Tag Archives: Star Wars

Short and Sweet – September 2023

Hello and welcome to this Short and Sweet review roundup for September 2023, in which I’m taking a quick look at another three books that I’ve read (or listened to) recently. This time I’ve gone for quite the mixture of genres and styles, including a female-driven historical fantasy novel, a Star Wars audiobook that delves deep into the Dark Side, and a science fiction novel which sets a locked-room murder mystery on an isolated space ship. So read on to find out more, and if you’ve read any of these books yourself then do let me know what you thought of them too!

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A Few Thoughts On: Ahsoka – E.K. Johnston

E.K. Johnston’s 2016 novel Ahsoka takes a much-loved Star Wars character from the small screen and brings her story into a different medium, picking up where she left off in her animated form and filling in some of the gaps in what happened next. A year after the establishment of the Empire and the horrors of Order 66, ex-Padawan Ahsoka Tano finds herself on a small moon in the Outer Rim, in the company of a close-knit farming community. All she wants is to rest and centre herself, but when the Empire arrives on Raada she’s forced to choose between continuing to hide herself and her powers, and taking a stand to protect the people who have taken her in and shown her kindness.

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Short and Sweet – March 2023

Hello and welcome to my Short and Sweet review roundup for March 2023, here on Track of Words. I’ve picked out another three books to talk about this month, and I suspect I’ll be hard pressed in coming months to find another set with such a wide range – there’s a 650-page Warhammer novel that’s only actually half a book, a 130-page dystopian novella (I guess) about a spry 100+ year-old man in a future Japan, and an anthology of Star Wars short stories from no fewer than 40 authors! As always, these are books that are well worth talking about, but which for one reason or another I don’t have the time or headspace to cover in a full standalone review.

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Ronin – Emma Mieko Candon

Over the years there have been a multitude of Star Wars novels, but never before has there been one quite like Emma Mieko Candon’s Ronin, which offers a totally new – and absolutely fascinating – perspective on one of the most famous settings in all of science fiction. Normally I try to write my own precis for each book I review, but in this case I don’t think I can really add anything of value to the publisher’s own synopsis, which does a fantastic job of setting the scene for this alternative interpretation of Star Wars. Unlike many official synopses, it’s both instantly engaging and satisfyingly spoiler free:

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A Few Thoughts On: From A Certain Point of View

I’ve read very few Star Wars books, despite being a big fan of the IP, but I want to talk a bit about From A Certain Point Of View, published in 2017 to celebrate 40 years of A New Hope, which I read quite recently and absolutely loved. If you haven’t come across it before, this is a 40-strong short story anthology (from 43 authors – there are a few double-headers) in which each tale takes a character or a scene from the original film and expands upon it, providing fresh, unexpected and insightful new perspectives on otherwise familiar stories. From Imperial officers, stormtroopers, rebels and Jedi to Jawas, Tuskens, Bith and all manner of droids, on Tatooine, Alderaan, Star Destroyers and the Death Star, these stories explore the characters and locations of A New Hope like never before.

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