Star Wars: Tales from Jabba's Palace

Star Wars: Tales #3

by Kevin J. Anderson, Barbara Hambly (Contributer), John Gregory Betancourt (Contributer)

In the dusty heat of twin-sunned Tatooine lives the wealthiest gangster in a hundred worlds, master of a vast crime empire and keeper of a vicious, flesh-eating monster for entertainment (and disposal of his enemies). Bloated and sinister, Jabba the Hutt might have made a good joke -- if he weren't so dangerous. A cast of soldiers, spies, assassins, scoundrels, bounty hunters, and pleasure seekers have come to his palace, and every visitor to Jabba's grand abode has a story. Some of them may even live to tell it. . . .

Featuring original stories by: Kevin J. Anderson, M. Shayne Bell, John Gregory Betancourt, Mark Budz and Marina Fitch, A.C. Crispin, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, George Alec Effinger, Kenneth C. Flint, Esther Friesner, Barbara Hambly, Daryl F. Mallett, J.D. Montgomery, Judy and Gar Reeves-Stevens, Jennifer Roberson, Kathy Tyers, Deborah Wheeler, Dave Wolverton, William F. Wu, Timothy Zahn.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Joshua]

To prove how good this book is. I don't think I will ever forget the short story about the rancor keeper. I enjoyed it so much that I had to buy the rancor keeper action figure...

I enjoy these types of stories that expose a different angle or prospective of famous events that were shown in the movie...

[Julie]

Time to finally catch up on writing some reviews! It takes me forever to review short story collections, because sorting out my thoughts on like 19 different stories is hard. This is my third Star Wars collection, and much like the others in that it fleshes out background characters from the movies and shows you snatches of their lives and stories (and, sometimes, grisly deaths). This time, it all centers on the same short period within Jabba's palace from Return of the Jedi, with tons of different schemes simmering and coming to a boil at the exact same time, right when Han, Leia, Lando, Chewbacca, and Luke come crashing through the palace and throwing everything into turmoil.

Pretty much my favourite thing was seeing that there are like a dozen different assassination attempts in play, that Jabba is so unpopular that everyone is trying to murder him at the same time, and it's just a matter of time before one of them culminates... until Leia goes ahead and steals the kill. It reminds me of the Murder on the Orient Express, Star Wars-edition. :') I also love that most of the stories intertwine and connect with one another, since that's a narrative technique I love in anthologies.

And I've genuinely loved all of these collections, but the pacing of any collection in general doesn't sit well with me (there's a reason they take me like a month to get through), so I might dip into some EU novels after this for a change of pace.

Of 19 stories, here's the gender breakdown of the authors:
- 11m
- 6f
- 2 shared

Which is okay. Not as good as the Empire collection, but not as scarce as the Bounty Hunters. There are soooo many stories here, so let's see what I remember about them 20 days later:

- "A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale" by Kevin J. Anderson: SOOOO GOOD. It's an obvious choice for the starter, since Anderson edited the collection as a whole -- but it's also one that crushed my heart. Now that brief glimpse in the movie of Malakili screaming and crying over the corpse of the rancor destroys me. I'm really really sad about the rancor, you guys!!!

- "Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef" by Barbara Hambly: Kind of hilarious, in the depiction of the chef's neuroses about preparing food for Jabba and trying to avoid his master being poisoned. It really must be the most high-stress job, only below filing Darth Vader's paperwork.

- "That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb" by Esther M. Friesner: The nervous academic is a hysterical character -- more aggravated about tenure & scholarly rivalries than his likely death in Jabba's den -- although Salacious Crumb himself just as aggravating on paper as he is on-screen. The academic satire, though, is just SO ON POINT.

- "A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola's Tale" by Kathy Tyers: Oh lawwwd. Kathy Tyers is so predictably fantastic, as she's been in the other collections. Oola is strong and compassionate and in such a bad situation, her tale is heartbreaking, and the brief glimpse of Luke we get is great.

- "Let Us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale" by Marina Fitch and Mark Budz: I actually can't remember anything of what happens in this story, and even after looking it up, only had a vague impression of it. Eh.

- "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade" by Timothy Zahn: This was my first time meeting Mara Jade! And it makes me really excited to read further Zahn things in order to see more of her. (Since she's not a background character from the palace, however, this story especially made me think of something like, idk, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead -- surprise, extremely significant plot characters were drifting between the lines all along!)

- "And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale" by William F. Wu: The Gamorrean guard is so charmingly, mindnumbingly stupid, although what he ends up doing is so gross. So, so gross. I have a weird soft spot for his attempts at being a gumshoe of a detective, though.

- "Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale" by Kenneth C. Flint: Aw, this one was great. Jabba's only true, genuine friend, revealing that there's further depths beneath that hideous exterior, and that the Hutt is capable of caring for people (and vice versa).

- "Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees" by Deborah Wheeler: Couldn't really remember this one either.

- "And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale" by John Gregory Betancourt: The jizz band is hilarious, and I just want all the best for these assholes.

- "Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale" by M. Shayne Bell: Am I weird if I kind of adore Bib Fortuna? He's such a great character: Jabba's cunning and sly majordomo: trusted yet plotting Jabba's downfall nonetheless, keeping his finger on the pulse of all the various schemes in-play and balls in the air, so quietly malicious and annoyed at his own circumstances. I want to co-opt his catchphrase for my own use: Of the days annoyances, these. And the end of this one is horrifying!!

- "The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays" by George Alec Effinger: Ludicrous, but funny. Once you realise what the Great God Quay is...

- "A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens: I had to look EV-9D9 up to remember who she was. It's an interesting idea, and I love the inclusion of Lando, but it doesn't really go anywhere with this premise (also I was probably spoiled by the awesome droids in the Bounty Hunter collection...).

- "A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale" by Dave Wolverton: I literally cannot remember anything from this one either, and Wookieepedia is no help for once. :(

- "Tongue-tied: Bubo's Tale" by Daryl F. Mallett: BUBO THE FROG-DOG. PLOT TWIST: HE IS A SECRET SPY AND ASSASSIN

- "Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale" by Jennifer Roberson: Creepy. Interesting but not so much my cup of tea.

- "Shaara and the Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale" by Dan'l Danehy-Oakes: APPARENTLY I LOVE ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE SARLACC. Shaara's tale is magnificent, and I love the intimate confessional first-person narration (and the dramatic irony of the reader knowing what will happen to Boba Fett imminently). I was almost surprised to see it was a male author, because it's such a sympathetic portrayal of a girl who is strong and resourceful and being preyed upon by men who have absolutely the worst intentions toward her. It's also the perfect segue to the next tale...

- "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett" by Daniel Keys Moran (under the pseudonym J.D. Montgomery): I know Moran himself doesn't like this one as much because of how much he had to change the story (hence the pseudonym), but idc, I adored it. He wrote the best most amazing Boba Fett story in the Bounty Hunters collection, and this one is right up there for me too: claustrophobic, horrifying, revealing more about the nature of the Sarlacc itself, and also displaying Boba's resourcefulness and stubborn, persistent drive to survive. The phrase a barve like that practically gives me little shivers now.

- "Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale" by A. C. Crispin: ALL. MY. FEELINGS. This time, I wasn't surprised to find out that A.C. Crispin is a woman, because again, the main character is strong without having to tote around blasters: she's non-traditionally beautiful, making the best of a rough situation, there are strong maternal themes throughout, and this odd-couple jaunt across the desert is a wonderful little story. I was rooting for them SO MUCH, and it's the perfect ending to this collection as a whole because it left me warm and uplifted. Plus, Chekhov's krayt dragon... :] (c'mon, you knew it had to appear at some point!)

- Epilogue: Whatever Became Of...?: A great little capstone, letting you know what happens to everyone afterwards. More warm and fuzziness to counteract the horrors that came before.

---

In summary: it's a good collection , fleshing out all of the background characters you catch glimpses of in ROTJ. The stand-out best stories, imo, are the rancor keeper, Oola, Ephant Mon, Bib Fortuna, Shaara, Boba Fett, and the fat dancer.

