Customer Reviews

Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I know this is a cliche, and is said about pretty much every remake of movies, books, music, etc. However, if you've ever seen the original Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD, there's really no question that it's true in this case.

There's not a whole lot of new material in this book- just a few extra ships (in fact, more seem to have been removed than added) and an updated history section. They also incremented the time period by a century and tried to tie it in with modern events to make it a plausible future. Additionally, the artwork has been redone with computer graphics, and most of the line drawing schematics and diagrams have been removed. This is likely a result of the smaller page layout and shorter general length of this book.

First, regarding the change in the history. I don't think anyone really cares how plausible it is, so I'm rather puzzled why the authors thought it was necessary. Also notably lacking are some of the more interesting discussions, e.g. the unknown objects/ghost ships in the original.

The main reason for picking up this title, however, is the artwork. The pictures are essentially remakes of the original- most have only minor cosmetic changes. There's a few new pictures, but they are generally small and look a bit rushed. This is where the book really suffers- the original artwork was painted and had gorgeous detail and a distinct style. The new CGI stuff, with the probable exception of lighting, is simply not as good. It's not even up to the quality of what you'd see in common sci-fi shows, and this isn't a motion picture. Coupled with the fact that the pages are smaller, it's definitely a downgrade.

The descriptive text is shortened as well, and yes there are typos. I'm not overly bothered by this, but the lack of added material is a bit perplexing. The specifications are unchanged as far as I can tell, but the diagrams that graced the old book are gone. While some of those were a bit confusing, I think they added to the overall feel of the universe. One plus on the text aspect: they make it pretty clear which text block goes with which illustration. In the original, it did require a bit of guesswork at times.

I'd advise potential readers to get the original, but chances are that if you want this book you already have the original. As such, it's advisable you just stick with that. It's simply a superior publication, and I'm quite disappointed that the remake is of such mediocre quality.

I picked this up without even really looking at the inside, just because I had loved the original Stewart Cowley books so much, which I keep my eyes out for in used book stores.

When I finally started reading this at home, I was totally annoyed that I had actually bought this. While there are three or four new ships, it's all just a poor rehash of the original Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD, which is just a much better book.

The hackneyed introduction referring to the 9/11 attacks and how things evolved from there was just annoying and a waste of space.

What's worse, is that all the ships now look as if they've been buffed and polished with wax, none of them look like they've been used at all. Maybe the publisher was in a rush to get this out by Xmas, but do yourself a favor and skip it completely. It's just not worth it.

Which is a shame to say, because I love this style of artwork, but the original is just so much better. For example, the Sentinal Major just looks goofy now, without the depth of the original paintings.

Actually, the worst part is that there are only a few new ships, what a rip-off! This was the most frustrating part of the whole process of reading it. The new ships also don't seem to have much imagination applied to them as well, being either NASA or possibly Star Wars rip-offs. The originality and colors and look of the originals have all been lost. Which is a shame.

Hopefully, this publisher and authores will do a better job with future books, and not just rip off the past, but build upon it in the future.

I am a fan of the original Terran Trade Authority Handbooks written by Stewart Cowley. Weaving together a storyline of a vast spacefaring future by using the diverse artwork of many artists, Cowley created a future history much loved by many Sci Fi fans. Morrigan Press has attempted to recapture this period with the first of it's artwork books (and is also releasing an RPG) set in the TTA universe.

Morrigan Press have advanced the original timeline 100 years to keep it forward looking, and have reworked the first book in the original series. Using CGI artwork based on most of the original painted artwork, and including condensed versions of the original spacecraft write ups, Morrigan have produced a good first attempt, which obviously leans heavily on the Original "Spacecraft 2000 to 2100". Of interest is a new historical section outlining the unification of Earth, first contact with Alpha Centuari, and the devastating Proxima Wars.

