Reviews

Tales of the Bounty Hunters by Kathy Tyers, Dave Wolverton, M. Shayne Bell, Kevin J. Anderson, Daniel Keys Moran

antidetail's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

kandicez's review against another edition

5.0

I have loved Star Wars since my dad stood in a 2 hour line with my brother and I so we could get the seats we wanted in 1977. I love these short story collections which don;t revovlve around the main characters, and give you a broader scope of that galaxy far, far away.

soapmanjon's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was cool seeing the bounty hunters in a different light and how different they are. Dengar and 4-LOM were my favorite stories. 

geraldine's review against another edition

3.0

the ONLY thing saving this from being a solid two-star book is the short story about zuckuss and 4-lom, which is by far the best and only reason you should read this. this book is pretty bad

upsides of reading this book: the aforementioned short story (of possible futures) which is great. also when boba fett drinks a beer with a straw.

downsides: everything else. the first story about ig-88 is awful. the one about boba fett is even worse. who the hell thought I wanted to read about space republicans?!?!? it's absolutely terrible

(did I read this in 2006?????? i don't remember it at all)

(ETA: i called the zuckuss and 4-lom story "all possible futures" instead of "of possible futures" due to the fact that the former is a favorite music album. thanks miami horror. come fistfight me someday)

altlovesbooks's review against another edition

4.0

"Everyone dies. But since nobody's paid me to kill you...sleep well."

My husband is slowly fulfilling his dream of seeing me read all his Star Wars favorites from before things got all weird in the universe. He told me going in that these were a bit of a mixed bag, but that he loved reading them when he was (much) younger. I have to agree with him on the mixed bag part. Dengar's story was a straight up 5 for me, and the rest kinda hovering around 3 or 4. I averaged the scores and ended up at a 3.8. I rounded up. I'll summarize my more specific feelings about the stories here in spoilers:

Spoiler

Therefore I Am/IG-88's Story - Fun, but kind of a letdown. I was mildly surprised at how easily these assassin robots were taken down, despite there being four of them. Them basically taking over a factory planet was fantastic though. The IG-88 bots themselves were kind of boring as a story character though, being robots and all. Not a lot of moral grey there.

Payback/Dengar's Story - Holy cow I loved this one. If you had told me going in there'd be a love story like Lu Bu/Diao Qian in the Star Wars universe, I probably wouldn't have believed you. This one made me feel things, and I thought it was sweet and intense all at once. This one alone made reading the entire book worth it for me.

The Prize Pelt/Bossk's Story - Meh. A bit to binarily good/evil. Bossk was almost comically evil throughout the whole thing, what with his booby traps and wookiee skinning and all. Lots of infodumps about Trandoshans too. Dunno, this one didn't do much for me. Fun and all, but forgettable.

Of Possible Futures/Zuckuss & 4-LOM's Story - Better than the previous one, but I ended up more invested in seeing how the rebels got off their ship (super easy, as it turns out) than the bounty hunting. It took me an embarassingly long time to realize 4-LOM showed up in the Jedi Academy books I already read. Kind of interesting how he's able to rewrite himself so well, and kind of a fun ending too. I felt a bit happier inside knowing Zuckuss got his lungs.

The Last One Standing/Boba Fett's Story - Two middle aged men who once were something but now aren't trying to pretend like they aren't aging with families/injuries and are still the young men they used to be. Boba Fett is cool here, don't get me wrong, but there's a vibe of "shit I'm too old for this" throughout the entire book that seemed like nice progression. Lots of weird time jumps though, like the writer wanted to cram in a ton of references people would recognize and damn the story in the process. Disjointed, and what was that (lack of) ending?

Fun, flawed, and mostly enjoyable. It doesn't have to be perfect to be worthwhile to spend time with. Dengar's story alone made this whole thing worthwhile to me.

spidergirl502's review against another edition

5.0

Excellent novel!! Each story surprised me and impressed me. Loved this one!

srreid's review against another edition

4.0

By far the best of the 3 Tales from/of books. Probably made better as it only contains 5 stories so each one is longer than in other volumes.

bums's review against another edition

3.0

Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 - 1.5/5

Payback: The Tale of Dengar - 3/5

The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk - 2.5/5

Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM - 3.5/5

The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett - 3.5/5

Average Overall - 2.8 (rounded up to 3)

bloodravenlib's review against another edition

3.0

See my blog post on it:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/05/booknote-tales-of-bounty-hunters-star.html

Overall, quality is a bit mixed, but it still was good enough I went on to read the others in the series. The series does get better.

grumpywitch's review against another edition

3.0

Some good solid stories from the point of view of the various bounty hunters that Darth Vader hired to capture Han Solo. The best of the group is the story about Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran. Overall, an enjoyable way to spend some time in the Star Wars universe.