Tales From Jabba's Palace (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
this book doesn't require any vast Star Wars knowledge or brain cells to read and understand, it's actually quite a good book. I thought it was organized a little better than the others too, since they all seemed to have something to do with each other, and flowed along as a full story better than the others. Anyway the stories are: A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keepers Tale, an interesting story that tells of Malakili, the guy who took care of the rancor.Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef, the story of Jabba's nervous cook.That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb, the story of the annoying little pet thing Jabba has.A Time to Mourn, A Time to Dance: Oola's Tale, finally we get to find out was up with the dancing girl Jabba fed to his rancor.Let us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale, a spy in Jabba's palace...Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade, my favorite story in the book, about my favorite Star Wars character! Mara's adventures as she poses as a dancing girl in Jabba's palace, and waits for her chance to fulfil the Emperor's command and kill Luke Skywalker...And Then There were Some: The Gammorrean Gaurd's Tale, a kind of sad story about one of the gaurds.Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale, does Jabba have any true friends?Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees, a disgusting story about the three eyed guy.And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale, title says it all.Of The Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale, What really goes on in Bib Fortuna's brain?The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays, short but interesting.A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9, The droid down in Jabba's dungeon was actually a programmed phyco with a dislike for Lando.A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale, I could never figure out which alien this ones about, but it's good.Tongue Tied: Bubo's Tale, story of the frog thing.Out of the Closet: The Assasin's Tale, The most disgusting story in the book.Shaara and the Sarlaac: The Skiff Guards's tale, confusing but good.A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett, another Fett story.Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale, a surprisingly compelling story.Anyway, I would most definitely recommend this book to any Star Wars fan, especially those obsessed with knowing every background detail.
This book is mostly crap. However it's almost GOOD crap, if that makes any sense. It's, say, slightly above the level of fan-fiction. Characters that had no lines now get their whole history told, which makes me think some of these artists had a favorite action-figure growing up, and decided to write a story for it. The book as a whole can't even come close to being canon (if it were, the explosion of Jabba's skiff would look like something out of a G.I. Joe cartoon, with dozens of figures just happening to get clear of the blast at the last second), but it makes a nice framing sequence for some strange stories. And while a few stories were really bad, at least none of them were boring.
What do You think about Tales From Jabba's Palace (1995)?
The rating is totally unfair, for several of the authors. The rancor keeper was fun and Boba Fett was intriguing. For others it was generous. The tale of Ephant Mon read like a bad detective novel, and the one about the Gamorrean was morbidly amusing but the unfortunate writing took away from the fun it might have been. What I did like, and what I suppose one writer could not have done justice to, was the multiple perspectives about the one scene in the original trilogy where so much happens so quickly. It was a beautiful idea to have multiple perspectives about that one small block in the movie. And, though I could wish for a better collection of authors, I think it generally came off o.k.
—Cian Beirdd
Star Wars Tales From Jabba's Palace is a great compilation of short stories from various authors. Kevin J. Anderson edits this book and does a good job of it. The stories take place at various times ranging from when life in the palace was normal to the time Luke Skywalker and his friends turned the place into an uproar. There are really good back stories for characters that are unmissable in Jabba's court and for those whom you see on screen in Star Wars VI for barley a moment. An altogether fun and entertaining novel that's pretty easy to read, thanks to it's being broken into nineteen stories.
—Revan97
Another awesome book with a buch of short stories from the Star Wars universe, this one again showed me more in depth about the thoughts of the people inside of Jabba's palace. While not as good as the Tales of the bounty hunters, this one still did awesome. One thing that didn't make it as good was just the stories at times seemed to work with each other. What happened in one happened in another. I found it rather annoying sometimes, reading the same thing from a different point of view. However, i still loved the book.
—Briton
