Ex-Library copy,

Landry Q. Walker's Star Wars: Tales From A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens, Volume 1 is an anthology of short stories, some previously published in ebook format, about some of the aliens from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The six stories explore background characters from Jakku and Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana. The first, "High Noon on Jakku," features Constable Zuvio in a traditional Western-style story about a bank robbery. After that, the reader moves to Takodana in "A Recipe for Death" where the chef in Maz's castle uses a Top Chef-style competition to discover a murderer's identity. "All Creatures Great And Small" is a charming retelling of the events of A New Hope from the perspective of Bobbajo, the alien that appeared alongside J.J. Abrams in the Force For Change campaign. "The Face of Evil" follows Ryn Biggleston, a criminal who seeks reconstructive surgery from two Frigosians in a story with homages to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. "True Love" explores the character of Unkar Plutt in the saddest story of the collection. Finally, "The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku" is a traditional pirate adventure with some fun nods to the Clone Wars, while the Corsair himself resembles Boba Fett. Tyler Scarlet's illustrations at the beginning of each story help to set the mood and possess a mysterious quality that invites the reader in to the story. The volume resembles Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina or Tales from Jabba's Palace and, with Volume 1 in the title, hopefully more stories will follow that will build the world of The Force Awakens and add color to the gray areas yet to be explored. ( )