Rating: 
Summary: Great , but not perfect.
Review: This is a good book that ties in all the star wars novels and comics. One fault I found with is are minor , but do subtract from the quality of this book. First , lack of illustrations , I would've liked the book to have more , maybe colored illustraions , but defeinatly more. Also , It never really goes into intricate details. It might sumarize a novel for you , but it leaves out some characters and events. And that's what the purpose of this book is: to referesh your memories on all the minor details in the dozens of star wars litereature you read. This should not supplament those books and comics however. I wish the book was longer , with more details. also , most of the X-wing comics are not included , which make me wonder why. I does tie up alot of loose ends though , like the story with Trioculus in it , and who exactly were the other Grand Admirals and what happened to them. But where exactly did the authors get that information. I ve read all the litereature and stories and found nothing on Grand Admiral Syn , or Batch , or Grant. I would like to read it myself. Despite these gripes , this is an excellent book , and I recommend it to any serious star wars fan out there. Great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Reference book.
Review: This is a great book for any hardcore Star Wars fan. It shows the galaxy's history, from the Old Republic and the birth of the Sith, to the Empire, to the most modern days of the republic. The writing tended to have a good, text bookish feel, and the entire thing felt very well researched and well designed. The pictures were nothing special, but they did show me what a K-wing looked like for the first time, and they matched the text reasonably well. The authors were even willing to sit through the Koornacht Cluster Trilogy to write this book, which can either be taken as dedication above and beyond, or sheer stupidity. If you aren't the greatest Star Wars fan in the world than you might want to try another book, but for the person who wants to know everything this is great.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great Star Wars book, but after waiting several years for it, my expectations of it grew huge, hence the 4-star rating.This book is being released now pretty much to bring all the new Star Wars readers who are starting with the New Jedi Order series up to speed on all the Bantam books and comics, and it does a very good job. Although it does focus just a little too heavily on the movies, that's come to be expected. But where this book really comes in handy to Star Wars fanatics like me is the little between-the-scenes stuff, filling in details about what was happening politically and in the big picture between the books. This book is also filled with a bunch of incredible (and a few not-so-incredible) illustrations by Bill Hughes. These illustrate key scenes and characters which we haven't seen before. What this book does not try to do is fill in what was happening day by day like so many online timelines, rather it sticks to a history-textbook like feel so that we get the "whole picture" instead of a bunch of little unrelated incidents. Also, this is good because Kevin Anderson's writing style and Wallace's previous writing experience are more suited to this. While Anderson's SW novels seemed condescending at times because he made everything too obvious, here that's the point. I definitely recommend this book to any star wars fan, new or old.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely well-crafted account of Star Wars history
Review: To say the least, this book was excellent. It told the intire story of Star Wars, straight up to the the New Jedi Order, and encompassing all the way back to 2500 b.b.y., (before battle of Yavin), in an interesting, comprehensive fashion. Though I wish it had included more details of specific events, otherwise it was a fun read, and one that I didn't at all mind reading cover to cover. I wouldn't, however, recommend this to someone who hasn't already read most of the material, since I had read very few of the adult novels, and now I know everything that happens from this book. Oh well, at least now I know Luke doesn't stay with that Callista forever. (thank the Force! I was never so happy when I found that out! especially since the one he eventually does marry happens to be one of my favorite characters) This is actually a very good book to have if you happen to want to skip over some of the books or comics or whatever, and still basically get the whole story, though I still intend to read them all eventually. Another good thing was that this book included the Junior/Young Jedi Knights books, which for a while were my favorites and I hoped they would be included in the official chronology. Also included at the end is a timeline of all Star Wars material, (a bit difficult to follow at first, but better than nothing) and a map of the Star Wars galaxy, which was awesome! I would recommend this book to a Star Wars fan of any age, since the writing style is easy to comprehend, and doesn't gear towards any particular age range, and of course, to anyone interested in seeing what happened before, during, and after the movies.
Rating:
Summary: An extremely well-crafted account of Star Wars history
Review: To say the least, this book was excellent. It told the intire story of Star Wars, straight up to the the New Jedi Order, and encompassing all the way back to 2500 b.b.y., (before battle of Yavin), in an interesting, comprehensive fashion. Though I wish it had included more details of specific events, otherwise it was a fun read, and one that I didn't at all mind reading cover to cover. I wouldn't, however, recommend this to someone who hasn't already read most of the material, since I had read very few of the adult novels, and now I know everything that happens from this book. Oh well, at least now I know Luke doesn't stay with that Callista forever. (thank the Force! I was never so happy when I found that out! especially since the one he eventually does marry happens to be one of my favorite characters) This is actually a very good book to have if you happen to want to skip over some of the books or comics or whatever, and still basically get the whole story, though I still intend to read them all eventually. Another good thing was that this book included the Junior/Young Jedi Knights books, which for a while were my favorites and I hoped they would be included in the official chronology. Also included at the end is a timeline of all Star Wars material, (a bit difficult to follow at first, but better than nothing) and a map of the Star Wars galaxy, which was awesome! I would recommend this book to a Star Wars fan of any age, since the writing style is easy to comprehend, and doesn't gear towards any particular age range, and of course, to anyone interested in seeing what happened before, during, and after the movies.
Rating:
Summary: this book is awesome
Review: When I first saw this book it didn't sound interesting but when I started reading it I thought to myself this book is awesome. The authors do a great job explaining the past. I like how the authors write it as if they were the scholars who researched the information. If I was looking to buy this book I would buy it right away.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute godsend...
Review: With more Star Wars books out than almost anyone can keep track of, let alone read, this is a wonderful, wonderful book to have. This covers everything up to the very most recent books, in chronological order-- while not as comprehensive, it's much more readable and makes a great companion to the Star Wars Encyclopedia-- plus it's much more up to date. Especially with the new Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG game coming out, this is TRULY essential to anyone planning on running a Star Wars game-- if nothing else, to make sure you know as much of the history as your players!
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