Customer Reviews

Tales of the Bounty Hunters

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Every heroic saga, whether it is Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or George Lucas' Star Wars series, succeeds or fails on the cunning and sheer "stage presence" of the antagonists faced by the heroes of the story. Let's face it, Lord Darth Vader is more imposing, and more interesting, than Luke Skywalker, the farmboy-turned-Jedi Knight who, by the way, is also Vader's offspring. The fact that Vader was so obviously evil and menacing in the first two Episodes of the Classic Trilogy had already made him one of the most popular movie villains; the revelation that the Dark Lord had once been Anakin Skywalker made him even more interesting, and by extension, Luke also became more complex and heroic.

Star Wars also has a secondary set of villains that dwells in the shadowy corners under the metal and plastic surfaces of the Galactic Empire: the bounty hunters. Every Star Wars film, including Episode I: The Phantom Menace, has a scene with at least one of these amoral, relentless, and resourceful villains, but their role as foils to the Heroes of the Rebellion came to the fore in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. In this perennial fan favorite, both Lord Vader and crime boss Jabba the Hutt hire a diverse group of bounty hunters in an all-hands effort to capture the Millennium Falcon, her captain Han Solo, and all his companions, including Luke Skywalker.

Although the film only showed this band of ruffians only in one scene that takes place aboard Vader's flagship, Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters fleshes out this particular part of the saga with five short stories compiled and edited by Kevin J. Anderson (The Jedi Academy Trilogy).

Readers of Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina will recognize all five contributors, including Anderson, whose "Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88" adds depth and menace to an assassin droid seen only for a flash in the Vader's flagship scene in Episode V. Think of this story as "The Terminator Meets Star Wars," with a frighteningly self-aware droid that "comes alive," overwhelms its puny human creators, and begins to devise a plan to conquer the galaxy itself. (Readers will notice that parts of this story will not only be echoed in Kathy Tyers' "The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk," but also in Dark Horse Comics' adaptation of Shadows of the Empire.")

Of course, "The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett," by Daniel Keys Moran, features the Star Wars galaxy's most famous -- or infamous -- bounty hunter. Although its status as an "origins of" story is now rather questionable, since readers now know the genesis of Boba Fett, the story is well-written and captures the nuances of its protagonist. Of the five stories in the anthology, this one covers nearly three decades of Fett's "career," including the bounty hunter's long-standing and relentless pursuit of smuggler-turned-Rebel-Hero Han Solo, not only for Vader and Jabba, but for other crime lords as well. (Star Wars artists working on 2002's Episode II: Attack of the Clones may have had this and other Boba Fett "origin myth" stories when they decided on the design for the clone troopers; Fett supposedly had been a stormtrooper before switching over to bounty hunting; the design of the clone trooper armor was an homage to this notion.)

This anthology, like the others in the Tales series, is entertaining, especially for fans of the original film trilogy who want to know more about those hissable and fearsome villains...the bounty hunters.

I'm not really a big fan of the EU books, but I enjoy the "Tales" books. But out of all three, "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" would have to be the worst of the three. Don't get me wrong; this book is good, and I enjoy reading it. Several of the stories are very good, and offer a lot of background information about the bounty hunters that you wouldn't know about in the movie. But a couple of the stories were only either okay or just plan terrible, which bogged down the overall quality of the book. I'll go through each tale and discuss their pros and cons:

1. IG-88: Starts off extremely well. I loved how he killed off all the Imperial scientists (reminded me of the Terminator). But as soon as he takes over the droid factory on Mechis III, the story goes downhill from there. I won't spoil it, but the ending completely betrays the movie ROTJ. Contrived and stupid. Read the beginning and skip the rest. Final Grade: 2/5

2. Dengar: By far, the best of the stories. This story made Dengar my favorite bounty hunter. Well-written and believable. The ending was a little too sappy, but that's only a minor quibble. And as a bonus, it even included Boba Fett as a supporting character. And I liked Manaroo; she was neat. Great work, Mr. Wolverton. Final grade: 5/5

3. Zuckuss and 4-LOM: At first, I thought this story would be the worst, but I was wrong. It was actually very good. I liked how they assisted the Rebels in escaping from the Imperials in the Hoth battle. Again, a sappy ending, but I rather have a happy ending than have them get killed. Very enjoyable reading. Final Grade: 4/5

4. Bossk: Forget this one. Utter garbage. Within five pages, I was immediately bored. Skip it. Final Grade: 1/5

5. Boba Fett: This one was the most interesting. Parts of it dragged a bit, but overall it was good and suspenseful. I especially liked the ending, but it left a cliffhanger. We don't really know what happens to Fett and Solo after that. The second best in the book. Final Grade: 4/5

