Many popular franchises have received "alternate history" treatment, and Star Wars is no exception. Star Wars Omnibus: Infinities is a collection of three stories- each a re-telling of the original movies. In each case, they change one plot point, and see where it cascades. I won't give it all away, but to give you an idea:
- In A New Hope, Luke doesn't blow up the death star, so it does destroy the rebel base on Yavin 4. That happens at the beginning, and the rest is the consequence of that.
- In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke dies on Hoth before Han rescues him, forcing Leia to train as a Jedi instead.
- In Return of the Jedi, Leia's thermal detonator destroys Jabba's palace, killing many characters and changing how they proceed from there.
It was a mildly entertaining read. I liked how it demonstrates the importance of details- how changing one completely alters what follows- but this is all fiction to start with, so it's not like alternate [real] history. Additionally, each story starts the way its respective movie does, and ignores any alternate treatment of the preceding tale(s)- so the tales are not cohesive between them (so alternate Episode IV starts the same way as the movie, ending completely differently; alternate Episode V starts the same way as the movie, and ignores alternate Episode IV, etc). I know why they went that route- so they could start with a familiar movie opening for each, giving fans a known starting point- but it reduced the enjoyment for me. The art was so-so, and the stories moved along a tad too quickly. Overall, it's not a bad library book, but I wouldn't own this.
Rating: C
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