Customer Reviews

The Saucer Fleet (Apogee Books Space Series, Vol. 2) (v. 2)

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The Saucer Fleet, hmmmm!, not another UFO-olgy book! Well it is NOT! This is the book about Flying Saucers you did not expect!
This book is a must reference for any movie or TV buff in the first place, and industrial strength fun for the scale molders out there.
Hagerty and Rogers establish the historical context of the Saucer/UFO phenonomenology. However most space is devoted to a detailed history
and analysis of films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds (1953 version), This Island Earth , Forbidden Planet. Science Fiction fans will find a wealth of detailed and sometimes amusing details about the origin and design of films and televison that featured space ships that qualified as `saucers' (even a Disyneyland ride!).
A unique and much needed contribution about that special effects genius Ray Harryhausen's contribution Earth, Earth vs. Flying Saucers ( a somewhat lackluster film, totally made enthrallingly watchable by Harryhausen!). You will read with glee Jon Roger's `Archeological Reports' on the various ships used in films accompanied by
sets of beautiful drawings and analytical diagrams. Discover the delightful homage to the 1950's comic strip TWIN EARTHS, a clever graphic story that is alas almost lost in the memory of the history of popular media. The book is stunningly printed chock full of an almost uncountable number of stills and drawings.
Be one a UFO debunker or a Saucer sheep this book is for you, and if you just need a great reference book about Flying Saucers you can't do any better than this!
-Al Jackson

The Spaceship Handbook by the same authors is a textbook-sized volume, listing specs of more than 70 vessels, mostly of the "rocket" variety. The Saucer Fleet is a more manageable size, detailing 14 saucer-shaped spacecraft (and one ground vehicle, the Martian fighting machine from George Pal's movie of The War of the Worlds).

In addition to the shows listed in the product description, the book includes the underrated TV series, The Invaders, and two surprise entries, the comic strip Twin Earths, and a legendary Disneyland saucer ride. Missing is the Gerry Anderson series, UFO, not so much for its simplistic UFOs, but for a survey of the spacecraft of SHADO. (If they would be given. Although The Spaceship Handbook included non-ship stations and pods, The Saucer Fleet does not include non-saucer vehicles such as Lost in Space's pod nor the Metaluna's enemy's ship.) One can hope they are saving it for a Gerry Anderson supplement.

You don't need my review: If you liked The Spaceship Handbook, you want this book. If you think you might like either one, this is the cheaper option to check out before ordering both.

Fantastic reference book! I was not expecting the depth to which the authors would go into on each ship, but they have done a fantastic job. I was most interested to see the chapter on the C-57D from Forbidden Planet. I have most everything ever written about this film and this book's one chapter covered everything that's really worth knowing. The book is beautifully printed and has some photos which I have not seen before- and I've seen most all of em'. Highest recommendation!

Damn the price!...this is one great book not to mention a wonderful trip down memory lane for an aging baby boomer sci-fi fan! Growing up in the '50s, I was enthralled by films like WAR OF THE WORLDS, EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCER and THIS ISLAND EARTH. Now, those classic films - and the equally classic flying saucers they showcased - get their just due.

Authors Hagerty and Rogers offer up an in-depth, well-illustrated guide to the three films above along with FORBIDDEN PLANET, the popular LOST IN SPACE and INVADERS TV shows, the TWIN EARTHS newspaper strip and even the flying saucer ride at Disneyland. The detailed text is illustrated with hundreds of - often rare - b&w and color photographs, illustrations and drawings showing saucers, spacecraft, space creatures, actors, producers, writers, etc. The wonderfully detailed scale drawings by Jon Rogers depict the saucers and various spacecraft in all their colorful glory.

I've read lots of books and articles over the years on some of the films, shows, etc. covered in this book but THE SAUCER FLEET brings them all together in a affectionate, informative, quality package. This is definitely a keeper! Highly recommended.

If you have Jack Hagerty and John Rogers' previous masterpiece, "Spaceship Handbook," you'll know what to expect from "The Saucer Fleet." If not, you're in for a real treat with this volume. "The Saucer Fleet" is only about half the page count of "Spaceship Handbook." With big-name outfit Apogee Books rather than ARA Press now doing the publishing, the price per pound is significantly higher. But "The Saucer Fleet" is a magnificent work that continues the tradition of outstanding scholarship, incredible thoroughness and unmatched value that Hagerty and Rogers established in "Spaceship Handbook."

As the author of more than 30 published articles on aviation and spaceflight, I have experienced first-hand the difficulties of trying to extract information from sources that may be disinclined to cooperate. With that said, I am astounded at the wealth of fascinating, meticulously researched material in "The Saucer Fleet." The amount of effort the authors put into this book is almost beyond comprehension. In what is clearly a labor of love, they cover, in incredible detail, nine saucer-shaped (with one exception) science fiction spacecraft that any baby-boomer-aged movie or television fan will instantly recognize.