I'll type up favourite quotes later!

[Jonathan Koan]

This collection of short stories is very similar in quality to the short stories from the "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" collection that Kevin J. Anderson also edited.

What I liked the most about this collection was the connections it had to the greater Star Wars universe. So many references I knew originate from this collection, and so I was constantly realizing "oh, this is where that's from".

There were six stories in particular I liked. The other 13...eh. It's not the greatest batting average. But the 6 good stories were pretty great!

I really enjoyed Kevin's story about the Rancor Keeper which kicks off the book. It really makes you empathize with Malakili, and also makes you root for the rancor, which is a really funny feat.

I did enjoy the short story about Salacious Crumb, which is really about a professor who Crumb lures into Jabba's palace to 'entertain' Jabba. Crumb's antics were just fun to read.

I also really enjoyed Oola's tale, which shows perhaps a darker side to Star Wars storytelling, focusing on the life of slaves, and shows just how defiant she was at the end.

Bib Fortuna's story was quite excellent, and my word does M. Shane Bell explore some really interesting Sci-Fi concepts. This is a story I'd expect out of the Dune Universe.

Shaara and the Sarlaac's tale seemed very implausible, but it also had an element of heart to it that I really appreciated. It seemed like it would fit more with the "From a Certain Point of Views" actually.

And even though it's a little strange, I did enjoy the Boba Fett story, which is just plain strange, but is one of the few weird stories that really worked for me.

I thought the Mara Jade story was...fine. Nothing too special or bad about it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the stories I didn't care for. That's ok, the good ones were really good, but that's the problem with Short Story collections. They often don't get time to tell a full story, and even the longer ones don't always work. That's why I prefer novels and novellas.

Overall, an ok collection. 6 out of 10.

[Joshua Bishop]

2/5 stars, this was really just okay.

The stars I did give come in the form of appreciation for the unique perspective of telling the same story (the opening 20-30 minutes of RotJ) from different perspectives and fleshing out minor background characters.

The stories about the well known characters (Mara Jade and Boba Fett) were also fairly well written, particularly Mara written by Zahn himself.

However, compared to Tales of the Bounty Hunters, this was largely a miss for me. One giant problem was I felt like there were just too many different stories and characters. I think it would’ve read better as maybe 6-8 characters with longer chapters.

The writing also felt weird, particularly the alien speech that was all translated to Galactic Basic; it read overly simplified and not like traditional Star Wars dialogue. Reading Jabba speak English instead of having C-3PO translate as much was just odd.

This is probably worth a skip unless there are specific characters tales you’re interested.

[Eric]

3.5 stars. I liked this one better than Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. Some really great stories that didn’t feel as gimmicky as the first installment. It’s interesting to see how some of these concepts influenced subsequent plot points in canon while others were disregarded.

[Chris Dietzel]

Anderson really nailed it with his 'Tales of' series of Star Wars books. This one provides a short story for each auxiliary character from the Palace scene in Return of the Jedi. Each story stays true to the theme and tone of the original trilogy while providing nice character development. Very worthwhile for any fan of the original trilogy.

[Mark Oppenlander]

This second Star Wars EU short story collection is not nearly as good as the first one, "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina." In fact, I almost gave this two stars. But a few of the stories are just good enough to make it worth the trouble and elevate it into the realm of readability.

As with the previous collection, editor Kevin J. Anderson gathers a group of writers to tell stories of minor and unnamed characters from one of the more memorable sequences in the original Star Wars trilogy: Jabba's palace. As before, the plot lines are interwoven so that characters appear in multiple stories and mysteries presented in one tale are explained in another. However, I didn't find that any of these connections are particularly interesting or revelatory. Most of them seem either irrelevant or hackneyed. Is it possible that one character's idiocy unwittingly leads to the demise of another? Sure. Is it interesting or rewarding for me as a reader to know this? No.

Given that Jabba's palace receives more screen time than the Mos Eisley cantina, one imagines that the writers would have had a lot to work with in terms of expanding the milieu. Unfortunately, the exact opposite appears to have been the case. The paucity of imagination presented here is quite disappointing. For the first section of the book nearly every story winds up with someone being fed to the Rancor or with an assassination plot being foiled. There is also a persistent theme of the stupidity of Jabba's henchmen that predominates. I found all of this quite disappointing. If we accept what we know of the Star Wars universe already, it is hard to credit the idea that Jabba the Hutt got to be so rich and powerful while hiring such shoddy help or while making so many enemies. Sure, a master criminal will have some people out to get him. But this book almost infers that he has no loyal supporters who are not idiots. That hardly seems like a recipe for success in organized crime.

There are a few notable exceptions, and it is these stories that (almost) salvage the book. "Old Friends" recounts the story of Ephant Mon, one of Jabba's oldest and most loyal supporters. It is a bittersweet exploration of the conflict between loyalty and morality, as Ephant Mon sees the Jabba he once knew - a criminal of cunning and bravery and a certain level of honor - replaced by the vile Jabba we know from the movies. Also good is the story "A Barve Like That," which describes what happens to Boba Fett once he is swallowed by the Sarlacc. Suffice it to say, Fett is nothing if not a survivor - and he is not an idiot. I also liked the books final story, "Skin Deep," which recounts some of the aftermath of Jabba's death through the eyes of the woman we know in the movies only as the "fat dancer." It is a lovely little love story, and it is incongruous both in theme and quality from the other tales here.

Overall, I find it hard to recommend this book for anyone but die hard fans. My recommendation for the casual fan would be simply to read the individual stories I have called out above and skip the rest.

[Daniel Kukwa]

This is a collection of well-written tales, but Jabba the Hutt and his environment are some of the least interesting aspects (at least, to me) of the "Star Wars" universe, and there are too many characters I simply wasn't interested in reading about. That said, at least two of the stories (about the Rancor & his keeper, and Jabba's band) are absolute gems, and you can never go wrong when Timothy Zahn shows up to give us another taste of Mara Jade. A mixed bag, but with a few gorgeous diamonds.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library)]

Some entertaining stories...but I prefer the novels. Having a contribution from the Reeves-Stevenses is a plus, though.

[Meg Dowell]

I'll start by saying I genuinely enjoyed the writing in this book, especially the variety of stories told by different authors throughout. To be honest, though, Return of the Jedi ranks fairly low on my Star Wars movies list, if I were to actually rank them - I like it, it's just not near my favorite. And my least favorite segment of Return of the Jedi happens to be every moment of Jabba's Palace.

So I wasn't surprised that I struggled with these stories. There's nothing wrong with them and I'm glad to have read the book if only to familiarize myself with some characters whom I knew the names of but didn't have much background on. This book just isn't for me! And that's OK.

I do love that the Tales books in Legends laid the groundwork for the Certain Point of View anthologies in Canon. And I did enjoy the Mara Jade story.

I'd consider this one of those Legends books you could consume a story at a time without rushing and you'd be fine. But it's still worth giving it a go, especially if you love Return of the Jedi. Maybe this book is absolutely for you. You'll never know until you try.

[Joan Conklin]

I've always thought Jabba the Hutt was the perfect villain. He's grotesque both physically and morally, sexually perverse, capricious, loyal to no one, and doesn't have a single redeeming quality that an optimistic hero would ever try to latch onto. George Lucas went all the way.

I loved reading the personal histories of all the freaky little critters in his palace, most of whom are trying to kill him. There was a good variety of writing styles and every character from the movie that we could possibly be interested in was covered.

But it also reads like more of an outline. There's a lot of great ideas in here, none of which are fleshed out. Many of the stories are interconnected: the creatures are trying to figure out who killed a kitchen boy and a dimwitted alien handyman. I wasn't surprised that Jabba's henchmen were plotting against him. But I was surprised that their plotting was so boring. I wish Ree-Yees and the Weequays weren't in here. Plus all the stories take place at the same time: when Luke and Leia come in to save Han. Which I'm not sure is necessary. It would have been much better if there were fewer stories and more detail about the lead character in each of them.

