A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(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 ...

Author's Note: This is the original review of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia that I wrote for Epinions, a now-inactive review website owned by eBay, on December 30, 2008.  It was, of course, written at a time when George Lucas still ran Lucasfilm. The now-canceled Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show was barely halfway through its first season on Cartoon Network, and as far as we knew, the feature film saga was complete; Lucas was adamant that the six films - plus the aforementioned TV series on Cartoon Network - were the complete account of The Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker and that he wasn't interested in making the long-rumored Sequel Trilogy. In 2018, we know that things have changed since I wrote this review nearly a decade ago. Lucas retired and sold his company, Lucasfilm Limited, to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Star Wars: The Clone Wars ended its five-season run in 2014 and was followed on Disney XD by Star Wars Rebels, which recently end...

(C) 2016 Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On August 16, 2016, Abrams ComicArts, an imprint of New York City-based Abrams Books, published Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: The Original Topps Trading Card Series, the third volume in writer-editor Gary Gerani's series of books about Topps' Star Wars- themed trading card series.  Like the previous two volumes ( Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series and   Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Topps Trading Card Series ), Gerani's book tells a Topps insider's story about the creation of the 220 trading cards and 55 stickers that the confectionary and trading card company produced between 1983 and 1984.  Gary Gerani, the Topps editor in charge of the company's Star Wars trading card line, chose Drew Struzan's iconic imagery used in the now-rare Revenge of the Jedi poster created before George Lucas changed the name of Episode VI to Return of the Jedi. (C) 1983 Topps Ch...

(C) 2012 Dorling Kindersley Books and Lucasfilm Limited On September 25, 2006, Dorling Kindersley Books (DK Books) published the first edition of Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary by authors David West Reynolds and James Luceno. This 272-page volume is an omnibus edition that presents the material from all four DK Books Visual Dictionaries based on Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Star Wars: The Original Trilogy.   Published almost a year-and-a-half after the premiere of Star Wars: Episode III, this Complete Visual Dictionary' s first edition compiled the first four entries in the Visual Dictionary series: Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary (1998), Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary (1999), Star Wars: Attack of the Clones The Visual Dictionary ( 2002), and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith The Visual Dictionary (2005). The first three books were written by ar...