Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
I'm going to attempt to write a few lines on each story as I read them so bear with me on this one. I remember when I first received this as a gift back in '95 for Christmas and being so, so excited to finally read all the back stories of the denizens shown in what to me was the best set of scenes in the Star Wars movies - the Mos Eisley Cantina. Not every story is how I would have played them out with all the action figures I once owned as a kid but they did enough to fire up my imagination and satisfied my Star Wars cravings at that time in my life. On to the tales... We Don't Do Weddings: The Band's TaleIn all honesty not much happens in this one. We learn the name of the band and the species of that bunch of baldies you no doubt remember from the Cantina scene in the original Star Wars (Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, Species: Bith). Band plays music, fight breaks out at a wedding, bride rips groom into pieces and the band gets new gig at the infamous Mos Eisley Cantina. For a group of Biths so paranoid about breaking their exclusive contact with the local crime boss (Jabba the Hutt) they choose a rather conspicuous new place to play... 2/5 Biths. A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's TaleAh, the infamous "Who shot first? scene plays out in all its glory here in A Hunter's Fate and thankfully, being penned pre-1997 and before all the George Lucas ret-con controversy hit the fan, has Han Solo shooting first as was originally intended! Cut to:EXT. AFTERLIFE DAYGREEDO stands alone in the afterlife looking despondent.GREEDOIf only I could have another chance to shoot first!A figure steps out of the shadows.GEORGE LUCASI think something like that can be arranged…So, as the title implies, here we have the story of Greedo, starting from when he was a young naive little Rodian growing up on an adopted jungle world to how he came to be, shall we say, a rather unsuccessful Bounty Hunter. Greedo is nothing like the character I imagined him to be when I was calling the shots. In my little make believe world, Greedo was only second in line to the great Boba Feet and never hesitated in dispatching Han away at the first opportunity. I mean, c'mon man, the dude is green! That's damn cool, right? But in this Greedo is deplorable, a loser, a "stinking green goon" as one of the other Bounty Hunters puts it. I couldn't drum up one iota of sympathy for his plight and actually loved the scenes where Han shows him up for the fool he is. Ah, Greedo, you shan't be missed... 2/5 Rodians.Hammertong: The Tale of the 'Tonnika' SistersDefinitely the best of the three tales thus far - I wonder if that's because it's written by Timothy Zahn, the man who kicked off the whole Star Wars 'Expanded Universe' with the fantastic 'Thrawn Trilogy'. I can't believe that was first published over twenty years ago now. Even though the more recent films contradict some of the events in Heir to the Empire I still want to go back and read them at some stage as those books helped me get back into reading after I neglected my favourite past time during my late teenage years.Hammertong begins with our two protagonists, members of an all female sect known as the 'Mistryl Shadow Guard', being hired to provide security detail for the transportation of a secret and important piece of Imperial equipment - the mysteriously named, Hammertong. And as you can no doubt guess, any time guards have a great reputation and come highly recommended, the best laid plans of mice and men go to rack and ruin...To say much more about the story will probably ruin it but I will leave this hint that anyone with a good EU background may pick up on. Imprinted on the item in question is a rather important name. Lemelisk...2 stars for each Tonnika sister, so 4/5.Play It Again, Figrin D'an: The Tale of Muftak and KabeInside cover, this is how the story is sold to us...Muftak, a spy who plots the biggest heist of his life - the plunder of a hundred worlds - but risks a one-way trip to the Great Pit of Carkoon...Let's just say that lead in is being a tad too melodramatic. Muftak is indeed a spy and from what we are lead to believe a rather good one. You need trade secrets? You go see Muftak. But as good as he is hyped up to be he doesn't even know the name of the species he belongs to! Some random Stormtrooper fills him in on that particular piece of information. And for those interested, Muftak is a Talz. Just think of Hugo the Abominable Snowman, best known for his line “I’ll hug him and squeeze him and call him George” when he tries to keep Bugs Bunny as a pet...Getting back on track, Muftak and his adopted Chadra-Fan companion, Kabe (a diminutive little thief and piss-pot to boot) hatch up a plan to rob the most notorious of criminals (yep, you guessed it, Jabba of course!) of his most prized possessions (the plunder of a hundred worlds mentioned above – so, not an outright lie, but sensationalised nonetheless!). And it’s while on this daring heist that they discover something even more valuable than said