It's a shame because there's so much to work with here. I loved the Bo'marr monks sitting in brain jars contemplating the universe. I would have loved to read a story starring them. And Jabba's badass female competitor, Lady Valerian, definitely deserves her own narrative.

Of course, I also wanted a first-person story from Jabba. But he doesn't play much of a part in most of these stories. He comes in briefly towards the end as the one-dimensional invertebrate Tony Soprano we expect. His employees don't know any more about his inner life than Luke Skywalker does.

There's some gems though. The best stories:


The Rancor Keeper's Tale

Malakili, an gritty circus trainer "recruited" to work for Jabba, turns out to be exactly the kind of rare soul who should be working with animals. I felt his pain.


A Time to Mourn, A Time to Dance: Oola's Tale

I think the only character in Jabba's employ who we had any sympathy for was the Twi'lek dancer. The writer clearly does too. Oola had a love affair with Bib Fortuna ("his thick lekku") and he betrayed her. Oola feels like a real woman here. Which is a refreshing change of pace from the slobs in most of the other stories.


And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale

Gartogg is the dumbest member of a species that's pretty damn dumb to begin with. The epilogue is hilarious.


Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale

Ephant Mon is an arms dealer who's paying a voluntary life debt to Jabba, who saved him from certain death on a criminal mission. Luke uses a mind control trick to remind Mon of how much he loved his peaceful home planet. Mon feels more human than the human characters as it dawns on him that he doesn't want to work for the Hutt anymore. He begins to view everything he once loved with disgust. It's also the only story which portrays Jabba with any sort of nuance. I almost felt sorry for him watching him lose his only friend.


Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale

I always thought Bib was more menacing than Jabba. At least Jabba you could laugh at. Bib could give a child nightmares. This story does him justice. It's one of the longer ones in here and it gives the most backstory. And Bib's fate is perfect.


A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9

Do droids have souls? Answer: yes. Ninedenine strikes me not so much as evil but as a robot who desperately wants to be human. Which is sad.


A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett

So you can eat something, metabolize it's DNA, and absorb its consciousness. That's a pretty fresh idea as far as I can tell. I would have liked more explanation as to exactly how they stayed alive inside the Sarlacc for so long, but so it goes.


Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale

Yarna finds love in a hopeless place. This one also shows some of the chaos that ensues right after Jabba dies.


A running theme in the book is how different species view beauty. Yarna, obese and six-breasted, is mocked by many denizens but lusted after by Jabba himself. And Lady Valarian, the greasy "Whiphid dame" who resembles a wild boar, grosses out the humans but is the hottest thing on the planet to J'Quille and Ephant Mon.

This book had a lot of flaws, but overall it was exciting and brought up a lot of points that made me want to explore vintage Star Wars fanfic more.

[Jared]

Star Wars Legends Project #289

Background: Tales from Jabba's Palace was edited by Kevin J. Anderson and published in December of 1995. It is an anthology of 19 short stories featuring characters from Jabba's palace as seen in Return of the Jedi. Several were written by authors who have also written Star Wars novels, and many of the rest also wrote stories for one of the other anthologies. All of them feature some of the events that take place during the movie as prominent scenes.

Review: I had never realized before that this was published only 5 months after Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. That seems rushed, even when you're talking about short stories, and it explains why this felt so bland. When I reviewed that previous volume, I noted how surprised I was that I remembered the stories so vividly after decades. In this case, I was surprised that that didn't happen, but it made sense given how Just Kind of There a lot of these stories are. Anyway, here's how I rank them and a few words about each story:

Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade by Timothy Zahn
Although Mara Jade is undercover as a dancing girl in Jabba's court for much of this story, as far as I know, the character she is disguised as never actually appears on screen. Though I'd rather have gotten his take on an actual character from the movies, and I'm not a huge fan of Jade having yet another improbable close encounter with Luke Skywalker before their official first meeting in the years to come . . . it's really hard to complain too loud about Zahn writing us a fun Mara Jade story.

Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale by A.C. Crispin
I'm not sure anyone would pinpoint Yarna d'al' Gargan as the character most likely to star in an entertaining and exciting story, but here we are. Crispin brings the formidable skills that produced the great Han Solo Trilogy fully to bear, and the result is surprisingly dramatic, emotional, and satisfying, striking the perfect note with which to end this volume.

A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran
I didn't have high hopes for this, partially because it's apparently surprisingly difficult to tell a good Boba Fett story and partially because the Boba Fett story in the previous volume . . . isn't very good. But this is a pleasant surprise because it deals with Boba Fett once he's already in the Sarlacc and there's some really rich world-building spring boarding off of the questionable and confusing premise of "slowly digested over a thousand years."

A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale by Kevin J. Anderson
The potential is obvious for a story about the man who memorably bursts into heart-rending sobs at the sight of the dead Rancor after its battle with Luke Skywalker, and Anderson actually delivers for once. He gives depth and dimension to a character who proves well-worth the extra attention.

And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale by William F. Wu
Your mileage may vary on this one. Probably a lot of people will find the premise either disgusting or dumb, or both, but I loved the conceit of a whodunnit where the detective investigating the case is too thick to possibly ever have an inkling about what's going on. There is a thread running through several stories about a string of murders that are taking place inside Jabba's Palace during this time, but this is the only story that really does anything interesting with that idea.

Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale by M. Shayne Bell
This is my least favorite of Bell's stories for the various anthologies, but he's always at least worth checking out. He's constrained here by the limitations of the character rather than any flaw in his writing, but I liked the way he builds out the mythos surrounding the B'omarr monks.

Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale by Kenneth C. Flint
Ephant Mon is such a strange character within the EU. Writers have done things with him that you'd never remotely expect from the brevity of his appearance in one movie. I don't know what to make of all that, but that said, this story is a pretty decent portrait of someone who is in Jabba's court purely out of friendship, not out of fear or greed or deceit or some other underhanded motive. It's a different enough motivation from anything else we see in the book that it stood out as worth the read.

A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale by Dave Wolverton
This is basically a slightly less-interesting version of Bib Fortuna's Tale, but I did like getting the perspective of a character that several other characters had already given their opinion on. Not much more to say about it than that . . . Firmly middle of the pack.

A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9 by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Writing a good story with a completely unsympathetic protagonist is tricky, but possible. This is mediocre on that score, but I did enjoy the Lando connection, so bonus points for that.

And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale by John Gregory Betancourt
There's so much unrealized potential in this story, as Betancourt fails to do anything interesting in developing either these characters or their experiences.

Let Us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale by Marina Fitch and Mark Budz
Just another one of several same-y stories about sneaky characters sneaking around and doing intrigue. There's nothing particularly bad about it, but it doesn't really stand out, either.

A Time to Mourn, A Time to Dance: Oola's Tale by Kathy Tyers
I definitely expected more from this story of the most tragic member of Jabba's retinue. I wanted a story about someone who is something more than a victim of their own foolish choices, and this felt like another huge missed opportunity.

Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef by Barbara Hambly
I really liked this character, and his relationship with one of my other favorites, the Rancor Keeper. They made for a very complementary pairing. That said, nothing interesting happens within this actual story. It felt mostly like it was cobbled together out of bits that needed to be put in place for other stories, and they forgot to include one for this entry.

Tongue-tied: Bubo's Tale by Daryl F. Mallett
Who is Bubo, you ask? He's the ugly toad creature that's sitting outside Jabba's Palace in that one scene. And he's . . . actually a sentient alien who is part of an elaborate ongoing plot within the palace? Did we need that? Yes, he is, and no, we didn't. Plus this story is like 6 pages long. Was NOT worth the effort.

Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale by Jennifer Roberson
Hey look, one of my least favorite characters from the Mos Eisley Cantina is back for another story even though he doesn't actually appear in Jabba's Palace. This would be a pass even without the offensive implications of that really terrible title.

Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees by Deborah Wheeler
You spend the whole book hearing about how much everyone hates Ree-Yees, and then you get to this story and you see why.

The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays by George Alec Effinger
We're talking about aliens, so it's not quite racist that a group of beings who exist around and use advanced technology are depicted as such primitive simpletons that they think the equivalent of a magic 8-ball is a god guiding their actions. But it definitely trades in uncomfortable stereotypes about "uncivilized" tribal peoples. I mean, come on, even the Ewoks are more sophisticated than that.

