The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (Star Wars)

Every Star Wars fan knows that Slave I is Boba Fett's tricked-out bounty-hunting ride. But how many know about its short-lived successor, Slave II? And what average fan has ever laid eyes on an Imperial MT-AT walker? (Imagine a huge, arachnid AT-AT.) Heck, most SW buffs will even try to tell you that Vader's Super Star Destroyer is the biggest bad-boy this side of the Battle of Endor. Not likely: Emperor Palpatine's probably got bigger shuttlecraft on his 17.5-kilometer-long Eclipse-class ship.

Bill Smith's illustrated Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels--a veritable blue book for the Star Wars universe--lets you kick the tires on all these ships and more. Researching not just the movies, but also Star Wars novels, comics, computer games, et al., Smith tirelessly details 100 different ways to get around--and dish out destruction--in the land of sandcrawlers and speeders. Descriptions of familiar vehicles ("That's no moon... it's a space station!") blend seamlessly with the more obscure (can you name six kinds of TIE fighters?). This is one showroom-floor tour you won't want to miss out on. --Paul Hughes