If I have one complaint about the recently released Star Wars: Alien Archive, it’s that illustrator Tim McDonagh’s name isn’t on the cover. His name wasn’t left off as a slight; there’s a reason for its absence. Indeed, Alien Archive is meant to be an in-world collection of sketches compiled by a mysterious traveling artist. But even so, McDonagh certainly deserves more credit than a simple byline on the title page.

The book is a companion of sorts to 2016’s Star Wars: Galactic Maps – another lavishly illustrated (by McDonagh) book meant to be an in-world compendium of ancient but recently discovered maps.

Similarly, Alien Archive is prefaced with an introduction by Xoddam Lothipp, deputy director of the Graf Archive. In it, Lothipp writes about the discovery of “an old journal full of sketches, annotations, and more than a few tall tales from a mysterious traveler.”

Throughout 150+ oversized pages, nearly every alien, beast, and creature from the Star Wars universe is represented with a gorgeous illustration, some notes ostensibly written by the traveler/artist, and a fuller description from the “scientific records” of the Graf Archive.

Imagine if the DK character encyclopedia were actually published in the Star Wars galaxy. You’d have this beautiful book.

And that really is the biggest selling point, as far as I’m concerned. If you’re a fan of DK’s lavishly designed books (and really, who isn’t?), then you’ll very likely fall in love with this book (published by Disney-Lucasfilm Press) on first sight.

Alien Archive is fantastically gorgeous, simply put. Every page is a treasure, and the “gimmick” behind the book absolutely appeals to the traveler in me. If I were a wandering traveler in the Star Wars universe, this is the kind of book I’d spend a lifetime creating. It’s a travel journal full of thoughts, sketches, and anthropological observations.

It’s like this book was tailor made for me.