Star Wars: Tales From Jabba’s Palace
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.
Editor: Kevin J. Anderson
Authors: 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
Cover artist: Stephen Youll
Illustrator: Michael Manley, Aaron McClellan, Al Williamson
Release date: December 1, 1995
Pages: 420
ISBN: 0-553-56815-9
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
A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett
Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer’s Tale
Jonathan Hicks
Tales from Jabba’s Palace was more of a situation comedy than collection of stories. Each of the stories revolves around the incident from Return of the Jedi, during the Rancor incident and later at the Sarlacc’s pit. Familiar characters from Jabba’s courtroom are there, and the run of stories is pretty much the same as the cantina stories, with the plot intertwining with each story and the events from the film.
There are a couple of silly stories in there, but the majority of them are well thought out and, like I said before, quite funny.
Mark Newbold
As the Star Wars galaxy expanded, so every character seen on screen got their own backstory, and that continued in Tales From Jabba’s Palace. Take A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper’s Tale as an example. Here, we learn just why he was so distraught about the death of his beloved rancor (you’ll never watch Return of the Jedi in the same way), or Taster’s Choice: The Tale of Jabba’s Chef where you can practically feel the nerves as meals are served to the great Hutt.
A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola’s Tale tells the sad story of poor Oola, while And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard’s Tale is a sweet tale, highlighting just how short of intelligent the pig guards really were.
Eleven short stories with humour, pathos, tragedy and intrigue. It’s a mixed bag for sure, but one well worth dipping in to. Star Wars may be a galactic epic, but that feeling can be scaled right down to the most personal of stories, so hats off to all involved.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Anderson, Kevin (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 450 Pages - 06/28/2011 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
