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The Wildlife of Star Wars
The Star Wars universe is a vast and varied place, populated with an amazing array of creatures. These fascinating fauns have been captured here in the only comprehensive annotated field guide of its kind. Many years of extensive study and on-site observation have gone into these renderings, and great risk taken to learn about the natural habitats of all of the creatures. From the ice fields of Hoth and the pastures of Naboo to the concrete jungle of Coruscant and the intense heat and wind of Tatooine, identify and learn about the mating habits, feeding patterns, herding instincts, and defense mechanisms of these incredible beings. This extraordinary field guide provides the ultimate look at the wildlife of Star Wars.
173 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
December 4, 2012
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
Although you may not feel it from the cover art, this hardcover is actually texture-pressed with scale patterns from a creature I can't identify. It's a nice touch — pun intended.
This is a field guide to the wildlife from the Star Wars planets. It's organised by planets and the included ones are Tatooine, Hoth, Dagobah, Naboo, Bespin, Endor, Yavin 4 and Coruscant. There's a short introduction describing each ecosystem — fiery, freezing, vaporous, etc.
The illustrations are actually sketches drawn with pencils and watercolour, supposedly by a zoologist in the field, but is actually from Terryl Whitlatch. They are all wonderfully detailed showing the creatures in their natural habitat, be it hunting, caring for their young, chilling out, or — gasp! — on sale at some market on Coruscant. The attention to skin textures is very nice. You can almost get a feel just by looking. Beautiful colours also.
Besides the paintings are field notes filling in on information like feeding patterns, mating habits, herding instincts and defensive mechanisms of these fascinating beings.
I didn't know that the giant space slug is really that huge at 900 metres until I looked up the size of a blue whale for comparison, which is 33 metres. The space slugs gets nutrients from asteroids and you can see how the intestines work. Some of the designs you'll see are inspired by Earth animals. The Opee Sea Killer has characteristics from lobster (shell), frog (long sticky tongue), anglerfish (that glowing forehead tip) and the arowana (breeding little dudes in the mouth).
Some of the designs might look a bit far fetch but hey, this is Star Wars, this is science fiction. I guess anything goes but many are believable for the most part, in art and concept.
This is a very good book for all fans of Star Wars and animal art.
September 28, 2015
A gorgeous book. The cover has a great texture to it that has the feel of a scaled reptile. It is evocative of a dewback and really puts you in the star wars frame of mind. The book is sufficiently hefty and feels great in your hands. The pages are thick and glossy with great full color printing. It is a rather large book but not overly so. It fits on most shelves and is only about an inch thick so it isnt unmanageable in how heavy it is and wont hog too much space. The binding is top notch and overall it is just a solidly put together book.
I give the book 5 grumpy goraxes out of 5
I give the book 5 grumpy goraxes out of 5
November 15, 2014
this book is the best this is the ultimate handbook and the best beast is the great kryat dragon.
June 22, 2018
One of the things I like most about the Star Wars movies is the world building that is done. This book does a great job of focusing on one of those world building aspects, which are the animals that are peppered throughout the films. The book covers the fauna from the original Star Wars trilogy and those in the first two prequel movies.
A quick run through of animals include the bantha, dewback, krayt dragon, tauntaun, wampa, opee sea killer (nasty fish on ep1), shaak (those fat herd animals in ep2) and much more.
The illustrations are beautiful, and denote that feel of the book being a zoology reference guide. A of of details are given to the respective beasts, including anatomy, mannerisms, instinctive drives and more. It's a large format tabletop book with a great textured cover on the earlier printings (later printings are a standard laminated hard cover). If you like delving into the worlds of Star Wars and have any interest in the animals this is a must have book.
A quick run through of animals include the bantha, dewback, krayt dragon, tauntaun, wampa, opee sea killer (nasty fish on ep1), shaak (those fat herd animals in ep2) and much more.
The illustrations are beautiful, and denote that feel of the book being a zoology reference guide. A of of details are given to the respective beasts, including anatomy, mannerisms, instinctive drives and more. It's a large format tabletop book with a great textured cover on the earlier printings (later printings are a standard laminated hard cover). If you like delving into the worlds of Star Wars and have any interest in the animals this is a must have book.
October 16, 2019
This was a book I saw on the shelf in a bookstore back in the late 90's. I always wanted a copy of this book because I loved the artwork and the concept of knowing all the different animals from Star Wars. It was neat to add this to my Star Wars library and to sit down and leaf through this tome like I did all those years ago.
All in all it's good, but it's sad that this is essentially no longer canon now that Disney has rebooted the franchise. Still, it's worth checking out.
All in all it's good, but it's sad that this is essentially no longer canon now that Disney has rebooted the franchise. Still, it's worth checking out.
February 8, 2019
I would say that this is perhaps a title for more serious fans because at times, some of the animals started to blur together. It was very interesting, but it just didn’t get me like the characters’ stories do.
For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2019/02/08/fr...
For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog
For my full review: https://paulspicks.blog/2019/02/08/fr...
For all my reviews: https://paulspicks.blog
January 13, 2020
I read the ebook so it was not ideal but i could still appreciate the beauty of the book and richness of the illustrations. I loved the world building, but found the index sometimes lacking and also... it's just about a very small number of planets.
November 16, 2020
Such cool stuff! I love watching the movies and TV shows with the tidbits from this book in mind. Terryl is an amazing artist with a zoology background so many of her additions make sense based on life here on Earth and I love that connection between reality and science fiction.
February 15, 2023
A delightfully imagined look at the indigenous fauna that inhabit the SW Universe, from Tatooine and Endor to beyond. Oversize pages with full-color illustrations and naturalists' remarks on each creature. This should be in the collection of every Star Wars fan.
