BOOK REVIEW [Reblog]: Salvage by Eric Brown

A couple of days ago I was asked by a friend for some advice on what sci-fi book they should pick up next. I asked them what they'd like to read and the answer was "something entertaining and interesting yet not too long or involved." Salvage was one of the first books to pop into my head, and the more we discussed what it is that they like, became more and more a match. I'm happy to report that they are loving it so far, just as I thought they would.

Anyway, this prompted me to reblog a short review which I did a few years back:

***** *** *******

Salvage by Eric Brown

My rating: 4.7 out of 5

Synopsis:

When Salvageman Ed saves Ella Rodriguez from spider-drones on the pleasure planet of Sinclair’s Landfall, he has no idea what he’s letting himself in for. Ella is not at all what she seems, as he’s soon about to find out.

What follows, as the spider-drones and the Hayakawa Organisation chase Ed, Ella and engineer Karrie light-years across space, is a fast-paced adventure with Ed learning more about Ella – and about himself – than he ever expected.

The Salvageman Ed series of linked stories – four of which appear here for the first time – combine action, humour and pathos, from the master of character-based adventure science fiction.

----- --- -------

This is the first short story collection of Brown's that I've read. It's a group of stories that are all linked together by the characters and the general 'journey' of the stories, similar to Kethani which is another collection of his stories that blend together into a fine novel length book.

Salvage reads great and has a really fun 'pulp sci-fi' feel going on that I totally loved. At times I was reminded almost of some old Perry Rhodan stories that I've read in years gone by but with a little more finesse. There are all the elements there for great stories - FTL starships, robots, AI, aliens, weird and wonderful planets and species. The lot.

The use of words to describe people, places and things is absolutely fantastic and made me chuckle at times. I used the dictionary feature on my ebook reader a number of times for some of the more impressive words. Check out a couple of examples:

“They left the prison of the flesh, which by any definition is finite, and became immortal. They reside now in a realm of their own devising, free of the corruption of the physical, a hundred million of them in a virtual universe tied in a way I can barely comprehend to the nano-strings that bind the quantum universe. Their new home might very well last forever.”

and just for a giggle:

The creature said, raising itself on its multiple limbs, “I thank you for your hospitality, my friends, and now I must repair to my berth and void the excess of foodstuffs partaken. Good night to you.”

I love this stuff, right good yarns with heaps of well-proven sci-fi tropes and ideas all done in a fun and hugely entertaining way. Overall a great little book that, once again, confirms Eric Brown as one of my all-time favourite authors. I'd like him to do more work like this. Highly recommended.

4/5 for concept
5/5 for delivery
5/5 for entertainment
= 4.7 out of 5

Buy the ebook HERE (Amazon) 
Buy the paper book HERE (Book Depository)

BOOK REVIEW: The Ion Raider by Ian Whates

The Ion Raider (The Dark Angels #2) by Ian Whates

My rating: 4.3 out of 5

Following up the very entertaining Pelquin's Comet [my review HERE], this second book of an obviously ongoing series strikes pretty much the same chord, being a fast-moving short novel with many of the hallmarks of solid space opera. The story follows on chronologically from Comet and I'd say that you really need to have read that first to get the full grasp of the plot here. It continues to build the story, introducing more key players while also revealing more tantalizing facts and hints about the Dark Angels as well as the ancient and mysterious Elder aliens and their caches of artefacts scattered across the galaxy.

We have some of the same central characters who we met in Comet, including Corbin Drake who is a respected representative and field operative for a large bank, an identity he has established over the course many years. As we learned in Comet, there is far more to Drake's past that even he initially realises. He is again tasked by his boss to assess an Elder artefact cache, but this time his presence has been specifically requested by someone from his dark past, a fact which makes him and his employers just a little suspicious. Alongside this, a number of ex-Dark Angel members are being assassinated and a couple of former Angels attempt to make contact with their ex-colleagues in an attempt to prevent their deaths and to discover the reason why they're being hunted. One of these we met in Comet, Leesa, who is also trying to distance herself from her past and we learn and see more of Leesa's special "talents" as she and her friends regroup, along with reuniting with their ship the Ion Raider. The team of former Dark Angels struggles because not all are keen to revisit their old way of life, but it is still clear that somebody wants the Angels dealt with once and for all. The book ends rather suddenly, not quite a cliff-hanger but still very abrupt and is obviously going to be continued in book three [of which there's no news of yet...]. I hope it comes quickly because the plot is really starting to thicken up and there is still so many intriguing things to be revealed. All very tantalizing stuff.

