A Guide to the Star Wars Universe

by Bill Slavicsek

How did Exar Kun nearly destroy Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy? When did Han Solo first meet Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian? Where was Mara Jade when the Emperor died? What are the secrets of the terrible super weapons -- the Death Stars, the Sun Crusher, and the World Devastators? What are the Qom Qae? How powerful is the Black Sun criminal organization?

Looking for facts about the characters, starships, weaponry, droids, alien species, and historic battles in the most amazing adventure of them all? From airspeeders to N-1 starfighters, Coruscant to Tatooine, Nom Anor to Leia Organa--you'll find the whole universe of Star Wars covered here:

¸  The original Star Wars trilogy movies
¸  The novels--from Star Wars to Vector Prime
¸  The animated TV series Droids and Ewoks
¸  National Public Radio dramatizations
¸  Young Adult novels
¸  The Star Wars comic-books
¸  Role-playing books
¸  Video games and CD-ROMs
. . . plus sourcebooks, storybooks, sketchbooks, portfolios, and more!

Featuring new material on Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace . . . the latest Star Wars series: The New Jedi Order . . . and the entire thrilling saga!

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Reference, Fiction, Fantasy, Media Tie In, Science Fiction Fantasy

495 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 1988

About the author

Bill Slavicsek's gaming life was forever changed when he discovered Dungeons & Dragons in 1976. He became a gaming professional in 1986 when he was hired by West End Games as an editor. He quickly added developer, designer, and creative manager to his resume, and his work helped shape the Paranoia, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, and Torg roleplaying games. He even found some time during that period to do freelance work for D&D 1st Edition. In 1993, Bill joined the staff of TSR, Inc. as a designer/editor. He worked on a bunch of 2nd Edition material, including products for Core D&D, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Planescape. In 1997, he was part of the TSR crowd that moved to Seattle to join Wizards of the Coast, and in that year he was promoted to R&D Director for D&D. In that position, Bill oversaw the creation of both the 3rd Edition and 4th Edition of the D&D Roleplaying Game. He was one of the driving forces behind the D&D Insider project, and he continues to oversee and lead the creative strategy and effort for Dungeons & Dragons.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of star wars...but I like baby Yoda as hes cute so I thought of giving star wars a chance and read this...the guide of star wars but it was boring. I would prefer to watch the movies/show instead of reading the books.

[Sam Ang · Rating 3 out of 5]

The full review of this book is available in my blog:
http://bookunderthesun.blogspot.sg/20...
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A Guide to the Star Wars Universe is a must have for die-hard fans like me in an era when internet is not as pervasive, and you just wanted to know a little bit more about that character or planet which you just read off the latest Star Wars novel.

The guide is organized like an encyclopedia, with articles on characters, organizations, planets and even artifacts and events. All the articles are arranged according to alphabetical order, allowing the reader to refer to his favorite scoundrel easily. The articles are all summarized according to published works on the Star Wars universe, which included novels, comics, radio programs, role-playing books, and of course, the movies. Since the guide is published in the year 2000, only the first of the prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace, is included, as well as the first of the New Jedi Order series novel - Vector Prime. The illustrations in the guide is quite limited but still helpful.

Since Star Wars is a fictional universe developed around published works of novels and other literature, it has included in the footnote of each article where the item of interest existed. For instance, Garm Bel Iblis, the famed general who only existed in the Expanded Universe and not in the movies, is listed to make an appearance in works like Dark Force Rising and The Last Command.

[Tim S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd little book that was published a few years before the Star Wars entertainment juggernaut really got rolling again. That means well before the prequels and during a time when only a small handful of expanded universe novels had been released. Thus this encyclopedia is sort of a mash-up of the original films and every miscellaneous Star Wars product that the author could get his hands on. Cartoons, children's books, comic strips, video games, barely connected tie-in novels from the early eighties. It's kind of endearingly eclectic.

That said, I don't know why anyone would want to read this thing now but...I rendered my copy dog-earred back when I was in junior high school. It's also a reminder of a time when all the luster hadn't quite wore of Star Wars and the brand wasn't simply a conduit for third-rate space fantasy. Back then fans were actually eager to see more of this fictional universe because there really weren't that many SW-themed products out there.

[Davy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will go down in history as my favorite reference book of all time. I read it at least a dozen times, often while hiding behind the tympani in band class with my friend Thomas. I've yet to see another collection of Star Wars-related information (okay, trivia) this comprehensive, efficient, or enjoyable.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun reference style book to read.

I've read this book over six times.

The engravings are well done.

[MG · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's worth at least a skim-through and you see an entry you're familiar with.

[Solomon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel that this book is a really good read. If you know a lot about star wars and want to seek more knowledge If that applies to you, you should read this book. This book talks about anything star wars related. Talks about characters,species, and vehicles you didn't even know. This book brings joy if you are a true fan of star wars, also if you a beginner. This book connects people with the love for star wars.

[S. J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this used when I first got into my Star Wars' craze. As another reviewer said, this was the days before the internet, wikipedia, and wikias that hold founts of information. I was not able to read all the extended universe for quite some time so this was my window into the world beyond the then three movies. The stories I liked led me to the books I bought and the ones I didn't I knew to avoid.
This was a great little book and I'm quite sorry that I've lost it since then. It was a lot of fun to read.

[Richard Houchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of Star Wars novels in Jr. High. It took a few dozen books before I realized many of them just weren't all that stellar. Ah, well, I'll squirrel away the memories on the internet and free up a book shelf. This book isn't even a novel. It's like an encyclopedia. And I read it, cover to cover.

[Phillip Lozano · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd duck from the early days of the Expanded Universe, now quite irrelevant, both because of the sheer weight of accumulated lore since then and the probability that the Disney sequels will likely ignore the whole lot of it. Even that aside, it's not much to write home about.

[Jason Vedder]

An hour's read at the library while on vacation. While most of it was not the stuff I was interested and much of it was mainly just a confirmation of things I knew with a head nodding and thinking 'that's interesting, I suppose about Admiral Ackbar or Wedge Antilles for example

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

You ain't into Star Wars if you ain't read this book.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every thing you could ever want to know about the Star Wars univers up to the point it was published. It includes movie and book facts. It also tells you what is from which with symbols.

[Matt Hartzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Star Wars super nerdery.

[Alex Seals · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although outdated, still entertaining to read, especially the parts that got what took place in the three prequels wrong.

[Ronny Bereczki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mittlerweile veraltet, aber 1994 ein ganz nützliches Nachschlagewerk.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book about star wars!

[Златко Андоновски]

Reference book that combined the original trilogy with some EU sources (novels, comic books, etc.), outdated since the prequel trilogy.

[Mario]

Really informative, with a lot of details I was not aware, since at the time I read it I only had watched the movies!