Overall, an average contribution to the EU universe, with several excellent stories and a few questionable ones. I recommend this to all SW fans. May the Force be with you.

ven with its abundance of writing talent, Tales of the Bounty Hunters is not for everybody. Science fiction purists may shy away from the book because it is a media tie-in. But as franchised, media-tied fiction goes, these stories are quite good. If you just can't get enough of the uber-literary Gene Wolfe, and you think even Greg Bear is a sell-out for writing the sequel to "Episode 1: The Phantom Menace," then you will probably not want to read Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and you're probably not even reading this review. But the average reader, who appreciates a range of science fiction that includes popular as well as purely literary, may like this book.

Obviously there is popular appeal to Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and, to be honest, the stories don't necessarily break any revolutionary new ground in terms of its concepts. This isn't landmark sf the likes of Starship Troopers or Ringworld. But this is extremely competent and worthwhile sf which shouldn't disappoint a reader already interested in the book's premise or who follows any of these particular writers. The stories are fun and interesting on their own merits and also because they provide alternate views of the very familiar Star Wars storylines (similar to how Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is parallel to Ender's Shadow). These tales are also surprisingly thoughtful, and, in the hands of some very character-oriented writers, the bounty hunters themselves are very human, and in some cases very alien as well.

First of all, I don't know why everyone disapproves of the IG-88 story. I thought it was pretty cool, and remember, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BELIEVE IT! I mean, a lot of Star Wars fans think that Boba Fett's ending and revival were kinda dumb, so they choose to ignore it. Kinda like Battlestar Galactica fans tend to ignore Galactica: 1980 as part of the storyline because it was so goofy. Well, do the same thing with IG-88. Read it and decide for yourself. As for the rest, Zuckuss and 4-LOM are a great team with a very original background that makes me wish they'd get a comic mini-series. Dengar is cool, and has ties to one of the greatest Star Wars heroes, but I'm not saying who. Bossk is very cool and is definitely one of the most intelligent lizards in the universe. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. If you don't agree with the visions of some of the writers, just remember, it's not real.

Tales of the Bounty Hunters is a collection of five stories by different authors concerning bounty hunters who captured our attention in Star Wars - IG-88, Dengar, Bossk. Zuckuss and 4-LOM, and, last but certainly not least, Boba Fett. The stories are well written and generally very entertaining. The common ground for the tales is that all of the bounty hunters have been given the opportunity by Lord Vader to find Han Solo and bring him in. Their approaches vary widely. Of course, we know already which of the hunters actually gets Solo and what happens after that, but that advance knowledge does not spoil the stories.

The first story is about IG-88 and his plan to claim the galaxy as his own domain. As a sideline to his more important goals, he also participates in the search for Han Solo under the orders of Darth Vader. I found the story to be completely absorbing. It shows a side to IG-88 that I had never expected. He is designed and built as an assassin droid and appears to be virtually unstoppable, especially when he develops three exact clones of himself. Basically, his plan is to deal no longer with the frailties of biological beings and simply to have droids take over the entire universe. He even snickers to himself at some of the efforts of Emperor Palpatine. (Question to readers: Can droids snicker?) Eventually he runs into serious problems when trying to deal with Boba Fett and even more serious problems when he inserts his intelligence into the second Death Star shortly before the Rebels take care of it. Never underestimate the power of the Rebel Alliance.

The second story stars Dengar and was the weakest tale in the book to me. Dengar is a cybernetically enhanced Imperial assassin who has been surgically stripped of all superfluous emotion. This makes him a highly effective bounty hunter, but also means that he experiences almost none of the normal emotions that humans take for granted. So the main plotline for the story is Dengar's reacquisition of emotions and his surprising realization that he can fall in love. A bounty hunter's love story was just not what I was expecting with these tales.

Bossk is the main character in Tale #3. He is a lizardlike Trandoshan hunter who has been slaughtering Wookies for their pelts. He agrees to a joint venture with two competitors in the search for Solo. His unlikely companions are Chenlambec, a silvertip Wookie, and Tinian L'att, a small human female. The partnership does not go smoothly as double crosses are frequent, plus Chenlambec's sole motive in joining forces was to stop Boskk's career and obtain a measure of revenge for the Wookie slaughtering that had happened in the past. Things do not go well for Bossk.

