Carl Roberts 
Carl explores the characters of the galaxy far, far away with DK Books’ thrilling new version of the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia
I look forward every year to grabbing a copy of the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia. It’s just a fantastic read all the way through. All your favourite characters, whether they are heroic or villainous are fantastically represented in every edition. And this year’s updated version is no exception.
Star Wars: Character Encyclopedia New Edition | by Simon Beecroft, Elizabeth Dowsett and Pablo Hidalgo
DK Books have again pulled the proverbial cat out of the bag. Open the book and the First Order Stormtroopers stand ready to meet you, almost like they are guarding against you opening the book further and reading about everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. The book is lovingly written by Simon Beecroft, Elizabeth Dowsett and legendary Star Wars writer Pablo Hidalgo. The book is one of those editions that you see on a book store shelf and it draws you in, the characters and the colours shouting at you to pick it up and buy it. You find yourself unable to resist. It’s Star Wars, you know what’s coming and what the book will contain but you can’t help yourself. If you find yourself wavering, just fantasise how it would look on your bookshelf and you’ll be committed.
The book is catalogued alphabetically so it’s easy to find what information you want on whatever character takes you fancy or just to update your knowledge. It doesn’t matter, you’ll find yourself reading page after page even if you only opened the book up to research just one character. Every character gets their own page and their biographies are outstanding.
As the cover says, this is a CHARACTER encyclopedia. No vehicles or technological terrors are here to be discovered. And that’s a good thing. We can all enjoy seeing large ships or battle stations in action on the screen. But you can’t get the human (or alien) feeling from a moving image in this kind of world. Here we can study the beloved characters in detail. And thankfully, this volume includes the new characters from the film Solo: A Star Wars Story. But don’t think you’ll see the new actors who played Solo and Lando in the film. The writers have decided to go old school and keep Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams as the faces for the two characters.
Each character gets their own fact file and an in-depth look into their history. Their biographies inform us of their individual traits and about their eventual fates in the Star Wars Universe. Of course, even the droids get their own pages. It wouldn’t be correct if they were omitted. The lovable BB-8, C-3PO and R2-D2 make themselves known alongside smaller droids that unless you are eagle-eyed, could quite easily miss in the visuals and on-screen action.
Each villain gets their own turn in the spotlight alongside their heroic counterparts. Darth Vader stands tall and glowers menacingly at us from his page. Maul (No longer a Darth) allows us a look at his robotic legs as he allows us a full body shot from the ‘Solo’ movie. Orsen Krennic stares at us without mercy from his page. They are all here, ready and waiting for the reader to discover.
Final Thoughts:
Already a must have for the serious Star Wars fan, this book is a worthy addition to a collection and is fantastic for research purposes. There are so many characters in the Star Wars universe that you can’t possibly know them all so a volume like this is invaluable. Grab yourself a copy, settle back and discover who is who in the universe. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
Until Next Time.
Star Wars: Character Encyclopedia (New Edition) by Simon Beecroft, Elizabeth Dowsett and Pablo Hidalgo is published by DK Books and is available to buy NOW! © & TM 2018 LUCASFILM LTD.
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Carl Roberts is the News Editor for The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