Shaara and the Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale by Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
I don't understand what this story is, let alone what it's trying to be. It has nothing to do with anything.

That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb by Esther M. Friesner
I don't know what "that" is, but it's certainly not entertainment. There's a series of deeply-unfunny events building to the worst punchline in Star Wars, and perhaps literary, history.

C+

[Jordan Anderson]

Didn’t love Tales from Jabba’s Palace, not did I hate it. I found myself enjoying some of the stories and absolutely despising some of the others. This is definitely better than Tales from the Empire as its far more complete, consistent, and has a theme interwoven between all of the stories, yet I still think the disparity between some stories leads to me taking a couple of stars off its final rating.

First, the good.

- Kevin J Anderson’s “A Boy and His Monster” was a great story both to start out the collection and a great story in general. In a weird way, Anderson makes you feel kinda sorry for the rancor that Luke kills in Return of the Jedi and also sorry for the poor guy who’s balling his eyes out when he sees what Skywalker did to his pet.

- “A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance” by Kathy Tyers is another story that gives background to a bit player from the films. We all know the poor Twiilek girl who gets fed to the rancor, but know, thanks to Tyers, we get to know her a bit and understand her motivations.

-“A Bad Feeling” which gives personality and a backstory to that droid that tortures other droids. Didn’t know it was worth telling, but I guess I was wrong.

- “And the Band Played On” by John Gregory Betancourt was easily the best story in the entire collection and hands down my favorite. Probably one of the best Star Wars short stories I’ve ever read. Though it’s been kind of retconned now by both being moved to the EU and with Lucas’s peddling and changing of the original cut of Return of the Jedi, it’s still a really well written and conceived tale of Max Rebo and the rest of his band.

- “Skin Deep” is the longest story in this entire collection but it bookends Tales From Jabba’s Palace perfectly. Crispin would go on to write the classic Han Solo Trilogy (for better or worse, depending on your belief system), so it’s no wonder this novella length story came out so well.

The bad

- “And Then There Were Some” night now be the worst in this anthology but it’s definitely top (or would that be bottom?) three. Gamorean guards are supposed to be big, dumb, and stupid. Why William F. Wu decided to give them personality and backstory, I’ll never know.

-“The Great God Quay” by George Alec Effinger is also one of the collected stories that ranks somewhere near the bottom for me. I don’t need a story about Weequays worshiping a magic 8 ball and furthermore, the attempts at humor fall flat, quickly.

- Probably the worst Tale’s From Jabba’s Palace, “Out of the Closet” is the one story that easily lead me to drop the rating for the entire book. Roberson tries to write a Star Wars story in some bizarre lit fiction style and it fails horribly. Rather than tell a good tale about Jabb’a pet vampire, it comes across as pretentious, hard to read, and just plain weird.

And there you have it: my two cents on this Star Wars anthology. Obviously there are a lot more shorts in here that I failed to mention, so you’ll have to pick up Tales From Jabba’s Palace to read them all and see for yourself.

[Wren]

A 3.5 rounded down, I think. I thought it was a cool framing device, having an overarching story across all of the different short stories, however, I didn't really care a whole lot about the overarching story. I also thought a lot of the stories got a little repetitive--the vast majority of the stories were X character trying to orchestrate Y plot against Jabba the Hutt. It would've been nice to have more than half a story be pro-Jabba, as we didn't really get much from Jabba's followers in the movie already but we got plenty from Jabba's detractors. Plus I'm biased, I like Jabba. Here's a quick review of each of the short stories:

1. A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale--perhaps my favorite of the bunch. I always felt really bad for the Rancor Keeper as a kid, and this made me feel even worse for him. Had me actively hoping Luke would get eaten just so Malakili would be able to run away with the rancor, who was only one hour away from retirement 3

2. Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef-- I HATED this one. Not only did I not care about the chef at all, the author continuously used real food terms. There's no France in Star Wars, so why am I reading about beignets and Chantilly creme??? Just call it fried dough made from dried dune grass and sweetened with the white powder from the planet Z'ugar and like sweetened bantha milk, make up any other word because it just immediately removed me from the story. The stupid beignets also kept cropping up in other stories which just pissed me off whenever I read it

3. That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb--eh. The main character was really stupid for a university professor, which I know was the joke, but it was frustrating to read.

4. A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola's Tale--another one of the really good ones. A heartbreaking look at Oola's backstory and how close she was to escaping.

5. Let Us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale--this one has us really getting into the overarching plot of the sort of murder mystery and everything with Jabba's rival Lady Valarian but I didn't really care about that story at all, so another eh.

6. Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade--I haven't read any other legends stuff so I have no attachment to Mara Jade. Well written though!

7. And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale--a fun concept, but dragged on for a little bit. I liked how the Gamorrean guard had two friends in the form of two corpses but again, I just didn't care about the murder mystery because I didn't care about any of the chracters involved

8. Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale--Top 3 favorites for me from the book, I liked the past history discussed between Ephant and Jabba and it was nice to finally have a story that wasn't solely about the vague murder mystery and assassination plot and so on and so forth. I wish more of the stories talked about Jabba's allies

9. Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees--I hate Ree-Yees and I'm glad he got blown up. There was a reason his action figure always languished untouched in the box when my brother and I played with our uncle's old Kenner figures, and that reason is he sucks and I hate him.

10. And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale--I was a big Max Rebo band fan as a kid and I liked the look behind the scenes with them, it was a fun and quick story which gave some nice depth into the band members.

11. Of The Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale--I liked the background on Bib that they gave, but again I wish that more characters had been actually working for Jabba. It just got really repetitive especially since we know that none of these assassination plots will actually succeed. Grim fate for him in the end

12: The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays--similar to my least favorite story, the one about the chef, this one lost me with the inclusion of the Star Wars magic 8 ball, although at least the author had the decency to make it something other than just a regular magic 8 ball.

13: A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9--Bro what the hell. Absolutely wild ride and the ending of this was fantastic. I also liked the background hinting at how Lando might've done more in the palace than just lurk around, but EV-9D9 was an insane character to have the POV of. Never thought I'd read a Star Wars droid thinking fondly about cutting themselves

14: A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale--eh. not many feelings on this one, but the ending was well-done at least

15: Tongue-Tied: Bubo's Tale--the ending made me chuckle because it was at the expense of dumbass Ree-Yees, but overall I didn't really care much about this one. It was super short and well-written, but at this point I was getting a little tired of the B'omarr monks and the brain jars.

16: Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale--hated this one. Didn't like the whole murder mystery plot anyway, and by this far in I was really sick of it. I also didn't like the writing style on this one, but I appreciate the change of pace with the writing at least! Not my least favorite, but definitely down on the bottom of the list.

17: Shaara and Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale--mostly foreshadowing the next story, but I didn't like how the writing style was just essentially one person rambling on and on. I liked the story that the Skiff Guard was telling, I just wished it was told differently

18: A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett--this one was a lot of fun and ranks top 5 for me. I really liked the detail about him being so embarrassed of how he got knocked into the Sarlaac pit he couldn't even watch the video playback of it for a full day. I liked the insight on the Sarlaac anatomy as well

19: Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale--this was lovely. I enjoyed this one very much. I also liked how it showed the aftermath of Jabba's death, as that was another issue I had with the majority of the short stories--they were all for the most part set in the exact same time period, which felt like such a waste since there's so much to explore with Jabba's rise to power, the chaos after his death, or stuff in between. The overaching story often felt like a limitation, and this was a nice change of pace and just a really nice way to wrap up the stories

Epilogue: Whatever Became of...?: a lot more brains in jars than I was expecting

also I thought it was a missed opportunity to not have a single story told from Jabba's point of view, but again that was a limitation of that wretched overarching storyline.

