’ve been superior, but to my surprise, even if ‘Bounty Hunters’ consists of only five tales, the overall experience could be easily compared to the previous book. For starters, Anderson’s contribution to the anthology is the story of the assassin droid, IG-88, basically expanding on the origins of this peculiar character, and suffice to say, this might be the most interesting entry in the collection; built under Imperial orders, the droid becomes sentient, and after an attempt of shutting it down, IG-88 takes control of the facilities where it was created, coming to the realization that its main purpose was to destroy every living creature in the galaxy, and the only way to do that would be to gain access to the Second Death Star under construction, now building a direct link with ‘Return of the Jedi’. The title is a reference to Enlightenment philosopher's René Descartes "I think, therefore I am”. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this entry is its open connection to the ‘Shadows of the Empire’ videogame, in which IG-88 makes an appearance as one of the main bosses. Not because Anderson openly calls a certain keyword or reference, but because now it is explained why there are several IG-88s throughout the galaxy. It’s your typical “AI becomes sentient, and its main goal is to wipe out humanity” trait, but with the ‘Star Wars’ approach, which doesn’t make it less interesting. The droid has a personality, and certain actions of his make for a surprising horror-oriented kind of story within the segment. It was an effective starting point for this anthology, and a fine addition.
Next, we had “Payback: The Tale of Dengar”, by Dave Wolverton, in which the backstory of the previously mentioned character is exposed, but also, his unique link to Han Solo and his own personal vendetta against him, which goes way back both characters’ youths. The interesting thing about this one is the way it is executed; part a character study, part romance, Dengar begins the tale rescuing a dancer named Manaroo, from a different race. A bond is forged between these two, but Dengar’s thirst for revenge against Solo pretty much clouds his own goals, and his own reasoning, when he could easily lead a different path by the side of this lovely new romantic interest. Eventually his decisions will place both, him and Manaroo, under Jabba the Hutt’s claws, offering some nice references and interconnectivity with ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace” (feeding the ideal practice of reading these titles almost hand to hand), and culminating in the events from ‘Return of the Jedi’. Again, with a little retro-continuity, but the general experience throughout the lecture is quite pleasing, and I’d say Dengar’s tale is the most peculiar one from the bunch.
As the third short-tale we got “The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk”, by Kathy Tyers, followed by “Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM”, by M. Shayne Bell, and unfortunately, these two shorts are the weakest part in the anthology (and the ones which took me the most to finish), the former being, as the title suggests, the story behind Bossk, the reptilian looking bounty hunter that didn’t have much to do in the movie he debuted, but in here it is explained that he’s well-known for expertly hunting down ‘Wookies’, so he is contacted by a human female known as Tinian, and her Wookie mentor, Chen, whom joins him in a hunt for Chewbacca, who is attempting to capture the bounty on Han Solo. Bossk attempts to double-cross his companions, but they have other plans for him as well. And the latter being, perhaps, two of the least interesting characters in the whole franchise: Zuckuss, and his droid companion, 4-LOM, who has the apparent ability to intuit possible futures by meditation (which is never explained how it actually gained that sentient ability), which leads him and Zuckuss to go from grabbing the Imperial bounty to hunt Solo, to actually rescue Rebels in Hoth, and basically deflect for the Rebellion. In a personal view, I think this is the story that intervenes the most with the canon, having these two ultimately joining the Rebellion, it is implied that they were present alongside the Rebels in ‘Return of the Jedi’, but I don’t have a recollection of seeing either of them. The idea of a droid who’s capable of foreseeing potential futures is an interesting one, but without an actual explanation of how that came to be, it isn’t convincing enough, and messes with the “suspension of disbelief” of the franchise.
But the story I was looking forward to, as anyone could guess, was Boba Fett’s “The Last One Standing”, by Daniel Keys Moran, who curiously enough also wrote the ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace’ segment, "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett", but under a pseudonym: J.D. Montgomery.
The story places through several points in time, with Boba in his youth fifteen years prior to ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ where he was known as Jaster Mereel, an element that was eventually superseded in ‘Attack of the Clones’, then, prior to his arrival at Cloud City, in Bespin, before the capture of Han Solo, and later on at Jabba’s Palace, when an interesting dialogue is shared with Princess Leia (now prisoner of Jabba), which enlightens us of Fett’s moral and personal motivations in a really interesting way. Moving on the events of the previous book takes place when he escapes the Sarlacc Pit, and other fifteen years pass, now under a new pseudonym, and a brand new Mandalorian armor, the older Fett takes one last bounty hunting job to pay for his retirement and encounters his former nemesis Han Solo. In the end, the two of them clash, and it’s left in ambiguity which one of them survived the encounter.