The more I read of Whates' work the more I like it, and his style is similar to some others I could mention, infused with a cool "pulp" style which makes it so entertaining. Reading this really is a whole lot of fun and it's a good flowing story with stacks of action, cool ideas and interesting characters along with a plot that keeps you thinking right up to the [sudden] end. It really is exactly like reading the first book, so if you liked that then you're going to get just as much out of this one.

In short, this book [and series] epitomises the reasons why I read this sort of stuff, being great entertainment and an effective escape from the "real world". If you haven't read Pelquin's Comet yet, do so immediately and then rip into this one soon after, you'll be left satisfied [and hanging out for book three] just like I have been. I'd put money on it. Enjoy.

4/5 for concept

4/5 for delivery

5/5 for entertainment

= 4.3 out of 5

Buy the ebook HERE (Amazon)
Buy the paper book HERE (Book Depository)

The Great Book Format Debate - Print vs. Digital

Whenever I tell people that I read a lot and review books, they will often bring up the question of paper books versus ebooks. They'll ask me which I prefer and why. Many people have written on this topic before but it still frequently comes up in conversation among readers.

What I love are words that contain good stories and meaningful information, whether it's printed on paper or made up of e-ink capsules over a white background is mostly irrelevant to me. It's the words that I'm there for. However, it's still an issue that many readers appear to battle over.

I dabble with both formats but confess that I am reading mostly ebooks these days. The reasons for this are purely pragmatic, of which portability, convenience and ease of access are top of the list. I love being able to have that new novel from a favourite author on the spot, eliminating the need to visit some annoying shopping mall (or wait for it to arrive via mail) and pay a sizable chunk of money for the print book. Some of the books that I read are quite hefty in paper form and digital obviously eliminates this problem. My ebook reader is light and easy to hold whether I'm standing, sitting or reclining [I'm an avid librocubicularist] and takes up a fraction of the space in my bag.

I use ebook management software on my computer and keep my collection backed up. Because of this, my physical bookshelf is growing very slowly as of late. Sure, there are the tangible facets of a "real" book like the weight of it, the feel of the cover and the smell of the paper, etc. I admit to being fond of these things, and I even recently re-read my old hardcover copy of The War of the Worlds in an attempt to relive the experience from many years ago. I enjoyed it too. But it was the story that I mainly focused on, I didn't really pay much attention to the medium at all.

These days my library is huge yet takes up hardly any space.

As a thumbs down for modern devices, research has shown that reading a tablet before bed can actually lead to increased symptoms of insomnia (to clarify, that's a device with a back-lit LCD screen, e-ink devices do not cause this problem). Reading a physical printed book is apparently the key. A recent study has shown that people who read on a "Kindle" were significantly worse at remembering what they read compared to those who read printed text. It was concluded that “the haptic and tactile feedback of a Kindle does not provide the same support for mental reconstruction of a story as a print pocket book does.” [It's a safe assumption that this finding applies not only to Amazon's iconic Kindle but also other proprietary e-readers as well.] I buy print books for my kids who like to read, the robustness of a chunky book being of obvious value here. But already my 9-year-old son is expressing interest in an ebook reader, so he'll soon be discovering the pros and cons for himself. [It may also teach him the benefit of picking things up of the floor...]

As far as sales go, I've found that reliable figures are a bit elusive but most sources are showing ebooks to be consistently increasing in sales and forecast to overhaul print (which has seen a corresponding reduction in sales). But it hasn't been a fast process, and I was one of those who predicted the rapid demise of print media once mobile devices became so widespread. I was a little off-target because paper has hung in there admirably. It'll be interesting to see if the lines do actually cross over and how much they might diverge the other way.

