Book Review: 'A Guide to the Star Wars Universe - Third Edition'
(C) 2000 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In 1984, Ballantine Books’ imprint Del Rey published Raymond Velasco’s A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, an A-Z reference book about the characters, vehicles, weapons, and locations in George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy and various tie-in media works, including the early Expanded Universe novels and Marvel comic books. Although some of the entries in Velasco’s book were one-line descriptions of aliens, planets, spacecraft, or weapons, it was the first book of its kind and – in that dark period when no one thought there would be any new films or stories set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” – it sold well and many Star Wars fans had a copy in their collection of books and magazines. 10 years later, Del Rey revisited the Guide in an expanded and revised edition by West End Games’ writer-editor Bill Slavicsek. By this time, Bantam Spectra had won the publishing rights to new Expanded Universe novels, the firs...