The Ultimate Visual Guide to Star Wars
Category: Books,Children's Books,Arts, Music & Photography
The Ultimate Visual Guide to Star Wars Details
Provides detailed information about the six "Star Wars" films, discussing characters, plotlines, visual effects, merchandise, and video games.
Reviews
As you can tell by the number of stars that I have given this book, I absolutely love this book. Unfortunately, I do not have the "Special Edition" of the book, which is even better than the version I have (it has expanded and additional content on some of the newer developments in Star Wars since the first edition's publication). So this review is largely based upon the first edition (not the special edition) although I have scanned through the Special Edition in a bookstore and I think my review will be helpful for buyers of either edition.First let's point out what this book is not: It is not just a collection of the previous visual dictionaries released by DK. If you want the combined Star Wars Visual Dictionaries (which are must haves as well), then buy the "Complete Star Wars Visual Dictionary" (it has Yoda on the cover). The "Complete" combines the four previous visual dictionaries (The Original Trilogy, Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3) and I believe it has some additional content not in the four original visual dictionaries. The visual dictionaries are based on the film and talk about characters, weapons, ships, events, etc. that happened in the films. You should definitely get your hands on all four visual dictionaries, or just buy the "Complete Visual Dictionary."The "Ultimate Visual Guide," however, deals with not only the films but the expanded universe of Star Wars as well. What does "expanded universe" entail? Well: the novels, the comics, the video games, the toys, the merchandise, the making of the films, etc. It covers all of the films and the stories from the comics/games/novels in chronological order. Then, in the second half of the book, it covers such things as the making of the films (briefly), the toys, etc. While this book does cover the actual films, it does so in much less detail than the visual dictionaries do. So if you just like the films, but hate everything else, you might want to stick with the "Complete Visual Dictionary" with Yoda on the cover. If you want to learn more about the Star Wars universe and about Star Wars merchandise and the making of the films, this book is a wonderful survey of all of those topics. There are other books that give you much more info about merchandise, specific characters, making of the films, but this book is a good survey. It is not exhaustive by any means, but it is a quality production that will give you a taste of the greater Star Wars universe outside of the films and how the films and the expanded universe fit together to make, in my honest opinion, a much richer story/galaxy than that which is merely in the films. There is also a wonderful map of the Star Wars galaxy, which I find myself going back to whenever I want to get a sense of where planets are in relation to Coruscant or one another. You cannot go wrong with buying any of DK's books. In fact, here are my recommendations for must have DK books (and there are many more you will want to buy too)1) The Ultimate Visual Guide to Star Wars (Special Edition)2) The Complete Visual Dictionary to Star Wars (with Yoda on it, if you love the films, you must buy this book!)3) Star Wars Complete Cross-Sections: The Spacecraft and Vehicles of the Entire Star Wars Saga (it shows cutaway drawings of X-wings, Star Destroyers, Tie-fighters, Droid Starships, etc... the drawings are beautiful, and the cutaways let you see the inside of the engines, weapon systems, etc. for your favorite vehicles in Star Wars)4) The Complete Locations of Star Wars (same idea as the "cross-sections book, except you get to see cutaways of the inside of the entire Echo base, the Death star, Kamino's cloning facilities, etc.)Really, if you are a serious Star Wars fan you will love all four books as wonderful reference books. The production value and quality of these books is top-notch. They are beautiful books with lots of pictures (that kids will love) and with explanations for those who want to learn more. I cannot recommend the Ultimate Visual Guide enough, I think you will really like it especially if you are interested in learning a little bit more about the Star Wars universe and time line that takes place outside of the six films themselves.