This graph is for US sales, but from what I’ve seen (I’m in New Zealand) I’d wager that this trend is generally consistent worldwide.

Returning to the personal preferences of readers, the following points seem to sum up the feelings of most people:

Prefer ebooks:

Storage – hundreds, even thousands, of books within one device

Ease of purchase – buying an ebook is just a click away

Portability – light, on hand, easy to carry around

Price – usually less than a print book [although I've seen the gap close up alarmingly in recent years]

Purchasing options – many different online sources

Freedom - the ability to share titles with others easily and quickly [the legalities aside]

Prefer print books:

Tangibility – an actual physical item for the money

Accomplishment – the mass of the book moves from the right side to the left, visual progress

Libraries – people like the vibe of a library with books to browse and choose

Aroma – the smell of ink on paper [rather nice I admit]

Less restriction - no DRM (Digital Rights Management) and no battery issues

I can relate to some extent with every one of those points and this leads me to the obvious conclusion, that there is a solid place for both. In today's world, it's a lot more about convenience and accessibility meaning ebooks fit with modern "must have it now" attitudes. But, print books are still moving off the shelves okay, even among younger readers, so it looks as if the old-school perceptions still mean something within the same society.

To conclude, I'll say that I hope that print and digital will continue to coexist successfully and I don't see any reasons why they shouldn't. I can see many reasons why the demise of print would be undesirable, the possible disappearance of community libraries not least of these. But nor is the rise of electronic media unwelcome with less paper used, ie. a smaller carbon footprint and that sort of thing. In my mind the format is largely a moot point, what matters most to me is that there are books being written, published and read. After all, it's about the words, the wonderful words with which we feed our minds [for better or worse].

"In union there is strength." -- Aesop

BOOK REVIEW: All These Worlds [Bobiverse #3] by Dennis E. Taylor

All These Worlds [Bobiverse #3] by Dennis E. Taylor

My rating: 4.3 out of 5

It was about time I got around to finishing this fine series from Dennis E. Taylor, a relative newcomer to the sci-fi scene and hopefully will be a long-term stayer. After reading this series I know one thing for sure: I have a new addition to my “intro to sci-fi” book list. These are the books that I choose from to recommend to someone new to the genre and looking for a good read and that will hopefully keep them interested in science fiction. This series oozes humour, humanity and scientific plausibility which makes the future depicted in the story one that I could see actually transpiring. This final book of the trilogy continued in the same enjoyable fashion as the previous ones (see my reviews HERE and HERE) and finished in a most satisfactory way without closing the door for future stories in this setting.

By now, there are a number of human colonies seeded around the galaxy and also a couple of alien species who are being helped along in various ways by the “Bobs”, the ever-growing number of sentient AI starships roaming about the place trying to help however and wherever they can. They’ve still got their work cut out for them in the shape of the rogue Brazilian AI ship Medeiros and his fleets, as well as a destructive roaming alien species, dubbed the "Others”, inflicting havoc wherever they go. Now it looks very much like the Others have set their sights squarely on Earth which is, in itself, a bit of a wasteland finally screwed over by our own species. Because of this, the Bobs and the remaining people on Earth are quite motivated to get their backsides off-planet and relocate to a more suitable and safer location far away. With a climactic battle for Earth against the Others rapidly approaching, if the human species is going to have any real chance of survival, the Bobs must come up with a plan to fight off the Others and/or get the remaining millions off Earth before the proverbial hits the proverbial.

Parallel to this are the continuing stories of some Bobs who have decided to interact with the physical world around them by entering android bodies. This includes “Original Bob” [who was the first human-derived AI of the whole story] and his interactions with the sentient furry creatures on Delta Eridani as well as Howard [a descendant clone of Bob] who has built some strong relationships with flesh and blood humans on the colony world Vulcan. Also, the Bobs have rescued the “Pavs” after their world was raped and left barren by the Others and there is a concerted effort to find the Pav remnant a new place to live. These stories show that the AI’s have retained a large amount of their humanity and you’d argue that they’re still “people” even though their minds manifest via machines. I guess that’s the general profound theme of this series, that artificial intelligence could possibly still contain a soul or essence of some description.

