Star Wars Mazes by Sean C Jackson (book review).
Are there many mazes in Star Wars? The labyrinthine corridors of the Death Star come to mind as do the dark caves that both Luke and Rey explore in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘The Last Jedi’. It’ s a subject that has fascinated author, illustrator and ‘Star Wars’ fan Sean C Jackson whose book of mazes ‘From Here To There’ has now been followed by ‘Star Wars Mazes’ which presents the reader with over thirty mazes to explore.
The locations for the mazes will be familiar to ‘Star Wars’ fans and range all the way from Jawa Canyon (why not the Jundlund Wastes, after all, they ‘are not to be travelled lightly’ ) all the way through to the Emperor’ s lair on Exegol, though confusingly via some prequel locations as well. Each maze is a dazzling design of hundreds of pathways, branching looping and bridging each other. The locations have characters and objects to find plus, as Jackson says in his introduction, there could be multiple ways of completing the mazes and you could be sneaky or find yourself in a fight.
Jackson’ s illustrative style echoes the dense complexity of Martin Handford’s ‘Where’s Wally?’, providing ample content which could keep both adults and children amused for ages. I handed the book to my son who managed to tear himself away from Minecraft for an hour and spent some time tracing his way through the different mazes.
My personal favourite was the Ewok village, where you have to find your way around the multi-level treetops, and tip-toe around Wicket or a group of Ewoks carrying C3PO like the god he pretends to be.
While I’ m not the sort who believes that solving mazes or colouring in represents some sort of ‘mindfulness’ activity, I do think that ‘Star Wars Mazes’ is one of the more interesting and fun ‘Star Wars’ titles I’ve come across in a while and should certainly keep the fans in your life busy for a few hours come Christmas Day.
John Rivers
November 2021
(pub: Chronicle Books, 2021. 64 page large format paperback. Price: $14.95 (US), £13.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-79720-594-6)
check out website: www.chroniclebooks.com