To be honest, there’s a moment where the focus for the Boba Fett tale is lost. Having Han Solo in it, fifteen years after the events of ‘Return of the Jedi’ (and plenty other ‘Star Wars’ Legends content such as ‘Dark Empire’, and the ‘Thrawn Trilogy’) felt random, but not an unwelcome addition to the story. For the way it ended it kind of makes sense, but a good chunk of the short tale is devoted to Han and his struggle to live a peaceful life post-Empire. It intertwines with Fett’s current situation, and the execution of his last bounty hunting job before retirement, so it makes it the tensest when these two are facing each other to the death. I would’ve preferred to have this tale delivered in another sequel-series, and having this colliding to what took place in Jabba’s Palace tales, maybe a few years later teasing a potential encounter with Han, but not really showing it in here. As for the whole depicting of Fett’s character, he is a completely different one compared to the modern Disney approach given in stuff such as ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, and fair enough, Keys Moran take on the mythic bounty hunter is far superior to Jon Favreau’s in his show. The mysticism, the moral complexity, the presence, and the villainous nature of his motivations, they all feel deeper, and far more fleshed out compared to his “Disneyfication”. These two shorts in the different anthologies do far more for the character’s reputation than any single chapter in the shows he has appeared in Disney+, which is a shame, and keeps showing me how superior the quality in writing the ‘Legends’ content had compared to the “new canon”. One is way less infantilized than the other, and it shows.
In the end, with all its flaws, and the variety in quality, these short stories are pleasing and gratifying to readers eager to consume truly satisfying and alternative content from Star Wars. Just as ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace’ enriched the experience of watching ‘Return of the Jedi’, so does this collection with the experience of going through- still- the best episode in the whole saga: ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. It is not a perfect set of shorts, but each one offers something special and unique to each presented character, and die-hard fans will love it.
June 20, 2019
I liked the conflict between the characters Dengar and Boba Fett because at the beginning they are not friends but as the book goes on they become friends. Like when Boba Fett drugs Dengar after telling him that he is on his side. Also when Boba Fett blows up Dengar's ship trying to capture Han Solo first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2009
This is a collection of stories about five bounty hunters who were sent after Han Solo. Most of the stories have a partial overlap with events that we see in the Star Wars movies and also discuss the past history of their own characters. One thing I found interesting is that even though the hunters were sent by Darth Vader to disrupt the rebels, I was still kind of rooting for them to succeed, even though I knew that wouldn't happen (spoiler... 30 years later spoiler?). Anyway, some of the stories were more interesting than others but I thought it was a cool book. It may have inspired me to look at some of the other Star Wars novels.
August 24, 2021
A great collection of stories. I enjoyed the Dengar, IG-88 and Boba Fett ones the most. You first.
January 26, 2024
I have a lot of fondness for the mid-90s star wars extended universe novels, even though most of them range from "middling but fun" to "quite bad". This short story collection hews closer to the former. here are some thoughts on the short stories contained within:
- I Think Therefore I am: The Tale of IG-88 2/5 stars. I remember this one being really cool and badass when I was like 12. now I must shamefully hang my head and admit that what a 12 year old finds cool and badass is unselfconscious edge and shallow writing. This story does something that a lot of star wars writing does with droid names which is spell out their names phonetically instead of writing their names like a normal person. the other stories in this book do this as well to some extent but this story focuses on so many more droid characters that its very annoying. what is the aesthetic value of writing threedeefourex instead of 3D-4X? ALSO in the star wars movies the droid characters we see are pretty much just normal people with inner lives, but in order for the IG-88 droids to be cool and badass and special and "my OC do not steal", droid sentience must be something vanishingly rare, something unique tho the four IG-88 models. However, this framework diminishes characters like R2-D2 and C-3PO in a way that I don't like. Also IG-88 becoming the death star at the end was just silly, not in the "pulp garbage" way but in the "what is the point of this" way.
- Payback: The Tale of Dengar 3/5 stars. This starts out strong, having Dengar being murderously obsessed with Han Solo is an interesting idea, and Dengar's thought process is interesting to read. Having someone being deeply traumatized by their experiences and not having the tools (or, in Dengar's case, the actual brain structures) to deal with that trauma in a productive or non self-destructive way is a great hook. unfortunately, it then dissolves into being a story about the big damaged man being taught how to feel feelings by the far too patient manic pixie dream girl. its giving "get a girlfriend instead of going to therapy". instead of Dengar going through an emotional arc Manaroo just plugs the "feel feelings" usb stick into Dengar's brain and then he's fine and also married now. Dengar helping Boba Fett at the end is a nice moment but it's just not earned. I do like the "Teeth of Tatooine" sequence though, that's some good stuff.