The writing style is very good, flowing at a fairly steady pace throughout and the action is nicely done, absorbing without being too much. Each chapter is told from the first-person viewpoint of one of the Bobs and, as I found with the previous books, can be a tad confusing if you don’t take careful note at the beginning of each chapter who/where/when the events are about. If you keep track of where you are in the story it’ll fall into place superbly.

Because of the philosophical ideas and much of the other scientific and technological stuff in the story, I’d place these books firmly at the hard sci-fi end of the scale. But they’d have to be some of the most accessible hard sci-fi for a general audience in recent times [that I’ve seen] and part of the reason why I rate them as great introductory science fiction books for a wide range of readers. Again, I am particularly reminded of the work of John Scalzi and his witty style, both authors’ books are very easy to read and get immersed in. For these reasons, the Bobiverse series is one of the most memorable in recent years and hopefully just the beginning of a long line of work from Dennis E. Taylor.

4/5 for concept

4/5 for delivery

5/5 for entertainment

= 4.3 out of 5

Buy the print & ebook HERE (Amazon US)

Buy the print book HERE (Book Depository UK)

BOOK REVIEW: Salvation (Salvation Sequence #1) by Peter F. Hamilton

Salvation (Salvation Sequence #1) by Peter F. Hamilton

My rating: 5 out of 5Like so many Peter F. Hamilton [PFH] readers, this has been my most anticipated release of 2018, so much so that I tried a number of channels to get hold of an advance reader copy. But, alas, my efforts were to no avail and I had to wait until the official release like most others. Was it worth the wait? My oath it was!

As a definite space opera and PFH fan, I was bound to sink my teeth into this one and most likely enjoy it. But, there's no undue bias here when I say that this book is simply superb. There's no other way to describe it and this new standalone series from PFH certainly looks like it's going to be another epic. The style in which it's written is very good, and typically PFH, and he didn't seem to get as bogged down in minutiae this time [as I feel much of his earlier work is affected]. All of the action and sub-stories are firmly part of the greater storyline, which is only just beginning to take shape in this book. The format is excellent, with numerous flashbacks and flashforwards from a central narrative, all of which link together and give you a hazy yet tantalizingly intriguing picture of where the story appears to be headed. It finished well and I am very excited to see where the series goes, this book being a good introduction to the universe and players before the story slips into a higher gear. Now tell me that doesn’t sound exciting.

To read, it felt a lot like a short story collection where the individual stories link together to form the framework of a larger tale, and this is pretty much what it is, each “chapter” giving a portion of the background, mostly about the key characters but also about the places and things within this new universe. As per usual, PFH’s world-building is second to none [ie. awesomely cool] and I found myself re-reading more than once some of his descriptions of locations and technology so that I could better grasp the wonder of it. Another hallmark of Hamilton’s fiction which is again present are lots of high-tech future cops and robbers and there’s no shortage of these in Salvation, with most of the central characters being some sort of police officer, security specialist, mercenary or criminal. The future flashforward sections are excellent, slightly reminiscent of other child or youth sci-fi soldier stories that you may have read, the characters struggling to come to grips with the knowledge that the future existence of mankind rests upon their shoulders. Overall, you can quite clearly how the different timelines relate to each other and how things might transpire.

