The New Essential Guide to Alien Species

It's been a while since I've enjoyed a Star Wars New Essential Guide. I find the new ones too disorganized and too packed with information. I much prefer the format of the older guides, such as this Guide to Aliens. The guide is neatly organized alphabetically with two sections, one for major aliens and another for minor aliens. The coverage is pretty broad and even some minor aliens, such as the Amanaman, get the full two-page treatment.The illustrations are beautiful. Each illustration features the alien species, but almost never simply as we see them through the movies. The illustrations strive to portray the aliens naturally. Yes, most of them have been reposted on Wookiepedia, but in this book they're printed quite large, much larger than the files online, so you can appreciate the beauty of the illustrations all the better.The big question is whether you should still get this now over 6 years after it was initially published. Well, this book was published before the Clone Wars cartoon, so if you are looking for aliens unique to that show you won't find them here. Also, you won't see any mention of Abeloth or the Aing-Tii - other aliens that have become more prominent in the EU since 2006. But the book does cover the aliens from the original trilogy and prequels pretty thoroughly.Of course Wookiepedia is more updated, but this book is nice because it contains descriptions of each species in a highly readable form. It's great to browse through. Also, I've noticed that the book contains a lot more information than what's on Wookiepedia.

Illustrations are great the fonts could be a little bit bigger for those with vision problems namely me...lol but other than that a great book worth the price

I make use of this book as I read the novels of the Star Wars universe. It does not have a complete listing of all the aliens, so some imagination is still required. This is still a worthy companion.

As a long-time Star Wars fan, I was really excited about this book, having previously been lax and not purchased the first editions. For anyone who is interested in the alien races in the Star Wars universe, this is an excellent book that provides allot of fascinating information about many different species, the more prominent ones are given a full double page spead along with some fantastic artwork; such is all but guaranteed with Chris Trevas as illustrator. I was pleasantly suprised to find that non-sentient species were included as well, and for some of the slightly more obscure races, there is a mini-appendix at the back with quicker entries on them. I was however slightly disappointed that the book was not more comprehensive; I was hoping for coverage on many other species I had seen or heard of from the expanded universe, and from other sources like the Ultimate Alien Anthology. Even so, this book is highly recommended and I've had heaps of fun with it over the last 2 years.

It took awhile to arrive, not the fault of the seller. It looks amazing and great communication with the seller. Would order from them again. Book is amazing with great pictures and descriptions.

It has a minor scratch on it but in very great condition I love all Star wars products books and souvenirs this was a very great choice on my part...

This is most likely the best resource for Star Wars alien life, but does have its problems. The first has already been mentioned in other reviews, the second makes the "reference book" format less believable, while the third may just be a personal pet-peeve.First ... Several species, mainly from the expanded universe of books and games, are included which are VERY minor, perhaps only being briefly mentioned in one sole reference. This would not actually be a bad thing if the book didn't completely ignore other much more important species. A good example is the Selkath, which have a very important role in the Old Republic.Second ... The illustrations sometimes greatly disagree with the descriptions. Just the fact that not ALL members of a species look the same doesn't help much in resolving this. If you are going to describe the average example, the picture should reflect that also. For example, one species is described as having a tall crest running lengthwise along its head, which is either green, orange, or grey. But then the illustration shows an almost unnoticeable crest, mostly covered with blue hair. The artists went more for dramatic crayon-like drawings, rather than consulting the authors descriptions and actually trying to make a life-like portrait.Third ... I have never liked the past tense format which many Star Wars authors try to use. Yes, we all know this happened "A long time ago", so most likely Luke Skywalker "WAS" a Jedi. But why overdo it? Humans still exist. I see them every day. Sure, Alderaan WAS a planet, but that is a special case. If Hoth was actually out there, it most likely still is. Planets don't disappear enmass very often, so why do the "was" thing. But even worse, this book can't make up its mind on that. A certain species "was" living on a destroyed planet, but one sentence later another species "is" living there. It ruins the fantasy of portraying the Star Wars Universe as something which actually exists.I am glad I bought the book. But it could have used a few more weeks of editing, proofreading, and tweaking to really be considered an "essential" guide.

It is very important to know about the different alien species you see in the Star Wars universe! This book is a helpful guide at detailing their importance in the Star Wars timeline!