Sompeetalay's Source Blog: appendix: May 2006

Creating the Worlds of Star Wars in 365 Days

Creating the Worlds of Star Wars in 365 Days

In this entry I'll review 'Creating the Worlds of Star Wars in 365 days'. It has just arrived yesterday (it took a longtime to arrive) so I'll add more to the review as I read it. This book is not a Sourcebook, but I'll review it anyway.

This book has a weird format (it's very fat) and contains an additional cd-rom. It's written by John Knoll from ILM and Jonathan Rinzler (The Making of Ep. III).

As I said before this is no Sourcebook, but a magnificent 'making of' volume. On every double page, Knoll shows us pictures from one particular set from the Saga. Every episode is covered, from the Tantive IV to the Mustafar Conference Room. Knoll is a technical wizard from ILM (and co-creator of Photoshop) and does not always know the names of characters and vehicles. Instead of saying 'The Bespin Void Spider stood in front of the Cantina' he says 'There was a weird thing in front of the Cantina'. But it didn't disturb me, because this is not the goal of this book. It has many, many pages and many pictures. Some pictures are a bit too small and you'll find that the printing is also rather small.

The cd-rom is not another worthless extra item. It features the sets from 'Ep.II' and 'Ep.III' just like the Knoll Visions we used to have on Hyperspace. It has already helped me with an article about Dex' Diner, so it's very usable.

This book will be a must-have for everybody who likes the technical side of the SW movies, the making of the movies and also fans who like to make their own dioramas.

Positive Highlights
- Many pages
- All movies are covered
- Many (rare) pictures
- Bonus cd-rom
- No EU

Negative Highlights
- None really ...

SW.com Feature

'Star Wars: Where Science meets Imagination' Book

'Star Wars: Where Science meets Imagination' Book

I have been able to find this companion to the exhibition in Boston, co-published by National Geographic & Lucas Books. This book is a HC and has 208 pages. I will add more additional and detailed comments about this book in the future.

The first thing that comes to your mind is that this is a beautiful book. It's in danger to become completely forgotten in the wild 'Star Wars'-book autumn (why are there so many important books in a few months?). Some people may not know it exists and will want to get other books first.

The book has two main parts (there is also an intro by Anthony Daniels). The first part is about technology in general and the world of 'Star Wars'. There are chapters like: 'Space, time and Star Wars', 'Living on Coruscant' & 'Making the Jump to Lightspeed'. The 2nd chapter is about robots and robot like aspects such as A.I, cybernetics & 'human-robots relations'.

'WSMI' has many beautiful full color photos from the 'Star Wars'-saga and even features some very nice galleries of ships and droids. I do fear though that the texts will not always be easy to read and to understand. It seems very scientifically with terminations we might not be familiar with about robotics, electronics and physics. So I hope the text will not be too difficult or a bit boring for the average reader. Many known scholars have written chapters in this book, as did some of ILM's supervisors like Rob Coleman.

It seems that this companion wants to compare the technology in 'SW' to our own technology. When are prosthetics used, how far are we to developing an independent working robot, what's the deal with Ion drives, what urban architecture looks like Coruscant, etc... So it seems very interesting indeed.

'Star Wars: Where Science meets Imagination' can be compared with 'Star Wars: Magic of Myth'. But now, science replaces mythology. Two completely opposite concepts on earth, but 'Star Wars' has them both.

It does seem a bit strange that Curtis Saxton (who writes the 'Cross Section'-books and who is a theoretical astrophysicist) wasn't evolved in the creating of this book.

StarWars.Com Feature

Ultimate Visual Guide & Vader: The Ultimate Guide

Ultimate Visual Guide
Today I was able to pick up the 'Ultimate Guide' by DK publishing. I've finished reading the book, so here is a review. SW.Com Preview
The book has about 100 p. which is more than I had expected. The UG is in fact some kind of illustrated SW chronology. It's the perfect book for the 'new' fan. It's a mix between a sourcebook, EU and making of (15%) and a nice attempt to create a 'Star Wars Introduction Guide'.First you have an introduction about SW technology & the galaxy. Then, there is an elaborate illustrated (pictures or artwork) chronology from the events in the Star Wars universe. The lay-out is very rich with detail and photographs from the movies or artwork from the comics or trading cards. The pages depict every major event in the movies and events that took place before the movies (Battle of Ruusan) or between the movies (Clone Wars). Luckily the book only contains 3 double pages about the EU after 'RotJ' and that's more than enough for my taste. After the chronology you'll find different pages about the making of, special effects, costuming, George Lucas, merchandise, tv spin-offs, LFL timeline, etc... Example