The 28-page chapter on Klaatu's saucer from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (the 1951 original, not the crappy 2008 remake) is typical of the care and level of detail Hagerty and Rogers lavish on these disk-shaped spacecraft throughout the book. The first nine pages of the chapter describe the making of the film, with 26 well-chosen stills, studio shots and behind-the-scenes production photos. Then comes a six-page synopsis of "The Story," with 18 screencaps. The description of the vehicle takes up the rest of the chapter. It includes a superb three-page "engineering drawing" of the saucer, inside and out, complete with the two different-sized Gort robots that appeared in the film. The drawings are dimensioned in inches--I envision Mr. Rogers holding calipers up to a monitor screen in freeze-frame to make the measurements for his amazing drawings.

Other cinematic saucers covered include those from "This Island Earth," "Forbidden Planet" (the iconic C57-D), "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers," "Lost in Space" and "The Invaders." The Martian war machines from "War of the Worlds" (the 1953 original, not the pathetic 2005 remake), although not strictly saucer-shaped, get an in-depth 44-page chapter, and the authors don't forget (perhaps with tongue firmly in cheek) Disneyland's Flying Saucer ride. Finally, four spacecraft from the 1950s syndicated illustrated adventure strip "Twin Earths" get the full Hagerty/Rogers treatment.

"The Saucer Fleet" aims at a niche market, of course. But if you're in its target demographic, you can't go wrong. Along with many hours of pleasant memories, you're sure to find more information than you ever dreamed of about the "saucers" you grew up with. This is great stuff! Exceptionally highly recommended.

After years of anticipation I finally got my copy of The Saucer Fleet. It is an incredibly detailed and well-researched guide to the famous flying saucers of America. Saucers from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, and Lost in Space are there with as much detail as any fan could want. The Spaceship Handbook was THE essential book for learning about fictional rockets and this fills the same role for flying saucers. My goodness dial goes to 11!

Wonderful resource for sci-fi lovers everywhere! The Saucer Fleet is illustrated with so many stills from movies and TV and is bursting with information about how these films and television series had their birth. The Day the Earth Stood Still, The War of the Worlds, This Is Land Earth, Forbidden Planet and Lost in Space are only a few of the delightful sampling of sci-fi films and series contained within these pages. Schematic drawings of the space craft are included, as well as back drop paintings, photos and details of what was then state-of-the-art special effects. Readers will also appreciate the histories of how each film or TV series came to be. What a marvelous snapshot of our love for flying saucers and alien beings.

For those of us who marveled at the sometimes cheezy special effects in movies and TV as kids, were delighted by the shows that put in the extra effort and brought sci fi To and art form. This book contains the lowdown on most of you favorite space vehicles, with schematics, photos and descriptions, along with inside info on the movies and shows. Lots of good information and an oddball fact or two. Great reading and a nice trip down memory lane.

This book was everything it promised to be, with detailed information about the space ships and behind the scenes information about the movies. A valuable addition to anyone interested in genre films of the 50s and 60s.

That's the trouble with spacemen. They always have to prove whose Krell technology-enhanced brain is bigger.

This book is about the flying saucers that invaded Earth or were launched from Earth during the 1950s and 60s, as documented on film by movie makers like George Pal, Ray Harryhausen, and Robert Wise.

Besides the saucer movies you'd expect--The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, This Island Earth, Forbidden Planet, and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers--this book also investigates the history of the short-lived Flying Saucer ride at Disneyland, a comic strip called Twin Earths, and the TV shows Lost in Space (remember the Jupiter 2?) and The Invaders (IN COLOR!!!).

One of the most interesting parts of the book is the introduction, "The Coming of the Fleet," which outlines the history of "real" and "fictional" flying saucers and how they influenced each other.

Jack Hagerty and Jon Rogers show how the saucer myth grew out of the upheaval of World War II and the psychologically unsettling peace that followed it. Then came Soviet rocket tests over northern Europe, American tests in the Southwestern desert, the Soviet and American hydrogen bombs, and the Korean War. All of this combined with the exploitative nature of Hollywood and the press to create a believable (for some people, anyway) story of flying saucers from other worlds.

Besides the histories of the making of these films and other works, the book also has diagrams of all the saucers, derived from how the spaceships looked on camera. It reminded me of the climax of the movie Galaxy Quest, when the actor who had once played a starship commander depended on fans of his old TV show to have the diagrams for what was now a real working starship.

Maybe the most telling story in The Saucer Fleet is about how a young boy is taken by his grandfather to where the local newspaper says "a fleet of flying saucers" is due to land. The boy and his grandfather find lots of kids brought to a field by their parents and then . . . hundreds of white discs fall out of the sky. They're paper plates. Each one offers a free ice cream cone at the local ice cream parlor. "Tonight only!"

We invented the saucers--as we invented other myths--to entertain ourselves. Some people use these myths to profit from our belief.

As The Saucer Fleet says, "Movies can make you believe in almost anything."

Or as Oscar Wilde wrote, "I can believe anything providing it's truly incredible."