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Mix two parts Visual Dictionary and one part Incredible Cross-Sections then add a pinch of Art Of and what do you get?
An authoritative companion to the latest Star Wars movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide features the fascinating planets, vehicles, and aliens that Han Solo encounters on his early adventures. Explore key characters, locations and props in captivating detail with extensive production photography and see the iconic Millennium Falcon as its never been seen before, in an exclusive cross-section artwork by Richard Chasemore.
Combining the best features of three staple Star Wars movie companions published by DK, this Official Guide - like Rogue One - The Ultimate Visual Guide - is your go-to reference book for the most current standalone Star Wars movie.
And with such a visually rich movie you'll definitely benefit from having this guide, which opens on the Mean Streets of Corellia, by your side. This first chapter introduces a number of aspects of life on Han's homeworld such as the presence of Imperial security forces, life in the slums and the criminal elements that run them before moving on to one of the rare means of escape - the tightly controlled spacerport.
Oddly this chapter doesn't include the Imperial recruiters that help Solo get off world, eventually leading him to experience Trench Warfare on Mimban. As this section of Solo: A Star Wars Story focuses on the forces of the Empire we get treated to the materiel of the occupying forces, a slightly less blink-and-you'll-miss-them look at the Mimbanese, an overview of the awesomely named Beckett and his Unusual Squad, as well as an introduction to the AT-Hauler and Chewbacca; two elements that will prove important in the next act of the movie.
It's all aboard for The Great Robbery where we find out more about the three surviving members of the Unusual Squad, as well as the target of their illegal endevours. Also given page space in this chapter are the mysterious Cloud-Riders, led by the even more puzzling and masked adversary who thwarts Beckett's best effort to supply his crime lord employer with the galaxy's most sought after power source - Unobtanium.
The next chapter - named Place Your Bets - details the pivot in the story line and sees the establishment of a number of new key locations and characters including Dryden Vos and his flying headquarters and Lando Calrissian at his gambling hangout, plus the reappearance of Qi'ra. And when it comes to the most key pivots this chapter gives us two true treats: sabacc and the Millennium Falcon.
And with a turn of the page we jump cut to Kessel where The Big Score is set to go down. Led by Lando's android sidekick the slave workers and droids of this toxic mineral (no mention of spice here) mining planet throw off the yoke of the Pyke Syndicate while Han and his Abominable sidekick succesfully liberate the McGuffinium. During their departure the Empire enters the fray, forcing Han to jump the shark (or space mega-squid if you prefer) in order to cut the Kessel Run down to the more familiar 12 parsecs. With their escape successful we get the lowdown on the planet of Savareen, its inhabitants (who inexplicably provide the marketing colour board for the movie) and the gang of freedom fighters that are trying to protect the locals from thugs and the galaxy from tyrants at the same time.
This penultimate chapter effectively wraps up the book's continuous coverage of the movie as it skips over the climactic dual between Dryden/Qi'ra and face off between Beckett/Solo, and would have been a better place to detail the Easter egg rich contents of Dryden's study instead of a previous chapter.
The final section of the book - punnily entitled Going Solo - is a making of-cum-art of four page hat tip to the production of the movie. In itself it's a touch of a let down but does give us a glimpse of Tag and Bink, as well as to serve to whet the appetite for the fully fledged Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is also currently available from DK.
From the contents to its index, this book helps to further submerge the reader in the finer details of a singular Star Wars movie set in a galaxy far, far away and will prove to be essential reading in this first Star Wars summer since 2005.
Available online and from all good bookstores, Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide is priced US$21.99, CA$28.99, GBP16.99, EU€19.99 and AU$29.00.
