The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu
The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu
This was a fascinating book with a slant toward the unbelievable...it's technically canon, but I'm assuming some of it is not actually true and just what the title states--legends. Some of the tales I'm sure are canon and it was really intriguing getting a glimpse into Luke's adventures over the years. But a couple of the tales left me somewhat confused and a little uneasy as to their truthfulness. I'll explain in a little bit.
First I'd like to discuss the format of this book. The Wayward Current is a ship carrying fathiers to Canto Bight and it is filled with young deckhands who love hearing and telling stories. The book takes place over the span of one night with the deckhands having adventures during "Interlude"s and tales of Luke Skywalker being told between these jaunts into the present. I enjoyed the short "stories" of the deckhands as much as I enjoyed the tales of Luke Skywalker. Overall, this was a seamlessly written book which was impressive for it's containing such a variety of storytelling. There are six stories total about Luke Skywalker and seven interludes about the deckhands.
The Wayward Current is captained by a Hutt named Tuuma who employs only those who have yet to reach maturity because they are still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about adventuring through the galaxy...and will accept next to no pay. Some of our deckhands include Teal (I believe a human), Tyra (a human from a scavenging family with Imperial connections), G'kolu (an Anlari boy who has horns that he not only can smell through but that gesture to indicate his moods). Ulina, the third mate, has an eyepatch over her left eye that changes colors depending on her mood. Dwoogan is the ship's cook.
Facts:
- Vegicus: vermin that live in the bilges and storage nooks of spaceships
- Everyone from the planet Tanto Winn has green eyes
- Tectozins are a sentient species in the galaxy
- Sandypede larvae are food for Steelpeckers
"The Mythbuster":
Dwoogan begins the story telling by relaying a time when she was at a cantina and a woman who calls herself Redy the Mythbuster told a story of Luke Skywalker. This story is obviously untrue and was just bizarre to read. It says that Luke, Han, Chewie, and Obi-Wan were a band of conmen who tricked everybody they came across. Redy says the Death Star was not real, Admiral Ackbar is not real, and the Battle of Yavin was staged. She goes into great detail about how and why all of this is reality, even giving crazy original names to our favorite heroes: Luke "Babyface" Clodplodder, Benny "Wiseman" O'Kenoby, Hansel "Lightning Hands" Shooter, and Chewie "Shaggy" Baccarat. And the Millennium Falcon was called the Century Turkey. Let's just say it's as crazy as it sounds and move on to the second story.
"The Starship Graveyard":
Ulina tells this story from the point of view of an Imperial gunner who is in a Star Destroyer that gets shot down over Jakku during the battle that ended the Empire. This was a fabulous story with a powerful ending that nearly had me in tears. Luke was apparently on Jakku during the battle and he saves this Imperial gunner from the fate of death, carrying him across the sands on a makeshift stretcher. They endure trials and tribulations but make it out alive only for the Imperial to be tried as a traitor. I really enjoyed this story but find it strange that Luke was on Jakku during the battle...and stranded it seems. We never hear about him in the Aftermath trilogy so I have a hard time connecting this one to reality.
"Fishing in the Deluge":
This story is told by Flux, a stowaway on the Wayward Current who Teal is hiding. A fascinating glimpse into a world we've not encountered before, I was highly engaged throughout this one and enjoyed the world building very much. We find ourselves on the planet Lew'el where there live tentacled whales, triple-speared marlins, translucent clams, kiln oysters, tickling frogs, and aquafungi. The people of Lew'el fly on four-winged birds called wind-trusters that live their entire lives in the air. They catch fish by riding the wind-trusters as they dive into the depths of the ocean. Instead of referring to the Force, they refer to the Tide as the power that binds all life.
Luke comes to these people to learn the ways of the Tide. It appears he is an older man in this story, probably post-Return of the Jedi. In trying to get the leader of the clan to teach him the ways of the Tide, Luke manages to persuade her to allow him to endure the trials to see if he is worthy of being taught and won't manipulate the Tide wrongly. The trials are intriguing and Luke finds tricky ways to skirt around the rules, but manages to be quite successful overall. My favorite line from this story is spoken by the clan leader, "I can only wish that someday you'll also be pestered by a student as persistent to learn what you do not wish to teach." Hahaha! Rey!
