Customer Reviews

A Guide to the Star Wars Universe

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I got this book around the time it came out, and 3 years later it is still the first book I go to for Star Wars look ups. Its biggest problem is that it is dated and cuts off right after Vector Prime, so it is not much help for looking up things in the New Jedi Order. That being said, it is still very valid and apart from the NJO and various newer comic book series, it covers pretty much everything. This book is a must for any serious Star Wars reader, and I highly recommend it as such. I would like to see a new edition with up-to-date material released after Episode III comes out.

I loved this book. I am a 12 year old Star Wars fan. I don't read the kiddie books, I read the adult novels. This book has told me every thing I want to know and more. I advise people who buy this book not to try to read the whole thing, it is better to use it like an encyclopedia

OK, what have we got here? To cover six years worth of Star Wars continuity since the last edition of the Guide, we get around 100 pages of new materiel. Except it isn't new. The author made a point to include materiel fom The Phantom Menace and Vector Prime, but other than that it seems nothing released in the last 2-3 years made it in here! No material from Allston's X-wing books, no Union, no prequel-era stuff except for the movie itself. While there is a bit about Kyle Katarn from the Dark Forces game, nothing about his role in the sequel, Jedi KNight, which came out about four years ago. There are virtually no new pictures, most of them are merely lifted from the Essential Guides.

But perhaps the biggest problem is in the organization. Gone are the categorical indeces of aliens, droids, ships, planets, creatures, etc... which were so helpful at the beginning of Edition 2, gone is even a rudimentary timeline, absent is the galactic map which has been gracing most of the more recent Star Wars fiction. Also gone is the neat seperation in the earlier edition between "canon" materiel -- that established in the movies and their novelizations -- and just about everything else.

For about twice the price of this book you can get the Star Wars Encyclopedia, which has more materiel, many, many more color photos and illustrations, and better organization of materiel. I recommend that you do. This book is a waste of time and money. It was three years outdated when it came out, overpriced at that.

The Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy is a handy reference for any fan of the books and movies. Because it was published in the year 2000, it came after a wave of new books and a new movie, thus making it up to date up until that time.
While not as complete as the Star Wars Encyclopedia, it has information that SWE did not cover. However, it does not contain the wealth of information that SWE has, and the illistrations are black and white, whereas the Encyclopeida's are color.
The Guide covers new information in the Han Solo Trilogy, the X-Wing series, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the New Jedi Order (Just Vector Prime) and several other novels.
So, this is just right if you are a fan that likes up to date information.
However,it is already out of date and does not contain everything that is new. There is nothing about the second and third parts of the X-Wing series, nothing beyond Vector Prime and several other books that are already out. Hopefully there'll be a new editon in the near future.

This book is highly informative, updated to include everything up to around Hero's Trial (New Jedi Order), which makes it a must even if you already have the more presentable Star Wars Encyclopedia. While the Encyclopedia has more interesting and fact filled entrys, it's also hideousely out of date, a problem that this one would easily correct! I read it cover to cover in a few days, and was quite impressed with how much research went into it, and how few errors were made. Even so, I have to say I'd recommend this book mainly to fans experienced with EU stuff, lest they quickly become lost and overwhelmed.

Very complete dictionary including all characters appeared on the SW universe. You can have a brief and precise description of each one (includes books in which appeared)
A "must have" for fans and reccommended for beginners who want to catch a glimpse of characters.

This book although useful in its own right as a reference tool for a star wars fan is useless to the owner of an earlier revision. This book did not include very many things and is poorly organized. The content it does have is good and can be very helpful, but it is lacking loads of information on recent books and comics.

This is a wonderfully complete reference book that has something about everything you need to know about Star Wars. While not for anyone who only has a passing interest in the galaxy far, far away, It certainly is a great addition to the collection of an old fan of the trilogy.

Hello, I'm a true Star Wars Fanatic, And I goit this book a couple years ago. It's great. There's something about almost everything in it, including obscure stuff from the lesser-known spinoffs. My gripes are the illustration quality is pretty low, even for a book of this type, and that it's about 3 years out of date(our universe, not the SW universe)

Have you come to an total *WHAT* when reading a Star Wars -novel. Then buy this book. It has almost everything in it.