...
Show More
I never grew up with any less than 6 Star Wars movies so reading this book as a child, I didn’t realize it was written in the interim between the trilogies. This book of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for the original trilogy was actually published in 1995, before Phantom Menace— significance I failed to grasp as a kid. This type of book could easily just be a vessel for McQuarrie’s gorgeous concept art, but instead it’s paired with gorgeous prose from Kevin J. Anderson, which is why this book existed so vividly in my memories all these years, and is what compelled me to order another copy.
This book covers the 6 locales visited in the original trilogy: Tatooine, Dagobah, Hoth, The Forest Moon of Endor, The Cloud City over Bespin, and Yavin 4. Additionally, it features Alderaan, which was not shown except for its destruction from afar, and Coruscant, which was probably concept art for The Phantom Menace! Every section is written as an in-universe travelogue. Tatooine is by a shapeshifting anthropologist, Coruscant by the Emperor’s propagandist. Anderson takes measures to ensure copious amounts of verisimilitude, but this sometimes got annoying. For example, the Endor section was “by” an Imperial scout with a lot of disdain for Ewoks and the RotJ foreshadowing was a little too on-the-nose.
But despite a few too many references to the movies, you don’t have to watch them to “get it”. If from previous reviews you think I hate worldbuilding, this is worldbuilding done right, different than Disney Wars because not everything is a reference to something else. This book stands on its own as an imaginative description of alien ecologies and cultures, somewhat like Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. It’s good worldbuilding because it’s slice of life in the strictest sense, considering matters of lesser consequence like cuisine, art and culture. There is no cohesive story, but one of my favorite anecdotes is a poetic fable in the Hoth section about two ore-mining robots dismantling each other for their ores.
Since they basically cover all the planets that are visited in the old trilogy, there’s a necessary element of familiarity, because those movies were filmed in the pre-CGI era so Lucas et al. obviously had to seek out real-life (but still very exotic!) locations to film at. The culture parts are stronger than the speculative biology which isn’t quite as believable, so the best sections were the more populated planets: Tatooine, Coruscant, Bespin, and Alderaan.
My most vivid memories of this book from childhood were the Alderaan section, which makes it sound like an eco-friendly artist commune like Santa Fe, NM. For some reason, the idea of floating aimless hotels has stuck with me over the years. Small but believable details of little consequence like this are what makes this book.
This book covers the 6 locales visited in the original trilogy: Tatooine, Dagobah, Hoth, The Forest Moon of Endor, The Cloud City over Bespin, and Yavin 4. Additionally, it features Alderaan, which was not shown except for its destruction from afar, and Coruscant, which was probably concept art for The Phantom Menace! Every section is written as an in-universe travelogue. Tatooine is by a shapeshifting anthropologist, Coruscant by the Emperor’s propagandist. Anderson takes measures to ensure copious amounts of verisimilitude, but this sometimes got annoying. For example, the Endor section was “by” an Imperial scout with a lot of disdain for Ewoks and the RotJ foreshadowing was a little too on-the-nose.
But despite a few too many references to the movies, you don’t have to watch them to “get it”. If from previous reviews you think I hate worldbuilding, this is worldbuilding done right, different than Disney Wars because not everything is a reference to something else. This book stands on its own as an imaginative description of alien ecologies and cultures, somewhat like Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. It’s good worldbuilding because it’s slice of life in the strictest sense, considering matters of lesser consequence like cuisine, art and culture. There is no cohesive story, but one of my favorite anecdotes is a poetic fable in the Hoth section about two ore-mining robots dismantling each other for their ores.
Since they basically cover all the planets that are visited in the old trilogy, there’s a necessary element of familiarity, because those movies were filmed in the pre-CGI era so Lucas et al. obviously had to seek out real-life (but still very exotic!) locations to film at. The culture parts are stronger than the speculative biology which isn’t quite as believable, so the best sections were the more populated planets: Tatooine, Coruscant, Bespin, and Alderaan.
My most vivid memories of this book from childhood were the Alderaan section, which makes it sound like an eco-friendly artist commune like Santa Fe, NM. For some reason, the idea of floating aimless hotels has stuck with me over the years. Small but believable details of little consequence like this are what makes this book.