- The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk 3.5/5 stars. I always skipped this one in my younger years, though I don't know why, its pretty good. I don't have much to say about it because this is probably the second time I've read it all the way through, certainly the first time I could tell anyone with any confidence what actually happens in it. and that I think is this story's main failing. I may just be stupid but Tinian and Chenlambec's plan is kind of confusing. the rest of the story is quite fun, two parties repeatedly double-crossing each other on a small ship, each having their own agenda, is a real hoot and a half.
- Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM 4.5/5 stars. my favorite of the bunch. I love Zuckuss and his robot husband. I like the star wars extended universe stuff that is interested in what happens in the source material as significant events that may effect setting or character arcs but not to be adhered to as gospel. this story treats the battle of Hoth as an inciting incident to tell its own story. Toryn's sections do a really good job at conveying the boots-on-the-ground actions of the Rebels. Feels very Andor. I don't really have much to say, because I have the most to say when I'm complaining. I just love 4-LOM and Zuckuss being in love ok?
- The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett 2.5/5 stars. Woof this dialogue is really bad. I remember the Butcher of Montellian Serat being this really poetic character, I was sorely disappointed on reread. Too much Han Solo, Fett having a previous encounter with Han just shrinks the galaxy and feels too silly. Fett being a volcel drugfree weirdo cop man is certainly a choice. I get that making him have a code of honor works, and I like that idea, but making him a weird nerd who would corner you at a party to talk about how "all lives matter actually" and "if you don't like the emperor so much why don't you just move to Wild Space?" is just... why. it is my opinion that honor codes should not make your character annoying.
ok bye bye now
- I Think Therefore I am: The Tale of IG-88 2/5 stars. I remember this one being really cool and badass when I was like 12. now I must shamefully hang my head and admit that what a 12 year old finds cool and badass is unselfconscious edge and shallow writing. This story does something that a lot of star wars writing does with droid names which is spell out their names phonetically instead of writing their names like a normal person. the other stories in this book do this as well to some extent but this story focuses on so many more droid characters that its very annoying. what is the aesthetic value of writing threedeefourex instead of 3D-4X? ALSO in the star wars movies the droid characters we see are pretty much just normal people with inner lives, but in order for the IG-88 droids to be cool and badass and special and "my OC do not steal", droid sentience must be something vanishingly rare, something unique tho the four IG-88 models. However, this framework diminishes characters like R2-D2 and C-3PO in a way that I don't like. Also IG-88 becoming the death star at the end was just silly, not in the "pulp garbage" way but in the "what is the point of this" way.
- Payback: The Tale of Dengar 3/5 stars. This starts out strong, having Dengar being murderously obsessed with Han Solo is an interesting idea, and Dengar's thought process is interesting to read. Having someone being deeply traumatized by their experiences and not having the tools (or, in Dengar's case, the actual brain structures) to deal with that trauma in a productive or non self-destructive way is a great hook. unfortunately, it then dissolves into being a story about the big damaged man being taught how to feel feelings by the far too patient manic pixie dream girl. its giving "get a girlfriend instead of going to therapy". instead of Dengar going through an emotional arc Manaroo just plugs the "feel feelings" usb stick into Dengar's brain and then he's fine and also married now. Dengar helping Boba Fett at the end is a nice moment but it's just not earned. I do like the "Teeth of Tatooine" sequence though, that's some good stuff.
- The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk 3.5/5 stars. I always skipped this one in my younger years, though I don't know why, its pretty good. I don't have much to say about it because this is probably the second time I've read it all the way through, certainly the first time I could tell anyone with any confidence what actually happens in it. and that I think is this story's main failing. I may just be stupid but Tinian and Chenlambec's plan is kind of confusing. the rest of the story is quite fun, two parties repeatedly double-crossing each other on a small ship, each having their own agenda, is a real hoot and a half.
- Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM 4.5/5 stars. my favorite of the bunch. I love Zuckuss and his robot husband. I like the star wars extended universe stuff that is interested in what happens in the source material as significant events that may effect setting or character arcs but not to be adhered to as gospel. this story treats the battle of Hoth as an inciting incident to tell its own story. Toryn's sections do a really good job at conveying the boots-on-the-ground actions of the Rebels. Feels very Andor. I don't really have much to say, because I have the most to say when I'm complaining. I just love 4-LOM and Zuckuss being in love ok?
- The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett 2.5/5 stars. Woof this dialogue is really bad. I remember the Butcher of Montellian Serat being this really poetic character, I was sorely disappointed on reread. Too much Han Solo, Fett having a previous encounter with Han just shrinks the galaxy and feels too silly. Fett being a volcel drugfree weirdo cop man is certainly a choice. I get that making him have a code of honor works, and I like that idea, but making him a weird nerd who would corner you at a party to talk about how "all lives matter actually" and "if you don't like the emperor so much why don't you just move to Wild Space?" is just... why. it is my opinion that honor codes should not make your character annoying.
ok bye bye now
April 30, 2018
Man, it feels like it's been a couple of months since I've read anything for my Star Wars project. I got bogged down with a long, dense series of books that took a lot of time to read, so it was nice to return to the Expanded Universe, even if it was in a collection of shorter works, and not a full novel. I much prefer the novel-length stories, but I did commit to everything in the EU, so here we are.