However there are some issues with the book, which many fans have found disappointing. First and foremost is the vast amount of typos and other errata that have crept into the text. There are misspelt words consistently throughout the entire book. There are repeated paragraphs in the history section, a jumbled paragraph in a writeup and in one instance repeated ship stats. The typos get more and more irritating as one reads the book and distract from the "willing suspension of disbelief" necessary for this type of book. The impression is rapidly formed that noone actually read the manuscipt before it was rushed off to the printers.

Another issue is the CGI artwork. Unlike the original artwork which was done by a variety of artists, this artwork was done all done by a single artist. This tends to detract from the sense of difference of races achieved in the original by using different artists. While most of the artwork is great, it is obvious in several examples that the artist was pressed for time and this has resulted in some disappointingly underworked pieces. When looking at the vessels portrayed in the artwork, one is also struck with a sense of newness about them. Indeed many of the vessels illustrated as being in the middle of a long and dirty war, have a distinctly just left the showroom floor look about them.

A small point worth bringing up is that the book is available only in soft cover. As a fan of the original series, which was all hardback, this surprised me, and was a trifle disappointing.

Perhaps the most disappoiting aspect for old fans was the almost complete deletion of a section outlining unknown alien artifacts discovered by the TTA in space. This section in the original gave a xenoarchaeology slant on things, and reenforced the sense that it's a big Galaxy, and we don't know exactly who and what is out there.

A final point of note is that the book contains a foreword from each of the two writers who reworked Cowley's material, however there is nothing from Cowley himself. I found this surprising, as he is still credited on the front cover with the other two writers.

In conclusion Spacecraft 2100-2200 AD is not a bad first attempt to ressurect the TTA universe. Old fans will be disappointed in many ways, but will hopefully be happy to see some new material on the TTA. People new to the TTA universe should enjoy this book, but will need to overcome the constant typos and errata that distract throughout the book.

I will preface this review by stating one simple fact; the original 1978 book (Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD) is a far, far better product than this new book (Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD) which, in hindsight, is an incredible accomplishment for a work that is almost 30 years old. The difference in the titles between the old book and the new book suggests that this book contains spacecraft from the 100 year time period after the original book when in reality, the new book is simply a retelling of story found in the old book, with some additional unnecessary (and not entirely welcome) embellishments on the part of the authors.

The TTA Terran Trade Authority handbooks by Stewart Cowley (of which there are four: Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD, Great Space Battles, Spacewreck, and Starliners) have become somewhat of a sacred set of tomes to science fiction fans everywhere, especially those old enough to remember these fantastic imaginative works let alone to have originally collected these books in the late 1970's and early 1980's when they were sold in book stores at retail. While it is a noble idea to try to bring back these seminal works for an entirely new generation to enjoy and appreciate, a lot of caution and even more careful thought must be (and should have been) exercised in that endeavor. The verdict here is that well enough should have been left alone and that there is no substitute for the original. Good ideas and poor execution are often enough to defeat even the best of intentions and this is a prime example of that philosophy.

Given that, let's look at the new publication. The first problem with this book is that the authors have moved the original timeline a hundred years forward (for no good reason) and in doing so, they have lost some of the story magic of the old TTA books. The old TTA books were unique in that they didn't do a lot of finger pointing at specific events, nations, political parties or other causes on Earth. There was (indistinct) trouble between the nations and through the global strife, one organization came to power to guide the people of the planet through fair but stern administration of trade, scientific research and other endeavors. This organization evolved over time into the TTA and helped lead mankind to the stars. It was classic science fiction. With the new book, the authors have seen fit to interject real world events into the original background (like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001) and the fervent hope that a right wing, out of control presidency hell bent on American imperialism can be removed from office by impeachment to face legal actions for their war crimes. In other words, stuff you might find on a left-wing propaganda spouting website and not the kind of stuff you would want to find in a simple flight of pure fancy.