[claire]

Disclaimer: I didn't actually "finish" it, but I read all the stories that looked interesting which amounted to about 70% of the book.
This is a collection of short stories about every character you may or may not have noticed inside Jabba's palace at the beginning of Return of The Jedi. The stories are more or less in chronological order so the plots build on each other which makes the book really cool. The details are fantastic and you can almost feel the hot, stinky interior of Jabba's palace - full of greedy alien scum. The stories themselves range from really gross, to suspenseful and creepy, to outright hilarious. Some of the characters I didn't even realize existed ended up being some of my favorite stories.
This was just my 2nd time reading a Star Wars book, and I had no idea what to expect but I certainly wasn't hoping for anything this good. This book is a great way to step into another world without having to be committed (the stories are so short!) and getting just the right taste of aliens and adventure. Would definitely recommend to Star Wars fans.
(Note: The Boba Fett story is weird as hell and so cool.)

[Nick Girvin]

This is definitely the best of the three “tales” books, as the other two had parts I all but skimmed through. This one had none. It’s objectively difficult to not grow bored at times, seeing so many of the stories end up intertwining and telling the same thing over and over again just from a different character perspective. But, the ones that did it well were very entertaining, especially if it gave the character a unique backstory. It’s also just neat seeing some of them have an actual personality. If I could recommend skipping around just for the really good ones, I’d say prioritize: The Rancor Keeper, Jabba’s chef, Oola, Mara Jade, Bib Fortuna, EV-9D9, and Boba Fett (far better than his tale in the bounty hunter comp). The rest range from fine to boring.

[Javier Fontecilla]

I love Jabba’s palace and his inhabitants since I saw Star Wars Episode 6 back at 1997 in a small theater in Chile. I imagined the life of those aliens and strange creatures that walked, crawl and hop on those corridors, so I was very excited to read this collection of stories. Nevertheless, I’m a little disappointed to say that some of these stories are very similar, and not all of them are worth the read.
I enjoy and appreciate the effort to put a mystery that wraps all stories together, but I think the editor should have done a better job.

[Nimrodds]

זה ספר טוב להתחיל בו קריאה במסגרת סטאר וורז, אוסף של סיפורים מכותבים שונים

[Meggie]

For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.

This week’s focus: Tales from Jabba’s Palace, edited by Kevin J. Anderson.

SOME HISTORY:

After Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina took the approach of quantity over quality (I'm not afraid to say it!), Tales from Jabba’s Palace arrived with a whopping nineteen stories. There seems to be some confusion online about the release date, though: Wikipedia says December 1995, while my book and Wookieepedia both say January 1996. And as I found with the first Tales collection, it didn’t seem to make it into the top 15 on the New York Times paperback bestseller list, because I can’t find any data on it.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

I thought that the Anzat assassin story was the only thing I remembered from Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, but I actually think I was remembering the Anzat assassin story from THIS collection… Mara Jade’s story and Yarna’s story also felt familiar to me, but I had forgotten the rest of them.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Jump into the lives of the guards, slaves, and all around schemers of Jabba’s Palace denizens in these nineteen stories.

THE STORIES:

“A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale” by Kevin J. Anderson
Malakili, the rancor keeper, really loves that rancor. The rancor seems more vicious than the ones we met in The Courtship of Princess Leia, but that might be a consequence of it being a juvenile confined to a pit, as Wolverton suggested. Right off the bat, this also introduces the first occurrence of someone scheming against Jabba—Malakili visits Lady Valarian so she can arrange for the rancor and him to escape, but we know how that ends…

“Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef” by Barbara Hambly
Porcellus is terrified that someone is trying to poison Jabba and frame him for the act, and at the same time he keeps finding dead bodies in his kitchen. We have another description of Leia’s hair as “dark-red” (Hambly explain?), and the food seems a bit too Earth-centric. But how to describe food in an intelligible manner without using terms like beignet or doughnut?

“That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb” by Esther M. Friesner
This one was OK. We have an outsider POV from a visiting academic, and Crumb comes across as rather more intelligent than he appears in RotJ. We aren’t familiar with this unknown academic, though, so the ending fell a little flat for me.

“A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola's Tale” by Kathy Tyers
I thought Tyers, meanwhile, fleshed out Oola in a believable, sympathetic way. She’s proud of her dancing skills, to the point that she hesitates during Luke’s rescue attempt. His message to Jabba brings her some hope, but too late—we all know what happens to her. Poor Oola.

“Let Us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale” by Mark Budz and Marina Fitch
J’Quille is in the employ of Lady Valarian, Jabba’s rival in Mos Eisley, and he’s here to kill Jabba! This was the point in the book where I realized that pretty much everyone was going to be scheming against Jabba and trying to kill him. I just wish they were better at it?

“Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade” by Timothy Zahn
The Thrawn trilogy introduced the idea that Mara Jade was present in Jabba’s Palace. Here Zahn shows us how it all went down. Mara is confident in her abilities, she’s a proficient Force user, but she can’t influence Jabba—as Luke obviously found out. We also get her first interaction with Melina Carniss, who will show up again (working for Karrde, but spying for Isard) in The Bacta War.

“And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale” by William F. Wu
Do you want a mystery tale in which the detective is an idiot? Gartogg is trying to figure out who keeps killing people in the Palace, but he’s not particularly good at investigating--he is, after all, only a Gamorrean.

“Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale” by Kenneth C. Flint
I was glad to see another story from Flint! This worked for me a lot better than his Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina story. This story has a film noir vibe, which was fun. Ephant Mon isn’t involved in any plots, and is completely loyal to Jabba. An interaction with Luke alters his viewpoint, though, and he never makes it on the sail barge. He’s also perhaps Jabba’s only friend, which makes the ending bittersweet: Mon thinks that he was constantly in Jabba’s debt, while Jabba didn’t seem to feel the same way.

“Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees” by Deborah Wheeler
Ree-Yees is a Gran, which means he looks like a three-eyed goat. He’s always drunk, and he’s also scheming against Jabba. His story has a weird twist, because apparently Jabba implanted a bomb in his chest and tries (unsuccessfully) to trigger it when Leia’s choking him.

“And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale” by John Gregory Betancourt
I liked that this story didn’t just cover the canon events from the movie. We got to learn how the band came to Tatooine, how Max Rebo became the bandleader, and how Sy Snootles is really the brains of the operation. Of course, the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi in 1997 added nine more members to the Max Rebo band, so the canonicity of this backstory is questionable.

“Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale” by M. Shayne Bell
M. Shayne Bell wrote one of my favorite stories in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, but this story didn’t hold up as well for me. Bib Fortuna is another schemer who wants to oust Jabba, and he’s teamed up with the B’omarr Monks to do so. I don’t find the Monks especially interesting; their brain spiders look cool in the movie, but their general situation is not intriguing to me. This also introduces a running plot point, which is the sheer number of people who gets their brains removed by the end.

“The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays” by George Alec Effinger
I don’t remember Barada from the movie (he’s a Klatoonian and Jabba’s mechanic), and the Weequays are the reptilian-looking guys on the skiffs. It’s silly, but the Weequays and their magic eight ball-like god made me laugh. Just not sure how Barada fits in here.

“A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9” by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
EV-9D9 is a weird torturer droid, and she apparently has past history with Lando Calrissian. After R2-D2 and C-3PO are taken into Jabba’s service, 9D9 realizes that something is up and recognizes that Lando is undercover. She’s ultimately taken out, though, by a Cloud City droid. There was a lot of droid jargon here, which I didn’t enjoy, and the concept of a droid who torturers other droids for fun is a bit beyond me.

“A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale” by Dave Wolverton
Tessek is Jabba’s accountant, and he’s also scheming! Is anyone in Jabba’s employ not planning to kill him? Tessek also meets his fate at the hands of the Monks--their body count grows.

“Tongue-tied: Bubo's Tale” by Daryl F. Mallett
Bubo is Jabba’s frog-dog: you see him on the wide angle shot of the outside of the Palace. Apparently he’s also an assassin and a spy and he talks to the Monks a lot. Not a fan of Bubo. And Bubo also gets debrainified in the end.

“Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale” by Jennifer Roberson
Another story about Dannik Jerriko, the Anzat assassin. He wants to drink Han Solo’s soup, and Jabba’s soup, but instead kills lesser people and then never even makes it on the sail barge. I guess he goes crazy in the end? This is also the first of two tales about characters that can’t be spotted in the movie.

“Shaara and the Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale” by Dan’l Danehy-Oakes
A first person narrative from one of the skiff guards to Boba Fett. Very colloquial in style, and very short. I think it’s meant to foreshadow how quickly Fett escapes from the Sarlacc.

“A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett” by J.D. Montgomery
J.D. Montgomery is Daniel Keys Moran: his initial outline of the story wasn’t approved, and even further changes were made to his story, and since he wasn’t happy with the final story, he used a pseudonym. Moran wanted Fett to stay in the Sarlacc for a long time, and he wanted the Sarlacc to be sentient. Instead, Fett busts out after one or two days, and a previous being long consumed by the Sarlacc converses with Fett. It’s hard for me to accept that the Sarlacc could really take thousands of years to digest someone, but Moran makes a valiant attempt to explain things.

“Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale” by A.C. Crispin
Yarna takes advantage of the chaos after Jabba’s death to head out to Mos Eisley with Sergeant Doallyn (the helmeted guy that Chewbacca shoved down the stairs), hopefully to buy back her children. Like Tyers did with Oola, Crispin took a very minor character (the Fat Dancer) and really did a deep dive into what drives her. Yarna is maligned by pretty much everyone in the Palace, and you’re really rooting for her to get her family back and be free again.

ISSUES:

The stories in this collection interplay and fit together much better than in the previous collection, but there are still some quibbles. Dannik Jerriko kills the chef’s assistant, but I thought that was Porcellus? It’s hard to keep track of who actually placed a bomb on the sail barge. Jerriko lets Yarna see his tendril things but she’s saved by either Sergeant Doallyn (in Roberson’s story) or a Gamorrean guard (in Crispin’s story).

There also seemed to be a lot of repetition of ideas and plot points. Did we really need to have so many people plotting against Jabba, especially because they were ultimately so bad at it? DId we also need to have five people undergo brain removal: Nat Secura, Bib Fortuna, Tessek, Bubo, and J’Quille? (So many brain spiders…)

IN CONCLUSION:

Don’t do what I did, and read two stories a day until you panicked and tore through ten stories in one twelve-hour period. Pick the stories that look most interesting to you, and only read those! My top three stories were probably Oola, Mara Jade, and Yarna; my bottom three were the ones about Salacious Crumb, Bubo, and Rees-Yees. Be prepared, though, for a lot of people to have their brains removed.


Next up: Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/jS-eTzUyhFQ

[JasperKazai]

I dreaded having to read yet another one of these short story compilations so soon after the previous one. But, I got through it. It's not good! None of these have been good. This one was actually written and published a year before Tales of the Bounty Hunters, but Bounty Hunters takes place first chronologically, which is why I read it in this order.
Like I did with the previous two, I will section out each short story and write a little blurb about them.

===

"A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale" by Kevin J. Anderson
Both of KJA's stories in the other two compilations ended up turning silly, whether it was a Jawa going out in a blaze of gunfire like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (but not really) or IG-88 secretly being in control of the second Death Star. So, I assumed this one would as well. It seemed ripe to do so, seeing as it's about the guy in the movie that we see crying for a few seconds and then never again. But, I was surprised that it never really did so. He didn't devolve into some easy punchline. I suppose you could liken the fact that Malakili was mere hours away from escaping the palace with the rancor when Luke ended up killing it to being a joke, but it at least felt way more serious than KJA's other two stories. Because of that, this one was ok. I didn't really have any negative thoughts about it.

"Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef" by Barbara Hambly
I hated Hambly's story in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina; it was my second lowest ranked one there. So I was not looking forward to this one. However, I ended up thinking this wasn't too bad. I didn't really like it, but I didn't find it nearly as objectionable as her Cantina story. She did unwisely reference quite a lot of real world food names, which also ended up infecting some of the other stories that were interlinked. That was a poor decision, but it's far from the worst thing this book has to offer. Solidly neutral. One comment I have is that some of these authors need to get their eyes checked. I know that TV and screen technology has advanced leaps and bounds since the 90s, but some of the colors they're identifying are so wildly incorrect. In this story, she describes the carbonite slab Han is in as being 'brown-black,' and she describes Leia's hair as being 'dark-red.' Both of those are just straight-up wrong! The carbonite is a dull dark gray, and Leia's hair is very clearly brown.

"That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb" by Esther M. Friesner
I wasn't expecting much of anything from a story about fuckin' Salacious Crumb of all characters. Figured this was going to be pure nonsense. Yep, it was. I guess it's good I didn't find it more annoying than I did. That's really the only positive I can think of. It wasn't good, but I fully recognize that writing a story about goddamn Salacious Crumb is not an easy feat.

"A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola's Tale" Kathy Tyers
I'm not a fan of Kathy Tyers, and especially not of her short stories in these compilations. On top of that, I don't really have any interest in Oola as a character, so this was an uphill battle. Did not think this was good. Oola just so happening to cross paths with Luke in Mos Eisley before she was shipped off to Jabba's Palace is too damn convenient and totally unnecessary. It's dumb. Also having C-3PO console her is so very unlike C-3PO. All of this read like bad amateur fanfiction.

"Let Us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale" by Marina Fitch and Mark Budz
It was bad, and it didn't even have an ending. I thought maybe it would be followed up on in some other story, but nope. Not good. Waste of time.

"Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade" by Timothy Zahn
I didn't fully read over the story and author list before I started reading the book, so this one came as a pleasant surprise. I had no idea Zahn had written about Mara being in Jabba's Palace. This definitely ended up being one of the best stories in the book, because Zahn can actually write Star Wars competently. Imagine that. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the couple of "really?!" moments it had. He doesn't spell it out, but Zahn does imply that Mara is the one who informed Jabba that Boushh was actually Leia in disguise. Mara also figures out that Luke's lightsaber is stashed away inside R2. Two very unnecessary details to include, just to make Mara even more super special than she already is. But, like I said, it was still one of the best stories hands down.

"And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale" by William F. Wu
Gamorreans are often treated as slapstick comedic relief, due to always being portrayed as dumb-witted. So I knew, more or less, what to expect from this one. Yep, it was what I expected. It was kind of cute, but largely a waste of time. However, I didn't think it was bad. Probably among the better stories in here. Which perhaps says more about the overall quality of this book more than it does the quality of this story, but hey...

"Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale" by Kenneth C. Flint
Flint wrote the Evazan and Ponda Baba story in Cantina, which I really disliked. It felt completely separate from everything else in that compilation. However, I actually thought this story was pretty decent, for the most part. There's one aspect near the end of it I thought was a bit far-fetched. It's revealed that Jabba saved Ephant Mon in the past. It just doesn't make any sense when viewed in light of literally everything else about Jabba the Hutt as a character. Aside from that, though, decent.

"Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees" by Deborah Wheeler
Bad. Tried to be funny, but wasn't. Ree-Yees was having visions of Jabba's demise, which included seeing Luke's X-wing in the Dagobah swamp (because Luke was part of Jabba's downfall). It doesn't make a lick of goddamn sense for Ree-Yees to be seeing visions of Dagobah. This was a dumb story.

"And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale" by John Gregory Betancourt
Too bad this book was published a year before the Special Editions came out. Because that means everyone's favorite alien crooner Joh Yowza couldn't be involved in the band's story. Lol. Anyways, this was fine. A little story about the band that didn't do anything too crazy or overly silly. The one thing I thought was kind of weird is how they completely skipped over the scene where Oola gets dropped into the rancor pit. It's weird because, in the movie, that's like the one scene that the band is heavily involved in. But it just gets glossed over here.

"Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale" by M. Shayne Bell
I was looking forward to this story, because I ended up really liking both of Bell's stories in the other two compilations. Therefore, I was a bit disappointed by this one. It was alright, but it's definitely the weakest of Bell's three stories. It was unnecessary to write a scene where Luke meets up with Bib Fortuna away from the palace before the movie. It feels like adding unneeded context to things, and muddies the waters. I was fascinated to learn that this story was the origin of the Secura name, that later gets used for Jedi Aayla Secura in the prequels. I love when little details like that carry forward in some way.

