Free eBooks The Essential Reader's Companion (Star Wars) (Star Wars: Essential Guides) Available To Downloads
THE DEFINITIVE WORD ON STAR WARS FICTION The legendary motion picture Star Wars has spawned two big-screen sequels and three prequels—and decades of bestselling fiction. From the original movie tie-in novel through the monumental Fate of the Jedi series, legions of devoted readers have helped expand science fiction’s most celebrated film saga into a page-turning print sensation. Now, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of these sweeping Star Wars adventures is presented in one beautifully illustrated volume. Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion spans the entire galaxy of published Star Wars fiction—movie novelizations, original stand alone and series novels, short stories, eBook novellas, young adult titles, and comics—and features: • a concise synopsis of each story, including key characters and planets • exclusive behind-the-scenes facts and anecdotes about authors, plot and character development, continuity notes, and significance in the Star Wars Expanded Universe • details on which novels are linked to Star Wars comic books from Dark Horse and Marvel • a chronological listing of titles, spanning the 25,000-year history of the Star Wars universe and placing each story in its proper context • more than one hundred full-color original paintings throughout by some of fans’ favorite artists Whether skimming through fateful eras from the Old Republic to the New Jedi Order; delving deep into the ancient history of the Lost Tribe of the Sith or the tumultuous Clone Wars; crossing paths—and lightsabers—with Dark Lords such as Plagueis or Bane, Sidious or Vader; helming the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo; or mastering the Force with Luke Skywalker, this one-of-a-kind, one-stop reference is a must for fans looking to maximize their knowledge of the sprawling Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Series: Star Wars: Essential Guides
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Del Rey; Star Wars edition (October 2, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345511190
ISBN-13: 978-0345511195
Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #114,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #9 in Books > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books > Bibliographies & Indexes > Science #52 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Genres & Styles > Science Fiction & Fantasy #55 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > History & Criticism
Quite simply, Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion is the essential guide to Star Wars books. Readers get a full look at the expanse of Star Wars literature across 496 pages of book summaries, beautiful artwork, and additional info. The book covers all of the adult Star Wars novels, most of the young adult novels and short stories, as well as side notes on some of the important comics and video games.The book is broken down into eight eras. Each era includes a introduction and is followed by summaries for all of the books and short stories. Each entry includes info for timeline placement, worlds visited, major characters, author, cover artist, publication history, and a summary of the story. Many of the entries also include an endnote which varies from entry to entry. Some share information about how the project came to be, fun notes about the authors, hurdles that the story encountered, alternate story ideas proposed in the outline stages, and any continuity conflicts.One of the cool things I liked about The Essential Reader's Companion was that each entry included not only a list of all the worlds visited, but coordinates that will work with The Essential Atlas. On one hand it creates a continuity between the guides, and on the other, it makes finding the planets a heck of alot easier.Another cool thing was the endnotes for each summary. My favorites were the ones that included alternate storylines that weren't used. For instance in Fate of the Jedi: Invincible, Troy Denning proposed having Jacen flow-walk back in time to meet Anakin in order to distract Jaina during their duel. The event would've backfired though, enabling Anakin to swap bodies with Jacen.
I like to think Pablo Hidalgo wrote this book just for me. My favorite area of Star Wars fandom is the novels, I love reading the books set in the galaxy far, far away. The benefit of this is that my mental special effects budget is unlimited. The downside is that at this point there are so many novels and short stories that it can be easy to forget what happened where and keep the hordes of supporting characters straight.I have been forward to this book for a number of reasons. The handy ability to quickly check out a books summary to remember what it was about when I am contemplating a re-read. The ability to catch up on the more obscure short stories or tales that I may have missed along the way. The hopefully entertaining and insightful editorial comments inserted by Mr. Hidalgo. Then once we started seeing rough artwork from the book I also became very excited to get my hands on this reference book for the artistic eye candy.What did we end up getting?The Essential Reader's Companion is a bookshelf busting 496 page, 2.8 pound tome. It is structured chronologically with an Introduction, two appendices and eight chapters. While it is a massive book in page count it is smartly designed in terms of height as to be very readable and not become difficult to handle while reading. The book comes with a MSRP of $29.95 but you can find it on sale for much lower than that.The Introduction:In the introduction Pablo lays out the scope and mission of the book. He discusses what is and what is not in the book and the reason behind those decisions. He also touches upon a suggested reading order and the issue of canon and continuity.This is important to set the reader's expectation.
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