Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker the Visual Dictionary: With Exclusive Cross-Sections

Uuuhhh.... There is an elephant named Palpatine in the room but not in this book. That’ll cost ya’ two stars!Otherwise, the book is the same good quality as the other Visual Dictionaries.No Palps though? Really?

Good general lore but is missing ALOT of what I wanted. First there’s no Palpatine! Why?! He’s integral to the movie and has a lot of tech and intrigue that is left unexplained from the film that I expected to get from this. There’s also no mention of Leia’s lightsaber, Rey’s yellow saber or anything related to big plot points. I was reallly disappointed by this. I really wanted all that info, it’s actually why I bought this book. I’m unsatisfied, even with all the great information this book has.

A good book with lots of information. Helps to answer some questions not answered in the movie. HOWEVER, There is not a single page dedicated to Palpatine, the machines keeping him alive, how he survived or was recovered, his loyalists, Snoke clones, Dark Rey and her lightsaber, Ben Solo, force healing, Dyad, Leia's training/Lightsaber, Rey's new lightsaber or her connection to Palpatine, Rey's force lightning...

The Star Wars team outdid themselves again with this book. The pictures, layout and detail are outstanding. It’s significantly longer than any of the other individual movie books. My only complaint, which is a rather large one, is that it doesn’t include any pictures of Palpatine. I was hoping to see him in his zombie form and his restored form, as well as more details from the end sequence. As the primary villain of the saga and this movie, his exclusion is a significant detractor from the book, and he is barely referenced.

While full of information for the price it is severely lacking in information about elements from the movie that are major plot points and characters. In particular, I flipped through the book looking specifically for Palpatine, whose shadow hangs over the entire 9 movie saga as the main antagonist, yet he does not get his own two page spread detailing the machines keeping him alive, how he survived literally exploding when thrown down the reactor shaft by Vader, or at the very least a good look at the character without the dark shadows of the film obscuring his form!? Instead, we get several pages recapping plot and imagery from the Force Awakens and Last Jedi which each have their own visual dictionary and feel like pointless filler in this volume. Likewise, we get several pages to the Knights of Ren who, aside from looking menacing and cool, ultimately did next to nothing in the film other than put a 90 second beatdown on Ben Solo. They accomplished slightly more than the Emperors Royal Guards in Return of the Jedi who merely walked out of the throne room. Even the rehashed material, if you don't mind it, has notable absences such as nothing on Maz Kanata. There could and should have been a list of the Jedi voices Rey hears when she rallies to confront Palpatine a second time, no closer look at Leia's lightsaber, nothing about whether or not the robed figures in the Sith throne room were cultists or spirits of previous Sith Lords, no updates on DJ or the command vacuum left by the death of Phasma, etc. And everything I listed is simply off the top of my head as I write this. I'm sure i could think of plenty more faults in this compilation if I dedicated time and list to it. In my opinion, the absences are glaring and egregious but the low price point is attractive and the book is nonetheless full of neat images even if we got quite a few of them in previous visual dictionaries. Worth a purchase but definitely don't pay more than 20 dollars. Hopefully a revised edition or a much larger Sequel Trilogy or Complete Saga edition will be released that covers the missing material.