Now we get to the part where I resist going into a breakdown of the story which would only add potential spoilers, but there are a number of excellent professional reviews online [like HERE and HERE]. What I can say that it is supremely entertaining and filled to the brim with good solid sci-fi action and intrigue. It’s space opera as it should be, a story painted on a canvas of galactic scale with an abundance of massive awesome stuff contained therein. There are interesting alien life-forms, interesting alien agendas and interesting alien technology, which is totally what you’d expect from PFH. Anybody who enjoys good sci-fi [and galaxy-spanning space opera in particular] will just devour this and love every moment of doing so. It’s a must for any PFH fan and also a perfectly suitable starting point for any readers new to his work. Hamilton has been shortening his novels a little in recent years and his work is much the better for it in my humble opinion, meaning that his work is probably that much more accessible for a mainstream audience. The earlier Night’s Dawn Trilogy, Commonwealth Saga and Void Trilogy books, while truly excellent books, were seen as a bit daunting by some readers. Such were my observations anyway. There are no such worries with this one, however, and it should be a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable read for a lot of people. Get into it.

5/5 for concept

5/5 for delivery

5/5 for entertainment

= 5 out of 5

Buy the ebook HERE (Amazon US)

Buy the paper book HERE (Book Depository UK)

BOOK REVIEW: Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn #2) by Timothy Zahn

Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn #2) by Timothy Zahn

My rating: 3.3 out of 5

Carrying on with this new canon series penned by sci-fi heavyweight Timothy Zahn, Thrawn: Alliances continues painting on the revised Star Wars canvas, feeling both familiar and completely new at the same time. There are a number of familiar characters [including the excellent and ever-present R2-D2] and places as well as many that we've not come across before. The storyline idea is familiar enough yet it is drifting gently and tangentially away from the traditional Expanded Universe ideas.

General Anakin Skywalker &
Commander Mitth’raw’nuruodo

The story of Admiral Thrawn's rise to power under the close observation of Emperor Palpatine is well covered in Thrawn [see my review HERE], and this book begins to flesh out the larger story of Thrawn's involvement with the Empire and why Palpatine finds him so interesting and useful. It is actually two completely separate but firmly linked stories in a then-and-now style, the book switching back and forth between these two timelines the whole way through. The "now" part is set during the height of the Empire when Emperor Palpatine senses a disturbance in the Force from the Unkown Regions and sends Thrawn and Darth Vader [who have a history of opposing each other in Imperial politics] off together in Thrawn's flagship Star Destroyer to discover the source of the disturbance. The "then" is set just after the Clone Wars and tells of how Thrawn [then a Commander in the Chiss Ascendancy military] and Jedi General Anakin Skywalker meet for the first time on a remote planet. They are on the trail of Senator Padmé Amidala who has gone chasing a lead relating to a secret Separatist rebel operation. It is this event that Thrawn himself refers to in book one when being questioned by the Emperor after his capture, he relays that he had met and fought with Jedi Skywalker and learned of the existence of the Galactic Republic [the precursor to the Empire]. He was told that Skywalker is dead, but Thrawn soon deduces that this may not be entirely true. Thrawn is a very intelligent and observant person and he has a fair idea of what's going on, whether it's Anakin and Padme's secret relationship [in the "then" story] or the true past identity of Darth Vader [in the "now" story] but keeps his cards close to his chest as he works the situation to his advantage. His love of art and culture often enables him to look at a scenario and make judgements that are surprisingly accurate. He's fast becoming one of my top favourite Star Wars characters.

Senator Padmé Amidala

The writing style is good and flows well, typical of an author of Zahn's pedigree, but the flavor of it came across as a little young adult to me, as if it has been purposely aimed at a younger reader. It felt more like a teen novel and would be enjoyed greatly by this segment I'd say. Zahn does a very good job of portraying Anakin's rash impetuousness and it was interesting to compare this to the similar traits in Darth Vader in the later storyline. This is obviously one of the things which help Thrawn deduce the truth, although unconfirmed at this stage of the game. To go much further into a recap of the story from what the synopsis already reveals would introduce spoilers, so I'll stop by saying that the storylines themselves are interesting enough and are very action-packed.

