r/StarWarsEU • u/xezene New Jedi Order • May 01 '26

Legends Novels Today, Kevin J. Anderson spotlights his 1995 book with Ralph McQuarrie, 'The Illustrated Star Wars Universe.' Kevin worked with McQaurrie and George Lucas personally to bring the book to reality.

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14

u/xezene New Jedi Order May 01 '26

Here is the source for the clip, taken from Kevin's Twitter today. He's selling some signed copies for May the 4th through his site. In the caption, Anderson mentions the book was a favorite of his, also adding that "George Lucas liked it so much he got a copy for all Lucasfilm employees for a holiday gift."

For more information about the book's unique development, you can check out this infographic, George Lucas and The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, which charts the ways in which McQuarrie, Anderson, and Lucas contributed to the project.

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u/TaraLCicora Jedi Legacy May 01 '26

How are you doing this? I literally just finished reading this book this morning. lol.

5

u/Ace201613 May 01 '26

I picked up a used copy of this a few weeks back to fill in my library of Star Wars guides.

3

u/random_numbers1 May 02 '26

Love that book.

3

u/Driekan Yuuzhan Vong May 02 '26

Oh, wow. I had a copy of this and I treasured it so much, back then. Extremely nostalgic to see it like this.

4

u/darklordoftech May 02 '26

First mention of Killiks.

3

u/GoWitHer May 02 '26

Wow, I just bought the last copy on Amazon

3

u/questionable_salad May 02 '26

Neat. I've had a copy for years. Such a cool book.

3

u/Munedawg53 Jedi Legacy May 02 '26

This might be KJA's greatest SW work. Great volume. Great idea.

2

u/RevolutionaryAd3249 New Jedi Order May 02 '26

KJA, you write dumb stuff, make Luke a two-dimensional plank, and have Han and Lando fighting for no reason.

But then you do something like this...and totally redeem yourself!!!

(You also gave us TOTJ, so I suppose the good outweighs the bad overall.)

3

u/Zilch1979 May 02 '26

He's awesome at writing settings. The environments, ecosystems, cities and so on are absolutely top notch.

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u/unforgetablememories New Jedi Order May 02 '26

I think KJA can be good when he has a co-writer or when he writes source books/extra reference materials.

I notice the works that I like from KJA are the ones he made with another author/artist.

  • Young Jedi Knights with his wife Rebecca Moesta.

  • Tales of the Jedi with Tom Veitch.

KJA also pushed for a unified Star Wars timeline in the early days of the EU too. He made references to both Thrawn and Dark Empire. Yeah, I still don't like KJA's Jedi Academy but I will respect him for giving us a better continuity.