The Stories were pretty neat. I enjoyed the characters, and could relate to them after having worked in a casino for almost a year. ( )

This is a collection of 4 short stories (though they're quite long for short stories) set in the city of Canto Bight. I wish they were a little more interconnected, or there had been a story at the end that drew all the characters together to do something unified. As it was, they were different angles on the same setting that didn't add much by being together.

“Rules of the Game” by Saladin Ahmed
★★☆☆☆
I found one of the two central characters in this story interesting, but I wanted him to develop a bit more than he did. I felt like both characters had been introduced and were beginning to change by the end of the story, but they didn't really go anywhere.

“The Wine of Dreams” by Mira Grant
★★★☆☆
This was a very fun little caper which raised interesting questions and introduced some fun elements into the Star Wars world. The weakest element of the story is that even by the end there aren't any satisfying answers to the questions that it raises about its most mysterious characters.

“Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing” by Rae Carson
★★★★☆
A masseuse gets drawn into the criminal underworld and has to get in touch with his own dark past to survive. I liked the way that worldbuilding was baked into this story, and it was a pretty entertaining self-contained adventure in its own right.

“The Ride” by John Jackson Miller
★★★☆☆
The most typical Star-Warsy story in the collection, in spite of being about a gambler who doesn't encounter any real violence. There are goofy characters and strong elements of the Force guiding the story, as well as the ultimate triumph of good over evil in the clearest happy ending in the bunch. ( )

Star Wars: Canto Bight collects four stories set in or around the Canto Bight casino from The Last Jedi. Saladin Ahmed's "Rules of the Game" focuses on a hitman who decides to go easy on his mark after learning about friendship. Mira Grant's "The Wine in Dreams" is about a sommelier who learns the lengths to which a person will go for a product representing a fantasy. Rae Carson's "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing" is about the futility of non-involvement in a corrupt system. And John Jackson Miller's "The Ride" focuses on a gambler learning to enjoy the game instead of trying to become rich. All four stories help to explore the corruption and decadence of late stage capitalism and explain why Finn and Rose's side-quest in The Last Jedi was a vital development for the Star Wars universe. The hope of the Legend of Luke Skywalker makes the most sense in a world so broken by greed and obsession over appearances, built on the backs of the poor and starving. If Rey and the Resistance are to rekindle the fire of idealism in the galaxy, they must understand the systems in place to prevent structural change in society. Canto Bight helps with this world-building while also featuring fun stories that recall other collections, like Tales from Jabba's Palace. ( )

This was a quick and fun read that takes place in the Star Wars Universe. Canto Bight is the Casino planet featured in The Last Jedi and it's basically a higher stakes version of Las Vegas. It's a prosperous city with a dark underbelly that will always thrive on greed and war. This book features four short stories by notable sci-fi authors that take place on the casino planet. None of them feature any major characters from the Star Wars series, but there are a few mentions of the impending war and the First Order. The stories feature thugs, gamblers, wine sommeliers, tourists, masseuses, and more. The stories are all vastly different and contain a great number of different species, plot lines, and adventure. They were all fun and entertaining and I would definitely read another compilation like this. ( )