Star Wars: Canto Bight

*All posts in the Star Wars Canon series contain minor spoilers

 

4 weeks until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

“Even as the darkness grows, visitors chase their fortunes enthralled by the glamour and thrill of the casino city. The fate of the galaxy matters little amid the glittering brilliance of Canto Bight. For whatever happens, Canto Bight prospers…” – Star Wars: Canto Bight

Star Wars: Canto Bight is a novella collection of four stories centred around the glitz and glamor of the casino city Canto Bight on the planet Cantonica.

Written by: Saladin Ahmed, Mira Grant, Rae Carson (author of Most Wanted and From a Certain Point of View short story), John Jackson Miller (author of A New Dawn and From a Certain Point of View short Story)

Published: December 5, 2017

When does Canto Bight take place?

Around the same time as The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi in the year 34 ABY.

Synopsis:

In “Rules of the Game,” a vaporator salesbeing has won a dream vacation to Canto Bight. His naïve and trustworthy nature is soon taken advantage of when he gets set up by a career criminal.

In “The Wine of Dreams,” a priceless and rare bottle of wine is the centre of a desperate struggle of a scheme.

In “Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing,” a masseuse with a dark past is forced to use old skills in order to save his daughter from a Canto Bight gangster.

In “The Ride,” a deadbeat gambler gets caught up with The Lucky Three triplets whose crazy approach to gambling always pays off.

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Star Wars: Canto Bight features four novellas all showing the seedier side of the casino city, the side Rose is aware of and repulsed by in The Last Jedi. The stars of these four novellas are all new to the book but some do appear as background characters during the Canto Bight scenes during the film. There is very little intertwining between the four stories, but sometimes a brief mention or reference to characters or situations from the other stories is used.

Overall, Canto Bight is not one of my favourite Star Wars books. The stories are all quite two-dimensional and honestly, a little boring. “The Wine of Dreams” is confusing and I have to admit, I really didn’t know what was going on for parts of it, and “The Ride” had a very slow pace. My favourites were “Rules of the Game” and “Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing.”

There isn’t much reference to the rest of the Star Wars galaxy outside of Canto Bight, though this may have been done on purpose to show just how blissfully oblivious its citizens are to the current war. There is mention of arms dealers selling to both the Resistance and the First Order, but other than that, the entire focus is very narrow. It could have easily been a book about any sleazy city (with aliens as residents!)

Along with Leia, Princess of Alderaan and Phasma, Canto Bight was released as part of the Journey to The Last Jedi series. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a more detailed look at the city of Canto Bight as it appears in the movie.

 

Next week: Force Collector

Complete list of Star Wars Canon novels