"The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays" by George Alec Effinger
Bad. Very bad. The Gamorreans were already the dumb alien species that works for Jabba. It was completely unnecessary to also make the Weequays be a dumb alien species. It gets established that all Weequays worship this deity and are convinced that they communicate with this deity via a device that is essentially a high tech magic 8-ball. It's obviously played for laughs, but it's dumb and ruins the story. Maybe I just have a soft spot for Weequays, because I had a Weequay action figure as part of my Star Wars toy collection growing up.

"A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
This was an interesting story. A tale about droid forewoman that is sadistic towards other droids, and keeps it a secret. It felt unique, in some ways. The main thing I didn't like is how the story starts with this droid fleeing Cloud City, and then later when Lando shows up at Jabba's Palace the droid assumes it's because he's looking for her. It's yet another example of "how small is this damn galaxy?!" in the EU, where just a handful of characters are involved with everything. But whatever, it's not that big of a deal. I did really like how this story fleshes out what exactly Lando contributed to the whole plan to rescue Han, which is being the one who removed the droids that C-3PO and R2-D2 end up assuming the roles of. It's kind of funny that in the movie, Lando does nothing to help other than be present. Hell, he even needs to be saved by Han when he almost falls into the sarlacc pit. This story is the first thing I've seen that actually spells out something Lando did to help. One aspect that was kind of weird is how they handled droid names. Typically, in Star Wars literature, the accepted practice is to phonetically spell out droids names when it's part of spoken dialogue, but otherwise keep the simple letter/number name when in narration. So C-3PO becomes See-Threepio when spoken, and R2-D2 becomes Artoo-Detoo. But this story had the phonetic spelling for every instance, even in narration. It's weird.

"A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale" by Dave Wolverton
Ah, Dave Wolverton is a very mixed bag for me. Hated Courtship, hated his Dengar story, but his Cantina story was alright. This was alright! Yay. I guess Wolverton only sucks when he has to write romance. Both Courtship and Dengar involved romance, this and Cantina did not. When he's not fumbling to write romance, he's actually somewhat ok. The one thing I didn't like is something similar that happened in the stormtrooper story in Cantina. In that story, the author of that wrote how a stormtrooper captain was lining up a shot on Han as they were rushing into the Falcon and would have hit him, but the protagonist trooper shot that captain in the back, allowing Han to escape unscathed. In this story, a Weequay was about to shout out and stop Leia from choking Jabba to death, but Tessek shot that Weequay to silence him. Both of these things just cheapen what happened in the movies, in my opinion.

"Tongue-tied: Bubo's Tale" by Daryl F. Mallett
A short, nothing story that basically only existed to deliver a punchline to the Ree-Yees story. A waste of time. But it's not like anyone expected a story about the frog-dog thing to be worthwhile.

"Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale" by Jennifer Roberson
Oh, great. Another weirdo story about the weirdo brain-drinking assassin by the same weirdo author. I hated this. Easily the worst story in here, to no surprise. It's nonsensical bullshit for the purpose of being cryptic. Terrible stuff. If the writing style of these two stories is in any way indicative of the author's writing style in her full novels, then I absolutely never want to read anything from her. Straight garbage.

"Shaara and the Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale" by Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
This was... man, what the fuck was this? It was another very short story, wrote in a semi-humorous style. The premise was one of the skiff guards recounting a story to Boba Fett as they traveled to the sarlacc pit for what eventually happens there. The problem is the content of that story. It's about how the skiff guard's 15 year-old sister was being chased by a group of stormtroopers that wanted to rape her, and they were so intent on catching her that they inadvertently drove into the sarlacc pit. This is just such a weird fucking thing to write about Star Wars of all things. And yes, he very clearly established that the sister was 15. Wrote something like "my sister was three years older than me, and I was twelve at the time, so that means she was fifteen." And then to write a story that revolves around the threat of her being raped... so fucking weird. Why do this?? Why include this?!

"A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett" by Daniel Keys Moran
This story is credited to J. D. Montgomery, but it was actually written by Daniel Keys Moran. Moran also wrote the Fett story in BH Tales. Lucasfilm forced changes to this story, and as a result Moran refused to put his name on it. According to Wookieepedia, Moran wanted the story to take place over years, but the forced change was to have the story take place over just a few days instead. It also says on Wookieepedia that the story received other changes to distance it from Moran's original version, but it's not clear on what exactly that means. I thought this was alright. There's none of that nonsense about Fett being a straightedge volcel like in Moran's other story. The sarlacc having some sort of mental connection to its victims is strange but eh whatever it doesn't matter that much. Boba Fett escaping the sarlacc is one of those EU factoids that kind of transcended the EU fandom. It's an easy soundbite to communicate to people who aren't familiar with any of the books. I obviously knew Fett escaped, but I had never read the story about it, and had always been curious. Now I know.

"Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale" by A. C. Crispin
Not only is this written by Crispin, one of my least favorite SW authors, it's also about the fat dancer, one of the characters I had less than zero interest in. So of course it's the longest story in the book, lol. All that being said, I actually didn't mind this all that much. It wasn't great, but I was fearing it would be much, much worse. I think it's dumb that she decided to name two of her children Luke and Leia, and also dumb that she apparently dances at Leia's wedding. We don't need to connect everything, guys, come on.

===

One ongoing aspect I liked about this compilation is how a lot of the stories had connective tissue to one another. There were hints of a whodunit murder mystery strewn throughout the stories, with some touching upon it more than others. It livened up the book, and made things feel related. Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina barely had this - other than (almost) all of them featuring the altercation where Obi-Wan cuts off Ponda Baba's arm, those stories barely had anything to do with one another. Tales of the Bounty Hunters was even looser in its connections, with some of the stories barely bothering to include the scene of all the bounty hunters on board Vader's ship. This book felt like everything fit together... for the most part. Not perfectly, but an effort was made. I appreciated that. Of course, the murderer in question ended up being that stupid brain drinker assassin guy, so it's ultimately a dumb ending to the mystery. But hey, I respect the hustle nonetheless. Another thing I think is cool is the inclusion/references to Lady Valarian (who also made an appearance in Cantina) and Imperial Prefect Talmont. Those are characters that were created for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by West End Games. That was sort of before my time, so I don't have firsthand experience with any of it. But I can relate to how cool it would be to have played the TTRPG and then see those characters appear in an actual Star Wars novel. I'm sure there are people who appreciated it.
I still didn't really like the book overall, but it was probably the best of these three compilations. That's not saying much, though. I'm glad to be done with this style of compilation. There are two more Tales books, but they are not centered around one event like the first three are, and also KJA is not involved with them.

Next up in the timeline is the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy. Never have read them before, despite seeing them on shelves quite often. I don't know much about them, but I have recently seen some rather mixed opinions on them. I'm curious to find out more.

[Heather Layne]

Most of these beings are horrible! But I like the little epilogue with some happy endings. Interestingly woven together.

[Donovan]

This is a fun read and is a collection of short stories based on the characters seen in Jabba the Hutt's Palace in Return of the Jedi. It provides history and the interactions of each to the overall story.

Introduction

"A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale"
"Taster's Choice: The Tale of Jabba's Chef"
"That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb"
"A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola's Tale"
"Let Us Prey: The Whiphid's Tale"
"Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade"
"And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale"
"Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale"
"Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees"
"And the Band Played On: The Band's Tale"
"Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale"
"The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays"
"A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9"
"A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek's Tale"
"Tongue-tied: Bubo's Tale"
"Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale"
"Shaara and the Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale" by Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
"A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett" by Daniel Keys Moran
"Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale" by A. C. Crispin

Epilogue: Whatever Became Of...?

