The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Star Wars) [Paperback]

Haden Blackman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2003

Text by W. Haden Blackman
All new full color illustrations by Ian Fullwood
From the beat-up landspeeders that whisk travelers between desert towns on Tatooine to Jabba the Hutt’s luxurious sail barge and the elegant Naboo Royal Starship, the vehicles and vessels in the Star Wars universe have captivated millions of delighted fans.

In light of the ever-expanding saga, the New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels features completely updated entries that cover more than 150 ships, along with brand new, full-color illustrations by dazzling artist Ian Fullwood. This new volume encompasses craft from all five movies, the bestselling novels of the New Jedi Order, comics, TV specials, and games. Inside you will find:

• Detailed profiles and vital statistics for each vessel, including data covering the vehicle’s construction, size, maximum speed, and its role in Star Wars history
• A revealing Layman’s Guide to Technology, covering common terms applied to each class of vehicle
• An outline of engine technologies that drive the craft across the Star Wars galaxy, and of the unique weapons they boast
• Schematics for each vehicle, providing the reader with instant visual reference
Discover the modifications Han Solo and Chewbacca made on the Millennium Falcon to make it one of the fastest vessels in the galaxy; the secrets of the Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport Walker, possibly the most formidable military vehicle ever assembled; the reasons the Tribubble Bongo Sub is the chosen way to navigate the watery depths of Naboo; and the unique and lethal properties of the Yuuzhan Vong’s living starship, the Coralskipper.

Skiffs, cargo haulers, shuttles, podracers, gunships, sandcrawlers– if it flies, glides, drives, or speeds in the Star Wars galaxy, you’ll find it in The New Essential Guide to Vehicle and Vessels!
Ballantine Books/Science Fiction
Visit the official Star Wars Web site at www.starwars.com
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Text by W. Haden Blackman
All new full color illustrations by Ian Fullwood
From the beat-up landspeeders that whisk travelers between desert towns on Tatooine to Jabba the Hutt?s luxurious sail barge and the elegant Naboo Royal Starship, the vehicles and vessels in the Star Wars universe have captivated millions of delighted fans.

In light of the ever-expanding saga, the New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels features completely updated entries that cover more than 150 ships, along with brand new, full-color illustrations by dazzling artist Ian Fullwood. This new volume encompasses craft from all five movies, the bestselling novels of the New Jedi Order, comics, TV specials, and games. Inside you will find:

? Detailed profiles and vital statistics for each vessel, including data covering the vehicle?s construction, size, maximum speed, and its role in Star Wars history
? A revealing Layman?s Guide to Technology, covering common terms applied to each class of vehicle
? An outline of engine technologies that drive the craft across the Star Wars galaxy, and of the unique weapons they boast
? Schematics for each vehicle, providing the reader with instant visual reference
Discover the modifications Han Solo and Chewbacca made on the Millennium Falcon to make it one of the fastest vessels in the galaxy; the secrets of the Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport Walker, possibly the most formidable military vehicle ever assembled; the reasons the Tribubble Bongo Sub is the chosen way to navigate the watery depths of Naboo; and the unique and lethal properties of the Yuuzhan Vong?s living starship, the Coralskipper.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: LucasBooks (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345449029
• ISBN-13: 978-0345449023
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 0.5 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty, but Otherwise Average, June 7, 2004

By 

Yu-jin Chia "Yu-Jin Chia" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Star Wars) (Paperback)

I was quite excited upon learning that an update was in the works for one of my favorite Star Wars books of all time. The original Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels was (and still largely is) a one-of-a-kind work. Prior to that, most of the ships of the expanded universe appeared only in printed text- not illustrations. Doug Chiang and Troy Vigil really added life to the ships of the Star Wars universe.

The New Essential Guide is something less than new. The full color illustrations are the best part of it- especially those that depict vessels not shown in the previous work. Additionally, there's some background on vehicle manufacturers, famous battles, and comparisons between vessel sublight and hyperspace speed.

