The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide [Hardcover]

Terryl Whitlatch (Author), Bob Carrau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Designed as a naturalist's sketch book (with a genuine dewback hide cover) and featuring the meticulous illustrations of Star Wars' artist Terryl Whitlatch, The Wildlife of Star Wars is truly the definitive guide to the creatures of George Lucas's mega creation. With simple pen and ink, the artist captures the unusual anatomy, the extraordinary behavior, and the rainbow hues of the most interesting wildlife on Naboo, Hoth, Endor, and the other planets of Star Wars. Detailed field notes scrawled in the margins describe the mysterious graveyard of the banthas, the mating patterns of the prolific female shaaks, the skittish nature of the rontos, and how the eopies spit stomach contents when irritated. Thorough, precise, and totally entertaining, The Wildlife of Star Wars is the reference book to the nonsentient inhabitants of this galaxy. While the reader can't hear the booming thunder of the bantha stampede or smell the rancid breath of the bellowing falumpaset, he or she can observe these creatures as they exist in their strange and wonderful homes, in a galaxy far, far away.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, Terry Whitlatch and Bob Carrau offer a faux naturalist's sketchbook of the fauna born of George Lucas and co.'s considerable imagination: the spot-light sloths of the Dagobah Rain Forest, the Peko Pekos of planet Naboo's Gungan Swamp, the gas-filled Beldons of Bespin, which can achieve a girth of 10 kilometers, and a host of other fantastical creations populate this delightful large-format book. Drawings on every page are substantiated by salient pieces of information about habitat, habits and danger-factor.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

With "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" hitting theaters next year, here's the perfect gift

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811828697
• ISBN-13: 978-0811828697
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST-HAVE!, November 10, 2001

By 

Nigel J. L. Willis (Paignton, Devonshire, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide (Hardcover)

Not only is this tome THE book of the year -- if not the decade -- for Star Wars enthusiasts (such as myself), but it will also go down well with biologists (such as myself).

Extremely well thought out, the authors draw parallels with animals found on Earth to make the creatures of the Star Wars universe realistically believable. For example, the size relation of the nuna's egg to the adult female is also found in the kiwi, and the multiple embryos coming from that single egg are similar to the multi-spawning eggs of some parasitic wasps. The similarities between banthas and elephants are copious, and the mouth-breeding behaviour of the opee sea killer will be familiar to any avid aquarist.

There are also many wonderful and enchanting "background" details in many of the drawings, like Bib Fortuna looking to purchase a Nightsister's rancor, an Ewok being carried off by a condor-dragon, and some Tatooine anoobas picking over the remains of the late podracer Teemto Pagalies (those are DEFINITELY his goggles).

The book is arranged in chapters by planet. (Naboo has three chapters for its various macroenvironments: terrestrial, deep aquatic, and swamp.) The ecologies of the worlds and the niches of the native creatures are all highly detailed and superbly explained. Great care and effort was put into expanding the range of Star Wars wildlife knowledge, using conceptual sketches and some apparently original animals to flesh out the bestiary to a fantastic extent. The images of the creatures themselves are -- and I have NEVER before used this term outside of describing food before, but it is now necessary -- sumptuous. The people responsible for the content of this book deserve to win awards. Lots of 'em.

Understandably, there are a few creatures which push the credibility envelope, such as the thrantids and practically anything over 40 meters in length. But they're all still nifty, and even the mind-boggling space slug was given a decently credible internal anatomy. And considering that here on Earth, there are bacteria which live miles below the crust, eat rock, breathe iron, and excrete gold, a little leeway for plausibility is permitted. };D

This would not be a Star Wars book review without the requisite (complaining) that any such work seems to engender. So here it is. The book's too short. It would have been nice to learn more about the creatures that were marginalized, like the oft-mentioned but never focused-upon snapping bivalve nyorks of the Naboo swamps and the tiger-striped giraffe-like creature which appears in the endpapers and at the Coruscant Livestock Exchange and Exhibition; an animal which is visually arresting, but not even so much as named. There are a few beasts in the size-comparison endpapers which do not appear in the text (which is a shame, because they look quite interesting), such as the fin-backed, tusk-jawed crocodile-thing at the front of the book. While variant species of bantha, krayt dragon, thranta, mynock, and tauntaun were presented, it would also have been nice to see the differing forms of nerf. Another whole chapter devoted to "exotics" such as Kowakian monkey-lizards, ghests, and the various types of gundark (only two kinds are shown, and only one of those is labelled as a gundark) would have been very well-received and worth the extra price such a section would require. As far as mistakes go, I could only spot two: the rock wart described as an "unknown" species of worrt prey, and a representation of a Dug diplomat. (Dugs are definitely NOT the diplomatic type.)

So, to sum up, any Star Wars library is woefully incomplete without the superlative "The Wildlife of Star Wars". This is the best Star Wars book to come along in quite a while. I could go on and on about this book, but I'll have to settle for summing up in four words: BUY IT THIS INSTANT.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A coffee table Star Wars book??!!, December 17, 2001

By 

Scott Sloan (Vacaville, Ca.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide (Hardcover)

This is one of those books that appears every so often, and if you don't buy it you regret for years to come. The book is packaged in a textured synthetic dewback hide so be aware that no Dewbacks were hurt in the making of this book!! The illustrations are rich, and full of life, and color. The simple line sketches along with the reserved amounts of colors truly bring the creatures to life. I certainly hope that amazon will allow some of the pictures to be seen so that the reader can witness just how beautiful these drawings are! The authors, and artists explore some of the more well known, and some new creatures that inhabit the star wars universe, and do so in an intelligent, and also educational manner. The book is a little pricey for the mildly interested, or younger buyers, but it is a book that can, and hopefully will be treasured for years. A true winner and well worth a 5 star rating!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wildlife of Star Wars, February 13, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide (Hardcover)

The drawings in this book are very amazing. The creatures in this book can keep you reading for hours. I would suggest this book to anyone who likes Star Wars