The Star Wars Essential Guides each broke down a topic from an in universe point of view. This one does famous characters, this one has gadgets, that one, droids, another aliens.
A List of the Essential Guides:
Wave 1 Guides
- Essential Guides to Droids by Daniel Wallace, illustrated by Bill Hughes, Troy Vigil
- Essential Guides to Alien Species by Ann Margaret Lewis, illustrated by Chris Trevas, William O’Connor
- Essential Guides to Characters by Andy Mangels, illustrated by Michael Butkus
- Essential Guides to Weapons & Technology by Bill Smith, illustrated by David Nakabayashi and Troy Vigil
- Essential Guides to Vehicles and Vessels by Bill Smith, illustrated by Doug Chiang, Schematics by Troy Vigil
- Essential Guides to Planets and Moons by Daniel Wallace, illustrated by Brandon McKinney, Scott Kolins
- Essential Chronology by Kevin J. Anderson and Daniel Wallace, illustrated by Bill Hughes
Wave 2 Guides
- New Essential Guides to Droids by Daniel Wallace, illustrated by Ian Fullwood
- New Essential Guides to Alien Species by Ann Margaret Lewis, Helen Keier , illustrated by R. K. Post
- New Essential Guides to Characters by Daniel Wallace, illustrated by Michael Sutfin
- New Essential Guides to Weapons & Technology by W. Haden Blackman, illustrated by Ian Fullwood, Paul Bates, Stuart Wagland, Rob Garrard, Nick Foreman, Phil Lunt, Tim Ball, Sylvain Michaelis
- New Essential Guides to Vehicles and Vessels by W. Haden Blackman, illustrated by Ian Fullwood
- New Essential Chronology by Daniel Wallace and Kevin J. Anderson, illustrated by Mark Chiarello, Tommy Lee Edwards, John Van Fleet
Wave 3 Guides
- Essential Guides to Atlas by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace, illustrated by Ian Fullwood, Modi, Chris Reiff, Chris Trevas
- Jedi VS Sith Essential Guides to Force by Ryder Windham, illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards, Chris Trevas
- Essential Guides to Warfare by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart, illustrated by Stephan Martiniere, Dave Seeley, Darren Tan, John Van Fleet, Bruno Werneck, Paul Youll, Ansel Hsiao, Ian Fullwood ,Drew Baker, Modi
- The Essential Readers Companion by Pablo Hidalgo illustrated by Jeffery Carlisle, Chris Trevas, Chris Scalf, Brian Rood, Darren Tan, Joe Corroney
The first wave of the Guides included black and white sketches of characters, droids, vehicles, aliens and characters. There were thumbnails for the planet specific region (with a representative native) and for ships, a basic schematic.
The New Guide Essential Guides switched to full color art. All of them but the Essential Guide to Planets and Moons received updates. That one had more regarding adventures that occurred on the planet or moon, than about the locale itself.
The third wave was all new, with the Atlas, A Essential Guide to the Force, and one for Warfare. There was also an incomplete Essential Reader’s Guide (it only had books, no comics, and of course only up to the release date.)
Speaking of differences, old guides are just as valuable in terms of intel as the latter. This is because to keep the size down, the new guide would drop some things (ships, droids) for later introduced ones. The exception seems to be the Chronology. It seems to have only minor rewording with more information added to the new and nothing dropped. The old one does have some nice line art of characters and events I’ve seen nowhere else, though, as well as a timeline in the back.
If you want to visualize content that you’ve only read about, these guides are excellent. How did Bollux and Blue Max fit together, the droid and computer from the Han Solo Adventures get together? Look here! Trying to imagine the complicated Vuffi Raa, Lando‘s old companion? They finally pulled this off, better than either my childhood imaginings or the failed attempt of the original cover.
There are details of history and character viewpoints not seen anywhere else. Did you know Anakin Skywalker had to construct C-3PO’s verbobrain by fusing 3 different ones together? I didn’t. There are detailed guides to the Force and it’s philosophies in the Jedi VS Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, full color star maps in the Atlas, and elements of history only hinted at, such as Xim’s Empire in the Guide to Warfare. Who knew the Hutts conquered through war, not just sly scams?
All told, these guides are a great addition to any fan’s list of Star Wars references and inspiration to decide on areas to delve into in the novels.One thing though: the later ones such as the Essential Guide to Warfare are affected by The Clone Wars TV show.