The fourth tale is that of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, a Gand intuitive and his logic-driven droid partner. Their hopes for being the ones to nab Solo are based primarily on the intuitive powers of Zuckuss who always seems to be able to discern whatever they need to know. 4-LOM is great fun to listen to as he has a quick statistical analysis for any question that arises.

The last tale in the book lets us travel through the years with Boba Fett. As we all know, he is the one who succeeds in grabbing Han Solo, albeit with a major assist from Darth Vader and the Imperial forces. As many of us did not know, he survived his fall into the Great Pit of Carkoon and the digestive system of the Sarlacc. This tale focuses on Fett in his later years as he is hampered by injuries suffered from years of bounty hunting and as he comes to grips with the realization that his best days are behind him. He does manage to collect a huge bounty offered for the capture of the Butcher of Montellian Serat. That is followed by a chance that he never expected to have again, i.e., another shot at killing Han Solo. This chance is primarily the result of Han's boredom at living on Coruscant and not being involved in smuggling and fighting bad guys any more. He takes off in the Millennium Falcon in search of adventure and finds it the form of a face-to-face encounter with Boba Fett at the end of the tale. Good stuff.

I baught this book just for the Boba Fett story. I even read it first. I love reading how charicters come to be. I found the other stories good and found it hard to put the book down at times. My favorite was the Boba Fett story. I am new to Star Wars books and found the detail of blood and guts entertaining.

Overall, I'd have to say that this book really didn't add much to my understanding of or interest level in the Star Wars universe. This is primarily due to the fairly simple writing displayed by most of the book's writers. I'd have to agree with many of the story preferences noted by earlier reviewers. The Bossk story is easily the worst, mainly because it really isn't even about Bossk. Not far behind it in quality is the Boba Fett story, which reads like a bad rewrite of The Lady and The Tiger. I also didn't really care for the IG-88 story. It, like its subject, simply got out of control at the end. I did enjoy Dengar's tale, which helped flesh out the character. Finally, I really enjoyed the Zuckess and 4-LOM tale. It not only had wonderful characterization, but also a great story. It was the only tale of the five that fulfilled the promise of giving life to these characters, most of whom had all of a minute on the screen.

Am I now inspired to read more of these Star Wars anthologies? No. There's better Star Wars literature out there (Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy comes to mind). I also can't see this book inspiring people who aren't fans to read more about the Star Wars universe. For Star Wars fans though, it is a somewhat entertaining look at some of the minor characters in the mythology.

This book is a great book, all of the stories except for one are great. Any star wars fan should defintely get this book as it goes in depth as to the famous bounty hunters and their histories, origins, backgrounds and prior beefs. The stories include:

Therefore I Am (IG-88) 5/5: One of the best stories in this book. Tells the origin of a assassin droid that gained self awareness, killed its creators and attempt to rule the universe. This is a great story, fast paced, exciting, violent_ you definately cant go wrong here! The end is pretty good too!

Payback (Dengar) 5/5: Another great story. This one is moderately paced. There is a love story, action, killing, sadness... its got it all... also explains why Dengar hates Han Solo. Definately read this one. The ending is also a real shock and is great.

The Prize Pelt (Bossk) 1/5: This one is an absolute disaster. So slow moving, nothing going on at all.. Bossk is a lizard species who is obsessed with hunting and skinning Wookies for their pelt. Revolves around his obsession with Chewie and is uber boring. I did not finish this one, I wound up skipping half of it.

Of Possible Futures (Zuckus & 4LOM) 5/5: This is a great story. Another one that has all the elements, trickery, murder, obsession, but also a hint of humanity and desperation. Follows a bounty hunter who is badly disabled and needs to find Han Solo so that the reward can get him surgery... The end is a real shock and is phenominal..

The Last One Standing (Boba Fett) 4/5: This is a pretty good story. It is fast paced and exciting at times, but than gets slow, boring and drawn out at times. It is worth the read, the ending is quite good definately worth trucking through.

In all this is a good compilation of stories and is one of my favorite Star Wars books. I definately recommend buying and reading this book as you wont be disappointed.

I loved this book, eccspecially "Therefore I Am". I hate to say it, but it made me like IG-88, who is not one of my favorable characters. Boba Fett's story was intriguing and well written, but I loved Bossk's the best. "The Prize Pelt" was a great story that flushed out the semi-hidden Bossk, who is my favorite star wars character. Buy this book if you like Star Wars' bounty hunters.

Overall this was a very interesting collection of short stories. With the exception of the story of Boba Fett they were all well written. Boba Fetts was ruined by its contradiction to the movie. Of course these stories were written before Episode II was released so Boba's origins had not been shown yet. Even with that this book is well worth your time to read.