Customer Reviews

Star Trek Star Charts: The Complete Atlas of Star Trek

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Without doubt, this is the most important Trek publication since the Encyclopedia 1st came out.

This book features maps of the stars we have heard so much about in Trek, and a lot of others we've never heard of before.

There's a lot to the book, so I'll try to break it down:

The first section is sort of a galactic overview, showing overall maps (which are very interesting, as we see the extent of the Borg transwarp conduits, Vaawaur subspace tunnels and the Hirogen communications array. It then launches into a description of how the galaxy is broken down, and how the 'sector' is dervied. That little explanation is one of the best parts of the book.

We then see a 3D map (the only 3D map in the book) of the 4 sectors surrounding Sol, sectors that feature the major homeworlds such as Earth, Vulcan, Andor, Tellar and others.

The book then describes the classes for both stars and planets, both of which are very interesting and are based on real astrophysics, very well done indeed.

The book then goes on to show the various quadrants. The first quadrant shown in the Alpha Quadrant, and, believe it or not, this is one of the smaller sections in the book. Mandel shows the 'left' of the Federation, where the Cardassians, Breen, Ferengi and various others thrive. While it is a good map, I feel it was incomplete. I was looking forward to a detailed map of the Dominion War, yet Mandel fails to do that, and only designates a tiny area near Bajor as having been the battleground. Also, several important locations from the war are missing, such as: the Tyra system, Starbase 257, not to mention the site of the battle from 'Sacrifice of Angels'. Mandel also fails to show what Sisko was speaking of in 'By the Pale Moonlight' when he spoke of the Jem'Hadar often cutting through the Romulan Neutral Zone to attack the UFP. From this statement, I got the impression that the Cardassians/Romulans shared a common, or at least a fairly close, border. However, for this to be the case, Cardassian space would have to have been further 'north' of the Federation, closer to the Romulan border.

The book then moves onto the Beta Quadrant, the quadrant that includes the Klingon and Romulan star Empire. This section was very well done, but my one real complaint was the size of the Klingon Empire. It was huge, almost as big as the Federation itself, which I found unrealistic. The Klingons may be powerful, but I really cant see them administering such a large Empire. Also, the location of Tygor Kor from 'Apocalypse Rising' was absent.

Both of these sections also paid little to no attention to the adventures of Kirk and Picard. I expected some charts of where those two intrepid adventurers had been around the Federation, yet there was nothing to be found. If anything, both the Alpha and Beta quadrant sections need to be expanded to show more of the Federation. Some worlds were missing, such as Ktaria IV, Beta Antares (where a secret Federation shipyard is supposably located) and El-Auria.

The next section, on the Gamma Quadrant, is the smallest section in the book, and also has a few errors. The scale of the map is obviously wrong, but that's just a typo. Mandel shows the geography fairly well, but he missed the nebula Garak and Worf encountered the Dominion fleet in in 'In Purgatory's Shadow', which was disappointing. Other than that the map was good.

The last quadrant shown in the Delta Quadrant, and it also has the most errors. Voyager's first yeat in the DQ is riddled with errors, and not just small ones. Errors such as putting the singularity from 'Parralax' far ahead of other locations is ridiculous, the black hole was in the 2nd episode! Voyager's trip to Rinax/Talax was totally forgotten about, and I get the feeling Mandel hasn't done his research properly.

The 2nd year is much better than the first, yet still contains a few of the placement errors in terms of Voyager's timeline.

The third year is much the same, but I actually found it very interesting, particularly in how the Nekrit Expanse was shown, well done Geoff.

As far as I can tell, the 4th year is error free, yet I would have liked to have seen Voyager's route through Borg space, and exactly where the 'Northwest passage' was. I would also have liked to have seen Arturis's homeworld, the Cataati homeworld, and the location of the planet species 8472 destroyed in 'Scorpion'.

The 5th season map contains numerous errors, but most of these aren't Geoff's fault. The 5th season episodes were shown out of order, so often the stardates went forward and backwards. Hence, Geoff's maps are out of sync with 'true' stardate time. Normally this wouldn't be such a big problem, but 5th season had nearly 35 000 light years of 'extra' travel, so the difference of a few few stardate units can mean 10 000 ly. Also, some locations were missing, such as Malon Prime, Devore Prime, the ice planet Voyager crashed on in 'Timeless', not to mention the Ankari homeworld (although this world may be somewhere near where Voyager was in 2371). I would also have liked to have seen the location of the Borg unicomplex Seven and co went to, and also the location of the homeworld of species 10026 from 'Dark Frontier'.