The first story of the bunch is Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J. Anderson, and it's pretty stupid. Parts of the story don't make much sense (for the arsenal Anderson builds in to it, along with its weight, it would have to be about twenty feet tall), and by the end, the assassin droid tries to implant itself into the central computer of the second Death Star. It's not written well, either. It has lots of telling, and some of the dialogue is laughable.
Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton follows, and is a better-told story, but it smacks of a juvenile story. This isn't a surprise, since Wolverton has written a few juvenile books for the EU. I like how Wolverton develops the character, but his characterization isn't the best. I didn't feel any connection with any of his main characters, and given how he ends the story, that's pretty critical. Speaking of the ending, it's a little ridiculous.
The next novella is The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers, and I had a hard time following parts of the story. It doesn't seem like a difficult story, but I kept checking out, so I lost some of the threads. Tyers telegraphs some details about the ending of the story by making some small parts of the story strangely significant when they're revealed. It's not the most gripping tale, but that could be due to the fact that Tyers doesn't make Bossk at all likeable.
The best story in the collection is Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM by M. Shayne Bell. It's a touching story of redemption, loyalty, and friendship, made effective by Bell's characterization skills. He focuses on three characters, the titular bounty hunters and a Rebel commander, and even though the story is short, it resonates because of them. Some parts of the story were convenient, but the rest of it was so effective that I can overlook them.
The anthology wraps up with The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran, featuring everyone's favorite bounty hunter. Unfortunately, Moran doesn't do much with the story. He attempts to, going further back into Fett's life to establish an origin, and then takes him far beyond the events of Return of the Jedi to tell us about his end. This doesn't work as well as Moran thinks it does, not just because the ending is a cop-out with no real conclusion. He spoils a lot of the later books in the chronology, since this story spans so much time. That's on me, since I chose to read these in chronological order, but it still goes a lot further than expected. Plus, it's hard reconciling this story with the canon Lucas established in the prequels (though I'll admit, what Moran does with the character is far better than what Lucas did with it).
If I were to recommend this book, it would only be for Bell's story. The rest don't have enough OOMPH to make them stand out, despite having a lot of potential. As anthologies go, though, this isn't a bad one, since the stories are longer than short stories, and allow for more development. It's just a shame the authors couldn't all make something better out of the source material.
The first story of the bunch is Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J. Anderson, and it's pretty stupid. Parts of the story don't make much sense (for the arsenal Anderson builds in to it, along with its weight, it would have to be about twenty feet tall), and by the end, the assassin droid tries to implant itself into the central computer of the second Death Star. It's not written well, either. It has lots of telling, and some of the dialogue is laughable.
Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton follows, and is a better-told story, but it smacks of a juvenile story. This isn't a surprise, since Wolverton has written a few juvenile books for the EU. I like how Wolverton develops the character, but his characterization isn't the best. I didn't feel any connection with any of his main characters, and given how he ends the story, that's pretty critical. Speaking of the ending, it's a little ridiculous.
The next novella is The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers, and I had a hard time following parts of the story. It doesn't seem like a difficult story, but I kept checking out, so I lost some of the threads. Tyers telegraphs some details about the ending of the story by making some small parts of the story strangely significant when they're revealed. It's not the most gripping tale, but that could be due to the fact that Tyers doesn't make Bossk at all likeable.
The best story in the collection is Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM by M. Shayne Bell. It's a touching story of redemption, loyalty, and friendship, made effective by Bell's characterization skills. He focuses on three characters, the titular bounty hunters and a Rebel commander, and even though the story is short, it resonates because of them. Some parts of the story were convenient, but the rest of it was so effective that I can overlook them.
The anthology wraps up with The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran, featuring everyone's favorite bounty hunter. Unfortunately, Moran doesn't do much with the story. He attempts to, going further back into Fett's life to establish an origin, and then takes him far beyond the events of Return of the Jedi to tell us about his end. This doesn't work as well as Moran thinks it does, not just because the ending is a cop-out with no real conclusion. He spoils a lot of the later books in the chronology, since this story spans so much time. That's on me, since I chose to read these in chronological order, but it still goes a lot further than expected. Plus, it's hard reconciling this story with the canon Lucas established in the prequels (though I'll admit, what Moran does with the character is far better than what Lucas did with it).
