NO SPOILERS

“What is it they’ve sent us?” Captain Raymus Antilles watched as Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan turned away from him, holding the data card he had handed to her…

“Hope,” she replied.

-from Raymus, by Gary Witta

I have started the new Star Wars anthology FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW.

What better way to celebrate Star Wars’ fourth decade than this book– a collection of 40 short stories by 40 authors, all about the “unsung weirdos, heroes, and villains” of Star Wars?! (StarWars.com). Actually, the author list is 43 due to co-authorship. Wow! And that writer list is a directory of Star Wars literary amazingness like Alexander Freed, John Jackson Miller, Christie Golden, and Claudia Gray as well as popular authors who are taking their first step into a larger world of writing Star Wars, such as Meg Cabot, Len Liu, and Adam Christopher.

Making this project even more awesome is the fact that these writers are doing it for charity:

All participating authors have generously forgone any compensation for their stories. Instead, their proceeds will be donated to First Book—a leading nonprofit that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to educators and organizations serving children in need. –– Penguin Random House

I purchased both the print and the audiobook versions because- oh my goodness, would you look at the voice cast! (Some of my top picks are Jonathan Davis, Neil Patrick Harris, January LaVoy, and Marc Thompson.)

At first I thought I would cherry pick the stories, running from a favourite author, narrator, or story to the next one that grabbed my fancy, but at the last moment, I decided that I would go in the order the stories are presented so that I don’t short change any of them. Some of the stories are about main characters like Qui Gon but many are about obscure second and third stringers, Jawas and the trash compactor monster (for real).

I had been excited for this book since it was first announced, but Del Rey Books put the hype into–well, hyperdrive– by releasing beautiful little cards in a lovely storm on social media last month to tease the stories. I think they did close to all 40 of them, though I am not sure. I do know that I stayed up much too late refreshing Twitter that night! (A minor inconvenience of living in the Southern Hemisphere!)