plunder...Rating? I’ll give this 2 and a half Talz out of 5. Seeing as a Chadra-Fan is half the height of a Talz this fits rather nicely.The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead’s TaleAs the title of this book tells us all of these stories are linked due to each character’s association with the Mos Eisley Cantina. In this particular tale we get another link to the preceding story through the character of Alima, a xenophobic Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy and a man who has a personal history with Momaw Nadon, an exiled Ithorian High Priest banished from his home world for revealing technological secrets to the Empire.The Ithorians are a peace loving and intelligent species, one that has a firm connection to Mother Nature, especially plant life and all are avowed to honour their sacred code, the Law of Life. When Momaw Nadon discovers that the officer that got him banished from his home world of Ithor is also on Tatooine he finds himself facing a hard choice – to take revenge or to uphold his vow, that every life is sacred...Here’s another character I pegged as a gun-toting thug back when I was a wee little’un. Obviously anything that didn’t resemble a human must have been a baddie in my eyes and thus won every battle that I acted out. It’s funny that my set of Rebel Alliance figures always perished in spectacular fashion...Overall, The Sand Tender is a very likeable little tale due to containing a very sympathetic character in Momaw Nadon and one that delves into the history and culture of the Ithorian species. Star Wars factoid: Apparently the term ‘Hammerhead’ is highly offensive to them...3.5 Ithorians out of 5 for this one.
So you may be asking yourself why a 30 year old man would read Star Wars books when he could be reading something else of substantial value. I mean, the poor guy doesn't realize that his life is getting farther and farther away from being 1/3 over and into the first stages of middle-life (I gave myself to 81). And, you know, I would be right beside you and berating myself too if these books weren't so fun. Ya see, about five years ago I got down from my pedestal of high-brow literary thinking and went slumming. And, let me tell you, that will be a night not soon forgotten. Since then, my tastes have been eclectic and varied. These Star Wars books along with King or Koontz or name your thriller author, clean my palate. They entertain me enough that when I go back to a Tolstoy or Dickens or someone of contemporary status today, I'm looking at you DeLillo and you, too, Pynchon, that I can appreciate these more. If you've never been on the other side of the tracks, today is as good a day as any to venture forth. Oh, and the book...interesting approach to telling what the other characters saw and experienced that day as Solo and Skywalker and Obi-won walked into thier lives. Closer to a 2.5 star, but I rounded up. I mean, this stuff used to entertain me for hours when I was younger. (HONEST MOMENT: It still entertains me today.)RECOMMENDED
What do You think about Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina (1995)?
(2.5 of 5 stars)Probably one of the weakest of the Star Wars anthologies that I've read - there are a few good stories, but they tend to be buried among a lot of shovelware, some of it exceptionally bad and cranked out solely as deadline filler ("The Spacer's Tale"). Stick to the good ones: I've always been inexplicably fond of "The Tale of Muftak and Kabe," and "The Tale of the Tonnika Sisters" is all the usual excellence you can expect of Zahn. For a much-needed venture away from the movie screen and into a true expanded universe tale, see "The Moisture Farmer's Tale," a gold-star effort if I ever saw one, particularly given that Bell isn't one of the "regulars" in the Star Wars field.
—erforscherin
Some of these stories are inspiring. A smaller number of them are dreadful. All of them add even more resonance to one of the most memorable scenes in contemporary cinema. While none of these short stories are masterworks by any stretch, they do exactly what they intend, and flesh out the "Star Wars" world with the myriad elements it contains: action, romance, suspense, comedy, intrigue, etc. That it accomplishes its intended goal says more for this book, frankly, than many, many others.As an introduction to interconnected stories, and as a piece of "Star Wars" paraphernalia, it succeeds mightily.
—Alex Cunningham
This book is comprised of several short stories written by various authors following the lives of characters who appear in the background during the famous Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. Each story revolves around that iconic scene in some way or another. That gimmick really gets old fast. Some of the stories were okay, but most suffer from the strangeness that dominated the early Expanded Universe novels.I will say it was a great way to learn about various alien species of the Star Wars universe.This was the first Star Wars "Tales" novel I have read and I am not looking forward to reading the rest of them.
—Tony Black
