Not so long DK gave us LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventures, and now they're adding LEGO Star Wars Choose Your Path to our collective book shelves. Considering that LEGO is a toy we have to build ourselves this whole LEGO Star Wars deal is becoming a lot of hard graft - but lucky for you Son of LEGOscum is on hand to help make up your mind.

So grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up, get your scrolling digit ready and cast your mind back to a time when we got to enjoy adventures of our own choosing.

"Be the hero of this book and choose where to go in the LEGO Star Wars galaxy. Learn how to battle, who to team up with, which side of the Force to join, plus much, much more. Read the text, then decide where to go next by selecting one of two options on every page. Do you want to travel around Jakku by speedy quadjumper or by four-legged luggabeast? Will you choose to join the rebels over Scarif, or to fly after the Inquisitor? On Mustafar, do you dare to battle Anakin, or will you join him on the dark side of the Force?! Navigate the book and learn all about key LEGO Star Wars characters, creatures, vehicles, and locations. Every page is packed full of facts, stats, and stunning photographs of LEGO Star Wars sets, minifigures, vehicles, and characters. Once you reach an ending, go back and see where the paths will take you next time! LEGO Star Wars : Choose Your Path comes with a cool LEGO Star Wars minifigure to join you on your adventures through the galaxy."

Let's start where the publisher's blurb finished off because the selection of the packed-in U-3PO minifig is a bemusing one. The character (if you can call it that) isn't popular or pivotol, nor does it play any important role in the book's gameplay in the same way that the spy droid in Spot The Spy Droid or Spot The Galactic Heroes books from Ameet did.


Considering the impact that DK had with their first pack-in minifig that came with the LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, and the minifigs that came with the two LEGO Star Wars Character Encylopedias it is sad that LEGO has forced DK into including such an unimportant entity with an awesome book. So if you are put off by the inclusion of this same minifig that came with LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar 2016 - or maybe just a variation hunter - there is a library edition of this title that comes without it.

But let's not - as they say - judge a book by its cover-mounted bonus toy. This is great advice because it lets us consider the eye-poppingly appealing cover itself. The title is an obvious nod to a series of books that most members of the original Star Wars Generation will remember fondly, and one that invokes nostalgia and jealousy. Sure we got to grow up with one of the greatest collection of kids' books ever but why couldn't we have had LEGO Star Wars in the Eighties?!?! And so with great reluctance I passed the book over to my semi-tame book reviewer, Son of LEGOscum, who took up the project with gusto because it got him out of his homework/NAPLAN revision.

(Or so he thought because I cunningly set the review up in the same fashion as the persuasive writing homework he so loathes. So thank you DK and is there any chance you could devise a set of LEGO Star Wars NAPLAN workbooks in the near future?)

Asked what the book is about Son of LEGOscum told me - in his usual diffident manner - that the book "is like a Choose Your Own Adventure book [sorry, I tried my best to avoid the comparision] that is about Star Wars but instead of lots of words there are pictures of LEGO sets in it." Pushed to explain how the book works he added that there are three stories in the book and you have to make a choice about how you want to go through the different sections: a Prequel Trilogy-inspired "Hunt The Sith", "Fight The Empire" in the times of the Original Trilogy or stand with the Resistance to "Defeat The First Order" during the most recent Star Wars trilogy.


His first foray saw him meet his demise in the dunes of Jakku, his second attempt ended on the salty landscape of Crait but his third had him meet up with Kanan and the rest of the gang from Rebels, becoming allies with freed Wookiees, saving Luke Skywalker on Hoth before accompanying him to the Death Star where Darth Vader is turned against his master and helps to end the Empire! His favourite moment in the book was helping Obi-Wan Kenobi chase down Grievous on his multi-terrain bike, a scene that had him acting out the battle with his Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous buildable figures.

Since then he has spent quite a few hours turning the pages of LEGO Star Wars Choose Your Path and building up a shopping list of LEGO Star Wars sets he wants to add to my his collection, because one ig the most choice comments in his review noted that the "pictures in this book are actual sets so you could plan what sets you might want in the future." Given it is international Star Wars day today and we are going down to the local LEGO store I can see a number of sets getting mentally ticked off his list.

And his final word?

"If you like Star Wars and you like LEGO...
                                                  ...you will love this book."

Enough said.

LEGO Star Wars Choose Your Path, by Dorling Kindersley, is will be priced $19.99 and released on June 5th. Reserve your copy through Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.de today.

Special thanks to the crew at DK Australia for providing Son of LEGOscum with a copy of this book. Check out our sister site's review at TheForce.Net too.