[Naessens]

After enjoying the majority of Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, I read this other collection of short stories. Contrary to the first book, the events and characters depicted are in Jabba's palace surroundins during the time of Star Wars Episode 6 : Return of the Jedi. And unlike the first book, the tales do not replay over and over the same scene from differen tpoitn of views. In fact, there are a few mentions of Luke Skywalker and his friends, but the tales deal mostly with the different plots among Jabba's minions.

Of course, these stories are classified as "Legends" since Disney bought Star Wars franchise rights, but even before that, they must have been already considered as non-canonical after the second trilogy.

The Rancor keeper's tale : offers some background on the Rancor. The relationship between the beast and his keeper Maliki is probably not as moving as intented by the author. I did feel the bond between the keeper and his creature, but it did not moved me.

* The Tale of Jabba's chef : captivating plot. Readers get the first hints at all the plots and sub-plots on-going in Jabba's palace.

The Tale of Salacious crumb : as irritating and boring as its main character. Even the writing style was not good.

** Oola's Tale : the best written tale at this point in the book. Good story, good writing, interesting character and new insights on Luke's return to Tatooine before he reached Jabba's palace. One of my favourite tales.

The Whiphid's tale : another tale involving conspiracy against Jabba equals another enthralling story.

The tale of Mara Jade : a little frustrating as Mara Jade, Hand of the Emperor, accomplishes nothing in her undercover mission in Jabba's Palace to assassinate Luke Skywalker. I admit I was a bit disappointed by author Timothy Zahn.

* The Gamorrean Guard's tale : very funny as it follows the most stupid Gamorrean guard in Jabba's Palace. Moreover, it lays the ground for several plots among Jabba's minions. Not mind-blowing, but one of the best tales.

Ephant Mon's tale : tells the story of Jabba's allied and close friend Ephant Mon who becomes aware of Luke Skywalker's abalities and warns the Hutt not to threaten the Jedi and his friends' lives. The scenes in Return of the Jedi did not show how confident and powerful was Luke when entering Jabba's palace.

The tale of Ree-Yees : another tale with someone conspiring against Jabba, but this one has a big surprise at the end. Furthermore, this is the first tale which includes the final scene of the film at the Great Pit of Carkoon.

The Band's Tale : tells the story of Max Rebo and his fellow musicians. There is not much to write on it, neither bad nor good : it doesn't bring much to the table and is not memorable.

* Bib Fortuna's tale : Unlike the previous tale, this one reveals a new side of Jabba's majordome Bid Fortuna. It turns out that Bib Fortuna was a different character than what the Return of Jedi suggests. As head of security, he knew about many of the schemes against Jabba, but he was not the last to plot against the Hutt. The tale also involves the mysterious monks living in Jabba's Palace.

The tale of Barada and the Weequays : The Weequays are not the most clever guards of in Jabba's palace, but not as stupid as the Gamorreans of course. Barada is another person who lives in Jabba's palace who has a grudge against the Hutt and plots against him. As ones progress in the book, the number of conspiracies against Jabba increases and it becomes step by step difficult to keep track of every schemes. This tale is not the best but it is still worth reading.

* The tale of EV-9d9 : possibly the best tale of this collection of short stories. It tells about a vicious droid who tries to discover the secret of pain. I find it very well written, it felt as if the droid has "human" feelings and concerns. The pace is good too. Really, I can't see any default in this short story.

Tessek's tale : another short story involving the B'omarr monks. Another look at Jabba's doom at the Great Pit of Carkoon. Another character involved in plots which offer readers new insights on all the previous conspiracies.

Bubo's tale : very short tale. Not bad, but anecdotal.

The Assassin's tale : urgh, the return of Dannik Jerriko, the Soup-thirsty assassin. I already disliked his tale in the Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina, this one is not better. I don't like the character, the writing style, anything.

The Skiff's guard tale : a very short story too, but it offers a good introdcution to the next tale as the Skiff's guard tells Boba Fett about the Sarlacc.

* The Tale of Boba Fett : a very good one, where we learn how Boba Fett manages to escape from the Sarlacc. As the Bounty hunter is prisoner of the Sarlacc, being slowly digested, he is visited by the spirits of previous victims. Sometimes confusing (whose thoughts is Boba Fett having ?), but nevertheless informing on the Sarlacc.

** The Fat Dancer's tale : at first, the two main characters, "ugly" dancer Yarna Gargan and Sergeant Doallyn, are supposed to be the most interesting characters to write about. But their story as they flee Jabba's Palace after the Hutt's death is captivating and well-written. Little by little I care more for them, I wanted to know how their relationship would evolve and if they would manage to reach Mos Eisley. One of the best tales, definitely in the top 5, maybe top 3 of this book.

Finally, there is an epilogue that tells the future of those who managed to escape alive Jabba's palace.

I find it difficult to remember all the plots against Jabba on-going in the hallways of the Hutt's palace. Maybe it would have been better to merge several plots and have different characters involved in the same plot.

One last regret : I wish the mysterious B'omarr monks had their own short story and I regret we don't get more background about them.

Except for one or two short stories, there are no bad tales, all of them are readable and I did enjoy several of them.

[Myke Edwards]

Utter disappointment.
I grew up in the 80's, a child with an active imagination. Needless to say, Jabba's palace was the coolest aspect of Return of the Jedi, IMHO. I had seen this book for years and years and years, imagining all the cool stories those weird aliens had, maybe a slice of life vignette that gave us a good glimpse of who they were, or maybe what led them up to ending up in Jabba's Palace.
So, a few years ago, I got my hands on it.
Utter disappointment.
Every story was what the characters were doing when Luke Skywalker showed up. Some were silly and trying way too hard to be clever and funny. Others were just dull and boring. Very few, if any, were well written.
This was clearly authors getting a paycheck so that Star Wars could get an even bigger one.

[Kyisha Walter]

It took me some time to get through this book, but I have wanted to read it for quite a while. After reading, I wasn't sure if I should give it 3 stars or 4 stars because the stories were very memorable, but they also got repetitive. They are presented in chronological order, which helps keep the timeline orderly but retells the same events multiple times. I found that I preferred the stories that I knew the least about, but I still found value in the stories that didn't hold my interest as much. This book is a nice supplement to the Star Wars expanded universe or legends, and once read will change the way you view Jabba's palace, Return of the Jedi, and Tatooine in general. You will never forget the stories of these characters.

[Nathan Harrison]

Not a great book, but a fun one that I remember fondly from growing up, and one I'm thankful exists for at least one reason: it wrote Boba Fett out of that goddamn sarlacc pit. Even if he died immediately after escaping, it'd still be an improvement over getting bopped in the jetpack by a blind man ("Boba Fett? Boba Fett!?!" Ugh.). But rather than settle for better-than-terrible, the story itself manages to be kind of awesome, and definitely goes a long way toward restoring my favorite Mandalorian's street cred.

[Wuher]

Along with the Mos Eisley Cantina scene, Tatooine in Return of the Jedi had been one of the few scenes that had actually featured a large multitude of different aliens in the Original Trilogy. Tales from Jabba’s Palace, edited by Kevin J. Anderson, is the second Star Wars anthology book released and is based on the background characters from the classic Jabba scenes in Return of the Jedi. I found it a great book, and it was very entertaining to read about the various plots and schemes of the characters trying to rid Jabba.

[Raoul]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Star Wars: Tales from Jabba’s Palace is a mixed collection, but a few stories stand out. The Rancor keeper’s story adds surprising emotion, and Salacious Crumb’s tale is clever and entertaining. While some of the other stories feel slow or forgettable, the book offers a unique look at Jabba’s court. Fans who enjoy side characters and background lore will find it worth the read.

5 out of 10

[Alyce Caswell]

As is always the case with an anthology, there are hits and there are misses. I do think a couple of these stories could easily have been excised, but there were other, much stronger contenders that made this book worth reading in its entirety.

"A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale" is probably the best... and the Dannik Jerriko one is just pain awful (and amateurish to boot).

[katy ♡]

2.5 it was fine. it was just super redundant towards the end. i understand they are trying to tell the same story from different perspectives, but it was too much. also the one guy with the soup story pissed me off. i was so annoyed. i actually can’t remember if he was in this one or mos eisley. all the stories blend together bc they’re so similar.