January 27, 2018
great artwork
now Disney needs to
release a field guide
I need details!
now Disney needs to
release a field guide
I need details!
June 8, 2018
Really beautiful pictures, wonderfull animals. A must have for everyone, more interested in the world of a galaxy far far away!
October 27, 2018
amazing art work.
December 1, 2018
Fun book with lovely illustrations - the illustrations are why you read this. Toward the end, some of the group illustrations reminded me of `Dinotopia' a bit although not the text.
April 3, 2019
Asher (13yo) read. "It's really good!"
August 23, 2019
An enjoyable enough book from a talented artist and biologist Terryl Whitlatch. Informative and humorous stretch as a thought projecting for no other reason.
February 13, 2020
A fantastic book written from an in-universe perspective. A must read for Star Wars fans itching to learn more about the galaxy.
November 7, 2020
INTERESTING BOOK.
January 2, 2025
Phenomenal
March 4, 2026
This is the best book ever made and the only one you should ever have to own.
July 7, 2025
The perfect book to get a young kid (or Star Wars fan) into the natural sciences especially ecology or zoology, teaches you the basics (like niches and invasive species). This is the kind of book I would like to think I would make in retirement.
July 7, 2019
Summer 2019:
A random Half Price Book find, this book is an absolute gem. The first thing you can't help but notice is that the whole front and back of the book are a textured hard cover, made to feel like the scales of some great creature. On the inside of the front cover and stretching all the way to the inside of the back cover is a size guide ranking all the animals together, as well, which is amazing.
I absolutely picked it up for the Naboo Sections (breaking down individually ecosystems and animals in Theedside, The Abyss, and The Gungan Swamp), but I was blown away by every part of this book.
The art is staggering gorgeous, with black and white sketches and color sketches side by sides. There are usually adorable baby and adolescent versions of all the creatures. There are even several side-by-sides where you can see the anatomical structure of the creatures as well. I will enjoy having this as a reference on my shelf going forward.
A random Half Price Book find, this book is an absolute gem. The first thing you can't help but notice is that the whole front and back of the book are a textured hard cover, made to feel like the scales of some great creature. On the inside of the front cover and stretching all the way to the inside of the back cover is a size guide ranking all the animals together, as well, which is amazing.
I absolutely picked it up for the Naboo Sections (breaking down individually ecosystems and animals in Theedside, The Abyss, and The Gungan Swamp), but I was blown away by every part of this book.
The art is staggering gorgeous, with black and white sketches and color sketches side by sides. There are usually adorable baby and adolescent versions of all the creatures. There are even several side-by-sides where you can see the anatomical structure of the creatures as well. I will enjoy having this as a reference on my shelf going forward.
November 14, 2016
This was a nice tongue in cheek book.
However, I am gonna say right away that I could have done with a shorter chapter on Naboo… boy was that looooonnnnggggg. Plus that Tattoine, Hoth and Dagobah all had just one ecosystem and Naboo has only two sounds pretty weird if you ask me.
Also, you do notice that the book mostly stays within the groups that we have on earth, not really any new group here, except for a few cases.
Mostly this book doesn't take itself too serious though and it is a nice "little" book on the wildlife in Star Wars, not all species ever presented though, but a lot of it.
However, I am gonna say right away that I could have done with a shorter chapter on Naboo… boy was that looooonnnnggggg. Plus that Tattoine, Hoth and Dagobah all had just one ecosystem and Naboo has only two sounds pretty weird if you ask me.
Also, you do notice that the book mostly stays within the groups that we have on earth, not really any new group here, except for a few cases.
Mostly this book doesn't take itself too serious though and it is a nice "little" book on the wildlife in Star Wars, not all species ever presented though, but a lot of it.
May 3, 2013
When you own a lightsaber and spend hours a day shopping for books, every so often something is too tempting on a order screen. The cover is scaled...which would make anything cooler...the fact it is Star Wars themed concept art (jedi tattooed) Ewoks have horses...
This is too pretty to be kept at the store... I don't want to give 5 stars too easily...I wouldn't have brought it home if it was a 4(probably would have...I have a problem)
This is too pretty to be kept at the store... I don't want to give 5 stars too easily...I wouldn't have brought it home if it was a 4(probably would have...I have a problem)
September 27, 2013
Its a pretty good star wars book, its basically got a bunch of the alien creatures from all of star wars, not just the movies. Not a ton of actual reading but the artwork is really cool. Its a nice edition to any star wars fans collection but i would only recommend it to the people who really care about star wars that much.
January 2, 2015
A beautiful and engaging tour to another aspect of the Star Wars universe, overlooked for so long: the wondrous creatures that inhabit the planets and stars we love so much. Although most of them are only visually stunning, a few are truly conceptual wonders like the bantha, the greater krayt dragon, the knobby white spider, the aiwhas or the beldons.
March 3, 2014
A fun book with great illustrations. Most detail is given to familiar species from the movies. I don't know how many of the other species are mentioned in the books or if they are added to fill out ecosystems.
September 21, 2019
A field guide to Star Wars creatures. This beautiful, artistic, yet informative book provided zoological and biological information on some of the strangest, and most beautiful, creatures we have seen in the Star Wars universe.
December 28, 2008
It has great illustrations of lots of star wars animals that I didn't know about before.
October 19, 2013
great collection of art work and description of creatures in the star wars series
May 10, 2012
Jack picked this out as a birthday gift and he's looked through it every single day since. The artwork is fantastic, the idea behind it is appealing, and major kudos the author.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews