A Guide to the Star Wars Universe

A Guide to the Star Wars Universe is a reference book that was written by Raymond L. Velasco and published by Ballantine Books in 1984. It details the locations, inhabitants, and technology of the galaxy far, far away in a series of alphabetical entries.

Publisher's Summary
From Alderaan to Yavin and a myriad of fantastic worlds before and between&mdash;this is the one indispensable guide to the characters, places and things brought to life by George Lucas.

Characters Organic and Metallic From Artoo-Detoo to Salacious Crumb&mdash;all the heroes you cheered&hellip;and all the villains you love to hate.

Places Havens and Otherwise Anoat System, Hoth, Mos Eisley, Stars' End, Yavin&mdash;the landsacpes, skies and vistas that are backdrops to Mankind's biggest saga.

THINGS Useful and not Chrysopaz, hydrospanner, Krayt Dragons, and Rancors.

Here is the key to a story that began long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away&hellip;

Description
All entries within A Guide to the Star Wars Universe are divided into categories at the beginning. The main body of the book is alphabetized with no further categorization. The entries may direct the reader to other entries which are related to the subject as well. Occasionally an entry is accompanied by a picture or a pronunciation guide. Entries are followed by a code which is used to tell the reader which sources the entries were based upon.

A Guide to the Star Wars Universe included information from:
 * The movies of the Original Trilogy and their respective novelizations.
 * The radio adaptations of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special and The Wookiee Storybook.
 * Early Expanded Universe novels such as Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Han Solo Adventures and Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu
 * Sketchbooks, portfolios and books detailing the art of Star Wars by Ralph McQuarrie, Nilo Rodis-Jamero and Joe Johnston.
 * Assembly manuals for models of C-3PO and R2-D2.

Errors
The book contains a few errors, if one uses the standards of classifying Star Wars canonicity. The most prominent of these would be the descriptions given of the bounty hunters that Darth Vader had assembled in The Empire Strikes Back. It is likely that Velasco based these descriptions upon the ones given in the movie's novelization instead of the film itself.

After Velasco had turned in the manuscript of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Judy-Lynn del Rey asked Brian Daley to review it and correct any errors that he had found. Daley would later claim in an interview conducted by fan Alex Newborn that he had filled up two to three pages with errors that he had found in the manuscript relating to the movies, his novels and a number of other sources.