Season 6 is shown fairly well, but again has a few placement errors, such as the Vaadwaur homeworld.

Season 7 is relatively flawless, but I would like to have seen the actual nebula Voyager went into in 'Endgame'.

Overall, the Delta quadrant maps contained the most errors of the book, and i got the feeling Mandel really didn't know Voyager all that well, which was disappointing.

One thing the book lacks is a decent index, which is vital in order to find certain planets, and could save hours of map searching for planets that aren't there.

Overall, this is a brillaint book, but is incomplete. If Mandel gets to do a second edition, I hope that he can expand the maps, include more worlds, more trade routes, more starship routes and fix up a lot of his errors, not to mention put in an index.

If you're a trek fan, casual or serious, you should have this book. Despite it's flaws, it's pretty well done, and obviously shows Mandel is one of Trek's new heavywieghts.

When one deals with as potentially complicated (and sometimes contradictory) a thing as the "geography" of the galaxy as described by the various Star Trek series and films, it's always a challenge to get a good understanding of just what's going on. To lay it out in a set of charts is even more of a challenge.

Geoff Mandel has met this challenge, and done it very, very well. While this new book is a very different way of looking at Star Trek's known space than the previous seminal publication on the topic--Bantam's Star Trek Maps, published over two decades ago--Mr. Mandel does the job excellently, bringing an even greater sense of verisimilitude and realism to the topic. When one is done reading this book, one can believe in the galaxy shown here, and believe that it could be the world that Star Trek's starships and stations and people inhabit.

Visually, this book is a treat, and it's filled with details that will keep the reader coming back to it again and again. A few small errors--a typo here, an erroneous date there--do not detract significantly from the overall rich tapestry of pictures and maps and the sheer volume of fascinating information contained within this book. Indeed, if there's one major negative to this book, it's that it's simply not enough. I wanted more, more starmaps, more planetary system details, more of all the things that are going to make this book an important part of my collection. I hope Pocket Books can be encouraged to do another edition, and expand it.

As it is, though, I still highly recommend _Star Charts_. It's a huge amount of fun, and is absolutely worth your time and money. Buy it!

If you're a fan of any of the Star Trek series, you must pick up this book! See the route Archer's NX-01 has taken... find out where the Bajoran Wormhole opens up at... the locations of many of Trek's most know, and not known systems!

Find out how sectors are work, and the galaxy is divided up... and how the Enterprise took Klang home in a few days, even though Klingon space is 100s of light years away from Earth.

What route did Voyager take to get back to Alpha Quadrant? It's here in thsi book!

The book is filled with detailed maps of the Star Trek galxy, and four posters that, when combined, represent a detailed map of Federation Space.

So pick this book up, and pepare to set course for any where your heart desires!

Star Trek fans have wondered for years where the Cardassian Union is in relationship to the Ferengi Alliance, or how large the Neutral Zone is between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire. This book answers those questions in a full-color, highly-stylized illustrative manner.

The atlas is in wonderful detail and the illustrations are in vibrant colors. I really liked the explanations of all of the classes of planets (Class M, Class K, etc.) as well as an explanation of the different stars.

The book even goes so far as to explain the coordinate system that Star Fleet uses to designate sectors, i.e. the difference between sector 001 and Sector 21505 et al.

Finally, a book that shows the geography of Star Trek and an arranged view of the Federation. This book should go on your bookshelf right along with "The Star Trek Encyclopedia", "Star Trek Chronology", "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual", and "Deep Space Nine: Tecnical Manual" to complete any true fan's reference library.

Finally after years of waiting and wishing for this particular Trek extra to be released, Geoffrey Mandel brings it to fruition. Star Trek Star Charts, from cover to cover has many of the details that fans have been waiting for. The Milky Way Galaxy in all its glory, as it's mapped by the Federation. The stars and planets are typed and explained in all of their details. Most everything that is known about the four quadrants; Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma are mapped skillfully and explained in detail.