The beauty of the original books was that they gave an alternate tale of history, a hopeful tale not a story mired in the ugly politics and details of the modern world (and trust me, to those of us who lived through the turbulent late 1970's, you know how ugly the world got back then). The TTA books presented a history that might have happened, given a different set of events, a better understanding of people, and a more optimistic outlook towards the stars. When these books were written, the year 1999 was still a long time away, it was so long away that we might actually have bases on the moon and beyond. 1999 was so full of promise that anything was possible in the years ahead, or so it seemed. The 1980's dashed those hopes on the bitter rocks of reality and the 1990's shut the lid on the coffin of having any viable colony in orbit let alone on another solar body in the lifetime of the still youthful, still optimistic readers of the original book.

People turn to books like the TTA volumes as pleasant escapes, diversions from the daily events, diversions from the constant streams of network provided twenty four hour live feed of global suffering, and the sordid details of the real world and all its tragic shortcomings. The last thing the reader wants to read in a work like this is a retelling of what they have heard all day long on the TV and radio, the last thing they want to do is be reminded of cold, stark reality. The original history of the TTA books, which barely covered the face of two simple pages, was perfectly sufficient to carry the illusion of the artwork and the story forward, a tale of a future filled with interstellar strife, conflict, and ultimate solution. We didn't need every last detail presented to us because we used our imagination to fill in the gaps left by Stewart Cowley. Sadly, today's generation of reader is often missing an imagination so instead we're spoon-fed the details because we've become inable to make them up on our own. When the authors of the new book decided to go in and revise the original history of this beloved series, they created a 25 page long epic story that, which while it is indeed very detailed, it seemed to, at the same time, dilute the essence of the original work.

Honestly, I had very high hopes for this book when I first heard about it and was one of the first to sign up on Amazon to buy it (before it was ready for sale). I had heard that since the original artwork had long ago reverted to the original artists that the new artwork would be digital renditions of the original artwork. This news caused me some amount of concern as I am not a fan of digital or modern artwork. There is a big difference, a noticeable, tell-tale difference between the original artwork and the new digital representations. A lot has been lost in the translation; color, shape, action, and character. The original artists (of the era when the first book was produced) worked with traditional media; pen, pencil, paint and brush. Their work took time, patience, and they poured a tiny part of their soul into each piece that they produced. That bit of soul is evident in the original artwork. It is blatantly missing from the new "artwork" which have all the charisma of industrial blueprints mated to a pack of Crayons. It is impossible to reproduce that original kind of effect when the artwork is assembled and colored by a computer. It may be just me but I feel that the new artwork has no soul; it has nothing special to set it apart from any other digital artwork you see today. It is plain, uninspired and it loses everything that made the original artwork great in the transition from old style hand-made to modern digital format. In other words, it is nice, but certainly nothing special, nothing awe-inspiring like the original artwork and to those who have seen the original artwork from the original book, the new artwork is almost instantly forgettable and certainly unmemorable. The original book was unique in that it presented something new, something of imaginative substance. This book fails to do that and it fails solidly.

The fact that most of the artwork seems way too dark is also a very real problem. The original artwork was full of vivid colors and striking combinations! The original artwork was full of vibrant hues and brilliant shades! The original artwork was utterly visceral; it was nothing short of imagination inspiring, mind melting, retina burning eye candy! There was action! There was an underlying sense of urgency in the pictures we viewed!

Not so with the new artwork.

This new artwork is dark, like someone didn't adjust the gamma correction enough, and the wonderful details that made the original paintings almost leap off the page are now sadly far subdued (if they are present at all). Yes, space is dark but in order to make things visually interesting, the new artist could have positioned the light source behind the viewer (thus casting the artwork in light) rather than behind the object itself (whereby the viewer is seeing what little details there are cast in dark shadow). Also, the artwork suffers from the same problem as all other contemporary computer rendered artwork does; it has sharp edges and it looks fake. It doesn't look like a human did it, even though a human sat at the keyboard and mouse to render it. In other words, it looks like it was designed on a computer and that is perhaps its greatest weakness and failing. There is just something about digital artwork that makes it unpleasing to me. Apparently, you simply cannot mold a smooth curve to a shape created by a computer, no matter how smooth you want it, it will still look sharp. Where the original ships (painted) are smooth, flowing ... the new artwork (digital) looks like it was assembled from basic shapes, tubes, cylinders, squares, rectangles and then had a simple skin thrown over it. It not only looks artificial and "wrong" but it feels that way as well and artwork is all about feeling or at least it should be. Now, speaking of feeling, the reader begins to feel that they are looking at a reference manual for some new entry level space computer game rather than a work of classic science fiction art.