If I were to recommend this book, it would only be for Bell's story. The rest don't have enough OOMPH to make them stand out, despite having a lot of potential. As anthologies go, though, this isn't a bad one, since the stories are longer than short stories, and allow for more development. It's just a shame the authors couldn't all make something better out of the source material.
September 19, 2018
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 (3 out of 5)
IG-88 is created and has delusions of grandeur, even becoming the brain of the second Death Star. It has gore for a Star Wars story, but it doesn’t take away from the story.
I enjoyed it, and liked that IG-88 gets his comeuppance, but it still felt average to me. I didn't see myself running back to re-read it now that I'm done with the book.
Payback: The Tale of Dengar (2.5 out of 5)
Dengar (who also goes by the nickname ‘Payback’) is hired to assassinate an Imperial governor of an alien world. However, the aliens want Dengar to save them, take them to another world, since the Empire will just send another in the governor’s place.
Dengar does fall in love with a beautiful dancer who goes with him instead, as Dengar’s main objective is to get Han Solo and deliver him to the Empire. It’s not until he’s dying after the battle between Jabba and the Rebels (from “Return of the Jedi”) that he realizes his quest for Solo is for naught and he’s ready to settle down with the alien girl.
Boba Fett, who has escaped the Sarlacc is holding on to life, and later takes part in the wedding after he recovers.
(I don’t recall if Dengar or the girl go back to try to save her people).
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk (1 out of 5)
A boring story that mostly takes place in various parts of Bossk’s ship. He is swindled by a Rebel Wookiee and his female companion to take part in a bounty that will actually save some imprisoned Wookiees.
This story didn’t work for me because it felt tedious, and the writer didn’t do a good job of making me feel where the characters were in the ship; there wasn’t a good sense of location.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM (2 out of 5)
Zuckuss and 4-LOM take part in stopping some Rebels escaping Hoth, but once they get a sense of Rebellion kindness (taking a nod from Star Trek) these aliens become part of the Rebellion by the end.
What brings down the score for me is the author having Zuckuss and 4-LOM worry about whether or not Darth Vader will get back at them for helping the Rebels previously (at a time when the bounty hunters were just trying to get paid). It’s a buildup that doesn’t have a payoff…and doesn’t mesh with the eventual ending we got. It felt disjointed.
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett (1.5 out of 5)
Even though this had Han Solo wanting to still have a little fun (i.e. smuggle something) though he was married with kids, this story wasn’t exciting. The author definitely got his mannerisms and voice in the interactions with Luke and Leia, but the story just wasn't compelling. (Note: I did think this version of Han fits in well with "The Force Awakens").
Too, this story doesn’t tie into the earlier Dengar story as I thought it would. Yes, Fett has escaped the Sarlacc and not as agile as he was, but there is no Dengar wedding here. In its place is Fett and Solo going at it verbally, each realizing that their days of being reckless may be over; they have to ‘grow up’ in their own ways.
While interesting, it was also a bit jarring. And given the quality of this story and majority of the others, I was disappointed.
IG-88 is created and has delusions of grandeur, even becoming the brain of the second Death Star. It has gore for a Star Wars story, but it doesn’t take away from the story.
I enjoyed it, and liked that IG-88 gets his comeuppance, but it still felt average to me. I didn't see myself running back to re-read it now that I'm done with the book.
Payback: The Tale of Dengar (2.5 out of 5)
Dengar (who also goes by the nickname ‘Payback’) is hired to assassinate an Imperial governor of an alien world. However, the aliens want Dengar to save them, take them to another world, since the Empire will just send another in the governor’s place.
Dengar does fall in love with a beautiful dancer who goes with him instead, as Dengar’s main objective is to get Han Solo and deliver him to the Empire. It’s not until he’s dying after the battle between Jabba and the Rebels (from “Return of the Jedi”) that he realizes his quest for Solo is for naught and he’s ready to settle down with the alien girl.
Boba Fett, who has escaped the Sarlacc is holding on to life, and later takes part in the wedding after he recovers.
(I don’t recall if Dengar or the girl go back to try to save her people).
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk (1 out of 5)
A boring story that mostly takes place in various parts of Bossk’s ship. He is swindled by a Rebel Wookiee and his female companion to take part in a bounty that will actually save some imprisoned Wookiees.
This story didn’t work for me because it felt tedious, and the writer didn’t do a good job of making me feel where the characters were in the ship; there wasn’t a good sense of location.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM (2 out of 5)
Zuckuss and 4-LOM take part in stopping some Rebels escaping Hoth, but once they get a sense of Rebellion kindness (taking a nod from Star Trek) these aliens become part of the Rebellion by the end.
What brings down the score for me is the author having Zuckuss and 4-LOM worry about whether or not Darth Vader will get back at them for helping the Rebels previously (at a time when the bounty hunters were just trying to get paid). It’s a buildup that doesn’t have a payoff…and doesn’t mesh with the eventual ending we got. It felt disjointed.
