"Star Wars" Chronicles

by Deborah Fine

This volume provides the complete history of the "Star Wars" universe. It goes behind the scenes at the Lucasfilm studios to look at the special effects, the costumes, masks, robots, alien creatures, spaceships and the characters themselves at each stage of their development.

Genres: Star Wars, Reference, Nonfiction

315 pages, Hardcover

First published September 21, 2005

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is by far the largest and the most expensive book that I own. It predates the prequels and covers the now called episode IV, V, VI. Every page offers an unique never before seen picture of the props used in the films or behind the scenes photos. For me, every page offered something new. Every page is filled with a glorious photo page, there isn't a dull page and each page feels like a piece of art.

[Brian]

Someday I will finally buy this book!

[Topaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the first books to go into detail of the making of Star Wars, including character designs, props, sketches, and lots of unseen photos. This is a great reference book and collectible item for fans of Star Wars or animation/movie art, or just design in general.

The overall quality of the book is pretty average. The slip case was falling apart pretty soon after purchasing and the covers show wear pretty easily. There have since been more publications of higher quality and better, more researched content that may be a good substitute or accompaniment to this book.

[Jay Gabler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now rare and hard to come by, this massive curiosity combines behind-the-scenes information on the classic trilogy with a summary of franchise canon as established just before the Special Editions landed, using the West End roleplaying sourcebooks as the ultimate authorities. That material's skippable unless you're a Legends nut, but the book's still cool to flip through if only for the up-close, large-scale photos of models, props, and costumes.

[Alexander Finbow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully designed, almost the size of a car and about the same weight, and a gorgeous tome of a book.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

This book is very similar to Star Wars Chronicles: The Prequel which I reviewed before. That book is for Episodes I, II and III. This book is for Episodes IV, V and VI.

At 320 pages, this is an enormous book. It's encased in a slipcase cardboard with cutouts to reveal the cover behind. It's very well bind, and the paper stock is great. The first print was back in 1997 and the second in 2006. It might be hard to find this book but I'm sure it will be back for more reprints.

This book is no doubt the most complete and exclusive collection compiled for Star Wars. These materials include -- huge breath in -- hundreds of behind the scenes photos, film stills, models of ships, character designs, miniatures, character models, robots, creatures, props, costumes -- another long breath in -- vehicles, planets, plot lines and anything you can think of. The captions are detailed and explain the concept behind every picture provided.

The photos included show a lot of detail on the subject. Multiple shots are often taken from each side, especially so for vehicles. Every photo is captioned and explained. There is very little concept art, but for that you have to get the art-of series of books.

In addition to the core Episodes, there is also archive information on The Star Wars Holiday Special, The Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.

It's the most comprehensive book detailing everything about everything in a movie.

The price might be hefty, but it is well worth it for any Star Wars fan.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[Robert Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the holy grail of Star Wars coffee table books. Produced in 1997 during the time of the special editions, this has everything from 1977-97.

Not only do you have rare and unique photos of all things from the original trilogy, you have pictures from the Holiday Special, the two Ewok movies and the Droid/Ewoks cartoon series.

A must have for costumers that want every detail observed.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fantastic look at the making of the first three films with tons and tons of great photos and info. Any SW fan should own this.