Why Must Read Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition?

The problem with a lot of Star Wars reference books is that newer series, movies and other media make the books obsolete after only a couple of years. The Character Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition brings it up to date through 2021. The encyclopedia offers brief, but reasonable amounts of information in full color. There are a few things I'd leave out, since it is a CHARACTER Encyclopedia. Stormtroopers, Imperial or Rebel pilots and such stuff are not individual characters and take up space where other named characters could go. Sometimes the order of entries is odd -- for Princess Leia, for example, she appears as just that "Princess Leia" instead of the more typical, "Organa, Leia". It is fine for characters that you think of with a title, but "Anakin Skywalker" is in the front of the book, his son "Luke Skywalker" is in the middle and his mother, Shmi Skywalker is toward the end. It would be better to have all the Skywalkers next to each other. And there is a separate entry for "Darth Vader" although he is the same person (more or less) as Anakin. So prepare to use this book by using the terms in common use for a character. You'll find Din Djarin under 'The Mandalorian'. Emperor Palpatine appears as only 'Palpatine'. Fortunately, there is an index in the front to help. DK books' bindings are always worrisome but this book so far seems fine. An older copy of this book has several loose pages, so be careful. What is rather frustrating is that in about one week from the time this review is written, 'The Book of Bobba Fett' is going to be released and after a few months there will be new characters that will be missing. With the ever growing list of characters, perhaps future editions will be a spiral notebook with the option to purchase at lower costs the new additions to add to it. This book is quite handy and I'd recommend it, along with the similar Character Encyclopedia for 'The Clone Wars', as this book does NOT include any of the characters from the CGI series such as 'Rebels', 'The Bad Batch', 'Resistance' or 'The Clone Wars' unless they appeared in live action media as well. Ashoka Tano only appears in this book thanks to her live action appearance on 'The Mandalorian'. Still, this book (or future updates if you are reading this review long after 2021) is worth having for any Star Wars fan.