Like with Thrawn, I reckon the world-building is a tad modest but, again, I believe that the assumption has been made that the reader will already be familiar with the appearance of such things as a TIE fighter or a Stormtrooper, for example. I did find myself drifting a little at times and losing concentration, especially during some rather lengthy action and battle scenes and it was only when a particularly interesting new piece of information came along that I was snapped back to attention. Thankfully there are enough of these bits to keep me on the hook for the duration. I don't know what it is, but long action sequences have always been a bit of a bore for me, and this book [unfortuantely] has a few too many of them for my liking, some of the action seems quite trivial within the grand scheme. This is the book's weakest point in my view but, if you like lots of action, then you'll probably love it and think I'm an idiot [you won't be the first...].

One of the most interesting parts is a fresh new approach to a traditional Expanded Universe [now Star Wars: Legends] idea of invaders from outside the galaxy [ie. the Yuuzhan Vong] and I'll wager that this is going play a large part in the story arc moving ahead. Quite exciting, this is. I'm still not fully settled on how I feel about the tangential shift and the new direction that Star Wars is taking, and this book [and the latest Disney-era movies] are clearly designed more for a new audience without a lot of prior experience with the traditional Star Wars plots. I think that as time progresses the new canon will become the norm and all will be in balance once more. In the meantime, there is obviously more to come with this story arc [word on the street is that Zahn has been contracted for a third novel in the series] which I am looking forward to, especially finding out more about these potential invaders from the Unknown Regions.

In summary, it's an okay book but I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as the first book of the series. It's clear that the planning people are using these new books to build the foundation for a much larger Star Wars story from which to branch out into other mediums [ie. movies and TV] and, for that reason, this book and series are necessary reads for those who wish to stay abreast of the new canon themes. A recommended read for the fan but not all that gripping in a general sense.

4/5 for concept

3/5 for delivery

3/5 for entertainment

= 3.3 out of 5

Buy the ebook HERE (Amazon US)

Buy the paper book HERE (Book Depository)

BOOK REVIEW: Outpost (Donovan Trilogy #1) by W. Michael Gear

Outpost (Donovan Trilogy #1) by W. Michael Gear
My rating: 4.7 out of 5

I've been seeing this title [the first of a planned trilogy] pop up on a few book blogs that I keep an eye on, the synopsis immediately catching my attention, sounding like an interesting far-flung space colony story set on a planet with weird and wonderful ecology which is resisting human attempts to plunder resources from their home. The colony is on the planet Donovan which is thirty light-years away and the colonization and mining operations are being overseen by a ruthless profit-driven corporation based back in our Solar System. The strange thing is that the last half-dozen Corporation ships that have attempted to make the journey to Donovan have all disappeared, leaving the colonists stranded and left to their own devices. That is until the ship Turalon, which carries a high-level member of The Corporation board, finally makes orbit. It's crew prepares to head planetside to find out what's been going on over the last few years.

Down on Donovan they discover a failed colony with the government overthrown, the few colonists who are left having gone rather feral. This is quite understandable because the planet has presented a number of challenges, mostly the strange and often deadly flora and fauna which is constantly trying to kill them. When The Corporation, along with a squad of Marines, attempts to re-establish their power they are in for a shock because the Donovan colonists have reorganized themselves into a dysfunctional yet effective group who are [only just] surviving despite what the planet throws at them. Toss into the mix a few characters who have agendas of their own and you get a really engaging and interesting plot. The story follows the political and physical tussle in superb detail, with stacks of action and great dialogue all wrapped up some very good world-building. The creatures on the planet are simply awesome, especially the huge almost dragon-like quetzals, nemesis of the colonists and who I expect are going to play a much larger role in the ongoing story. The cover is slightly misleading in that the structure of human bones pictured [while definitely present in the story] is not really a major plot element in an overall sense. But, maybe I'm wrong? Or have I missed a crucial clue somewhere along the way? I thought that the cover art was not the best choice as an indicator of the story content.

As I read through, I was often reminded of the movie Avatar which has a similar vibe, the planet and what it holds being more than initially meets the eye, and also the struggle against a huge corporate power. The world building in this book is just as good and I often found my mind's eye thinking on the same scale, reminded of the fantastic imagery of the movie. Think of this as a good thing, unless you thought that Avatar was rubbish, which will mean that you might find some aspects of this book tiresome. Not me though, I loved it and I'm really looking forward to book two of this Donovan Trilogy called Abandoned which is due for publication in November 2018. Overall this sci-fi adventure is great entertainment which ticked all of the boxes for me in what I look for in a novel these days.

