From a Certain Point of View

[Audiobook]
By: Various Authors
Narrated by: Various Narrators
Publisher: Random House Audio
Dates Listened: March 16 - November 23, 2019
Length: 15 hours 3 minutes
Source: Audible

Why did I read it?
It's Star Wars.  Duh.  

From a Certain Point of View is retelling of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.  It is 40 short stories, written by 40 different authors, telling the story from another point of view.  It was made in honour of the 40th anniversary in 2017.  When I found it I thought it was a great concept that I could get behind.  

Overall, this was an enjoyable listen.  Some of the stories were really grabbing and unique.  Some of the stories give shoutouts to some of the other films with information we don't necessarily know watching Episode IV.  Some of them really fill out the story and galaxy as a whole and makes Star Wars even more to love.  One of my favourites was the first story told by a storm trooper on the senate ship during the kidnapping of Princess Leia.  We heard a story from Aunt Beru which was nice.  That guy who does the Star Wars in the style of Shakespeare books wrote a soliloquy for Palpatine.   There was also an amusing story about all the paperwork storm troopers have to fill out if their ship is damaged.  There were some really great stories in there.  

However, there were also some not so good stories.  Honestly, it got pretty slow in the middle there.  It felt like they were grasping for stories and they probably were.  They told the fight in the Mos Eisley cantina from at least 4 perspectives.  I get it, there were a lot of people in there but you lost me.  They also had a really weird chapter giving a back story to the trash compactor monster.  Apparently she was just trying to baptize Luke??

The narration was well done.  I don't believe they had 40 narrators to match the 40 authors, but there were quite a few telling the varying stories and they all did well.  The other pro of listening as opposed to reading is that they would add in the themes sometimes to match what was happening in the films.  There were also some added effects like droid beep boops, light sabers being drawn, shots fired, etc.  These were not at all distracting but as a whole really added to the experience.  I have no complaints about the production of this book.   

One thing that bugged me about this book was that some of it seemed like it was written for the purpose of Walt Disney World and Disneyland building Galaxy's Edge, the Star Wars themed land.  For example, a lot of characters drank blue and/or green milk.  Does this really exist in that galaxy far far away?  I do not believe so.  However, it is a very popular snack in Batuu at the parks.  I thought it was just a weird galactic thing they invented for the parks, but here it is in the book.  There were other things that I feel like Disney told people to add in to enhance the park.  Am I really complaining about the magic of Disney?  Yeah, I guess so.  It was like a blue milk commercial up in here. 

Rating: 3.5/5  
Overall it was really great but I have to take a little away for those really slow bits and the blue milk. 

Recommendation: If you like Star Wars, give this a listen/read.  It really only adds to the story and, I feel, doesn't ruin the awesomeness that Star Wars is.  Join me nerds!