Read, You Must: The Star Wars Book

DK Publishing has for been creating amazing guidebooks for Star Wars fans for nearly 25 years. From Star Wars Encyclopedia, to Star Wars Year By Year, each sounds like it’s the final, definitive book, THE book for Star Wars lovers.

In 2015 alone they published Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know AND Ultimate Star Wars!

All the above titles are wonderful, must-have books but Star Wars is an ever-expanding galaxy of stories and characters, planets and aliens, spaceships and droids, and a LOT of Star Wars has happened since 2015!

Which leads us to the brand new guide book, simply titled The Star Wars Book. The subtitle “Expand Your Knowledge of a Galaxy Far, Far Away” holds true as even the most dedicated fans will probably find some new information in here.

As the Skywalker Saga has ended and The Mandalorian is the main new Star Wars story coming out right now, and before the launch of the High Republic era, this is a great time to capture the story so far, in so many facets.

The Star Wars Book looks at all aspects of the saga as they relate to the bigger story. Where the Visual Dictionary books simply look at one film at a time, The Star Wars Book draws connections between books, comics, tv and video games and how each aspect relates to the bigger picture. A topic like the Force might refer to moments from the movies, episodes of The Clone Wars and Rebels, novels and more.

Authors Pablo Hidalgo (Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary, and many more), Cole Horton (Absolutely Everything You Need to Know) and Dan Zehr compile each subject into easy to read but insightful segments.

Zehr (aka Dan Z) is a first-time Star Wars author here, but longtime host and co-creator of the popular Star Wars fan podcast Coffee With Kenobi, a teacher and a very positive face in the fan community. Its great to see him contributing officially!

The are many wonderful Star Wars books, but only one that bears this title. Do yourself a favour and get the book, The Star Wars Book!

I Know That Star Wars Voice! (Part 1)

Have you ever been watching an animated show and one of the characters sounds really familiar? Like they should be talking about the Force and the Empire? You're not imagining things!

Many actors who appear in the Star Wars movies also act with just their voices for animated TV shows and movies!

Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker) probably has the most voice acting credits of any Star Wars performer. Nearly every animated version of Batman's The Joker has been played by
Hamill since 1992's Batman: The Animated Series. 

He has also appeared in many, many cartoons for kids and adults including The Simpsons, Scooby Doo, Hey Arnold!, Johnny Bravo and Clifford the Big Red Dog!

Hamill may be the Star Wars actor best known for also doing animation acting, but he is far from alone!

If you saw last year's creepy and kooky animated feature The Addams Family you might've noticed a familiar sound to Gomez Addams, the Dad of the family. That voice is none other than Oscar Isaac, better known to fans as Resistance pilot Poe Dameron!

In The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019), you don't need the hearing of a dog to notice that gruff, annoyed voice of farm dog Rooster sounds a LOT like Han Solo in The Force Awakens. That's actor Harrison

Ford in a rare voice-over performance as the older, wiser Welsh Sheepdog who tries to teach Max the ways of country life.

Maybe rabbit-strength ears will help your hearing to notice Rey herself, actress Daisy Ridley, as the voice of Cottontail in 2018's Peter Rabbit. Cottontail, along with Flopsy and Mopsy are sisters to Peter Rabbit in this retelling of the Beatrix Potter
classic.

Fans of the incredible Disney/Pixar Incredibles movies may

certainly notice that Mr. Incredible's close friend and "Super" Lucious (aka. Frozone) sounds a lot like Jedi Master Mace Windu. He should, because they are both performed by the super Samuel L. Jackson!

In The Lego Movie, fans probably didn't need the Force to sense something familiar about Bad Cop/Good Cop. The dual-personality police officer with a double-sided head is voiced by Liam Neeson, better known as Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn.

There are plenty more examples but we'll save those for next time! Who is your favourite Star Wars actor you've heard in animation? Comment below!

Read, You Must: Complete Vehicles New Edition

A whole lot of Star Wars has happened since the last North American edition of Complete Vehicles!

Despite only being 7 years ago, this book was due for an update. Now available from DK Publishing: Star Wars Complete Vehicles Incredible Cross Sections (New Edition)!

For those of you not familiar with these lavishly illustrated, extremely detailed "Cross Sections" books, here's our previous reviews of The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections and Star Wars Complete Locations.

This new "Complete" version is like a "Best of" of all the previous cross-section vehicle diagrams previously published in various DK books, with the addition of two brand-new spreads: The Knights of Ren's Night Buzzard ship and the massive Sith Star Destroyer, both from The Rise of Skywalker. It is a 264-page treasure trove of rich details, stunning images and tons of information about the vehicles of the Star Wars galaxy.

From the smallest one-person transport to the colossal Death Star, this book spans the entire Skywalker saga. This "New Edition" includes vehicle diagrams from The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One and Solo, all released after the previous 2013 edition.

Since this is a compilation of works from previous books, there is a whole team of authors and illustrators involved. Many of the biggest names in Star Wars books have been involved in this one!

Unlike many of the recent books about Star Wars, this one seems to solely focus on the theatrical movies. There doesn't seem to be any content from The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance or even the smash hit The Mandalorian. There could easily be a 2nd volume made to focus on the vehicles in those TV series!

Also a noticeable change from previous books is that there are no fold-out pages this time. 

For detail-oriented Star Wars fans, especially those who missed out on previous Cross-Sections books, this hefty compilation of amazing technical illustration is a must-have!

Upcoming The Mandalorian Books!

Scheduled for release this January is the first official junior novel tie-in to the smash hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian!

Here is the official description so far from Disney/Lucasfilm Press:

Relive the excitement of the first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian!
After the fall of the Empire but before the emergence of the First Order, a lone bounty hunter known as The Mandalorian travels the outer reaches of the galaxy. When his newest bounty hunting target turns out to be a small Child, the Mandalorian decides the Child must be protected at all costs. Relive all the excitement of the first season of the smash-hit streaming series in this action-packed junior novel by Joe Schreiber! Includes an insert of color photos from the show!

So it seems in one novel, the main events of the entire first season will be covered. That's a LOT to pack into one book! But since neither the Mandalorian nor The Child speak much, maybe it will fit nicely into one volume.

The author, Joe Schreiber, is no stranger to young Star Wars readers after writing the junior novelization of Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Schreiber is better known to adult readers as the author of the most gruesome, violent and horror-based Star Wars novels like Death Troopers, Red Harvest, and Maul: Lockdown. 

This is not to say Schreiber only writes dark and horrific stuff for grown-ups. He is also the author of several middle-grade novels including Game Over, Pete Watson and Lenny Cyrus, School Virus. 

Younger fans of The Mandalorian can look forward to the upcoming picture book A Clan of Two, due out in December. As well, the World of Reading series has a The Mandalorian early reader (Level 2) called Allies & Enemies also out in December!

In case you missed it, The Mandalorian Little Golden Book was also recently released!