Star Wars Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu by Cole HortonMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
What Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu tries to accomplish is to walk the line between Theme Park pamphlet and exotic travel guide. The end result is a roughly 142 page advertisement whose effort only hardcore Star Wars fans will appreciate.
Interspersed throughout the "Guide" are details about Batuu. A Map shows us where Batuu sits in the Star Wars Galaxy and then we are advised different options of getting there. The eleventh page introduces us to the Star Cruiser which will end up being the Galaxy's Edge Hotel when that eventually opens. The next page is where the separation between guide and ad starts to become apparent. Under the Fast Facts section it talks about a "temperate climate that is enjoyable by most species." The air is "dry, but tolerable" and "the occasional afternoon rain shower is possible" Under the dress section, they post a picture of Star Wars styled clothing hanging in a shop which even in a galaxy far far away looks like any other Disney store.
The maps of the outpost are some of the more interesting parts of the guide. Again, you are looking at a map of the theme park land. A disassembled lightsaber is our hint that you will be able to build your own while you are there. Following this, we are shown vehicles and even different types of droids. As a Star Wars fan, this is really cool. There's tidbits about the people who live on Batuu like Oga who runs the Cantina. The section on Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities gives us a closer look at the oddities around his shop. There's sections on Stormtroopers and Imperial Vehicles. We also get cool propaganda images such as Stormtroopers in front of a First Order banner with the words Legitimate Power at the bottom. More photos of the shops and food courts follow. Lots of odds and ends flesh out the rest of the book included a guide to translate the Star Wars symbols into our own language.
The guide is written to be in-universe but it doesn't read that way. Too much of it comes across as trying to sell us the Disney experience. Anyone who has a description about who they are don't cross over from being two dimensional. These are people and creatures I can drive two hours to see in person, and I won't have any feelings for them. I don't see how this guide differs from the months of promotional material we were shown of the parks. A YouTube video of someone walking from location to location barely differs from this supposed "in-universe" guide. There's too much content that's selling us a product. The person that would buy this book and enjoy it would be someone that loves Galaxy's Edge and wants to be reminded of their time there. Everything else in the book can be found in other places. It doesn't work at bringing Batuu to life.
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