Book Review: 'Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition'

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The slipcover features a stylized drawing of Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Last September, Dorling Kindersley (DK) Books published Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition, a lavishly-illustrated look at the multi-media franchise created by George Lucas 40 years ago. As the title implies, it is a sequel (and an expansion of) to DK's 2010 book Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle, which was written by Ryder Windham, Daniel Wallace, Gus Lopez, and Pablo Hidalgo.

 Like DK's well-known Star Wars: Visual Dictionary series, Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition is a user-friendly reference book that blends text by writers who know their subject well and a Star Destroyer's docking bay's worth of photographs and illustrations that include publicity stills from various Lucasfilm movies and TV shows, book covers, trading cards, Star Wars action figures and vehicles, posters, and video game screenshots.
Painstakingly produced, superbly illustrated, Star Wars™ Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle presents a unique Star Wars™ timeline—the full history of the amazing Star Wars phenomenon as you've never seen it before.

This updated edition includes a whole new chapter covering Star Wars: The Force Awakens™ as well as the ongoing animated TV series Star Wars Rebels™ and new Star Wars–themed lands coming to Walt Disney World Florida and Disneyland California.
Produced in full collaboration with Lucasfilm and written by renowned Star Wars experts, Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle provides a unique timeline of every facet of Star Wars history, as well as the saga's impact on popular culture and world events. - Publisher's blurb
The book cover features Ahsoka Tano as seen in Star Wars Rebels, a Ralph McQuarrie production painting of Darth Vader, and Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens


Contents:

Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition is divided into six parts:

Life Before Star Wars, by Ryder Windham

The Original Trilogy (1973-1983), by Ryder Windham

Between the Trilogies (1984-1996), by Daniel Wallace

The Prequel Trilogy (1997-2005), by Pablo Hidalgo

Clone Wars & Beyond (2006-2012), by Pablo Hidalgo

Star Wars: A New Era (2013-2016), by Pablo Hidalgo

As you can see, the entries are light on text, heavy on illustrations. (Illustration: starwars.com)


My Take

I have been a Star Wars fan since October of 1977. I've seen all the movies, including the underappreciated Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated feature film, in theaters. I've watched most of the TV shows (except for Droids and Ewoks).  I'm also a collector of action figures, figurines, and other memorabilia. As you can imagine, I'm the kind of reader that DK published this book for.

Even though I have seen many documentaries on how George Lucas and his creative heirs made the movies and TV shows set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," I had never owned a book that delves into the complete history of the Star Wars franchise and how it fits into the world's culture. 

That is, until I received a copy of Star Wars Year By Year as a Christmas present last December. 

The book is one of those "coffee table" hardcover tomes one would proudly display in one's reading room or even out in the living room. It's fairly large: it measures 10.5 X 1.3 X 12.5 inches and weighs, slipcover included, nearly six pounds. 

Like most of Dorling Kindersley's Star Wars books, this illustrated timeline is not a text-heavy look at Star Wars'  history. Yes, it covers a lot of ground; it begins its narrative in 1914 (way before George Lucas's birth on May 14, 1944) with a short entry about Gertie the Dinosaur, an animated film by Winsor McCay. This entry is part of a two-page spread titled Inspiration & Influences, which also briefly touches on Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, and Lucas's love for racing cars. 

As I mentioned earlier, Star Wars Year By Year covers more than just the making of the films, including some before-the-release information about the new Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Most of the saga's red-letter dates (premieres, cast members' births and deaths, releases of books/video games/soundtrack albums, and news about other Lucasfilm projects) are included. Each event is chronicled in capsule form, such as this entry from 2012:

June - June 1. Acclaimed producer Kathleen Kennedy is named Co-Chair of Lucasfilm, an unmistakable sign that George Lucas is making clear his plans to retire and step down from the company he founded. Lucas's selection of Kennedy, a past collaborator on the Indiana Jones films, as well as the producer of many beloved movies such as E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, the Back to the Future trilogy, Jurassic Park, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Lincoln, brings with her veteran filmmaking experience. It is a strong indication that Lucasfilm will once again become an active production studio. Over the summer, Kennedy begins assembling the department heads who will serve as the production team essential for new Star Wars films, including head of development Kiri Hart, art director Rick Carter, and producers Jason McGatlin, Pippa Anderson, and John Swartz. Though no one says it publicly at the time, this marks the beginning of a new future for the Star Wars Saga.

Obviously, a book slated for a Fall 2016 publication date can't cover everything Star Wars-related that occurred that year. The last monthly entries for '16 are for March; they include news about Disney/Lucasfilm's announcement that Indiana Jones V will be released on July 19, 2019, the second season finale of Star Wars Rebels, and Del Rey Books' publication of Chuck Wendig's Life Debt, the second volume of his Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy.

Other major news are highlighted in sections titled Spring, Summer, and Fall. These mention projects that were already in the production pipeline but not yet released at press time. Besides December's Rogue One premiere, the news items included the publication of Claudia Gray's novel Star Wars: Bloodlines and the beginning of Star Wars Rebels' third season. 

What it doesn't mention are Kenny Baker's death in August (which occurred a month before the book was shipped to stores) or Carrie Fisher's passing in late December. 

Because Baker and Fisher's contributions to the Star Wars saga were a big part of its success, their passing will be mentioned in the next edition, I'm sure. 

All in all, this is a highly enjoyable reference for readers of all ages. If you are a Star Wars fan, this is the book you're looking for. 

Publication Details
  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: DK; Updated ed. edition (September 6, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1465452583
  • ISBN-13: 978-1465452580
   


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