Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The Essential Atlas

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being both a Star Wars fan and a gamer, this book fills a niche that has needed filling ever since the huge slew of Expanded Universe material has been released. This book contains multiple maps of the SW galaxy, each broken down by specific region such as the Core Worlds and the Outer Rim, along with an assortment of worlds that play major roles in the movies as well as the EU material. But the real meat and potatoes of the book lies in the historical atlas section, which spans from ancient history (the Infinite Empire and Xim the Despot) all the way to the Corellian-Galactic Alliance conflict which is prominent in the Legacy of the Force series (also has a map of the era of the Legacy comic book series).

It's a very useful resource if you're confused on the sequence events in the various media released, such as the LOTF novels (as I have been multiple times), running a game of the Star Wars RPG, or if you're simply looking for a great read. I recommend this to any Star Wars fan!

When I purchased this I didn't expect to be as impressed as I was. A guide like this is a difficult, painful undertaking. But Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry do an outstanding job of balancing history, raw geography, and interesting planetary data into an entertaining and incredibly useful guide.

The Galaxy Map in the first chapter alone is almost worth the price. Coupled with the grid system it introduces and the index in the back, locating just where a planet is becomes much simpler than hunting along the circles of the various sectors, hoping to stumble across the planet you're looking for. A larger poster of this would be an item I'd purchase a few copies of.

If you run Star Wars at all, you need this book. Hyperspace time calculations used to be a wild shot in the dark. With this in hand, you've finally got a logical route you can plan out. But even non-roleplayers will find this a handy reference and a good read.

Back in 2002, "Star Trek Star Charts" was published. Like movie 1 and 5 and the worst episodes of the various series, that book became an example of how NOT to do it. In terms of the star charts, several systems and places were missing entirely, it was overly slim and skimpy, and it did not have a coordinate index.

The "Star Wars Atlas" (an update of 1998's Guide to Planets and Moons) corrects all of the Trek book's mistakes, expands upon its predecessor, and more.

It comes in three sections. Section 1 is a political discussion of that galaxy that almost competes with the best civics courses. The middle section is a selection of some 85 planets. Although there are no detailed planet maps, this lack is offset by fairly complete system descriptions. Section 3 is a long detailed historical atlas, with maps for each era and many topics. Finally, it ends with a very detailed coordinate index, the way any respectable atlas should.

The map of the galaxy is beautiful and detailed, it really should be made into a poster. Also, 'twould be nice to see a companion "planetary atlas" volume published someday. In the meantime, the current atlas is satisfactory, containing most of the stuff you'd ever need for the topic, and lots more besides.

I bought this book because I wanted to start reading some of the Star Wars novels again, but was intimidated by how much the Expanded Universe has grown in the past decade. I remembered how much I liked the "essential" Star Wars guides when I was younger. Sadly, these books are also become somewhat redundant - with wikipedia - or Wookiepedia - nowadays, you can easily find information about the major Star Wars characters, species, and ships on the internet.

Fortunately, Star Wars: The Essential Atlas is different. Unlike many other "essential" books, it is actually pretty essential if you really want to understand the galaxy.This isn't simply a bunch of pretty pictures (like the The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels). Rather, it is a collection of maps demarcating the borders of the major political groups and plotting the routes the main characters took in the movies and Expanded Universe. Finally, you can see where Tatooine, Hoth, and Endor fall in relation to each other. This is particularly useful if you want to understand some of the more convoluted military campaigns, such as the Thrawn series. There's absolutely nothing on the web the provides this level of information and detail.

The book also has a section featuring several important planets - almost like the older The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons, but much better and with great renditions of the planets. My only minor complaint is that it doesn't have a small picture of the native species to go with each planet. But, then again, that'd probably way too much for one book.

I'd say if you get any one Star Wars reference, make sure it's this one. It's actually very useful. Oh, and by the way, it does have some awesome, unique artwork (I love the realistic clone emperor), but that's only a bonus. This is first and foremost a reference.

Though it's technically labeled as a new publication, not a revamp of the old 'essential' series, this is essentially a redux of the Essential Guide to Planets and Moons. I have that one too, and in this case (unlike most of the others) I can say with no reservations that it's a much better book. It includes many details missing from the old guide, such as population, imports/exports, number and type of moons, size of habitable planets, and species makeup. That's not all, though- the Atlas includes a general exposition on star travel, interstellar objects, tradelanes, a rundown of regions and politics, and a section on galactic history. There's also some amazingly detailed maps of the galaxy or galactic sectors, and- best of all- it's all in full color.

This book is one of the few out of the literally hundreds in print that I would say is a must-have for Star Wars fans. It'd be especially useful for those playing the Star Wars RPG. I've also bought the supplements for that game, and I must say that in many respects this is a much better (not to mention cheaper) resource. Whereas the Guide to Planets and Moons was more of a recap of events that took place in paperback novels, which just happened to organize it by worlds, this really is focused on the galaxy itself. Never has that been presented in such stunning detail; the charts alone are worth the price of admission.

Definitately Essential...... this is the most comprehensive Star Wars Galaxy reference book I've ever seen. It touches on subjects from the nature of hyperspace to the fauna and flora of Kamino. Awesome book!

Very good book. Lots of in-depth information. The Appendix listing numerous planets in the back on the book and their coordinates to find them on the galaxy map is very nice. There is even an online companion guide online at [...] that goes with the book, listing the sectors for some planets and an outer rim sector map that was not published in the book.

Remember the old Rand-McNally road Atlas that your dad used on the family road trip or that you used in school? Well think of Star Wars: The Essential Atlas as one of those except instead of road maps and information on towns and cities, this has star charts and information on the various planets of the Star Wars Galaxy. This is a large-sized soft cover, and clocks in at a hefty 244 pages. The book is divided up into three main sections: The Political Galaxy, The Planets of the Galaxy, and The Atlas of Galactic History.

Part one at the makeup of the Galaxy, the various star systems, subsectors, regions, core worlds and worlds. This includes a look at the galaxy's population, and political demographics. You get an in-depth look regions such as the area belonging to the Hutts, the inner, outer, and unknown regions as well.

Part two is an alphabetical look at some 75 planets of the galaxy. Like any good atlas it provides the size of the planet, the terrain, population, government type, major imports and exports, as well as the sentient species and any sub-planets and moons. Each entry also contains an extensive text entry about the planet's history.

Part 3 contains the history of the galaxy beginning with the time before the Republic. It features a look at the Pre-Republic empires like the Rakata Empire that existed 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. It looks at the origin of the Jedi and the Sith Empire and the many battles fought in that era. The history moves forward to encompass the events of all six Star Wars films and of the history decades following the destruction of the Empire.

There is a wealth of information in here that even the most fervent of Star Wars fans will find valuable. It's beautifully illustrated and thoroughly researched. A must have for all Star Wars fans!

This is probably one of the best Star Wars information books to be published since the West End Games sourcebooks of the late 80s and early 90s. Chock full of information, it not only has a complete galaxy atlas, but it also lists info on popular planets/systems, as well as a very detailed history of the Old Republic, Empire, and New Republic eras.
It's a lot of reading, but it left me with the feeling of reading an actual history/atlas book rather than a fictional story. If only Wizards of the Coast could publish products of this depth and detail. I hope to see more Star Wars books of this caliber.

In short, a must read for any Star Wars fan!

This book is a perfect reference, both historical and geography of the star wars universe. There are a lot of great illustrations and real maps of the galaxy with its sectors, regions, planets, etc... It`s also explain perfectly the political extructure of the galaxy along it`s history. This is a must have for anyone who loves the star wars universe!