Think you know everything about Star Wars? Are you sure? For those fans who live, drink and breathe Star Wars comes the ultimate book Obsessed With Star Wars by Benjamin Harper, from Chronicle Books. Even the most die-hard Star Wars fans will find themselves challenged by this entertaining new approach to the details of the saga. This fourth volume in the popular, addictive Obsessed With series again includes an innovative scoring module right in the book, so a player can select questions by number or at random and keep score.
With 2,500 original questions covering little known facts, entertaining quotes, and tough trivia from all six episodes, Obsessed With Star Wars will have readers dominating the galaxy in no time. Starwars.com chats about the new book with author, and former Lucas Licensing editor, Benjamin Harper, who has published more than 25 titles, including three previous Star Wars trivia books.
How did this book project come about?
The Director of Publishing at Lucas Licensing contacted me a few years ago and asked if I'd be interested in working on it, and I immediately screamed, "Absolutely yes." I couldn't possibly pass up such an amazing opportunity.
You've written other Star Wars trivia books, how is this one different from the rest?
This one is massive -- over 300 pages! The others were written specifically for children and were pretty easy in comparison. I tried to make this one relatively challenging while including easy stuff as well, so both hardcore and regular fans could have fun with it. Plus, this one's a hardcover and has that sassy game play module attached to it.
Out of the 2,500 questions how many are about Jar Jar?
I am of the opinion that people need to lighten up on that poor little lamb. After all, if it weren't for Jar Jar, would the Gungans have helped Queen Amidala defeat the Trade Federation? I don't think so. And then where would we all be? There are many, many questions about Jar Jar, primarily in The Phantom Menace chapter -- before he was relegated to the background. History will smile on Jar Jar, mark my words. I will note, however, that as far as Gungans go, Captain Tarpals is my favorite.
Do the questions cover just the films, or are the questions about characters in the Star Wars comics, books and video game, or say the "Star Wars Holiday Special?" (Clearly, I was hoping for at least one Bea Arthur question.)
Ackmena is featured, yes indeed. I wouldn't miss the chance to include a Golden Girl. The book is centered around the time period of the films, but contains trivia from the novels, the Scholastic and Random House children's books, the Marvel and Dark Horse comics -- look for the appearance of a certain denizen of Coachelle Prime, The Clone Wars series, and many other sources. If it was available, I'm sure I mined it.
How did you go about coming up with all the questions for the book? Was all that info already crammed into your head, or did you have to do even more research to come up with really tough questions?
I wouldn't have room in my brain for all this information! A lot of it's stored up there, especially after my time working in Lucas Licensing, but nowhere near the amount that went into this book. I can say, however, that after working on this project I can very readily tell you which alien species enjoys throwing "egg parties," along with many other useful nuggets of Star Wars joy -- always fun at parties.
I lived, breathed, slept, and thought Star Wars, even more than usual while working on this book. I watched each of the movies about 19 times in a row, and I must admit toward the twelfth viewing of Attack of the Clones, I even started getting a little emotional during that whole romp through the grass on Naboo. They just keep getting better each time. I dredged up every single possible trivia point, from which hand Luke was balancing on as he practiced his Force techniques in The Empire Strikes Back to the number of Princess Leia's cell on the Death Star. After picking the movies clean of their trivia tidbits, I then dipped into the Essential Guides, The Wildlife of Star Wars, the comics, the Dorling Kindsersley books, and Starwars.com. I spent almost a year working on it pretty exclusively.
So do you think super-hardcore fans will be stumped by the book -- even that Rusty Miller kid?
The book is about 50/50, I'd say. Some questions are super-easy, and a few (one or two) even had some people at Lucasfilm stumped. The module on the book gives you the correct answer if you get it wrong, so you're basically learning as you go. You can also program the module to work with a question of your choosing.
Were there any questions you left out that you wish you could have put in the book?
We don't know for sure if that Ewok who gets killed toward the end of Return of the Jedi -- you know, when those two get blown up and one survives -- is named Lana, even though it sounds like that's what the other Ewok is saying as he prods the poor angel's body to see if she's okay. So I didn't get to include that one. I did get to include the fact that Boga survived that fall on Utapau, a piece of information many fans will want to know since Boga was the true hero of Revenge of the Sith and a role model for people everywhere.
Have any tips for any fans to train to be he Ultimate Star Wars Trivia Warrior?
Read up on those Essential Guides and DK books. That's where a lot of the scarily nerdy information in this book comes from. Those books aren't messing around when it comes to this stuff. They're really incredible. Starwars.com's expanded universe entries on characters are pretty dang awesome as well.
Any last words about the book?
I hope everyone enjoys it and keeps in mind what Master Yoda said, "Do. Or do not. There is no try."
Obsessed With Star Wars is on shelves now, and at Starwarsshop.com here.
