Title: A Brief Guide to Star Wars
Genre: Sci-Fi
Year: 2012
Pages: 250
Origin: purchased for £2.50
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5
A Brief Guide to Star Wars is an inoffensive and forgettable
read: it charts the birth of the idea of Star Wars and the early career of
George Lucas, before giving a run-down of tid-bits of information regarding the
original trilogy of films. The book embraces the second – less loved and vilified
– trilogy, with time spent providing information on special effects, all before
charting Lucas selling out to Disney and taking his mitts off his creations
once and for all.
The segments of greater interest for the reader are those
that centre on the period between Return of the Jedi in the early 1980s and The
Phantom Menace in the late 1990s. This includes the ill-fated and pathetic Ewok
spin-offs, and the incessant need of the creator to continue retouching
previous works.
As can be expected by an ‘unauthorised inside story’, there is a complete lack of fresh commentary. Brian J. Robb has done an admirable job of trawling the internet and other books for quotes to pepper with his narrative, but the read is all fairly pedestrian. All of this corresponds to the earlier review of Robb’s ‘unauthorised’ take on the Star Trek universe.
So, what next for the Worm? Are there are any other
long-standing cheap unauthorised guides on other Sci-Fi series…. Battlestar
Galatica, perhaps? Who knows what the crazy book-reading future will hold.
