Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Essential Guide is a very good guide to the characters of the Star Wars universe. Unfortunately, this book was written before the release of the new Star Wars prequels, so you won't find any info on those movies in this book. If you're an avid fan though, I highly recommend you buy this book anyway, since it has in-depth descriptions of key players in Episodes 4-6. Good buy!

This book has some useful references but for the most part it is in dire need of some updating. With the release of the new movies this just doesnt cut it as a reference guide anymore. This is the worst of the essential star wars guides.

The Essential Guide to Characters is a great guide of all the characters from the original trilogy and the expanded universe. It's a greate resource for anyone who wants to know about specific characters, and for fanfiction authors who are interested in getting to know the history of a character they want to include in their fanfiction. It's definately great, and would be a great addition to the collection of someone who considers themselves a know-it-all, or someone who enjoys writing in the Star Wars universe. The only thing that takes away from the rating is the fact that all the images are black and white.

With the release of episode 2 this books information is rendered pretty much obselete. There is alot of incorrect information here. For example Owen Lars is noted as being Obi wan's brother.
I'm sure that the author worked with what he had but the bottom line is its just not reliable reference material.

Don't commit the same mistake I did by buying this book if you already own the Essential Chronology or the Essential Guide to Alien Species.

This book needs an URGENT update, there are no refences for Corran Horn nor Kyle Katarn even if this last one had appeared BEFORE the book's publishing.

The illustrations are equally obsolete: Borsk Fey'Lya is portrayed with the "dwarfish" look the bothans had in previous comics (even the book has illustrations of Thrawn taken from the comic adaptation of Heir to the Empire in which the bothans have the modern goat face they exhibit in the Guide for Alien Species!)

This one's very good, except that I miss a few characters. Other than that, it's very informative, and you get to meet characters you didn't even know they existed. So, I highly recommend this book!

This book was very interesting and informative, but I wouldn't recamend it to anyone who doesn't already know the expanded universe pretty well. When I first read it two years ago it was the only introduction to the expanded universe I'd had, aside from Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Kinghts, so many parts of it were very confusing. Also it badly needs to be updated, because years have passed in Star Wars time since this book was published and a lot of things have changed. But, in general I really liked this book a lot because it told about my favorite aspect of Star Wars, the characters.

Wonderful source of info from the Star Wars Universe. A bit out of date, but that wasn't really the fault of anyone. However, I found several errors regarding mostly spelling. For example, in "The Essential Guide to Characters", Munto Codru, is spelled Munto Codur in every instance that it appears. One would hope that someone would catch this before it was published. The font was also very distracting. It kept shifting sizes and spaces. I also noticed that, in Jacen and Jaina's profile, it states that Jacen was attacked by Barkiss's force lightning. It was actually Jaina. Jacen also used his Corusca gem to escape his cell in the Shadow Academy. In the guide, it says that Jaina freed him. I, personally, learned a lot from the book. It was very informitive since I haven't read every Star Wars book (heaven forbid). But I still find it very sloppy and unprofessional with all the typos, shifting font, and tiny misconceptions. I would only recommend those who REALLY know their way around the SW universe. Others might see these problems and believe them.

I only checked this book out from the library because there was one character I wanted to know more about. But the more I read the more I wanted to know, it's like they say on A&E's Biography, "Every lfe tells a story". It also gives you the fine details about major charaters,things like what Han Solo was doing between Star Wars and The Empire Stricks Back that prevented him from paying Jabba, to the lives of characters seen only for a moment in places like Jabba's palace and the canteena. If this book has a failing it in the fact that it is a little outdated, perhapes with The Phantom Menace being released an updated version will be sold.

This is a wonderful book! Alittle outdated(please bring out Essinatal guide 2!!) But it is great showing movie pics and comic pics too. This is da bomd!!