This wonderful book is worth every last penny for the casual Trek fan and the die hard Trek fan alike. One can see that this can also be extremely helpful to the professional Trek authors and the amateurs wishing to get published in the yearly Strange New Worlds contest. As these Trek extras go, it's best to purchase this one as soon as possible because it will not be long before this is out of publication! {ssintrepid}

I like the fact that this book gives the fans a working atlas of the Star Trek galaxy. It is handsomely illustrated and gives the fans a sense of where planets are located within the Star Trek universe. Another aspect that is noteworthy is that we get to see the borders and boundaries of Federation,Romulan,Klingon,Cardassian, Ferengi, Borg, Dominion areas of space in relationship to each other and the whole Milky Way Galaxy. Geoffrey Mandel along with the Star Trek art department does a really good job on the graphic art from the front of the cover to the back. I especially like the section that gives us a look at a graphic representation of planets with some information on the planets right before each map of a quadrant. So many Alpha Quadrant planets like Earth, Bajor, Cardassia Prime are listed with statistical information and the same goes for the Beta Quadrant with Planets like Vulcan, Romulus, Kronos. Something that is cool is that some planets like Earth and Vulcan are singled out so we get to see how the solar system is set up. The only negative thing about this reference book is that it does not have an easy way to find many notable planets and trying to look for them all is tiring on the eyes.

Ok let me start by saying I think all Trek fans will agree that this book has been too long in the making -- it's been past time for an essential Star Chart on the Trek universe.

That being said the book is bitter sweet depending on what era of Trek you are looking for, I'll get back to that but first...

The GOOD: The Pictures and charts are high quality and detail driven. Reading them I can actually believe it all exists. There is a very very nice walk through to all the planets of intrest in each quadrant and a guide to how stars and planets are classified [M class, D class etc]as well as sectors and quadrants which is way cool! There's also a nice section on Voayger and it's journey through the delta quadrant which helps when watching the show and seeing just how much they had to go through. And the back of the book has a nice 4 section pull out that I plan to put toghether as soon as I can.

The BAD: Very little attention in this book is payed to Kirk and his Trek [pardon the pun] that started it all. Actually more attention is payed to Voyager and the new show Enterprise that's fine but give the first Captain, err second Captain his rightful due.
There's also not enough info on the Dominion war [2 page spread with small maps that aren't the easiest to follow or read]

OK well enough of the nit picking -- I hope that helps -- buy the book -- until another, better version comes out, it'll do.

live, love, learn,

Wildecarde

Very high-quality, full color graphics on every page. Diagrams of every part of the 'known' galaxy. Flight paths of the all the series' major ships (including several pages of Voyager's journey home from the Delta quadrant). Nice catalog of all the planet types (class M etc.) as well as the known planets (Earth, Vulcan, Q'onoS etc.)

Definately belongs in any Trekies' library.

In this colorful book, Geoffrey Mandel does an admirable job of piecing together the inconsistent galactic geography of Star Trek. It's an obvious labor of love by a fellow map enthusiast. A great companion to WORLDS OF THE FEDERATION (1989) and a worthy successor to STAR TREK MAPS (1980).

In recent years I have been a bit disappointed by the quality of some of the Star Trek material being produced. Many of the books have the feel of tired, old ideas rehashed over and over again. Indeed one might be forgiven for thinking that this is a classic case of merchandising gone too far. However every now and then a book like this comes along which sparkles like a diamond in a sea of mediocrity. To put it mildly this is a stunning little reference book which, despite one or two debatable bits, is well researched and written, and superbly put together. The vibrant colours, graphics, and layout are some of the best I have seen in any Star Trek reference book and are a credit to the author and his production team. In fact in a twist of irony the use of strong colours harks back to the set and costume designs of the Original Star Trek, as opposed to the slightly wimpy pastels of The Next Generation, or the brooding dark pallet of Deep Space Nine; Voyager and Enterprise. I for one am grateful for this and you only have to compare it to the disappointing format of David Mack's Starfleet Survival Guide to see what a difference a touch of class makes. If you have read some of my other reviews you will know that I'm a very harsh critic despite my love of Star Trek and don't give appraise lightly, but I can honestly say that this is without doubt my best Star Trek purchase of the year and would make a great Christmas present for any Trekker.