World Famous Comics: The New Essential Guide to Characters (Star Wars)
The New Essential Guide to Characters (Star Wars)
By: Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Del Rey Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 250 Publication Date: April 23, 2002 Release Date: April 23, 2002
Product Description: The Star Wars universe is expanding faster than ever before, and Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters has received an exciting new face-lift–with completely updated text and more than a hundred brand new, full-color illustrations by extraordinary new artist Michael Sutfin.
This all-new Essential Guide features detailed profiles of more than one hundred and thirty characters from across the Star Wars galaxy, including all of your favorites–such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and Mara Jade–as well as, from Episode II:
Here is complete, updated coverage of the novels from the incredible New Jedi Order and all of the classic movies, books, comics, TV specials, games, and the rest of the Star Wars universe.
This must-have book describes the essential history and personal data for each character–with vital statistics, homeworlds, and political affiliations.
More characters, more information, brilliant artwork–the Essential Guides are hotter than ever!
Not comprehensive enough The most obvious flaw of this book is that it doesn't include Revenge of the Sith material. So critical things like Anakin's fall to the Dark Side, Padme and Count Dooku's deaths, General Greivous entirely, are all casually left out.
The more annoying flaw though, is the lack of coverage. A good amount of characters are covered, but too many are just left out entirely. Nearly all the members of Rogue Squadron simply aren't mentioned, just as one example. It's hard to expect them to fit in every character ever, but there are far too many missing for this resource to be able to be considered comprehensive.
Their main mistake was restricting themselves by format. Every character received at least one whole page of information, plus a full, detailed, color illustration. At the end, a few dozen other characters got a short blurb, and some got a facial portrait. They should have gone for a more encyclopedic approach, allotting as much space as was necessary for each character, and not restricting themselves to a page by page format. Then they could have included a lot more people and amde the book a lot more satisfying.
This book does very nicely in what it has done, I'll certainly give it that. But as it stands, a few years after it's release, it is in need of a serious update and a total revamp of included characters.
A Great Book To Have! I really like this book. Seldom do you get the opportunity to read about Star Wars characters, all compiled into a single volume. Every page in this book is fun to read. Character illustrations are pretty good and the descriptions on each characters are quite detailed and well-constructed.
However, there are some typo errors in the book and I was left wondering why did the publisher (Del Rey) decide to revise this book before Episode 3 was released. Some of the key characters missing from this book include General Grevious and many other important figures in Episode 3. In my opinion, this book should have been revised after Episode 3.
Nevertheless, its still a great book to read. I recommend it book to both fans of Star Wars and RPG gamers. A job well done to the author of this book - Mr. Daniel Wallace.
The New Essential Guide to Characters (Star Wars) The book has a lot of good information and is up to date.
Star Wars fan? If so, this book is a must-own! Star Wars: The New Essential Guide To Characters (2002.)
INTRODUCTION: Star Wars is the ultimate science fiction series. It's not likely that when George Lucas released the classic first film in 1977 just how big the franchise would go onto be. In addition to two trilogies of films, the Lucas series spawned video games, comic books, novels, and an assortment of other Expanded Universe material. With all these different sources of Star Wars, it was high time that guides to everyone's favorite galaxy far, far away were released. And in the mid-late nineties, that happened. Guides were released for characters, vehicles, weapons/technology, alien species, droids, planets, and characters However, many of the guides were outdated with the arrival of the prequel films. And thus, several got a much needed revamp. The character guide was amongst them. Read on for my review of The NEW Essential Guide To Characters.
OVERVIEW: This book is exactly what it says it is - a guide to the many characters of the Star Wars galaxy. For pretty much every character, whether he or her is from a movie, novel, comic, or video game, you get a standard profile of info like height, species, and birth planet, as well as a biography of the character. You also get a full color illustration - and since many of these characters come from novels, this is the first time official art of them has ever been published. From the better known players in the Star Wars universe like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo right down to considerably lesser-known characters like Exar Kun and Vergere, this book explores characters from every corner of the Star Wars galaxy.
REVIEW: I really can't begin to say how satisfied I am with the book. I was satisfied with the older version of it, but this newer version kills the old one dead. With color illustrations and ultra-detailed info on every character that goes well beyond what you'd expect, this book is the definitive character guide. I only have two complaints. First and foremost, the book does NOT cover Episode III. This is because this version of the book was released prior to Episode III, and therefore, General Grievous does not appear in this guide. Likewise, characters who first appeared in Episodes I and II (and didn't appear outside the prequel trilogy) only have their history listed up to the end of Episode II. This means that the deaths of Count Dooku and Nute Gunray get no explanation in this book. The other flaw about the book I want to bring up is the omission of some characters. Most of the character get a page or two devoted to them, but the more minor characters just have a brief paragraph in the back of the book. And some characters, mysteriously enough, don't get ANY representation in this book outside of other characters' summaries. Among the characters who fail to get a summary are Guri, Xizor's humanoid replica droid from Shadows Of The Empire, practically all characters featured in The Truce At Bakura, as well as a good deal of the pilots introduced in the X-Wing series. Still, their being forgotten is a minor flaw next to everything this book does well. Accordingly, I recommend it to any fan of the Star Wars universe.
EDITION NOTES: A few different editions of this book have been released over the years. Needless to say, the latest edition, which features numerous updates and new characters, is the superior version. If you're gonna buy it, be sure to get the latest version!
OVERALL: In the end, this book satisfies me. No Star Wars fan, no matter how big or small, should be without this book. If you're eager to learn more about a certain character, or maybe you just want to know a thing or two about someone from the Star Wars universe, this is the book for you. I strongly recommend it to any fan.
Needs to be updated and expanded I don't own this book, I just read through it at a local bookstore. I didn't buy it because there was just too much missing. Some major characters from the films and EU are omitted or receive only short (one paragraph) descriptions, while other minor characters get full 1-2 page entries.
For example, mad clone Joruus C'Baoth gets one paragraph (nothing on the original Jorus), whereas Boss Nass and Sebulba from Ep I have full entries. Most of the Jedi Council from Eps I and II get one paragraph each in a collective entry, with a few omitted completely. The podrace competitors get about the same coverage as the Jedi Council, if not more. And a personal quibble, I would have liked to have seen an entry on Captain Tarpals. He's at least as important as Sebulba.
Surely this will be revised to accommodate Ep III and Tartakovsky Clone Wars updates. Hopefully it will also include many expansions on older characters as well.
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