Book Review Tales of the Bounty Hunters

 

Book: Tales of the Bounty Hunters

Author: Kevin J. Anderson, Dave Wolverton, Kathy Tyers, M. Shane Bell, Daniel Keys Moran.

Pages: 339

Hard Core Scale: 2.6/4

Normal Scale: 7/10

Publish Date: 1997

About: The tales of the bounty hunters who the Empire hired to seek after Han Solo. Who are they, why do they seek the bounty, what happened in that search, and after.



Review: A smattering of writers of different skill levels. Also tone levels, something interesting to reflect on. Who is Star Wars for and how we perceive and interact with it. The short story burn is felt at times, and it is acceptable, but there is scrutiny on how much telling versus a habit of telling. It’s fun to visit a book written before the prequels and with sequels in mind before the DST came out. Cloning is illegal because of the clone wars: 1996. I guess we need to take them each individually. The score will be determined based on average.



Kevin J. Anderson: Therefore I am: The Tale of Ig-88

2/4

The weakest piece in the work. Anderson writes a lot of Star Wars works, mainly the ones for kids. Took a while for the name to click for me as he is responsible for some whoring garbage in the Dune Universe and others. Usually, he writes anthology pieces or tags along with someone else. This piece is the one that feels the most written for children. The simple style leads on with bad telling. Terrifying IG-88 is cooped up in weird robotics archetypes. Antagonists are a bit obsifucating. At the same time a fun romp in robotic minds in the Star Wars Universe.



Dave Wolverton L PayBack: The Tale of Dengar

¾ Great writing. A fun story, the type of thing we expected from this anthology. Has the feeling of Star Wars, knows the characters, you are getting your money out of it. Deep character work. This felt more for adults.



Kathy Tyers : The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk

2/4

An inversion of what we expected from the book. It follows two other “good” bounty hunters trying to trick and stop Bossk. Bossk in this work is easily duped and there is little sense of danger and a hard suspension of disbelief. Again, feels a bit kiddyish in that plot. Also, a strange weird 90s fantasy flow in here that does not taste right in Star Wars. Star Wars has its fantasy elements to it, but there is a 90s fantasy flare to the genre that does not mesh over this very well in concern of architypes in character and tone.



M. Shane Bell: Of possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4lom.

2/4

Lots of bad telling moments instead of showing. Good story telling, but stuck in a hard place and some suspense of disbelief moments. Also lower in tone as if meant for kids.



Daniel Keys Moran: The Last One standing The Tale of Boba Fett:

4/4

Daniel Keys Moran Knows Star Wars. He worked hard replicating the characters in dialogue and form. It hurt reading this because the DTS exist. Why this work made me cry. Definitely the one seemingly written for adults. Fun, deep, action, adventure: What people are looking for and what we expected from this anthology. A darn good style. I you’re a Fett fan, this makes the book worth it. 

 


Book Cover, art by Steven Youll, 1996, Copy Right Bantram Spectra Book, Lucas Film, Disney

 

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