Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Read from: December 12 to December 22. Mobile .ePub
How Star Wars Conquered the Universe was a tour de force in the history of Star Wars writing. There have been so many Star Wars books published in the history of the franchise, what makes this special you ask? Well, it just happens to be the newest, and the only one I've read, so that makes it special in my book.
Chris Taylor is the deputy editor of the technology and news website Mashable. His articles also regularly appear in Time, Business and Fortune. This clearly shows up in his writing, every one of the chapters reads like very interesting articles by themselves.
First we get to see what looks like Taylor's qualifications as a fan; his interactions with, among other things, the 501st Legion, monks in San Francisco who practise the Jedi way of life, the R2 Droid builders club, and a host of others (including Navajo peoples who saw Star Wars for the first time dubbed in the Navajo language called Dene). Taylor then looks at the early life of the self styled "Creator", George Lucas, in small town California; what might have influenced him growing up in the post WWII generation. Lucas's early films in college, his collaboration with Coppola and Spielberg, all of these are examined in an engaging sort of way. This is a nice road trip through Americana, and something I enjoyed reading.
Next, we get to see the making of Star Wars itself. The "sequels" obviously take up a bulk of the remaining screen time. Lucas's visions, his reading, his experimenting are examined. To be honest, and Taylor admits this in a later chapter, we quite don't know whom to believe here. Lucas and the company he built, LucasFilm, have built so many myths around the myth that is Star Wars, even a monumental, unbiased work like this one will have its work cut out for it. We will only know for sure once Lucas is long gone into history, and more records are declassified. Suffice it to say, there has been nothing quite like Star Wars in movie history. It changed everything. How we view science-fiction/fantasy in films, and special effects are just two of the things it had a colossal impact on. But merchandising, studio deals, ticketing policy, Vietnam, vocabulary, just about everything has been impacted. And whatever faults the "prequels" may have (I share the same philosophy as the author here, the prequels are here to stay, we should learn to live with them), they too revolutionized film making technology with digital shooting and CGI. Taylor rounds up everything with an examination of Disney's buying out of LucasFilm and what it might mean to the future. (You can already tell the book is old, the Episode VII trailer is out, and the conversation buzz has moved on).
At it's heart though, How Star Wars Conquered the Universe remains a human tale. Taylor has interviewed many, many people including Lucas's ex-producer, ex-director, ex-wife and ex-PR guy (and ex-actors). The long string of ex-es is understandable, the new people don't talk (including Lucas, although he is famous as an introvert), but that doesn't take away from the authenticity of this book one bit. It's examination of fandom, Star Wars long lasting gift to the world is extremely well examined.
You can tell this is a new style of writing books. It references YouTube videos, asks its readers to Google things, and talks about what fans said on online forums; even though it is pretty bulky, it reads like a breeze.
Star Wars has changed the world for good, and impacted many, many people deeply. Reading this book gives you a great insight into all of that. It is excellent reading, even if you have only watched Star Wars only once.
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