Amazon.com (ISBN 0553568159, Mass Market Paperback)

One of the more prolific--and proficient--Star Wars authors, Kevin J. Anderson, edits and contributes to this anthology of ... well, tales from Jabba's palace. Each of the 19 short tales focuses on a different personality, from the rancor keeper to Salacious Crumb, putting faces and facts on the internecine intrigue swirling around everyone's favorite Huttese crime lord. (As it turns out, you can find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Mos Eisley.) Find out how Bib Fortuna hoped to overthrow Jabba, or hear the philosophical ramblings of a not-so-bright teenage skiff guard. Or, perhaps best, learn how Boba Fett escaped the Sarlacc in the Great Pit of Carkoon. Style, mood, and quality vary by author, but these Tales are mostly funny and mostly well done, including those by Anderson, Star Trek author A.C. Crispin, Nebula-winner George Alec Effinger, and Hugo-winner Timothy Zahn. --Paul Hughes