May the References Be with You

​​Star Wars Episode I: Incredible Cross-Sections

As a child, I easily spent up to 2 hours at a time poring over these cross-sections and pretending that I was inside them. They are so incredibly detailed and nearly everything is labelled. The accompanying writing is just enough, illuminating the reader rather than being distracting. As an adult, I'm still very impressed with this book.
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Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
​Incredible Cross-Sections

These books are amazing. By the time AOTC came out, I was a bit older and spent less time poring over the details of this one, but I remember liking it quite a bit. I'm currently reading through Clone Wars EU/Legends novels, so I was much more engaged with this book than I have been in previous years! Hm. Seems I didn't buy the ROTS one... will rectify that.
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* later edit
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
​Incredible Cross-Sections

I didn't really pay as much attention to the text as I should have, though that's because the illustrations are the real feature here. The highlight is definitely the fold-out spread of the Invisible Hand. Really shows the distances that our heroes had to travel throughout the ship at the start.
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​Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections

What more can I say about these books? They're fantastic. I will say that this one is my least favourite, since three movies of ships are crammed into 32 pages, whereas later releases dedicated one book to each film.
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Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
​Visual Dictionary

A pretty standard visual dictionary. As a teen, I was obsessed with the lightsaber combat pages - probably the main reason I've kept this book.
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​Star Wars: The Jedi Path

Star Wars: Book of Sith

This is an entertaining diversion. The text itself isn't all that interesting, but the scribbles supposedly penned by various characters are so much fun to read. But the physical presentation is what sets really this book apart. I have the expensive first edition, so it comes inside a plastic box that opens with accompanying sounds - and the book contains some physical mementos pressed between its pages (something I have emulated with my journals ever since I first read this!).
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The presentation of the vault edition of this book is seriously cool. A Sith holocron! Buuut it's also the hardest one to open if the batteries have corroded (my younger self was apparently foolish when storing things). Anyway, I did manage to pry the book and the little pieces out.

Just as much fun as the Jedi book - and as a bonus, the Dark Empire references can almost (but not quite) be mistaken as foreshadowing for the sequel trilogy instead (I'm pretty sure that similarity wasn't a coincidence lol). Lastly, I liked how the pages had different edging - and one particular Quinlan Vos comment had me cackling.

Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Code

This book is somewhat amusing and the additional Cradossk memoirs that also came in the box inspired more than one smile from me. Maybe it could have been better, I guess, but the content will always be overshadowed by the presentation. This deluxe edition is amazing. You have to use a "key" attached to the back of the box to open it (and that's after using buttons to open the section where you slot the key in).

I will now remove the non-functioning batteries to avoid that annoying corrosion issue...

Star Wars: Imperial Handbook

The batteries in my copy still work! Nice. I'll take them out as soon as I finish this review lol.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of extra bits inside the case and the book itself, since previous releases have had more, but I suppose Imperials wouldn't like that much clutter! The content of the book...did not hold my interest. There are too many different perspectives and it wasn't all that cohesive. But the comments that are supposedly handwritten by our beloved Rebels made it a worthwhile read.