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett (1.5 out of 5)
Even though this had Han Solo wanting to still have a little fun (i.e. smuggle something) though he was married with kids, this story wasn’t exciting. The author definitely got his mannerisms and voice in the interactions with Luke and Leia, but the story just wasn't compelling. (Note: I did think this version of Han fits in well with "The Force Awakens").
Too, this story doesn’t tie into the earlier Dengar story as I thought it would. Yes, Fett has escaped the Sarlacc and not as agile as he was, but there is no Dengar wedding here. In its place is Fett and Solo going at it verbally, each realizing that their days of being reckless may be over; they have to ‘grow up’ in their own ways.
While interesting, it was also a bit jarring. And given the quality of this story and majority of the others, I was disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2021
Star Wars Legends Project #279
Background: Tales of the Bounty Hunters was edited by Kevin J. Anderson and published in December of 1996. It is an anthology of 5 novellas featuring the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to pursue the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back. Three are written by authors who also wrote at least one Star Wars novel of their own, while the other two at least contributed to the other "Tales" collections. All of them feature the events on board the Star Destroyer during the movie, but aside from that they tell much broader stories. Boba Fett's tale in particular extends back over a decade through flashbacks and then continues forward until decades later.
Review: As with any anthology, the quality of the stories and the storytelling varies, though there's a bit less range than the other collections because there are fewer stories. Here's a quick look at each one:
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J. Anderson
The thing I do appreciate about Anderson's multitude of Star Wars stories is that he always writes with an obvious knowledge of established lore and a clear goal of building on it. What I appreciate less is that the ideas he brings are often really, really dumb and derivative. He saddled the old EU with a lot of unnecessarily stupid baggage. This doesn't quite sink to that level by virtue of being so inconsequential, but it's still just absurd. The basic concept is that IG-88 is not 1 droid, but 4 . . . a team of unstoppable super-assassins who achieve sentience and immediately murder their creators and escape out into the galaxy. Soon, their thoughts turn to galactic domination by means of . . . Well, I don't want to summarize the whole thing.
The point is, the concept is not good (and ultimately tries to rewrite our understanding of the climax of Return of the Jedi in a way that largely undermines it, which I particularly hate). Beyond that, though, the larger idea doesn't fit the narrative of IG-88 as a bounty hunter pursuing Han Solo, and Anderson does all sorts of silly contortions to pretend that it does, but none of it ever makes sense. Just utter tripe.
Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton
The overall plot of this story is actually reasonably compelling, but the character of Dengar is pretty much bland and uninteresting for most of it. It feels like a mistake to give Dengar a personal grudge against Han Solo; one of those classic bits of EU silliness that make the galaxy feel incredibly tiny, like it's just the same 20-30 people coincidentally bumping into each other over and over again. But that element aside, and ignoring the fact that I don't find straightforward revenge stories all that compelling, this is . . . fine. It was the one of the bunch that ended too soon, just when I thought things were getting kind of interesting.
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers
I'll chalk it up to Anderson's failure as an editor that yet another one of the bounty hunters who are on the spot when the Empire calls has a personal history and grudge against Han Solo and Chewbacca. This is just such an obvious and uninteresting element to include in your story, and in this case it could have been left out entirely without impacting anything that happens. This is the first one in the collection to doesn't weirdly engineer events to parallel what's happening in the movie (both IG-88 and Dengar track Han to Bespin and then continue on to Tatooine), and I appreciate that. I also kind of like that Bossk isn't the protagonist of the story and is portrayed so unsympathetically. This one was also okay, I guess.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM by M. Shayne Bell
This story was easily my favorite of the collection, though that isn't saying much, and also oddly the one I remembered nothing about from the first time I read it many years ago. Zuckuss and 4-LOM are the characters that seem the most underused out of the bounty hunters from the movie, and I enjoyed what Bell did with them. This story was the only one where the outcome didn't feel predictable and inevitable (and, yeah, note the title). The story made me care what was going to happen to its main characters, made me feel tension about how things would work out for them, and kept me guessing. None of the other stories really accomplished that, and most didn't even try.
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran
I actually talked quite a bit in a recent review about what makes a good Boba Fett story and the various successful and unsuccessful approaches to him as a character. This falls squarely into the category of trying to establish some very definitive canon around both Fett's history and his personality, and it also falls prey to . . . not being very compelling. Fett is a complete ass in this tale, a mindlessly rigid rule-follower whose moral code is confined purely to the letter of whatever law happens to be in effect at that particular moment, and totally incapable of critical thought about ethics or morality beyond that. It's interesting that this was the definitive backstory for Boba Fett when it was written, and I'm not going to sit here and say that I think the current official backstory is all that great, either . . . but I'm not all that sad to see this overwritten.