Other than this, however, the book falls short of its previous incarnation. The schematics largely tell you things you could have inferred just by looking at the picture (The ship has a hull?! No way!) and the text is watered down for a younger audience. There's not as many hard facts or numbers, including no comparison at all of shield or hull strength (something I, a long-time SW space sim player, was hoping for). There is a simple explanation of the basic technologies at the start, appropriately titled 'A Layperson's Guide to Technology.' It seems the author and publishers aren't aware that most kids nowadays are more familiar with technical jargon than adults.

Aside from these minor complaints, there is one major issue I have with this book. That is, only a handful of new ships are shown, and most of these are from the prequels. Frankly, other books like the Incredible Cross Sections series have covered these vehicles better than the Essential Guide could hope to. There's also the issue of beating a dead horse. If you don't know what an X-wing looks like by now, you probably won't be buying this book. Why recap material that's been published a dozen times already? There's a whole load of new ships in the New Jedi Order series alone (i.e. the Bothan Assault Frigate, Star Defender, Ranger Gunship). Why not present those?

The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels does have some cool features, but aside from the updated color illustrations, it is less than 'new' and hardly 'essential.' I would recommend the original Essential Guide over this one, and advise those that already own it to check out other guides first.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My son and I both love this book!, January 26, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Star Wars) (Paperback)

This large and attractive book is an overview of vehicles from the Star Wars universe, containing everything from the AAT to the Z-95 Headhunter. Each vehicle is shown in a color, full-page picture, with a technical readout, and then is given a one page introduction with schematics. Lots and lots of vehicles are here, including many from the movies and the New Jedi Order, though obviously not from Episode III.

My son is a major fan of Star Wars, and was really glad to get this book. The colorful and serious way that these vehicles are treated really brings them to life, making them seem as real to him as any real vehicles. Plus, he loved the one-page description of the vehicles, and pored over the book for many hours. He loves this book, and so do I! We both highly recommend this book.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing..., October 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Star Wars) (Paperback)

Lately, the Essential Guides have all been very good and informative, The Essential Chronology and The New Essential Guide to Characters being probably the best. The older guides were also generally satisfying. But unfortunately this book is a real let-down.

I've been eagerly waiting for a new vehicles guide for years, and the high quaility of each successive Guide only made the wait more tantalizing. The new look of the Essential Guides, starting with the new charcters guide by Daniel Wallace was excellent. The book was full of not only full color illustrations, but useful, new information. Dan Wallace seems the perfect writer for this job.

And to the New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels... Some good, some avarage quality pictures, and that's about all. Lots of very important vehicles and ships were omitted, while page after page was wasted with already well known things, such as the Sandcrawler, Luke's landspeeder, snowspeeder, Virago, etc. Where are the important vehicles newly introduced, such as the Bothan Assault Cruiser, all the New Class New Republic capital ships and various other new ships from the EU? Where is the Pulsar Skate? Why mention Hound's Tooth and IG-2000 again, rather than this time around including the Mist Hunter and Punishing One?(not that they are very important ships)

The existing entries are also bland and empty. Apparently Haden Blackman got lazy and added almost no new information. The Naboo ships still lack names. Almost no history and background to the vehicles. There are some funny quotes from the peoples of the galaxy about those ships, but that's about all, and some of the quotes are pretty stupid. The Star Destroyer entry is terrible, all the SD types stashed into two pages. Likewise for the Mon Calamari cruisers. No details about all the new X-wing classes, such as the XJ and XJ3 models; they are only briefly mentioned. One wonders where the hell is their third proton torpedo launcher... It seems we'll never know. Haden Blackman's writing style is also pretty dry, it seems he copied most of his information from the old vehicles guide and Incredible Cross-Sections books.

And I wonder who edited this book, or if any editors were involved at all. The book is full of typos and mistakes. In the small(and inadequate) schematics below each page, a lot of the numerics were wrong or didn't correspond to the said item. In the Interdictor entry, it says the New Republic ''confiscated the remainin Interdictors after Thrawn's defeat.'' What nonsense. A-wing's affiliation is Galactic Empire(!), and at the end of the BTL-S3 Y-wing entry, almost as an afterthought it's added that ''there is also a two-seater version''. Well, BTL-S3 is THE two seater version! And so on, so on...

My advice; look at the pretty pictures in this book, and then put it back on the bookshelf. Not worth the money, get yourselves a copy of the old Essential Guide to Vehicles&Vessels if you don't already have it.