Fantasy art book review: the wildlife of Star wars, a field guide.

This book makes me feel all warm and squishy inside… like an eviscerated Taun Taun.

Introduction

The wildlife of Star wars: a field guide, is a fantasy art book like few others and I am thrilled to be reviewing it. But first some back story…woot. I am a nerd, a super nerd, I know what happened in every episode of star trek and what every spaceship and creature in the star wars universe is called. Such is the extent of my nerditude. I feel it important to note that I cannot speak Klingon however, so perhaps my nerdness is not as full blown as it could be. Probably a good thing. So given the extent of my nerd-jitsu, this book excited me to near sexual levels… I said NEAR sexual levels, I’m not strange or anything.

The Review

Illustrated by Terryl Whitlatch and written by Bob Carrau, the wildlife of star wars a field guide, is a lavish expedition that covers the creatures and critters found in the first six films. By the first six films I mean

Star wars: a new hope

Star wars: the empire strikes back

Star wars: return of the Jedi

As well as the prequels.

Star wars: the phantom menace

Star wars: attack of the clones

Star wars: revenge of the sith

Now I am going to restrain myself here and not go into why I firmly believe the three prequels are abominations that should be forcibly struck from the minds and hearts of all that have seen them. I’m not going to go into the many plot holes, ridiculous scenarios, vaguely racist characters or acting so bad it could melt the eyes out of a Gungar’s head at fifty paces… I’m not going to do that, but I could. At length. Jar Jar friggen Binks… how dare they? Anyway, the book features creatures and races that were featured in all six films and many that did not appear in the films as well. The wildlife of star wars: a field guide is 175 pages long and published by Chronicle Books.

The Pictures

Terryl Whitlach is one of my favorite artists, her work is vibrant, detailed and very realistic, she has a very beguiling style and her alien faces and expressions are particularly brilliant. She is an American scientifically and academically trained artist (fancy) and is well known for her creature designs for Lucas films and her illustrations of books such as the Kattaran odyssey, which I will review in a later post… because it is an awesome book.

Terryl Whitlatch provides her creations with the most incredible texturing and her use of color, even when vibrant and gaudy, never feels out of place. One of the many things about this book that I especially enjoy are the smaller illustrations for each creature. There will be the hero shots of course, big bold and impressive works that could very easily be framed and hung on a wall. Then there are smaller, slice of life, pictures that add so much to the feel of this book.

The section on the Bantha for instance, has a great deal of detailing that I was not expecting. There are pictures of the Bantha’s internal structure and tongue detail, as well as the creatures caring for their babies and snoodling with their masters, the Tuscan Raiders. It’s the smaller details like this that really shows the artist’s love for these beings and is a mark of a truly exceptional visual storyteller.

I often find myself coming to the pages of this book when inspiration has left me like a dirty, dirty traitorous piece of scum and I am left wondering what the hell to do next. Flicking through and marveling at the many odd and richly bizarre beasts always manages to re-inspire me. Well not always but often, let’s face it sometimes no amount of beautifully crafted pages are going to ignite your creativity when inspiration has left you for the day. Inspiration just decides that you and it are no longer on speaking terms for the day and everything you create will be dull and lifeless until, at a time of inspiration’s choosing, it decides to grace your work with its presence. Inspiration can be a real pain in the booty sometimes

The Words

The text of this book is provided by Bob Carrau and is set out in the style of encyclopaedia or field guide entries (hence the name.) I adore this style of writing and find it to be an absolutely perfect match for the illustrations in this case. This writing has quite an interesting undertone of humor to it, albeit delivered in a very straight style. this ‘straight man’ humor adds to the writing without taking away from the genre of the field guide. The depth of detail and world building here is really quite incredible.

The vast majority of what is written was never spelled out in the films in anyway, not that it would have made sense to spell it out, but the upshot is that there is a plethora of new information to be discovered here. How many Wampas does it take to flay a Jedi? Read on to discover this tidbit of knowledge, (actually that was a lie, there are no details given on the Jedi flaying abilities of Wampas… sorry.) How many sub-species of Taun Tauns are there? the answer can be found within the pages…spoiler alert, it’s three. Probably less since Han Solo slices the critters up the middle whenever there is a brief absence of bedding.          

The wildlife of star wars, a field guide is set out into several chapters, each covering a specific world from the films.

Tatooine

Hoth

Dagobah

Naboo: theedside

Naboo: the abyss

Naboo: the gungan swamp

Bespin

Endor

Yavin 4

Coruscant

That pretty much covers everything in the films and all of the creatures you might expect, make an appearance. While the uber nerd in me loves all of the creatures I already knew about, it was all of the wildlife I had never even heard about, that really struck a chord with me. It also struck a toe, I dropped the book, it hit my little toe, I yelped in a manner befitting a small pre-pubescent female child, I am not ashamed, the book is heavy and it hurt. I am fairly convinced that this was not the book’s fault so I shall not be docking the wildlife of star wars, a field guide, any points for my damaged phalanges.

Final thoughts

Even if you are not genetically geared toward drooling at anything even remotely related to star wars, as I am, you should still buy the wildlife of star wars, a field guide. It is perfect for any fan of fantasy art, concept art or creature creation and is a deeply entertaining read and will not disappoint you. Unless you drop it on your friggen foot, then it will disappoint you up real fine… again, not the book’s fault. Score out of ten? fourteen parsecs out of ten. That’s pretty damn good.

If you would like to check out my Ya fantasy fiction, please take a look here. Did you love this book? Hate it with a fiery vengeance, is there something you would like to see reviewed? Please feel free to leave a comment down below.