A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2018  Dorling Kindersley (DK) Publishing and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Since the late 1990s, Britain's Dorling Kindersley (DK)  Publishing has been releasing lavishly-illustrated reference books related to various aspects of George Lucas's Star Wars movie trilogies and, since 2015, the Sequel Trilogy and Anthology films produced Lucasfilm, the production company purchased by the Walt Disney Company after Lucas's retirement in the fall of 2012. These reference books run the gamut from Star Wars: Complete Vehicles and Star Wars: Incredible Cross-sections to Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide.  In addition to these works, DK also publishes Visual Guides or Visual Dictionaries that tie in to specific films, starting with David West Reynolds' 1998 work  Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary (which encompassed the Original Trilogy era) and continuing over the years with either Visual Dictionaries or Visual Guides for each of the new Star Wars films shortly after their ...

Cover art by Steven D. Anderson. (C) 2005 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.  One of the more challenging aspects Star Wars fans face when they read any of the “expanded universe” novels set in the Prequel Era is dealing with the fact that the characters from the films have their destinies set in stone. Most of them, especially those that have followed George Lucas’ space-fantasy saga since the first Episode premiered in 1977, are keenly aware that the Galactic Republic depicted in the Prequel years is being transformed into the Galactic Empire, that the once-unassuming and politically unassailable Palpatine of Naboo is the mysterious Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious, and that the brash and headstrong Anakin Skywalker will turn his back on his fellow Jedi Knights and every good thing he stands for and become the infamous Darth Vader. These broad strokes on this huge celluloid and literary canvas have, of course, been visible for over 40 years, but there are still plenty of l...

Jacket design by David Stevenson. (C) 2005 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.  Pros:  Vivid descriptions, crisp writing, good characterizations Cons:  None A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights…. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. -- Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker, Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope There is still good in him. -- Padme Amidala to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith According to the Star Wars timeline, there’s a gap of either 18 or 19 years between the cataclysmic fall of the Republic and the now-legendary Battle of Yavin that ended with the destruction of the Empire’s first Death Star. That gives Lucasfilm Ltd and many Star Wars authors a lot of creative wiggle room to bridge the two film trilogies with Expanded Universe novels and a television series set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hop...

(C) 2016 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. Jacket design by Scott Biel On November 15, 2016, Del Rey Books, an imprint of Random House, published Star Wars: Catalyst - A Rogue One Novel. Written by James Luceno ( Star Wars: Cloak of Deception and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader ), this 352-page book is the exciting prequel to director Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Lucasfilm's first film of its stand-alone Star Wars Anthology series.  Released a month before the theatrical debut of Edwards' film and Alexander Freed's novelization (also published by Del Rey), Star Wars: Catalyst - A Rogue One Novel tells how Galen Erso, a brilliant research scientist, is recruited by his friend, Lt. Cmdr. Orson Krennic, to work on Celestial Power, a top secret project for the Galactic Republic.  It is a time of turmoil in the galaxy. As the Clone Wars flare up across thousands of planetary systems, Erso, a polymath with a special interest in the mysterious and po...