Buy This: Star Wars: The Essential Atlas

by Peter Martin May 26th 2009 // 1:15PM

Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, George Lucas, Movie Marketing

Yesterday was the 32nd anniversary of the original theatrical release of Star Wars, which I had completely forgotten about until Cinematical Editor-in-Chief Erik Davis pointed me to this book. Star Wars: The Essential Atlas by Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry is a "fully illustrated, full-color guide that maps the entire galaxy." It promises to encompass "the entire Star Wars canon, including all the films, and the Clone Wars television series, plus the novels, comic books, video games, and more." The book "is packed with dozens of detailed maps and charts."

My interest in Star Wars ebbs and flows with the years. I was absolutely fanatical / obsessed with the first two movies, but the Ewoks irritated me long before Jar Jar Binks. I very much enjoyed the Thrawn Trilogy novels by Timothy Zahn but could not possibly keep up with all the books that followed. I loved seeing the originals on the big screen again in the 90s but was sorely disappointed that George Lucas felt compelled to tamper with them. Episode I was a real let down, Episode II fell entirely flat, yet portions of Episode III nearly redeemed the whole thing for me. (Go figure.) As a movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was fatally boring.

Despite all my mixed feelings, the idea of putting the entire Star Wars galaxy down on paper, complete with detailed maps and charts, appeals to the analytical part of my brain. The book is due out on August 18.

2 Comments

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-26-2009 @ 3:15PM

MCW said...

The recent Clone Wars film pales in comparison to the new TV Show, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars". Cool and funny adventures every week. I'm struggling to catch up though, due to Cartoon Network's inability to offer the episodes for streaming or on disc.

Still, the show is fun for me, someone who was severely late to the Star Wars world. I like that every week can focus on a single character on the show, rather than in the movies trying to maintain some sense with so many characters running around.

I would suspect my library will get this atlas... I certainly wouldn't pay for it (There are a lot of Star Wars encyclopedias).

If anyone wants to keep track of releases at their library, might I recommend http://www.Wowbrary.org ? You get updates on the newest additions every week to your library. I've rented tons of movies and books for free from my library, many of which I wouldn't have known they added. Most people don't know how much their library has to offer.

5-27-2009 @ 12:42PM

Daniel Wallace said...

Hi Peter! Glad you're looking forward to the book. So are Jason & I (we've been working on it since forever). I'd love to hear your observations when it finally hits bookshelves. If you're interested, some of my comments on the book can be found here:

http://geekosity.blogspot.com/search/label/star%20wars%20atlas

I'm also planning to post lots of easter eggs and "did you notice" observations on the site once the book's out.

Dan