This isn't even a story so much as a series of vignettes covering about 35 years of time, including all of the times Fett had appeared on-screen to that point. The best segment by far is the depiction of an aging Fett going after one last score (which also happens to tie in with Moran's story from Mos Eisley Cantina). Part of me also appreciated the whole finale and its set-up, the depiction of this decades-old rivalry between two opponents who aren't even sure anymore why it's so important that one of them kills the other. I . . . question the canonicity of it, and it doesn't really fit within the larger framework of the EU to leave it unresolved, but artistically, the way it ends is absolutely the right choice.
The final third or so of this story is a great piece of standalone storytelling. It's kind of like Logan in that it's not totally clear how or whether it fits in with the rest of the franchise, and you're not sure this is the ending you'd want to the story of these beloved characters, but it's undeniably very good. So . . . obviously I feel a bit ambivalent about this story overall, but apart from the epic z-grade camp of the IG-88 story, the conclusion of the Boba Fett story is easily the most memorable element of what is ultimately a mostly dull and forgettable anthology.
C-
Background: Tales of the Bounty Hunters was edited by Kevin J. Anderson and published in December of 1996. It is an anthology of 5 novellas featuring the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to pursue the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back. Three are written by authors who also wrote at least one Star Wars novel of their own, while the other two at least contributed to the other "Tales" collections. All of them feature the events on board the Star Destroyer during the movie, but aside from that they tell much broader stories. Boba Fett's tale in particular extends back over a decade through flashbacks and then continues forward until decades later.
Review: As with any anthology, the quality of the stories and the storytelling varies, though there's a bit less range than the other collections because there are fewer stories. Here's a quick look at each one:
Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 by Kevin J. Anderson
The thing I do appreciate about Anderson's multitude of Star Wars stories is that he always writes with an obvious knowledge of established lore and a clear goal of building on it. What I appreciate less is that the ideas he brings are often really, really dumb and derivative. He saddled the old EU with a lot of unnecessarily stupid baggage. This doesn't quite sink to that level by virtue of being so inconsequential, but it's still just absurd. The basic concept is that IG-88 is not 1 droid, but 4 . . . a team of unstoppable super-assassins who achieve sentience and immediately murder their creators and escape out into the galaxy. Soon, their thoughts turn to galactic domination by means of . . . Well, I don't want to summarize the whole thing.
The point is, the concept is not good (and ultimately tries to rewrite our understanding of the climax of Return of the Jedi in a way that largely undermines it, which I particularly hate). Beyond that, though, the larger idea doesn't fit the narrative of IG-88 as a bounty hunter pursuing Han Solo, and Anderson does all sorts of silly contortions to pretend that it does, but none of it ever makes sense. Just utter tripe.
Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton
The overall plot of this story is actually reasonably compelling, but the character of Dengar is pretty much bland and uninteresting for most of it. It feels like a mistake to give Dengar a personal grudge against Han Solo; one of those classic bits of EU silliness that make the galaxy feel incredibly tiny, like it's just the same 20-30 people coincidentally bumping into each other over and over again. But that element aside, and ignoring the fact that I don't find straightforward revenge stories all that compelling, this is . . . fine. It was the one of the bunch that ended too soon, just when I thought things were getting kind of interesting.
The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk by Kathy Tyers
I'll chalk it up to Anderson's failure as an editor that yet another one of the bounty hunters who are on the spot when the Empire calls has a personal history and grudge against Han Solo and Chewbacca. This is just such an obvious and uninteresting element to include in your story, and in this case it could have been left out entirely without impacting anything that happens. This is the first one in the collection to doesn't weirdly engineer events to parallel what's happening in the movie (both IG-88 and Dengar track Han to Bespin and then continue on to Tatooine), and I appreciate that. I also kind of like that Bossk isn't the protagonist of the story and is portrayed so unsympathetically. This one was also okay, I guess.
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM by M. Shayne Bell
This story was easily my favorite of the collection, though that isn't saying much, and also oddly the one I remembered nothing about from the first time I read it many years ago. Zuckuss and 4-LOM are the characters that seem the most underused out of the bounty hunters from the movie, and I enjoyed what Bell did with them. This story was the only one where the outcome didn't feel predictable and inevitable (and, yeah, note the title). The story made me care what was going to happen to its main characters, made me feel tension about how things would work out for them, and kept me guessing. None of the other stories really accomplished that, and most didn't even try.
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran
I actually talked quite a bit in a recent review about what makes a good Boba Fett story and the various successful and unsuccessful approaches to him as a character. This falls squarely into the category of trying to establish some very definitive canon around both Fett's history and his personality, and it also falls prey to . . . not being very compelling. Fett is a complete ass in this tale, a mindlessly rigid rule-follower whose moral code is confined purely to the letter of whatever law happens to be in effect at that particular moment, and totally incapable of critical thought about ethics or morality beyond that. It's interesting that this was the definitive backstory for Boba Fett when it was written, and I'm not going to sit here and say that I think the current official backstory is all that great, either . . . but I'm not all that sad to see this overwritten.
