Customer Reviews

The Illustrated Star Wars Universe (Star Wars)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Take the artistic talents of acclaimed production artist Ralph McQuarrie and the writing skills of prolific author Kevin J. Anderson (The Jedi Academy Trilogy) and you get The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, a coffee table book that gives readers a glimpse of the various planets showcased in George Lucas' original Star Wars Trilogy (1977-83).

Using McQuarrie's production sketches and paintings for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and other Lucasfilm projects (including the Endor-based television specials of the mid-1980s plus preliminary sketches for the 1997 Special Edition updates), Anderson takes readers on a grand tour of the most important planets seen in the Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader half of the Star Wars Saga. Starting with Tatooine, the desert world that is the home world to both Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke and ending with Alderaan, the planet where Princess Leia was hidden from her father and was doomed to be destroyed by the Death Star, eight planets are described in individual chapters, each told not by one omniscient narrator but by eight different observers, each with his or her point of view and/or political agenda.

For instance, while the chapter on Tatooine is an anthropologist's dispassionate and scientific report on the desert planet's hostile environment and its hardy inhabitants (ranging from the nomadic and hostile Tusken Raiders and scavenging Jawas to the resilient human moisture farmers and their homesteads), the description of Coruscant, the massive city-planet which was once the seat of power of the Old Republic and is the capital of Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire, is a pro-Imperial propaganda article authored by Pollus Hax, the Emperor's chief public relations expert and "spin doctor."

Although much of the artwork featured in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe has been published elsewhere (either in the various Art of Star Wars books relating to the Classic Trilogy or in McQuarrie's Star Wars Portfolios), this combination of production paintings and Anderson's vivid and imaginative text works wonderfully and adds detail and background to both the movies and the post-Episode VI Expanded Universe novels, including Anderson's own JedI Academy trilogy and Darksaber.

This is one of the must haves for a true Star Wars fan. It is a coffee table book, like Dinotopia. Its stunning illustrations follow the reader through the Star Wars Universe, earning points for believability, and romanticism along the way. Though not a true novel, the text is good for guiding one through the drawings on the book. You have to know that you are not getting a novel, but for a Star Wars fan it hardly matters.

This book really showcases the beautiful artwork of Ralph McQuarrie, who helped establish the look of the Star Wars films way back at the dawn of the story as we know it. In this book we see fascinating early visual drafts of things that we would later see in the movies. Most of it was impossibly fantastic to ever get filmed at the time but maybe we'll see some of it in the next two movies.

The chapters on Alderan and Bespin are particular fascinating and beautiful.

Ralph is one of the Best Illustrators that i know.His work is very inspirating for me.If you are true fan of Star Wars you just need this book.Excellent printing on high quality paper.Don't wait and buy this piece of art.

This is a great book. Beautiful and informative.

I bought it originally for the incredible artwork, but I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of great information on some of the worlds in Star Wars. The text is written by Kevin J. Anderson, but he did a pretty good job on this book.

Still, the crowning glory of this book is the collection of astounding artwork by Ralph McQuarrie. Lots of full-page color paintings with remarkable detail. McQuarrie is the king of SW art, and this is him at his best!

This is a must have for any Star Wars fan, or even one of great artwork, and would make a great present for any Star Wars fan.

This book has some of the best art there is on the planets that are in the Star Wars Universe. Not heavy on fact, though, this book makes tales that recount the information about Tatooine, Coruscant, Dagobah, Alderaan, Hoth, Yavin, the forest moon of Endor, and Bespin, using pictures and first person narrative. A good addition to any Star Wars fan's book collection.

I remember loving this book as a kid. The pictures were great and the backstories well thought out. I wish they had updated it for the prequel trilogies, but I guess they haven't.

This book, the "Illustrated Star Wars Universe", is one of the most beautiful books I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is full of pictures of different aspects of several of the important worlds in the Star Wars universe - such as Hoth, Coruscant, Tatooine, Alderaan, Endor - that, when complemented by the text, make this an easily readable and pleasant book.

The text that accompanies the artwork is top-notch in most cases. Although Kevin J.Anderson's work is considered to be of mixed quality by many Star Wars fans, in this book he does an excellent job of writing each planet's account "in-universe", from the perspective of different indviduals (such as a former poet and political activist from Alderaan, a rebel engineer on Hoth, and so forth).

The only weakness in this book is the description of Alderaan. It is described as a world largely composed of flowing grasslands with small seas, contradicting the blue image seen in the movies. This has a relatively harmless origin, dating back to a picture of Yavin 4 misplaced as a photo of Alderaan, and expanded upon in this text.

Regardless of the above, this is an excellent purchase choice for anyone interested in the Star Wars universe, or even just in some beautiful Star Wars artwork.

This product is great for getting inspiration for writing a story or preparing a game, or simply trying to identify something out of the movies or comics. Recommended to anyone looking for a reference book or a place to draw some science fiction inspiration from.

This incredible book help you feel like all the Star Wars universe and its planets are real. You read the accounts of the "writers" and you think that they really exists.
It helps to understand all the story and the beutiful pictures help to get into.
A MUST book for a Star Wars fan.