Book review
Written by Paul Terry and Tara Bennett
DK hardback
Release date 22 November 2010

The island. The characters. The big stuff. The small stuff… An A-Z guide to ABC’s gripping, infuriating SF mystery…

First of all, it should be stated that this chunky new book on the mind-bending show doesn’t pretend to answer the 1001 loose ends left dangling at the end of the unsatisfactory finale. Rather, it’s an exhaustively researched reference guide to six seasons’ worth of poster-friendly faces and desert island life.

The book is likely to unearth many things you’ve long forgotten or missed the first time around, which goes some way to making elements of the show clearer. It’s not quite enough to convince us that the showrunners weren’t making much of it up as they went along (as they were frequently accused of). But it serves as a good reminder of the reasons we fell in love with the show in the first place: the wealth of surprises, sympathetic characters and interesting details over the six seasons far outweighs the negative stuff.

Authors Paul Terry and Tara Bennett certainly know their stuff – Terry was former editor of the Lost Official Magazine and co-presenter of Sky1’s Lost Initiative show, while Bennett was a regular contributor to the magazine (as well as being SFX’s East Coast Editor and Total Sci-Fi contributor) – and their book whittles through everything the show threw at us. From The Temple to The Tempest, and from Juliet Burke to the Jughead Bomb, there’s little that this glossy tome doesn’t touch upon.

Even better, it’s in full-colour and is written in-universe – perfect for us Losties who almost believed the show was real for a time there… James Skipp

VERDICT: 8/10
A colourful, comprehensive guide to a flawed but fantastic show.

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