4/5 for concept

5/5 for delivery

5/5 for entertainment

= 4.7 out of 5

Buy the ebook HERE (Amazon US)

Buy the paper book HERE (Book Depository)

BOOK REVIEW: From a Certain Point of View [Star Wars]

From a Certain Point of View [Star Wars] by Various Authors

My rating: 4.3 out of 5

Okay, how about a fresh new anthology of forty short stories telling the Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope story from a multitude of different perspectives, written by some of the biggest names in contemporary sci-fi literature? Yep, bring it to me! The idea of this simply demanded that I give it a solid look. Also, it is written to sit within the new Disney canon structure which is another reason why I wanted to give it a try, that is to see how the new ideas people treated this grass-roots Star Wars plot (which kicked off one of the biggest entertainment franchises of all time) and how it stacked up against the traditional story and ideas that I grew up with. So how does it rate? Quite okay as it turns out.

The story is a well-known one but, if you'll indulge me, let's recap briefly [deep breath...]: A couple of droids, one of which [R2D2] belongs to a beautiful young princess and Rebel leader [Leia Organa] contains the stolen plans (recently portrayed in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) to an Imperial space station and super-weapon [the Death Star]. The droids are pursued across space and the arid planet Tatooine by thousands of shiny white Stormtroopers and a shiny black Sith Lord [Darth Vader] to stop the plans getting into the hands of the Rebel forces. Whilst on Tatooine they team up with an old Jedi Knight [Obi-Wan Kenobi] (who is watching and protecting a young boy [Luke Skywalker] from a distance) and a couple of smugglers [Han Solo and Chewbacca] who have a very fast freighter vessel [the Millenium Falcon] which can get the droid and the stolen plans past the Imperial blockades to the secret Rebel base [on Yavin 4]. The Death Star plans contain details of a certain vulnerability which the Rebels hope to exploit and destroy it before it can be moved into position to destroy the Rebel base in a gigantic race against time. Numerous scenes are told from the point of view of often minor [however, not all are "minor",  i.e. Obi-Wan, Yoda and Boba Fett] characters who give us a refreshing new view of the events. Even from these new perspectives, the story is satisfying and the climax is fantastic.

Dianoga

Mon Mothma

There's no denying that the stories themselves are of great quality, written by some of the best of the genre; authors like Ken Liu, Chuck Wendig, Pablo Hidalgo and Paul S Kemp [and others] require no introduction to most and produce some top work in these pages. There are only a few exceptions at either end of the scale, there are two pieces that I didn't care for at all, but the vast majority are real beauties. It's difficult to nail down particular favorites, but two that did stand out for me included one told from the point of view of a sentient force-sensitive water creature called a dianoga which is what Leia, Luke, Han and Chewie encounter in the watery trash chamber on the Death Star, while the other tells of [Rebel leader] Mon Mothma's secret contingency plans in the event of a Rebel defeat if that were to happen. These were fascinating insights. Like I said, apart from a couple, all are great reads.

I'm very glad that I picked this one up because it was a real treat to read. From what I've now read a few titles produced from the new Disney/Lucasfilm/Del Rey combination and have been quite impressed with the quality of the work. While I'm still not totally confident in the overall story direction going forward compared to the traditional [now called "Legends"] ideas, the literature which I've seen so far seems to be tracking along nicely. This compilation sat well with me and I would bet that most Star Wars fans will enjoy these fresh insights into the established A New Hope story. A highly recommended read for anyone into the Star Wars saga, even if they've only got a basic understanding of the overall storyline. Now, if the brains trust who oversee this whole project could just lift their game a little when it comes to the new movies, that would be good.

4/5 for concept

4/5 for delivery

5/5 for entertainment

= 4.3 out of 5

Buy the ebook HERE (Amazon US)

Buy the paper book HERE (Book Depository)