Numerous spelling errors abound and often serve as rude speed bumps to be hit full on in an unsuspecting manner while reading (thus taking instantly away from any enjoyment you might find in this work). The descriptions of the spacecraft are also often superimposed over the art images directly, sometimes making the descriptions difficult to read while at the same time detracting even more from what little the new artwork has to offer. To be such a high tech endeavor, this product certainly suffers from many simple, low tech errors that could have been corrected if humans, rather than computers, had been relied on more heavily for the final work.

The authors put in a small number of additional graphics as place setters to the story but gone are the descriptive graphics and illustrations from the original book; simple graphics that really lent something to the rest of the story. Several cross sections of the spacecraft are missing, the Terran solar system defense layer chart is missing, and a host of tiny details which made the old book so wonderful are simply lost in this new book. Another important aspect that is lost is the overall sense of action! Several of the original works of art portray spacecraft in direct combat action, either being victorious or suffering the sad fate of war. Lasers, missiles, rockets and particle beams are all shown striking out to do their incredible damage against implacable foes in the depths of space. Spacecraft are scrambling to achieve a tactically advantageous position! Spacecraft are coming under attack and are attacking! Spacecraft are being hammered apart with tremendous explosions and clouds of wreckage! We see astronauts scrambling for cover and safety as their refueling bay is hit by an enemy missile, their spacecraft charge blasting to safety just seconds before it all goes up. None of this hectic action is carried over in the new book. With a few exceptions, most of the action is gone from the new book and we are hard pressed to tell if these are combat ships or cargo ships. If I had to use one word to describe the "action" implied by the new book, it would have to be "sedate." Several of the original pieces of artwork have been severely cropped in the new book, often to the direct loss of the action itself (probably much to the chagrin of the original artists who are loathe to see their work butchered in such an amateur way). The basic stuff that made the original book so great; the action, the imagination, is simply not to be found anywhere in this new book. I fully expected a little bit of artistic license in a revised product, especially one almost three decades after the first, but this is definitely a case where that artistic license should have been sternly curbed at a very early stage in the project, if not revoked all together.

Do I own this book? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes and even more so; no. Yes, I would recommend this book if you already have the old, original edition of Stewart Cowley's Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD book in your collection and you want to complete your collection. If your original book is tattered and you are seeking a replacement, then this is not what you are looking for. I would recommend this book as a lesson to others on how a nearly 30 year old classic with a strong cult following simply cannot be improved upon, even with the best of intentions and the best of 30 year later computer / digital techniques.

No, I would not recommend this book if you have never been part of the magic and majesty that is Stewart Cowley's original work. This book should not, and I cannot emphasize that enough, be your gateway into the TTA universe. The original four books are simply not to be missed by science fiction fans and fans of science fiction art fans. The good news is that the original books are still not so rare and valuable that you could not find prime examples of them with just a little bit of effort for about twice (or less) than what you would pay for this book. Indeed, as I wrote this review, copies of the original book were going for about eight dollars (USD) on Amazon. If you are a science fiction fan and you like classic science fiction art from a time when that art was still done by paint and brush (and not by mouse and keyboard) then do yourself a favor and spend the extra effort, spend the little bit of extra money, to get the original TTA book first, then follow it up with the other books in this wonderful series (Great Space Battles, Spacewreck, and Starliners) and then, if you're not completely satiated, or you simply need to have everything that is TTA, then buy this book, as a last resort.

