The Guide to Planets and Moons puts a neat bow on everything, providing further context, planet by planet, for everything in the previously mentioned books.

All told, the Essential Guides, when taken together, wind up being a 1200 page history and gazetteer of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, collecting the good and the bad, the serious and the stupid. It seems to me (and correct me if I am wrong) that this series of books is little known and less cared for, which seems a shame because, for what it is, it pretty exhaustive. In fact, I am not sure there is a rival for a more ambitious chronicling of the Star Wars universe.

I also love the super clean character art here, for the record.