It appears that Flux is Aya, the main character in this particular story, finally having found her way off-planet to see the galaxy.
"I, Droid":
Next, G2-X, the Wayward Current's custodial droid tells a story to Flux, Tyra, Teal, and G'kolu. This tale is a re-telling of a story told to G2-X by a Z7 series construction droid. I'm not sure where it would take place in the canon timeline but it could be anywhere from after A New Hope to before The Force Awakens.
More world building! A slaver ship captures the Z7 droid and takes her to a space station called the Gem where ultra-rich and supposedly intelligent sentients live. These sentients get their money from a mineraloid called tear opals that exist on the planet the Gem orbits called The Deep, located in the Unknown Regions.
R2-D2 was also captured by the slaver ship and along with the Z7 is taken down to the organically-uninhabitable The Deep to mine the tear opals. Z7 gets a re-programming chip so she can be an enforcer and do horrible things against the other droids. She can still feel the good inside her though which makes this story devastating. The Deep is a dastardly place with acid seeping out of every crack and fissure. Droids don't last long here due to corrosion. The story gave me shivers with its descriptions of tortured droids.
Luke comes into play when he arrives on a slave ship dressed as a protocol droid and gets taken down to the mines. His plan is to rescue his little buddy R2. Chaos ensues and happy endings are had. While this story was terrifying at times, the ending was wonderful! Being really thrown off by Luke's mechanical hand, the Z7 droid delivers this moving and beautiful last line: "Luke Skywalker is not merely a great man; he is also, at least partly, a great droid." D'awww!
"The Tale of Lugubrious Mote":
Teal tells this next story to get everybody's mind off the stench of the bilge water they are in in their attempt to smuggle out Flux. This was another tale that I am super skeptical about and wonder if it is true at all. I hope it's not true anyway. But that's where this book being canon gets a little confusing and fuzzy.
Lugubrious Mote is a mole-flea from the planet Kowak. They are a "parasitic" sentient species that live on Kowakian Monkey-Lizards. Lugubrious happens to be a member of the colony that lived on Salacious B. Crumb! Mole-fleas are only 4mm in length, have a chitinous carapace, two pairs of furry legs, a pair of segmented arms with pincers, a whiskered head, and a ridiculous number of mouthparts. They can jump as high as a meter from standing still and can lift forty times their body weight.
Lugubrious was the only one of her colony to follow Salacious off-planet and she describes her time in Jabba's palace, desperately trying to get Salacious to perform worthy tricks for his master. She says she was the brains of the operation.
Then we get to Luke entering the palace ala Return of the Jedi and to make a long story short, Lugubrious jumps on Luke and guides him through defeating the Rancor and escaping the Sarlacc. Luke thinks he's hearing and feeling the Force when he is actually hearing Lugubrious and feeling Lugubrious's bites as she maneuvers him like a puppet. Now I don't know how Lugubrious would know so much about the events of Return of the Jedi if she hadn't been there, but I really hope this one was not true. It dampens Luke's power and connection with the Force and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
"Big Inside":
This last story is told by G'kolu from the point of view of a biologist who encountered Luke Skywalker during her research travels. She and Luke end up in an exogorth (giant space slug) and explore the vast ecosystem within while trying to survive and figure a way out. The environment inside the exogorth is truly fascinating and there's all sorts of life living within from predators to prey to fungi to of course mynocks. They end up finding three wayward Mist-seekers (another term again for the Force) who help them escape the exogorth. It is all very sad and heartfelt how they escape and it relates back to Obi-Wan's sacrifice in A New Hope. Because the biologist says Luke looks boyish, I'm placing this one before Return of the Jedi. This was probably my favorite story of all as I am a biologist myself and loved learning more about the world within the exogorth.