I really hate to bring this amount of rain and dampen such an ambitious project but perhaps ambition and more so, hubris, is the very root of the whole problem here. Some things you just can't improve upon by adding to them and the original TTA books are prime examples of such. It was a noble idea to get this particular book back out into circulation but when the authors thought that they could improve upon the original, especially by adding wholly new content introduced by them, then I'm afraid that they were sadly, even tragically mistaken. If they had followed the recipe of the original, used a minimum amount of meddling and pretty much left well enough alone in regard to form and content, if they had presented brighter models in full action, if they hadn't cropped the scenes, then this would have been a worthy example of preserving a classic with a modern twist and some polishing to bring it up to date. As it is, this new work comes off as a half baked idea and an unfinished product that was rushed to market to meet a perceived demand by the fans.

The tagline on the rear cover of this book proudly declares that "The TTA is Back!" That may be so, but it can hardly be considered new and improved (let alone better than ever or even as good as the original).

The sequel, unlike the original, wallows in relative morality. The narratives are standard anti-US screed, to the point where America is seen as the imperialist against the rest of the world by 2010.

This viewpoint also warps the view of the Alphan and Terran fight against the Proximans. The original book concentrated on the artwork and the types of spacecraft. The poorly written sequel cannot resist moralizing, stating that while the Proximans nuclear attack may have caused the war, really it was the Alphan superior and condencending attitute that was truly responsibile.

It's a stretch to try to preach politics in this book, and the original was vastly superior for not trying to push it's political agenda.
Sadly, this book is far inferior to the original.

Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD is nothing but Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 with the same ships but different, improved, graphics. Only buy it if you don't have the old version.

The book arrived today, and I have just finished reading it.
Visually it looks really good and I am impressed with that. However the editing could have been improved by having someone outside the project proof read it. I'm assuming that only the people involved did any proof reading.
I mention this because apparently the Alphans in this book declared "WAS" on the Proximans, when I thought they meant to declare WAR.

And there were other blunders in the book that made me believe that they relied too heavily on a software spell checker and not enough on a human proof reader.

Also the book is again about the Proxima war from the original book and not about the years after the war as I was lead to believe from its title. The first book published in 1978 indicated the years covered are from 2000 to 2100 and the new book indicates it is from 2100 to 2200, this lead me to believe that it contained all new ships.
Now if it was their intent to move the time line forward into the future by 100 years they could have stated this in the acknowledgements or the forwards. So instead of getting a book of all new background and almost all new ships and descriptions. I got a book that simply rehashes the old book while only adding descriptions of about 6 new ships.
Still the book does capture some of the original's look and feel but it really did not seem to catch the original's spark. But that could be because I'm no longer 10 years old, and its not the late 70's any more.

Still if you want a space book to spark your imagination this one will do, Mainly because there are no others out there like it right now. But those grammatical errors are just embarrassing enough to ruin this book. And some of the images do look like they were rushed, or at least the artist was unable to figure out how to paint a skull and cross bones with eyes and a nose.

Also the political editorial about today's events do distract from the book and do the original a great disfavor.

No wonder the book was severely discounted in price before it hit the market..

This is not a new book of artwork.

This is the same artwork, redone with CGI and redone badly.

If you have the originals, don't bother with this one.

Once more the new publishers of the TTA books have found ways to spoil old classics - the original hardback version was clear and to the point - this much smaller layout sized soft cover lose's it in that it repeats materials and tries to cover more ground than it really needs to

Once more its technical info and graphics are its only saving grace

I was so excited when I heard this book was (supposedly) going to be re-released, I couldn't wait to recieve it.

Unfortunately, instead of being the cleaned up re-issue I was looking for, the whole book was re-written. The new artwork isn't as good, the text is LOADED with typographical and grammatical errors, some ships are missing from the original, and the authors saw fit to include some ridiculous and entirely inappropriate anti-Bush and anti-America statments.

Buy a used copy of the original.