Star Wars: Complete Locations was released by DK Publishing. It was written by five authors; Kristen Lund,Simon Beecroft, Kerrie Dougherty, James Luceno, and Jason Fry. They each cover an episode of the Star Wars Saga, however, Luceno covers three.
After spending nearly 15 minutes staring at the cover, I finally opened the book and read the forward written by Production Designer, Doug Chiang. The surrounding art framing the text is absolutely beautiful… it was a sure sign that the pages to follow would blow my mind. Mr. Chiang was the production designer for episodes I, II, III, & VII. I could really tell in Doug’s writing, the man has a deep passion for his work. Most of us Star Wars fans love to imagine new worlds, cities, and vehicles we read about in the novels. But to actually be able to make all these things come to life on screen, Doug has truly been blessed and so lucky. I really can’t wait to see what he has in store for us in the coming years.
Ever wonder how big a planet is or what the population might be? Within the pages of this book, the answer can be found for the popular worlds. One of my favorite images in the book is a simple one… it’s the map of the galaxy. This map shows us where the planets/systems are located. Though we only get a good look at the locations from the films, I really hope that future editions of this title will include “facts” about the planets we read about in the novels, which are considered canon. To see illustrations of those would be an excellent addition. Beyond the drawn out details and breakdown of ships, buildings, and terrain, we get brief story points that take us along the timeline from episodes I through VII.
A really fun addition to the art, is the science behind the object/location being shown. For example, The home of the Gungans is Otoh Gunga. The place seems pretty simple up front, but upon closer inspection… those are some highly engineered bubbles! We may be annoyed with the Gungans but they’re definitly smarter than they look. The little science nuggets are a fine treat that make the technology in Star Wars seem like it could actually be real.
Maps are always interesting to look at and study, especially when they have routes that are drawn out that our heroes had taken. The space battles and ground assaults are pretty crazy to watch in the movie, so you’ll love seeing some of these broken down into one beautiful image. Now there is just so much information within the pages, I don’t want to spoil any of it. By digging deeper into the Star Wars galaxy we already know and love, it expands the universe so much more!
I highly recommend this book for not just the hardcore fans, but for everyone who loves the saga. After reading through this book, I still turn back to pages long studied, just to study them some more. I’d say my wife is an average fan of Star Wars, she’s watched them all once. When I got this book, she took it from me and flipped through the pages for what seemed like hours.
I look forward to future additions of this book and really hope to see worlds and technology from the canon novels. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book, I guarantee that you’ll love it.