Overall, this was a wonderful book with some truly exciting tales. Two of them I outright disbelieve but the other four I can see fitting into actual canon quite nicely. Definitely an interesting take on Luke Skywalker and all the stories he has to share. I'd love to see such a book about any of the other heroes of the Rebellion or Old Republic. Maybe they'll come out with one in the future. Definitely worth the read!!
First I'd like to discuss the format of this book. The Wayward Current is a ship carrying fathiers to Canto Bight and it is filled with young deckhands who love hearing and telling stories. The book takes place over the span of one night with the deckhands having adventures during "Interlude"s and tales of Luke Skywalker being told between these jaunts into the present. I enjoyed the short "stories" of the deckhands as much as I enjoyed the tales of Luke Skywalker. Overall, this was a seamlessly written book which was impressive for it's containing such a variety of storytelling. There are six stories total about Luke Skywalker and seven interludes about the deckhands.
The Wayward Current is captained by a Hutt named Tuuma who employs only those who have yet to reach maturity because they are still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about adventuring through the galaxy...and will accept next to no pay. Some of our deckhands include Teal (I believe a human), Tyra (a human from a scavenging family with Imperial connections), G'kolu (an Anlari boy who has horns that he not only can smell through but that gesture to indicate his moods). Ulina, the third mate, has an eyepatch over her left eye that changes colors depending on her mood. Dwoogan is the ship's cook.
Facts:
- Vegicus: vermin that live in the bilges and storage nooks of spaceships
- Everyone from the planet Tanto Winn has green eyes
- Tectozins are a sentient species in the galaxy
- Sandypede larvae are food for Steelpeckers
"The Mythbuster":
Dwoogan begins the story telling by relaying a time when she was at a cantina and a woman who calls herself Redy the Mythbuster told a story of Luke Skywalker. This story is obviously untrue and was just bizarre to read. It says that Luke, Han, Chewie, and Obi-Wan were a band of conmen who tricked everybody they came across. Redy says the Death Star was not real, Admiral Ackbar is not real, and the Battle of Yavin was staged. She goes into great detail about how and why all of this is reality, even giving crazy original names to our favorite heroes: Luke "Babyface" Clodplodder, Benny "Wiseman" O'Kenoby, Hansel "Lightning Hands" Shooter, and Chewie "Shaggy" Baccarat. And the Millennium Falcon was called the Century Turkey. Let's just say it's as crazy as it sounds and move on to the second story.
"The Starship Graveyard":
Ulina tells this story from the point of view of an Imperial gunner who is in a Star Destroyer that gets shot down over Jakku during the battle that ended the Empire. This was a fabulous story with a powerful ending that nearly had me in tears. Luke was apparently on Jakku during the battle and he saves this Imperial gunner from the fate of death, carrying him across the sands on a makeshift stretcher. They endure trials and tribulations but make it out alive only for the Imperial to be tried as a traitor. I really enjoyed this story but find it strange that Luke was on Jakku during the battle...and stranded it seems. We never hear about him in the Aftermath trilogy so I have a hard time connecting this one to reality.
"Fishing in the Deluge":
This story is told by Flux, a stowaway on the Wayward Current who Teal is hiding. A fascinating glimpse into a world we've not encountered before, I was highly engaged throughout this one and enjoyed the world building very much. We find ourselves on the planet Lew'el where there live tentacled whales, triple-speared marlins, translucent clams, kiln oysters, tickling frogs, and aquafungi. The people of Lew'el fly on four-winged birds called wind-trusters that live their entire lives in the air. They catch fish by riding the wind-trusters as they dive into the depths of the ocean. Instead of referring to the Force, they refer to the Tide as the power that binds all life.
Luke comes to these people to learn the ways of the Tide. It appears he is an older man in this story, probably post-Return of the Jedi. In trying to get the leader of the clan to teach him the ways of the Tide, Luke manages to persuade her to allow him to endure the trials to see if he is worthy of being taught and won't manipulate the Tide wrongly. The trials are intriguing and Luke finds tricky ways to skirt around the rules, but manages to be quite successful overall. My favorite line from this story is spoken by the clan leader, "I can only wish that someday you'll also be pestered by a student as persistent to learn what you do not wish to teach." Hahaha! Rey!
