Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Alien Species

When I first got this book I was completeley skeptical, How could anybody document the whole alien species in the SW Universe? Authors of different SW novels or comics like to keep pushing and inventing weird alien species, species that most of the time are boring, senseless, just a myriad of "pathetic life forms". The real deal is that the author doesn't really analyze every single alien that has been shown in the Star Wars books, comics, movies, Expanded Universe, etc. This is the most appealing feature of the book, it centers only in the species worth mentioning, and it describes them in a unique manner, full of vivid descriptions, pictures and very interesting information concerning their history and their role in the struggle between the Force and the Dark Side.Myself, I have seen the movies hundreds of times, so I am quite familiar with the looks of the creatures we get to see in all the Episodes. But my amaze was reserved to the cretures that appear in the novels, creatures that we have to stuff up with our imagination for building some sort of picture on what they look like. You will surely be surprised by some pictures, specialy the Caamasi, and we also get to see a mayor make over on how bothans look like, a lot less human, and a lot more like the scheming mammals they are supposed to be.In overall this Essential Guide is worth your money if you are a real Star Wars fan and want to give your imagination a little help on picturing the aliens that appear in every SW novel.

The gentleman in the review below gives this book 3 stars because it's not an exhaustive guide to nitpicky aliens, and he completely misses the point of this book. This is an Essential Guide to aliens, meaning that it is an overview of aliens in the Star Wars universe. It does contain materials from other volumes because it's meant to be a one-stop guide. If he'd read the introduction, he'd see that. And he only needs to read the criteria for including aliens in this book (also in the introduction) to see why many of the nitpicky aliens from Phantom Menace and other movies were not included. Miss Lewis included the three main aliens (Toydarians, Gungans, and Neimoidians) and ignored the rest because they were not pivitol to that story.This book has many wonderful things in it. It does address the brilliant work of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson by including the Marvel comics, long ignored by other Star Wars authors. Does it include more Expanded Universe? Sure! But it is my opinion that helping readers know the aliens that appear in the Expanded Universe books and comics is a noble goal! We've seen the creatures in the movies. We all want to know what a Caamasi and a Yuuzhan Vong looks like--because we only read about them. It also gives us a pronounciation guide, something that has been needed for a long time.Ignore the review below. The dude is a....

possibly the most helpful Star Wars reference in a LOOOONG time. everytime I read a new SW book now, I'll keep this thing handy! there were some species described in various novels that just had lame descriptions of non-movie species (like the Verpines, Drall, and Massassi) making them hard for my creative mind to picture in my head. That problem's gone now, this book cleared it all up, with truly gorgeous drawings of some foul looking creatures. the text is informative too, and I love the "journal entries by Dr. Hoole." this book is teriffic, I HIGHLY recommend EVERYONE pick a copy up. I got it last night, and I'm enthralled with it :)

It is about time that this essential guide came out! This is the one I think I have been waiting for the longest (except maybe the Essential Chronology). Most of the time I could care less about the history of Droids or Weapons, but the aliens of the Star Wars universe have always been of interest to me. Finally, here they are in this essential guide. This book was apparently "written" in-universe by Shi'ido anthropologist Hoole - yes, the same Hoole who wrote an entry for the Illustrated Star Wars Universe, and the same Hoole who was a character in the Galaxy of Fear novels. So what do you get?For each of more than 100 species, you get at least one full page. There is an illustration of a member of the species, a little box giving the planet of origin, average height, and whether or not it is sentient. Then there is a bunch of text outlining the culture and history of the species, and finally a little in-universe anecdote, usually in the form of a journal entry, from someone who has had contact with members of that species. Then, for a bunch of other species that were not important enough to merit a full page, there is an appendix of "other notable species" which each get around a paragraph.Granted, there are a few illustrations that look a little...off, and a couple that do not correspond with previous illustrations of that species, but overall the art is really good. In fact, that's what I use this book for - visual reference. The notes are nifty, but I got it for the pictures. In addition, there is a long awaited pronunciation guide at the end - THANK YOU! This book covers everything from the common species, to the Chiss, the Yuuzhan Vong, Falleen, even such obscure species as the "Assemblers," of which Ku'dar Mu'bat from the Bounty Hunter Wars was a member.Definitely buy this book if you like Star Wars. Highly Recommended.