Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels

Star Wars: Essential Guides #2

by Bill Smith

he second book in Del Rey's Essential Guide series, The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels features an in-depth look at one hundred ships, fighters, and other vehicles from the Original trilogy and Expanded Universe, each with its own two-page spread including detailed schematics. The book has a number of errors, notably transposing sketches of the Imperial and Victory class Star Destroyers in some printings of the book.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Reference, Fiction, Art, Picture Books, Science Fiction Fantasy

202 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Bill Smith worked his way through undergraduate school firing steam locomotives on the railroad, then paid for graduate school as a dormitory resident advisor. Three years later, he was the acting chief of television for a branch of the Air Force in Washington, then acting assistant to the under secretary of a federal department. He was the founding executive director of a state wide public broadcasting network, a founder of a seventeen state public broadcasting system, and the recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award.

See more books by Bill Smith at www.bsmithbooks.com

Reviews

[May Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm putting this in science and don't care that it is fiction. Maybe I need to add a category Sci-Fi. I love this book and think a lot of the Star Wars fans will like it. I never thought about the sheer raw number of vehicles that are present in the series. Wow!

I think a truer fan will do better getting through the book that even I will. It was a bit hard to remember everything. That is despite the fact that the writing is def from a fan to a fan. The little tidbits remind you of the scenes where said vehicle showed up. and it's interesting to think about how the innovations happened from movie to movie.

In the end, I seriously wanted to rewatch all the series and all it's prequils with this book in front of me, so I could be a bit smarter. Good stuff!

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've owned this since childhood. Few things spurred my desire to get into concept art back then as much as this.

[J. Wootton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Essential"

[Trey Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I friggin loved this book back in the day. Reading about technical specs and manufacturing info for fictional space ships was very much my jam. Also fun to draw them.

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresh off reading the Essential Guide to Planets, I picked up this one with relatively low expectations. To my surprise, this was a fun and quick read. Most of the information is about the vehicles and ships and not about the plots from Star Wars novels and comics which was a nice change of pace. The information about the ships and vehicles felt like it was useful and unique to this book which made this Essential Guide worth reading. I was surprised that even the sciencey parts didn't cause me to lose interest. If the idea of this book sounds appealing to you or you thirst for Star Wars knowledge, then it is worth picking up.

[Kym Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice book with some good illustrations to go with the text. It is with the lack of technical information which I felt let this book down. It for the most part has some interesting information on the vehicles, at times focusing more on extractions from novels or films and less on the vehicle or vessel.

I know this is a tech book for a fictional universe but I prefer to have more of a technical and factual feel to my guides.

Fun and interesting none the less for any Star Wars or Sci Fi fans. It predates the prequels and all of the subsequent prequel spin offs. This is either a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.

70 %

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My personal favourites of the "Star Wars" trade paperback guide books...it satisfies the SF futuristic techie geek within. Mind you, it's not quite up to the standards of the "Star Trek" guides...but we'd be unfairly comparing apples to oranges.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

detailed information out the vehicles and peoples of the star wars universe with drawings sketches and blue prints for the different and varied forms of space ships, shuttles, and other vehicles of different worlds

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book. I am not even into Star Wars.

[Benji · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schematic drawings are the main draw here. Some blabbing about how the vehicles fit into the "expanded" Star Wars narrative are just a distraction.

[J.M. Brister · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent reference guide for Star Wars fans.

[Jaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's just fun and there's not a thing wrong with that :)

[Caterpickles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Seven-Year-Old would like me to point out that she’s not reading this one cover-to-cover, just the interesting bits.