It appears that Flux is Aya, the main character in this particular story, finally having found her way off-planet to see the galaxy.
"I, Droid":
Next, G2-X, the Wayward Current's custodial droid tells a story to Flux, Tyra, Teal, and G'kolu. This tale is a re-telling of a story told to G2-X by a Z7 series construction droid. I'm not sure where it would take place in the canon timeline but it could be anywhere from after A New Hope to before The Force Awakens.
More world building! A slaver ship captures the Z7 droid and takes her to a space station called the Gem where ultra-rich and supposedly intelligent sentients live. These sentients get their money from a mineraloid called tear opals that exist on the planet the Gem orbits called The Deep, located in the Unknown Regions.
R2-D2 was also captured by the slaver ship and along with the Z7 is taken down to the organically-uninhabitable The Deep to mine the tear opals. Z7 gets a re-programming chip so she can be an enforcer and do horrible things against the other droids. She can still feel the good inside her though which makes this story devastating. The Deep is a dastardly place with acid seeping out of every crack and fissure. Droids don't last long here due to corrosion. The story gave me shivers with its descriptions of tortured droids.
Luke comes into play when he arrives on a slave ship dressed as a protocol droid and gets taken down to the mines. His plan is to rescue his little buddy R2. Chaos ensues and happy endings are had. While this story was terrifying at times, the ending was wonderful! Being really thrown off by Luke's mechanical hand, the Z7 droid delivers this moving and beautiful last line: "Luke Skywalker is not merely a great man; he is also, at least partly, a great droid." D'awww!
"The Tale of Lugubrious Mote":
Teal tells this next story to get everybody's mind off the stench of the bilge water they are in in their attempt to smuggle out Flux. This was another tale that I am super skeptical about and wonder if it is true at all. I hope it's not true anyway. But that's where this book being canon gets a little confusing and fuzzy.
Lugubrious Mote is a mole-flea from the planet Kowak. They are a "parasitic" sentient species that live on Kowakian Monkey-Lizards. Lugubrious happens to be a member of the colony that lived on Salacious B. Crumb! Mole-fleas are only 4mm in length, have a chitinous carapace, two pairs of furry legs, a pair of segmented arms with pincers, a whiskered head, and a ridiculous number of mouthparts. They can jump as high as a meter from standing still and can lift forty times their body weight.
Lugubrious was the only one of her colony to follow Salacious off-planet and she describes her time in Jabba's palace, desperately trying to get Salacious to perform worthy tricks for his master. She says she was the brains of the operation.
Then we get to Luke entering the palace ala Return of the Jedi and to make a long story short, Lugubrious jumps on Luke and guides him through defeating the Rancor and escaping the Sarlacc. Luke thinks he's hearing and feeling the Force when he is actually hearing Lugubrious and feeling Lugubrious's bites as she maneuvers him like a puppet. Now I don't know how Lugubrious would know so much about the events of Return of the Jedi if she hadn't been there, but I really hope this one was not true. It dampens Luke's power and connection with the Force and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
"Big Inside":
This last story is told by G'kolu from the point of view of a biologist who encountered Luke Skywalker during her research travels. She and Luke end up in an exogorth (giant space slug) and explore the vast ecosystem within while trying to survive and figure a way out. The environment inside the exogorth is truly fascinating and there's all sorts of life living within from predators to prey to fungi to of course mynocks. They end up finding three wayward Mist-seekers (another term again for the Force) who help them escape the exogorth. It is all very sad and heartfelt how they escape and it relates back to Obi-Wan's sacrifice in A New Hope. Because the biologist says Luke looks boyish, I'm placing this one before Return of the Jedi. This was probably my favorite story of all as I am a biologist myself and loved learning more about the world within the exogorth.
Overall, this was a wonderful book with some truly exciting tales. Two of them I outright disbelieve but the other four I can see fitting into actual canon quite nicely. Definitely an interesting take on Luke Skywalker and all the stories he has to share. I'd love to see such a book about any of the other heroes of the Rebellion or Old Republic. Maybe they'll come out with one in the future. Definitely worth the read!!
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