Star Wars’ Canto Bight is a Delightful Hive of Scum and Villainy

Think Dubai, or especially Las Vegas: it’s a desert oasis that has no business existing where it does, a place in which artificial oceans mask the planet’s natural aridness and impossibly rare Alderaanian trees dot the landscape. It’s a mecca for sightseers and gamblers, but also home to gangsters, unsavory politicians, and the struggling workers that keep things running. It seems likely that the concerns of a bigger galaxy are coming to the opulent world, but, for the moment, the people of Canto Bight have their own problems to worry about.

“Rules of the Game,” by Saladin Ahmed (Throne of the Crescent Moon) follows Kedpin Shklop, a diminutive Wermal with one large eye and baby-pink skin. After over a century in the vaporator sales business, he’s finally received the recognition that the good-natured, but put-upon, being deserves: he’s been designated as VaporTech’s “salesbeing” of the year, entitling him to an all-expenses paid trip to Canto Bight, including a stay at the famous Canto Casino. In such a place, a rough equilibrium exists: there’s money to be made by criminal types, but only if tourists feel comfortable enough to keep coming back. Kedpin’s naïveté throws that balance entirely out of whack. Full of positive mantras, the happy-go-lucky Wermal is just too easy a mark. Baddies are drawn to him like flies—he’s not even off of his shuttle before he’s being shaken down for his relatively minuscule travel purse. A desperate criminal, Anglang Lehet, realizes Ked is probably just who he’s been waiting for to complete the ultimate score, even if Ked’s life will be forfeit.

“The Wine in Dreams,” from Mira Grant (Into the Drowning Deep) introduces galaxy-renowned sommelier Derla Pidys, on a trip to Canto in order to secure a legendary vintage of wine from the Grammus twins, inseparable sisters who claim to be from an alternate dimension. By necessity, the deal must go down in the nightclub of Ubialla Gheal, one of the most exclusive high-end destinations in town. Ubialla, as it happens, is not thrilled that such an important transaction taking place in her club without her blessing. Determined to acquire the wine, she inserts herself into the negotiations, which is all the better for the chaos-loving Grammus twins.

“Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing” is from Rae Carson, author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns. It’s about one of Canto Bight’s most sought-after masseurs, a being with a strict policy of never getting involved. With old age making his work ever more difficult, he becomes caught between a local gangster and a prominent politician, each of whom wants to make use of Lexo Sooger’s intimate connections with the city’s elite. When his daughter is kidnapped, he has no choice but to dive deep into the worlds of crime and politics he’s so carefully avoided.
Finally, “The Ride” from John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: A New Dawn) goes deep into Canto Casino with professional gambler Kaljach Sonmi. His pockets are nearly empty, and, massively in debt to one of Canto’s gangsters, he has exactly one night to save his own life by making enough money to pay off the crime lord. A trio of unusually fortunate brothers show up and might be able to help, if they don’t clean him out of his last credits.

A few common characters pop up between the stories, and they of course share a vivid sense of setting, but the stories each stand on their own. Canto Bight is a different kind of Star Wars novel in many ways; it’s unusual that the last book to be released in the run-up to The Last Jedi depends so little on continuity shout-outs, and it’s surprising that a book starring aliens and dives so deeply into the seamier side of the Star Wars universe has such a human heart beating at its core.
These stories have their villains, but there are also surprising heroes. Four stories about a casino world could have easily turned cynical, but instead, each features multiple characters who rise above their circumstances in a way that’s oddly inspiring. In this way, the book lacks the galaxy-ending stakes of the Star films, but is the better for it. It’s hard not to be impressed at how capably Ahmed, Grant, Carson, and Miller create believable and engaging characters out of weird, whimsical, occasionally silly aliens (and the B&N exclusive version includes several pages of pictures from the film to give you a sense of what they look like). Never mind galactic civil wars and space battles; it’s enough that there are real stakes here for the lives of Ked, Derla, Lexo, and Kal.
We already know Star Wars can do epic. Canto Bight is a reminder that it can also be delightfully intimate.
Canto Bight is available now.