Book Review: 'The Ultimate Star Wars'

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(C) 2015 Dorling Kindersley Limited and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)
On April 28, 2015, Dorling Kindersley Limited's DK Books published Ultimate Star Wars, a large "coffee table" format visual encyclopedia which covers "characters, creatures, locations, technology, and vehicles" that have been depicted in the Star Wars saga in film and on television. Written by Ryder Windham, Adam Bray, Tricia Barr, and Daniel Wallace, this 320-page volume delves into the history of a certain galaxy far, far away across various time periods, including the decline of the Old Republic, the Clone Wars and the birth of the Galactic Empire, and the Galactic Civil War. 

 Ultimate Star Wars is a comprehensive, wonderfully detailed encyclopedia of the entire Star Wars galaxy that explores characters, creatures, locations, vehicles, technology, and more. 

Reflecting the saga's epic scope, Ultimate Star Wars is structured chronologically from Episode I: The Phantom Menace to Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. The book also highlights key events from the saga and provides fascinating insights into the making of the Star Wars movies. - Publisher's inside dust jacket flap blurb, Ultimate Star Wars 

(C) 2015 Dorling Kindersley Limited and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

Like many of DK Books' Star Wars reference works, Ultimately Star Wars is presented (mostly) as an in-universe work set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." With the exception of four end-of-part "behind the scenes" sections, writers Windham, Bray, Barr, and Wallace assume the roles of historians that tell residents of the star war-torn galaxy about the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire at a time before the emergence of the First Order and the formation of the New Republic-backed Resistance. 

Because DK Books published Ultimate Star Wars five months before the Lucasfilm Story Group and various publishers (including Marvel Comics and Del Rey Books) started the "Journey to The Force Awakens" marketing campaign, there are only a few oblique references to J.J. Abrams' Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens.  

The first mention of The Force Awakens appears in the foreword by Anthony Daniels, the British actor who has played C-3PO in many Star Wars projects, including nine films, two canon TV series, three radio dramas, and several LucasArts games, including Star Wars: Monopoly. 

 In Ultimate Star Wars, Daniels writes:

I never wanted to be in Star Wars. My agent made me take the meeting. So there I was, sitting in front of George Lucas and a concept painting. Ralph McQuarrie's portrait of a quirky metal figure staring bleakly at me from an inhospitable landscape instantly grabbed my imagination. My fate was sealed. I was doomed to wander around worlds like Tatooine. I would chill on the planet Hoth and party on the Forest Moon of Endor. I would walk the halls of Cloud City and fear for my very survival in the Death Star's labyrinths. All experienced through the tunnel vision peepholes in the middle of Threepio's eyes. So you can imagine that seeing the finished films came as quite a surprise. Another surprise: I am now the only actor to work on all six, soon to be seven, Episodes of the saga.

 The other reference? Well, its hard to find easily, since it doesn't exactly call attention to itself, but it can be found if you know how the book is written and organized.

Ultimate Star Wars is divided into four thematically-based sections. They are:

  • Characters and Creatures
  • Locations
  • Technology
  • Vehicles
Each of the four sections begins with a color-coded illustrated timeline in which key events, individuals, tech items, or vehicle are highlighted in the context of galactic events. The color codes are: 

  • Gray = Crisis in the Republic (Spans Episodes I and II)
  • Gold = The Clone Wars (Spans Episode II, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Episode III)
  • Cyan= The Empire Era (Spans Episode III, Star Wars Rebels, and Episodes IV to VI)
This two-page spread is part of the Vehicles Timeline in Ultimate Star Wars. Note how the events flow from the Crisis in the Republic to The Clone Wars through color changes. (C) 2015 Dorling Kindersley Limited and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 
Each section is devoted to specific topics and follows the chronology of the saga up to Return of the Jedi.  Most of the entries come from the films and TV series created by George Lucas before his 2012 retirement and sale of his company to the Walt Disney Company. However, some of the Disney era canon is represented by characters, locations, technology, and vehicles seen in the first season of the recently concluded Star Wars Rebels television series. 
In this two-page spread, you can see a selection of characters and creatures featured in Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. (C) 2015 Dorling Kindersley Limited and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 
For example, the Characters and Creatures section (pages 10-149) starts with a timeline, then has individual entries for specific characters, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Sheev Palpatine, Padme Amidala, and so on, following closely the order in which they are introduced in the Saga.

Each section of Ultimate Star Wars contains several Key Event two-page spreads. This one features Luke Skywalker's training as a Jedi Knight under the tutelage of Jedi Master Yoda. (C) 2015 Dorling Kindersley Limited and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 


Every so often, the authors will insert two-page spreads that show Key Events in galactic history, including Departure from Tatooine (Anakin Skywalker, age nine, leaves the desert world where he'd been a slave for six years to begin training as a Jedi under the tutelage of Qui-Gon Jinn) and The Battle of Geonosis (the first engagement of the Clone Wars). 

At the end of each section, the authors briefly step out of the in-universe narrative and give the reader two-page summaries of how the films were made. These are simply titled Behind the Scenes and, in the style that DK Books' Star Wars references are known for, are rendered in a heavy on graphics/light on text format. Though these Behind the Scenes sections are brief and breezy, they're written in a style that's easy for kids (ages 9 and up) to read yet will entertain and enlighten adult fans of the Star Wars Saga.

My Take

Dorling Kindersley's Ultimate Star Wars is, as Paste Magazine's book reviewer wrote in a 2015 review, one of those reference books that is "Chock full of pictures and trivia, this visual encyclopedia will delight Star Wars fans of all generations. If you love Star Wars, you'll want to own this masterpiece."  As with their 2017 Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia, Ryder Windham, Adam Bray, Tricia Barr, and Daniel Wallace give readers an in-depth glimpse at the heroes, villains, sidekicks, exotic creatures, planets, space stations, vehicles, starfighters, blasters, and lightsabers seen in the pre-Sequel Trilogy Star Wars Saga.

But as with any Star Wars reference work written at a time when new movies and TV series seasons are produced, the book is limited to covering the first six live-action Episodes, plus the five-and-a-half seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the first complete season of the 2014-2018 Disney XD series Star Wars Rebels.  Thus, the Sequel Trilogy is only referred to indirectly a grand total of two, perhaps three times, and even though Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was then in development, it is not even alluded to in Ultimate Star Wars.

Nevertheless, DK Books' Ultimate Star Wars is a gem of a book even if it is no longer the most in-depth look at the still-expanding Star Wars Saga that began on May 25, 1977 with a revolutionary movie set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." It is beautifully designed by a team that includes Cameron + Company's Suzi Hutsell and Dorling Kindersley's Anna Formanchek, Clive Savage, and Anne Sharples. 

And of course, to make sure that the writers' text conforms to the established canon, Lucasfilm's executive editor Jonathan W. Rinzler and the Story Group (Pablo Hidalgo, Leland Chee, and Rayne Roberts) worked closely with the publisher and the in-house teams at Cameron + Company and DK Books. This collaborative effort paid off rather well. 

Or, as Obi-Wan Kenobi might say without having to resort to a Jedi mind trick, "This is the Star Wars reference you're looking for, especially if you are new to the Saga and need to put the newer films into perspective."


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