Book Review: 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections'

Photo Credit: © 2019 DK Children (a division of Dorling Kindersley Limited) and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

On December 20, 2019 ﹘ the same day that J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker went into wide release in theaters, Dorling Kindersley Limited's DK Children imprint published Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections, a hardcover reference book written by Pablo Hidalgo. As the sixth and final visual dictionary based on a Skywalker Saga film. the book follows the template created in 1998 when DK Books published archaeologist and Star Wars fan David West Reynold's  The Star Wars Visual Dictionary, a 64-page volume that covered the Original Trilogy films.

Although that 1998 book - which is still in print and is also incorporated into DK Books' omnibus editions of The Complete Star Wars Visual Dictionary - was marketed for the "younger reader" audience, the writing was also smartly written and edited because the author intended his book to be enjoyed by older fans as well as children ages 8 and up. As a result, Reynolds' book was followed by longer and more in-depth volumes that cover all three Trilogies in the nine-part Skywalker Saga. (Other books have been published by DK to cover Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story; material from those books was incorporated into the 2018 edition of The Complete Star Wars Visual Dictionary.)

A look at the entry on Ajan Kloss, one of several new and important worlds seen in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Photo Credit: © 2019 DK Children (a division of Dorling Kindersley Limited) and  Lucasfilm Ltd (LFL)

The 200-page Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections was authored by Chilean-born writer and Star Wars expert Pablo Hidalgo, who, in addition to penning many Star Wars-related reference works, serves as a member of the Lucasfilm Story Group. It features a foreword by the author and an introduction by screenwriter and Star Wars fan Chris Terrio, co-author (with J.J. Abrams) of the screenplay for Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. 

Produced in collaboration with Lucasfilm, this is the complete guide to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the incredible final chapter of the Skywalker saga. ﹘  Back cover publisher's blurb.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections is divided thusly:

• Foreword
• Introduction 
• Chapter One: The Story So Far...
• Chapter Two: The Rise of Skywalker
• Chapter Three: The First Order
• Chapter Four: The Resistance
• Chapter Five: Pasaana
• Chapter Six: Kijimi
• Chapter Seven: Kef Bir
• Chapter Eight: The Final Battle
• Chapter Nine: Behind the Scenes

(Note: Each chapter is divided into entries about specific topics, worlds, characters, vehicles, weapons, and even cultural events. For instance, Chapter One: The Story So Far...has 10 entries contained in 20 pages. The number of entries varies per chapter, and the entries follow the arc of the story in semi-chronological order.)

A typical character-related entry; this one is about ex-First Order stormtrooper Jannah. Photo Credit: © 2019 DK Children (a division of Dorling Kindersley Limited) and  Lucasfilm Ltd (LFL)

As in previous Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary books, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections relies on eye-catching graphics, most of which are photos taken by Lucasfilm photographers both for publicity materials and the company's archives. Each photo is annotated to highlight specific details of cultural or technological curiosity, such as Jannah's long hair (members of the rebellious Company 77 grow their hair long in defiance of the First Order's rules governing grooming and appearance) or her handmade tunic. 

My Take

I've been a fan of Dorling Kindersley's Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary series ever since my late friend Richard de la Pena (1965-2007) loaned me his copy of David West Reynolds' original 1998 book a long time ago in a city not too far, far away. I didn't buy my first Visual Dictionary until 2000 or so, and that was the one that focused only on Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace. 

The two-page spread that introduces the chapter on the Resistance.  Photo Credit: © 2019 DK Children (a division of Dorling Kindersley Limited) and  Lucasfilm Ltd (LFL)

For various reasons, I held off on buying the other two Prequel Trilogy Visual Dictionaries and waited until DK and Lucas Books (which closed down after Disney purchased Lucasfilm and all its intellectual properties in 2012) released the omnibus edition Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary in 2006. That book, which was written with George Lucas's edict that the whole saga consisted only of the six Episodes in what he called The Tragedy of Darth Vader, was supposedly the definitive edition and contained all four of the Visual Dictionaries that had been published during an eight-year period. I bought that book in 2006, thinking that it was the final entry in the series. 

Of course, Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm resulted in the release of five new Star Wars films in a four-year span of time (2015-2019). This, of course, meant that there were more reference books to be written and published, including new Star Wars Visual Dictionaries. 

As I remarked in my overview of the book, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections faithfully sticks to the Star Wars-as-archaeology format set by David West Reynolds in the 1998 book about the Original Trilogy. It's lavishly illustrated and annotated in an in-universe historian's view of the galaxy shortly after the events of the movie. 

And for the most part, the book works as it is intended, even though it introduces a new dating system based not on the Battle of Yavin (the event that is considered to be the start of the Galactic Civil War) but on the "Starkiller Incident" (the destruction of the New Republic's capital world and its fleet by Starkiller Base). Pablo Hidalgo, aided by DK's editing team, did a good job at describing the many new worlds, cultures, and characters seen in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

The only drawback for me with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections is not the new "historical dating system" used in the book. Star Wars, after all, is fiction, so a new in-universe way of recording history doesn't irk me at all. 

What I do wish, however, is that the publisher would have waited to publish this book in March of 2020 or maybe a bit later to get around Lucasfilm's no-spoilers policy that was implemented in 2015 to prevent Internet leaks of the main story for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The new rules on what books released at the same time as the film (or shortly before) can divulge had an effect on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections. In the book, there are no references to the fates of some of the characters described within, and other characters who appear in the film are either not mentioned or merely alluded to. 

Knowing how Dorling Kindersley works, though, this omission will be reversed in either a future re-issue of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary with Exclusive Cross-Sections or the next edition of Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary. Still, the book might work much better had it been released in the spring of 2020 rather than on the same day as the film's theatrical release.