Complete Locations
Complete Locations written by Kristin Lund (Episode I), Simon Beecroft (Episode II), Kerrie Dougherty (Episode III), James Luceno (Episodes IV-VI), and Jason Fry (Episode VII); illustrated by Hans Jenssen, Richard Chasemore, and Kemp Remillard
Coming in at 187 large, minutely-detailed diagram filled pages, this is one hefty book. But it is definitely a wonderful addition to any canon collector's bookshelf.
It starts out with a map of the entire galaxy, pointing out where each of 32 planets lay, whether in the Core, Colonies, Inner Rim, Expansion Region, Mid Rim, Outer Rim, or Unknown Regions. I was surprised by how the map shows some of the Unknown Regions are closer to the Core than the Outer Rim and some of the Mid Rim is farther away from the Core than some of the Outer Rim. I'm assuming the regional tags of certain planets have more to do with hyperspace lanes than actual distances. I'd love to see an updated map with all the new canon planets we know about from the books! It then has a 2-page spread called "Planet Profiles" that details 17 of the most important planets from the movies, giving us not only a blurb but also diameter, number of moons, length of year, and other nerdy bits of information. I was most intrigued by these details.
The rest of the book is separated by movie and, within this, by planet. There are blurbs throughout which help keep the reader moving along and then large super-detailed diagrams of things like the Theed Hangar, Watto's Junk Shop, the Outlander Club, Tipoca City, Pau City, Palpatine's office, the Lars Homestead, Chalmun's Cantina, Yoda's house, a Cloud City processing vane, Jabba's throne room,, Brightree Village, Maz's castle, and various parts of Starkiller Base. The breadth of locales covered is stunning. Sometimes within these locales, certain characters' stories are told and we find out information that really has no place in a locations book, but which were fascinating nuggets I was always happy to come across. The Chalmun's Cantina and Outlander Club pages are especially rife with these mini-stories. Such a great way to expand on details already present in the universe.
Then we have spreads displaying certain events in the movies like the Boonta Eve Classic, the grass plains battle on Naboo, the speeder chase on Coruscant, the Battle of Geonosis, the Mustafar duel, the arrivals and comings and goings of everybody on Tatooine at the beginning of Episode IV, the Battle of Hoth, the ground Battle of Endor, and the comings and goings of people and BB-8 on Jakku. These layouts have skinny colored lines representing the paths different people, droids, or military forces took during said events. Unfortunately, the lines get a bit muddled sometimes and the colors are difficult to differentiate. The editors could have done a much better job of coming up with more distinct colors. But to aid in understanding these layouts there are also numbered circles that point to blurbs about what is occurring at each point in the event. These help the reader navigate the page.
Some of the layouts even fold out into 4 pages to cover a larger area of the locale or event. While awkward to read, they definitely add to the grandeur of the book.
The only other issue I had was with how tiny some of the words were in the diagrams. You'll definitely need your reading glasses for this one. But I guess that's just a by-product of how large and detailed the diagrams were. So I can understand. More information necessarily leads to tinier words.
I have to say, the thought and work that went into parsing out all the minute details for each of the massive diagrams must have been immense. Everything is covered and labeled. I, at least, wasn't left with any further questions of how things functioned or happened. This reference book absolutely has it all and, as I mentioned above, goes beyond just being a location book. I definitely recommend it to anybody who is aching to know the details of all the complexities we see, but don't really get to explore, in the movies.
It starts out with a map of the entire galaxy, pointing out where each of 32 planets lay, whether in the Core, Colonies, Inner Rim, Expansion Region, Mid Rim, Outer Rim, or Unknown Regions. I was surprised by how the map shows some of the Unknown Regions are closer to the Core than the Outer Rim and some of the Mid Rim is farther away from the Core than some of the Outer Rim. I'm assuming the regional tags of certain planets have more to do with hyperspace lanes than actual distances. I'd love to see an updated map with all the new canon planets we know about from the books! It then has a 2-page spread called "Planet Profiles" that details 17 of the most important planets from the movies, giving us not only a blurb but also diameter, number of moons, length of year, and other nerdy bits of information. I was most intrigued by these details.
The rest of the book is separated by movie and, within this, by planet. There are blurbs throughout which help keep the reader moving along and then large super-detailed diagrams of things like the Theed Hangar, Watto's Junk Shop, the Outlander Club, Tipoca City, Pau City, Palpatine's office, the Lars Homestead, Chalmun's Cantina, Yoda's house, a Cloud City processing vane, Jabba's throne room,, Brightree Village, Maz's castle, and various parts of Starkiller Base. The breadth of locales covered is stunning. Sometimes within these locales, certain characters' stories are told and we find out information that really has no place in a locations book, but which were fascinating nuggets I was always happy to come across. The Chalmun's Cantina and Outlander Club pages are especially rife with these mini-stories. Such a great way to expand on details already present in the universe.
Then we have spreads displaying certain events in the movies like the Boonta Eve Classic, the grass plains battle on Naboo, the speeder chase on Coruscant, the Battle of Geonosis, the Mustafar duel, the arrivals and comings and goings of everybody on Tatooine at the beginning of Episode IV, the Battle of Hoth, the ground Battle of Endor, and the comings and goings of people and BB-8 on Jakku. These layouts have skinny colored lines representing the paths different people, droids, or military forces took during said events. Unfortunately, the lines get a bit muddled sometimes and the colors are difficult to differentiate. The editors could have done a much better job of coming up with more distinct colors. But to aid in understanding these layouts there are also numbered circles that point to blurbs about what is occurring at each point in the event. These help the reader navigate the page.
Some of the layouts even fold out into 4 pages to cover a larger area of the locale or event. While awkward to read, they definitely add to the grandeur of the book.
The only other issue I had was with how tiny some of the words were in the diagrams. You'll definitely need your reading glasses for this one. But I guess that's just a by-product of how large and detailed the diagrams were. So I can understand. More information necessarily leads to tinier words.
I have to say, the thought and work that went into parsing out all the minute details for each of the massive diagrams must have been immense. Everything is covered and labeled. I, at least, wasn't left with any further questions of how things functioned or happened. This reference book absolutely has it all and, as I mentioned above, goes beyond just being a location book. I definitely recommend it to anybody who is aching to know the details of all the complexities we see, but don't really get to explore, in the movies.
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