The wildlife of star wars...

[Jargo]

I just bought this book and although I'm not a terribly large fan of Teryl Whitlatch's stuff I do like her more restrained approach in this book. The cover is just fantastic with it's realfeel dewback skin texture. I think it's worth the money at UK£30 or US RRP $40.

What do you guys think?

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I hadn't even heard of it. For shame; being the "Comics and Books" Moderator and not being omniscient... Sounds cool, though.

[Jargo]

Yeah, it's published by chronicle books and looks like this...

[JediTricks]

Man, this thing came out last November and I don't remember it at all! Amazon.com has it for $28, $12 off the cover, but the only review is a professional one, which is a bit unnerving, plus having what appears to be an Ep 1 creature on the cover puts me off a bit.

Jargo, have you ever read the Illustrated Star Wars Universe, and if so, how does this compare to that?

[El Chuxter]

A year ago? The official site posted news about it being "upcoming" only a couple of months back. Is Amazon being screwy again?

[Jargo]

Yeah this is hot off the press JT. The official site heralded it just a couple of months back or whatever, round about the same time as the Ben Burtt guide book was first plugged.

The illustrated universe is the one with the McQuarrie art and some kind of journal about the wildlife, terrain, customs and speciesology right? With a central voice going on about some kind of research explorer (Hoob?) who dressed as a tusken or whatever to study the locals wherever he went? I read it and this book has nothing like the creativity but is more anatomical in the art renderings of the creatures with pictures of the skeletons and internal organs of many beasts and mating habits etc.

There isn't really much text and the typeface is like that of someone's sketch book scribblings from the Victorian era. But the text is by Bob Carrau.

Like I said, Teryl Whitlatch has a very unique style that can seem a litttle cartoony at times but in this book she has remained studious and manages to convey some lovely images of 'natural' life among the varied beasts and the pecking orders on certain planets.

Some of the designs that are of interest are: Space slug, Sarlaacc, Dianoga, Alderaan Thranta, Womp rat, Krayt dragon, Shaak.

The dianoga is great and the Krayt dragon has more to it than I imagined but...

Some of the creatures start to look very alike but simply because they are drawn in the same style as every other creature in the book. With a different artist's renderings these creatures would all look very distinct and possibly attain more realism and believability. If that's possible in a made up species.

[JediTricks]

Weird, now it says Nov 2001 on Amazon.com, though BN.com has it as Sept 2001.

Jargo, except for the fact that each world gets a different description from different people in different ways (the Tatooine one is an anthropological paper, the Endor one is an Imperial officer's journal, the Bespin one is a sales pitch, etc.), you got the right book in mind. I like the idea of this Wildlife book, but the text being handwritten style put me off a little.

[Jargo]

To be honest JT, if you want some of that EU stuff that gets in the way of the real deal every now and again then I would stick with the essential guides series. But if you want to pick up a curio, a book that defies category and has the most value in my opinion because it is so different, then this is the book for you. As with the other books published by chronicles, this is of the highest standards. The cover alone is a reason to buy with it's textured and matt finish. The pages are crammed with images and creatures we know and love like the Bantha get about four to six pages to themselves. Some pages have more than one creature on them because these creatures co-exist on the world being examined and it would be impossible to cover one without the other. There are subtle cross references that run throughout the book and make it fun to trace the creatures migration or evolution from one world to the other.
I say buy it even if you don't get to be a fan of Teryl Whitlatch's work the information offered in these books corroborates some of the EU stuff. This is work that is done in tandom with Lucasfilms publicity for episode two. Some of these creatures won't be seen until episode two hits the screens. It's not a lot of spoilers but there are enough to pique your interest if that's your bag.

[El Chuxter]

I thumbed through this at a bookstore this weekend. Nice stuff, nice indeed. But at $40, I think I'll hope someone gets it for me for Christmas.

[PloKoon2385]

This book blows me away! I think it is awesome. $40 or not, it is cool and worth every penny! The artwork is awesome and there are cool facts. And I especially like how it really is like a Field Guide, like someone went out there and observed them and painted them. Wow! I have no regrets about buying it. I bought it last night, and sort of regretted it as I handed over $44 to the cashier. But when I got in the car, all those regrets went away. I have been looking at it over and over and finished reading it a while ago. What else has Terryl Whitlatch done? I love this book, dont wait until Christmas, it is definitely worth it, I would probably have paid $50 for it! I give it 5 stars!!!!