Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been anticipating this book for a long time, AND I WASN'T DISAPPOINTED!! It in fact came out a lot sooner than I thought it would, so when I saw it at Barnes & Noble, I stopped dead, mouth hanging open. I immediately picked it up and couldn't put it down. It was $24.99, but that did not bug me (I would like to thank my cousins for that Barnes & Noble gift card from last christmas) I had to get it!
This book has it all: First, it is one of the first Star Wars books to cover all 6 films in detail: several very large and colorful pages for each film, with so much information that even the greatest, most knowledgeable Star Wars fan could not have fully covered. Second, This book goes way beyond the movies! This book includes many Epanded Universe pages, as well as a timeline! This book also has a Galactic Map! Third, This book even goes Behind the Scenes!! From pre-production of A New Hope to opening night of Revenge of the Sith, this book gives a brief, but great summary of how the films were made. This also has a few pages of merchandising, like figures, DVDs, etc. My favorite of this section was a brief history of Star Wars video games, complete w/ screenshots!
So overall, when they decided to call it the "Ultimate Visual Guide" they weren't kidding. This book is good for starting fans, in order to help them understand the entire Star Wars concept (and it is a hard concept to grasp) and a perfect addition to any veteran fan's collection. It even has my favorite Star Wars antagonist on the fron cover: Darth Vader! So to put i bluntly: simply perfect!

Like many, I am not a huge Star Wars geek. I've seen (and own) all of the films, but couldn't tell you half of the characters names, or get into a deep, nerdy converstation about them. However, I want to learn, so I picked this book up (after giving it a quick thumb through) assuming that it would be a Star Wars encyclopedia of sorts.

Well it is. Sort of.

While it covers many, many aspects of the Star Wars universe, it seems geared towards those hardcore fans that already know the basic stuff. Have you ever seen those foreign language audio courses, that have a "Step 1", then a "Step 2", "Step 3", and so on? Well, this book would be "Step 2" in the Star Wars learning course. I highly recommend picking up the "Complete Visual Dictionary" (which I have also reviewed), as it examines the more basic things Star Wars, such as the characters, weapons, and so forth. This book, while very thorough and informing, covers some of the deeper stuff, like conficts between galaxies, emotions, stuff like that.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, but only if you are either already a major Star Wars geek, or if you buy it along with the "Visual Dictionary".

If you're someone like me, who thought knew "so much" about the Saga, from watching the movies over and over, this book proves us totally wrong.
By far, this is the most complete guide to the Galaxy, from beginning to end, from the Sith to the Jedi, from the Republic to the Empire, and back.
It covers all the nine episodes, and everything in between, battles, characters, ships, battles ... you just eat this stuff up!!!! I see it like a most extensive and accurate History Book. Totally recomend it.

Now that Lucas' epic story of "the galaxy far, far away" is complete, this book helps both those familiar with and new to the grand space opera, get a better idea of the entire history of that galaxy and the conflict between light and dark forces. The book combines facets of information given in the movies with those of the various novels, comics, tv incarnations and video games to complete the vast canvas of histories, cultures and lore that make up the background of the characters we know. The book even encapsulates those novels and comics that feature the tales that occur after the events of the movies. It does this with vivid graphic compositions featuring excerpts from the various media that the "Star Wars" saga has been expanded and interpreted into. It also has sections that feature "Star Wars" impact on pop culture as well as a section on the efforts in the making of the films - an epic in it's own way. There are many books that explore these subjects, but this does so in a vivid, graphic, fun way that is a great "one stop" encapsulation of the entire saga and phenomenon. It's a great addition to any fan's collection of "Star Wars" books.

I was very excited to hear about this book and took my time to page through it when I saw it in the bookstore. I'm a big Star Wars fan and love the books. The Ultimate Visual Guide was very disappointing to me for 2 reasons:

1. The presentation and visual layout of the pages was very cluttered and felt haphazard. The mix of photos, stills from animation shots, and drawings were thrown on top of each other and made each page look crowded and awkward. It didn't have the polish of the Visual Dictionary series or the Art Of series. It reminded me of pages from my children's elementary school yearbook.

2. The content did not have enough depth. This book is an outstanding attempt to include information from all 6 movies, and expanded universe characters and stories. But the information is not very cohesive nor detailed enough. The Visual Dictionary series is very successful at keeping the descriptions brief but also at the same time being very detailed. The "Star Wars New Essential Chronology" is a far more superior text which covers the same material. Even though it is more of a narrative than visual, I felt it was much more carefully put together while the Ultimate Visual Guide felt like it was rushed through production.

There are many books that document the Star Wars universe but unfortunately this one does not present the material as effectively as the others.

My four-year-old boy talks day and night about Star Wars, even though he's never seen the movies. With a few beginning-to-read books, and this great, comprehensive one, he is a true Star Wars geek (in a good way!). We first saw this book at the library, where my son's eyes just about popped out of his head. It's appropriate for any age, from child to adult, because the information is robust but broken down in small parts on each page, making it suitable for reading small chunks to a kid.

It has everything from the mandalorian wars to after the death chewbecca .( very sad ) anything you want to know about the saga is inside.

This is a fast reading magazine style type of reference guide, except it comes in a hard cover and adequate index.

The book is very enjoyable to look at and read. I can easily browse and explain to my 5 y.o to 10 y.o daugthers w/o any difficulty. Because the book is well organized: the frist few pages explain in macro on the history in general. Then the book explain the story in sections of time lineof events with visuals from comics and movies.

Interesting parts are the missing stories that we couldn't find in the movies, for example the transition stories between the episode 4 and 5, and between episode 5 and 6. All the pictures for these sections are taken completely from comics version of Star Wars.

My whole family loves reading this book. We all find things that we did not know about the Star Wars saga. It was a definitely one of the best purchases we made.

This book is a complete guide to all 6 star wars movies great refrence tells things that didnt happned in the movie and has a guide for each chracter.Tells every details a fan needs to know from all six star wars movies including extras like behind the scenes star wars planets and a timeline.A must buy for a beginner or a fan worth the money trust me :)!