Book reviews

Learn incredible details about a galaxy far, far away

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Author: Tricia Barr, Adam Bray & Cole Horton Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Price: £25 / $30 Release date: Out now

Have you ever watched Star Wars and wondered about the history of Coruscant or wanted to know more about the aquatic creatures from across the galaxy? The movies and TV shows don’t always have time to go into detail about the history, biology and geography of the series, meaning fans have to do their own research to find out more. But no more, thanks to this bulging book of facts.

This encyclopedia is absolutely packed with information about every imaginable part of the Star Wars universe. Want to know about the fresh foodstuffs that are eaten by the inhabitants of the galaxy or the bizarre musical instruments, technology or even luggage designs that are used? Well, this book tells you all about them — and a lot more besides.

The book includes information from every movie and the TV shows, right up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, meaning there’s a lot of stuff to cover. Sadly, the book doesn’t include any details from the upcoming movie, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, although this is probably for the best for those that want to avoid spoilers. Thankfully, it doesn’t have any noticeable effect inside, and there is still an astonishing amount of information packed into the book.

We wonder whether DK will release an updated version of the book following the movie release, with new facts based on the new story. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, but for now this will keep us extremely busy.

As huge Star Wars fans we found it hard to find any real downsides to this book. The only small issue we had was that certain entries contain a little less information than others, meaning you might still have questions when you turn the page. However, these slightly lighter entries are fairly rare, and there are others throughout the book that are so detailed, with brilliantly annotated images, cool facts and information that you would never have even considered.

For fans of the series this will undoubtedly provide hours of entertainment — it’s the perfect way to get clued up before the new movie comes out in December.

“As huge star wars fans we found it hard to find any downsides to this book”