There's always more than one side to a story, but in the black-and-white world of George Lucas's Star Wars series, the Imperials are just plain bad.

Not so in The Imperial Perspective, an insightful quartet of stories told from, well, the Imperial point of view. Two revolve around Darth Vader, and frankly we want to hate him (his last-minute, pasty-faced reformation notwithstanding), so I found these much less successful than the other two stories about normal guys in the service of the Empire.

"What Sin Loyalty?" by Jeremy Barlow focuses on a lone clone trooper who has become an invaluable sidekick to his commanding officer. While TK-622, as the clone is impersonally known, has a fairly narrow galactic philosophy imbedded in his brain, he is tremendously loyal and dedicated to his cause. His mission in this case is trying to uncover the party responsible for repeated attempts on his commander's life, and the investigation will lead him right up to the final moments of the Death Star.

"To the Last Man" by Welles Hartley is about an academy-trained soldier who rises to the challenge against impossible odds on a remote world. Lt. Sunber never questions the greater role of the Empire; he simply does his best to survive and to bring the men under his command home alive.

Paul Alden's "The Savage Heart" and Ron Marz's "Target: Vader," on the other hand, try to give some humanity to the galaxy's ultimate villain. And, whether he's bonding with wild dogs on a barren planet, fighting off assassins whose people he wronged or tearing up at an unexpected reminder of the beauties of Naboo, I'm just not buying it. This is Vader, not some namby-pamby, third-rate villain with a tender soul under his crusty exterior.

And yet ... I really enjoyed this collection because it's not the standard take on the Empire vs. the Rebel Alliance. It's easy to roll with the Lucas model, in which good is good and bad is bad and oh-no-we-can't-allow-Han-to-shoot-first, but I prefer stories with a few more layers to ponder. The Imperial Perspective provides them.