Star Wars: Canto Bight - Saladin Ahmed, Rae Carson, Mira Grant, John Jackson Miller

Like Phasma, Canto Bight is another journey to The Last Jedi book, this time focused entirely on the film's new casino planet. Not only was Canto Bight the worst thing about the film, but conceptually, it was also extremely similar to Cloud City from the original trilogy. Disney must have known that their Vegas inspired planet was lazily designed if they felt a need to release a whole book to flesh it out. As it stands, the four novellas featured in Canto Bight do very little to sell the world. In my opinion, the setting is mostly superfluous to the four narratives, which could have taken place on pretty much any planet in the Star Wars universe. The writers themselves are a mixed bag, ranging from bad, to average, to good. I will go through them in order.

The first story, 'Rules of the Game' by Saladin Ahmed is a comic tale about a one-eyed alien tourist (I'm not going to remember names for this review) who has won an all expenses paid trip to Canto Bight. The innocuous and naive alien is immediately taken advantage of by every fraudster in the resort, and becomes the unwitting pawn in a criminal assassination attempt. Plenty of slapstick and knowing humour is to hand here, but the characters are not developed enough for the reader to care. The second story by Mira Grant, 'The Wine in Dreams' was the weakest, in my opinion. The premise promised to be good, a sommelier attempting to purchase a rare wine from two mysterious sisters, drawn into a desperate struggle against other would be clients. The plot relies heavily on off-page twists that the reader could never have predicted, therefore failing miserably as a suspense thriller.

The third story, 'Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing; by Rae Carson is another average entry about an alien masseuse attempting to rescue his kidnapped adopted daughter from a mob boss. The story was rather predictable and forgettable, although not quite as bad as Grant's entry. The last story, 'The Ride', by John Jackson Miller was my favourite of the bunch. A deadbeat gambler loses everything in the casinos and must desperately raise a huge amount of money in a short amount of time to pay off a death warrant on his head. Miller is more skilled as a writer and far more adept at creating tension, even among characters who are not particularly likeable or relatable. The novella rattles along at an energetic pace and one finds oneself inexplicably rooting for the hapless protagonist. To round things off, there is also a pithy moral about enjoying the moment thrown in for good measure.

Rating: 3/5