This isn't even a story so much as a series of vignettes covering about 35 years of time, including all of the times Fett had appeared on-screen to that point. The best segment by far is the depiction of an aging Fett going after one last score (which also happens to tie in with Moran's story from Mos Eisley Cantina). Part of me also appreciated the whole finale and its set-up, the depiction of this decades-old rivalry between two opponents who aren't even sure anymore why it's so important that one of them kills the other. I . . . question the canonicity of it, and it doesn't really fit within the larger framework of the EU to leave it unresolved, but artistically, the way it ends is absolutely the right choice.
The final third or so of this story is a great piece of standalone storytelling. It's kind of like Logan in that it's not totally clear how or whether it fits in with the rest of the franchise, and you're not sure this is the ending you'd want to the story of these beloved characters, but it's undeniably very good. So . . . obviously I feel a bit ambivalent about this story overall, but apart from the epic z-grade camp of the IG-88 story, the conclusion of the Boba Fett story is easily the most memorable element of what is ultimately a mostly dull and forgettable anthology.
C-
December 24, 2024
My Reading Log
Plot Summary
Tales of the Bounty Hunters by Kevin J. Anderson is an anthology of five interconnected stories, each exploring the lives of the bounty hunters seen in The Empire Strikes Back. The stories delve into their backgrounds, motivations, and unique missions, shedding light on their encounters with the Empire, the Rebellion, and each other. From IG-88’s quest for galactic domination to Boba Fett’s unyielding professionalism, the book paints a vivid picture of the Star Wars galaxy’s darker corners. Themes of greed, survival, and morality run through each tale, providing depth to these enigmatic characters.
Characters
Boba Fett - The ruthless and efficient bounty hunter, embodying the perfect professional, navigating a world of betrayal and survival.
IG-88 - A sentient assassin droid striving for galactic control, exploring themes of artificial intelligence and autonomy.
Dengar - A vengeful bounty hunter with a personal grudge against Han Solo, revealing his softer side through unexpected romance.
Bossk - A Trandoshan hunter known for his brutality and relentless pursuit of prey, driven by his species' traditions.
Zuckuss - A Gand bounty hunter with Force-like instincts, paired with his pragmatic partner.
4-LOM - A former protocol droid turned bounty hunter, whose story intertwines with Zuckuss’s as they challenge expectations.
The Empire - Various Imperial officers and agents who interact with the bounty hunters, showcasing the galaxy’s larger conflict.
Han Solo (mentioned) - A central figure in many of the hunters’ stories, his actions impacting their paths.
Quotes
"Bounty hunting isn’t about justice; it’s about getting paid." — Boba Fett
"No one fears a machine—until it learns how to think." — IG-88
"Revenge isn’t worth dying for, but sometimes it’s worth living for." — Dengar
Plot Summary
Tales of the Bounty Hunters by Kevin J. Anderson is an anthology of five interconnected stories, each exploring the lives of the bounty hunters seen in The Empire Strikes Back. The stories delve into their backgrounds, motivations, and unique missions, shedding light on their encounters with the Empire, the Rebellion, and each other. From IG-88’s quest for galactic domination to Boba Fett’s unyielding professionalism, the book paints a vivid picture of the Star Wars galaxy’s darker corners. Themes of greed, survival, and morality run through each tale, providing depth to these enigmatic characters.
Characters
Boba Fett - The ruthless and efficient bounty hunter, embodying the perfect professional, navigating a world of betrayal and survival.
IG-88 - A sentient assassin droid striving for galactic control, exploring themes of artificial intelligence and autonomy.
Dengar - A vengeful bounty hunter with a personal grudge against Han Solo, revealing his softer side through unexpected romance.
Bossk - A Trandoshan hunter known for his brutality and relentless pursuit of prey, driven by his species' traditions.
Zuckuss - A Gand bounty hunter with Force-like instincts, paired with his pragmatic partner.
4-LOM - A former protocol droid turned bounty hunter, whose story intertwines with Zuckuss’s as they challenge expectations.
The Empire - Various Imperial officers and agents who interact with the bounty hunters, showcasing the galaxy’s larger conflict.
Han Solo (mentioned) - A central figure in many of the hunters’ stories, his actions impacting their paths.
Quotes
"Bounty hunting isn’t about justice; it’s about getting paid." — Boba Fett
"No one fears a machine—until it learns how to think." — IG-88
"Revenge isn’t worth dying for, but sometimes it’s worth living for." — Dengar
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