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Summary: Another great Star Wars book!
Review: A fascinating and insightful read, this book gives tons of info on all the Star Wars charcters, creatures and events. Well-written and informative, it covers all the bases of the Star Wars universe while still holding enough solid stuff to make it compelling. The color pictures and endless trivia are great, and while most of it isn't ground-breaking stuff, it's still fun and a must-have for any Star Wars fan.
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Summary: just what was needed!!!
Review: After the 1st essential guide to characters, I was happy with the outcome. However, in the years since the book came out, it has become clear that another guide was needed. And does this one deliver. It gives us information on all that were needed, from Corran Horn to Kyle Katarn to Maxmillian Veers. If you need background information, pick this book up!
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Summary: Essential?...Not Yet!
Review: Beautiful Illustrated, Articulately Written...but this just isn't the Essential look into the STAR WARS Universe fans will expect. There are too many offerings from the Expanded Universe and non-followers of that expansive text will find themselves at a loss when reviewing those characters histories. You can't help but feel that there's just something missing.
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Summary: Please enter a title for your review
Review: Excellent! I have no doubt that, until The New Essential Chronology comes out, this will remain the best of the Essential Guides. This book is truly a must-have for Star Wars fans (and mild enthusiasts). It contains extremely detailed biographies of most of the major Star Wars characters that existed at its printing. It also does an extremely good job of clearing of apparent continuity errors in the characters' histories.
Only three faults I can find. One: Those incredibly minute character descriptions at the back of the book (and in the Jedi Council, the Podraces, and the Battle-of-Geonosis Jedi entries) really annoy me. Some of those characters are infinitely more important than several of those who received full-length bios. Do we really need an entire page on Ric "Captain Obvious" Oliè? I think not. When the next Essential Guide to Characters comes out, I hope they've removed those small character descriptions and given everyone a full-length biography.
Two: Several major characters were not included in this edition. I understand the decision to omit those who hadn't done much since the original Essential Guide to Characters, but I'm still disappointed by it. You'll have to check out the original for those guys.
Three: It's out of date! Hurry, LFL guys, we need another one! Almost as badly as we need The New Essential Chronology. Make it so!
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Summary: Good .... But not enough characters !!!
Review: For what it's worth, the hundred or so characters that were covered in the book (Mostly the New Jedi Order),were done in great depth and done nicely. I just thought there would be more second, third and background characters covered from the original George Lucas movie Trilogies. I would have preferred less and more condensed info about the main characters that were in the book and had more short synopsises about the other charecters such as Ree Yees, Weequay, Dorme', Sly Moore, General's Tagge & Rieeken .... etc like the author had in only the last two pages of the book. I was looking for more of a in depth dictionary/encyclopedia of a Star Wars book.
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Summary: A great book to your collection
Review: I have both old and new essential guide to characters, and I must say, that this is the better of both of them.
The pictures are in full colour, and a lengthy bio is written about the character. But, some important characters are still left out from the NJO series (since this is up to Star by Star)and others before.
All in all though, a good read and a MUST for Star Wars fans!
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Summary: Hits away! They did it again!
Review: I have known about this book for just over a year now, and despite it just being one on characters, Star Wars fans I know who hang out in the TF.N literature forums have been really excited about it. First, it's been seven years since the last Essential Guide to characters and a small part of me was hoping it would be twice as thick as the old one as if they were going update all the old characters then add in the new ones. Sadly, this was not to be the case. While all major characters got huge updates that brought them up Troy Denning's Star by Star, it adds to the list with a bunch of Expanded Universe characters. Sadly, two of my favorites, Nomi Sunrider and Tionne Solusar, have been removed. Don't get me wrong, this is a great book, Dan Wallace really outdid himself with the breadth of his research and Michael Sutfin's beautiful color art is, well, nothing short of spectacular. Plus characters that we know little about, like Darth Bane who started the new Sith, has his own bio as does Shira Brie- the original red haired, green eyed Emperor's Hand from Marvel Comics, circa 1982. The updates are wonderful, because a lot of people may not have read all of the Expanded Universe novels for one reason or another, so it's nice to get up to date histories to fill in the blanks. All of the important move characters are here- from Anakin Skywalker to Zam Wessel, from Chewbacca to Luke Skywalker, the latter of which gets the single largest entry. However, I must question the logic of sacrificing pages for minor characters like Owen and Beru Lars, Lobot, and Nien Nunb- yes, they were in the films, but who cares? They're minor characters at best when their pages could have been used to include more characters from the Tales of the Jedi series of comics, or the current Star Wars Ongoing series. I mean really, do we need pages devoted to Captain Obvious himself, Ric Olie? Not likely. Despite a few questionable choices for characters, the New Essential Guide is still a first rate publication. Michael Sutfin's art is truly wonderful in most cases. There are a few illustrations where it seems a little flat or an unconvincing representation, such as Anakin Solo's picture- Sutfin made him too young looking. I didn't care for Dash Render, Isaard or Daala's pictures much, but that's peanuts compared to the other really great pictures in the book. Wallace's text is clear, concise and a breeze to read. He said he had a blast writing it and I only wish I had been able to come through for him and find a copy of the Japanese version that he wanted before LFL did. The first of the New Essential Guides, it's completely in color and if the rumors I have heard are true, the following books will also be in the same format and Del Rey plans to release a book or so a year until they are all up to date. Given these books such great sources of data, well written and researched, bringing them up to date with the current films, novels and the New Jedi Order seems to be about the wisest decision they can make.
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Summary: Mike Sutfin Is the best artist ever
Review: I just want to state for the record that Mike Sutfin above all stood for freedom. Mike's artwork for the essential guide to charachters surpassed all expectations and left me wanting more. I have made a shrine to Mike Sutfin in my home and pray to it every night after the late night shift at Taco Bell. Someday I hope I can meet Mike and tell him how his illustrations changed my life. Onward.
Rating: 
Summary: Its good, but a little off.
Review: I'll keep it short and simple, the book tells you a lot about the Star Wars characters, but doesn't explain in great detail. For someone to really understand the book, you will have to be a fan into the books. Another aspect that makes the book hard to understand is the formality of it. The author uses the phrases "later, this happend. Next this happened" instead of tellin a story. One more thing made me take yet another star off. Some of the illustrations are a bit "rounded" and mis shaped. Especially some of the aliens. Some of the pictures have life, while others look like prison photos. This wouldn't be so bad, but you get the feeling some of them look very similar. On a personal note, Dash Rendars picture was made without consulting any source other than his height and hair color.
But, with that said, it is a good source book due to its vast amount of characters. I do recommend the book to Star Wars fans, but BEWARE. Don't take the pictures at "face" value if they look strange.
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Summary: A universe of characters!
Review: I, like everyone else, look forward to the new Star Wars film, "Episode II: Attack of the Clones". This book contains the characters in the new movie, previous movies and the books and comic books. I don't read the books or comic books but it is interesting to read about the characters and their parts in the trilogies. The illustrations are nice and the descriptions and history of each character is full and informative. While I'm not a die hard fan, I wanted the book because it helps keep up with the many characters in the Star Wars universe. This updated book will be a must, however, for those die hard fans who want the inside info on their favorite characters. I recommend this book to fans of all degrees.
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