It seems a great book for fans who feel they need to update their SW knowledge. I'm afraid that this book will have few secrets for the more experienced fans.
Positive Highlights:
- It does contain an updated starmap where some planets can be found for the 1st time like Utapau, Mustafar, Polis Massa, Saleucami, etc ...
- Many pictures & illustrations
- Heavy use of comic art. This means that you'll also find incorrect artwork in the book like Adi Gallia with a crimson Lightsaber ...
- Useful LFL timeline

Negative Highlights:
Important events don't receive enough credit. The Yavin 4 ceremony, the redemption of Anakin Skywalker have pictures about the size of a stamp and the text isn't more elaborate than anywhere else. So important events and less important events are treated the same.
- EU involvement (ex: In the New Jedi Order the Jedi decided to abandon some of the old order's customs)
- Too much comic art. I agree that sometimes some artwork can be great, but why use so many artwork and certainly about the movies? It seems that the comic books are more important than the movies.
- Too much EU interference. A sentence is written and suddenly the EU pops-up without any possible connection to it. Example (not in the book): Momaw Nadon is an Ithorian and many years after the destruction of the DS Ithor get's destroyed.
- Chances are slim I'll ever read it again, because I hardly learned anything from it.Final conclusions: At first I was enthousiastic about this book, but at the end it was a bit of a letdown.

When you are an experienced fan, you will hardly learn anything from the book. Comic art is used too often and the EU interferes anywhere when possible. Luckily the book doesn't cost that much, so it's still worth the money. But beware ... this is a good book for the rookie fan.

VADER: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE:
Today I finally received 2 copies (one for a friend) from IDG entertainment. I placed my order in the beginning of August and nothing arrived. Last week I mailed IDG and I got a friendly reply from Dawnielle. She promised me to send 2 copies to me, because obviously something had gone wrong with the first package. And today the postman brought me the two copies. I must admit that this is a first class service from IDG. I will not forget this in the future.Now about the magazine. I haven't been able to read it completely. It's not really a magazine when you hold it. It's more like a small book. The cover is sturdy and features a beautiful Vader. There is a chapter about Anakin / Vader's biography, a chapter about his life & the technology he used (features a nice chronological table with important events like the foundation of the Trade Federation), there is a short story in it, there are features about the actors who helped to make Vader the legend he is today and there is a final chapter about famous Vader merchandise. - Anakin / Vader's biography is neatly written because it's not always that simple to write a biography for well known characters. The author (Daniel Wallace) even includes the hypothesis that Anakin has indeed been created by Darth Plagueis or Sidious. He does also indeed confirm that Vader didn't tell Palpatine about Luke until Palpatine and Vader's communication in 'TESB'.- The Path of Evil & Vader Tech (by Abel Pena) are very interesting pieces about the history of the Sith, important events in the universe, Vader's armor and his vehicles / ships during the saga. Now this is where the fun begins, because you learn some new things like when Anakin met Garven Dreis (Red Leader 'ANH'), what happened to his TIE Advanced X1, etc...- Bringing Vader to life is a very interesting article about Lucas, McQuarrie and John Mollo, the 3 men who were responsible for Vader's appearance.- The Men in Black is an article about the most important people who brought Vader to the big screen like Prowse, Lloyd, Christensen, etc. These are basically old interviews, so it's not that amazing, but it's satisfying.The magazine is filled with photographs and nice art of Vader. There is one haunting rendition of a sad Vader sitting in his meditation pod thinking about Padmé drawn by Joe Corroney:http://www.joecorroney.com/cgi-local/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Star_Wars/Star_Wars_Misc_Art&image=VadersRemorse.jpg&img=12&tt=imgIf