cross sections

Star Wars Incredible Cross Sections

The Star Wars Incredible Cross Sections (generally known as SW:ICS) are a series of Illustrated Books that, as their name implies, provide a series of cross sections of various vehicles and ships. The Star Wars ICS show cross sections of vehicles and ships that appeared in the Star Wars films. Descriptive text is also provided, both of the vessel and related trivia. The books were published by Dorling Kindersley, creators of the Incredible Cross Sections series of books. George Lucas was so impressed with the work of DK on the original trilogy that he signed a deal for DK to produce similar books for the prequel trilogy.

Star Wars: Incredible Cross Sections

The original Star Wars: Incredible Cross Sections covered vehicles from the original Star Wars Trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi). It was released in 1998 following the release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, alongside Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. A later ICS was also published covering buildings of the original trilogy. The book was written by David West Reynolds and illustrated by Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore.

The book is 32 pages long, and covers a range of topics and ships of various sizes:

Star Wars Episode I: Incredible Cross Sections

Star Wars Episode I: Incredible Cross Sections was published in 1999 alongside The Phantom Menace film. Expecting the film to be a runaway success, 13 million copies of this book were printed by DK. The subsequent huge discounting of, and then pulping of over nine million copies pushed the privately held company to the brink of financial ruin. In 2000, DK was acquired by the Pearson PLC media company, which also owns the Penguin Books label.

The book is 32 pages long, and covers a range of topics and ships of various sizes:

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross Sections

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross Sections is the third installment of DK's "definitive" Star Wars Incredible Cross Sections series. It is written by Dr. Curtis John Saxton and illustrated by Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore, and released in 2002, alongside the release of the film Attack of the Clones.

It targets grades 4 to 8 according to the Library Journal, a respected source of rating and evaluation of play books for youngsters as well as serious publications for adults. The Library Journal praised Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross Sections.

Unique to all the ICS series, the AOTC: ICS features detailed statistics in SI units on the represented vehicles. Common statistics include "maximum accelerations", measured in g's, shield dissipation rates and maximum power generation in watts, as well as weapons yield, sometimes measured in tons of TNT.

Much to the disappointment of fans, the next book in the series, the Revenge of the Sith: Incredible Cross Sections did not include as detailed or as explicit statistics.

The book is 32 pages long, and covers a range of topics and ships of various sizes:

The book also sparked a new light in the Star Trek versus Star Wars debate and its validity in the debate is highly disputed.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross Sections

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross Sections was released alongside the film Revenge of the Sith. Unlike the previous book, ROTS:ICS did not include as detailed or as explicit statistics on its vehicles. It is written by Dr. Curtis John Saxton and illustrated by Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore.

The book is 32 pages long, and covers a range of topics and ships of various sizes:

References

Saxton,Curtis John, Hans Jenssen, Richard Chasemore Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross Sections Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-7894-8574-5