Serious book
This is a compilation of two books: "Spacecraft 2000-2100 A.D." by Stewart Cowley and "Great Space Battles," also by Cowley and co-written with Charles Herridge. This edition was published in 1984.
Cowley noticed in the 1970's that there was a lot of very good Sci-Fi art going to waste in pulp magazines and occasional paperback novel covers that he thought a better use could be made of. The end result was a book that was a futuristic book comparable to "Jane's Fighting Ships," and similar titles, telling about a space ship and its history and development with one or more pictures to illustrate it. The sales were so good that the publisher asked Cowley to create another, which became "Great Space Battles," a collection of 'histories' of interstellar wars and battles with alien lifeforms - sentient and not - and even with other humans.
The extensive art is still evocative more than 30 years after its creation. Some of it appears like some of the conceptual art appearing today in science articles about spcae travel, and others have a more dated appearance, but all of it is beautiful and well-chosen.
I first discovered "Great Space Battles" in a library as a child. I loved it so much that I checked it out repeatedly and actually wore the cover off the book and was forced to pay the library for its replacement. The stories were, to me, stories of the human spirit, but not always the hero-always-wins sort. All in all, these two books are well written and in many ways timeless, and they enjoy a global cult following today.
I highly recommend this title to any serious Sci-Fi reader, but especially to those who enjoy Sci-Fi art and paintings as well.
