Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections - Hardcover

The popularity of the Star Wars films seems only to grow with time, and the release of the new "prequel" trilogy is sure to add to that ever-burgeoning fame. Star Wars: Incredible Cross-sections is another in Dorling Kindersley's beautifully produced series of companion books providing interesting background trivia to the all-time classic trilogy. Using the full colour cross-section artwork techniques familiar from previous DK illustrated works, Reynolds, Jenssen and Chasemore collectively reveal the inner workings of 15 of the key vehicles and spacecraft from the original three films. Want to know how the ungainly AT-AT walkers (the metallic behemoths witnessed at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back) manage to move and the ethos behind their unusual design? Or perhaps the combat advantages of a TIE fighter over a T-65 X-wing, or even the modifications made over the years to Han Solo's legendary YT-1300 stock light freighter, better known as the Millennium Falcon? This book will make all clear, illustrating it (almost literally) down to the last screw. To my mind, this is the real strength of the book--the texture and precision of Jenssen and Chasemore's illustrations bears the most minute examination, and even those with no knowledge of or interest in Star Wars would surely marvel at these wonderful examples of sci-fi art. But, of course, this is really a book aimed at the committed fan, and the information David West Reynolds has retrieved from his research into the Lucasfilm archives will leave none of them disappointed. --Alisdair Bowles