Amazon.com (ISBN 0345434390, Paperback)

When this book first hit print, many Star Wars fans felt a great disturbance in the Force. Not the bad, millions-of-voices-crying-out-in-terror kind of disturbance, mind you--more like a galactic sigh of relief as two Star Wars vets finally dared to compile a comprehensive chronology, a book ambitiously subtitled "The Definitive History of the Star Wars Universe." And Kevin J. Anderson and Daniel Wallace don't disappoint. Their accurately named Essential Chronology satisfies all but the most rabid fan-boy needs, cataloging every significant event from the Golden Age of the Sith (roughly 5,000 years B.B.Y., Before the Battle of Yavin) through to the exploits of the Young Jedi in 24 A.B.Y. (immediately preceding the events of Del Rey's New Jedi Order story arc).

In encyclopedic style, the duo have compiled the periods and players from what's become a sprawl of comics, computer games, newspaper strips, "audio adventures," and paperbacks. Some niggling details, of course, slip through the cracks, but the end product succeeds admirably, proving to be both entertaining and useful. The icing on the cake? Solid illustrations by Bill Hughes, an era-by-era timeline (including every major book, comic, computer game, and movie), and--thank the Maker--an index. --Paul Hughes