Listers, Thought you all might enjoy my quick summaries of these books I asked
about last week;any questions please email me. Mark
Hi Enzo,
I apologize for not getting back to you sooner--was on night shift
this week.
I have not had these books in a few years,so I will give you as much detail as
i remember;here goes:
Spaceshps--illustrated book detailing the ships used by earth and alpha
centauri allies vs.proxima centauri in the Proxima War of 2048 to 2068 Mostly
covered fighters;one really cool weapon I remember was a proxima robot ship
that was hidden underground and triggered by its sensors
detecting approaching enemy forces,then popping-up,firing at enemy while
flying around,then doing kamikaze attack at end;could be spoofed into early
detection by holograms.
> From reading the ship descriptions,you could asertain the general
Part 2 of my summary--know it is long but it contains more material for
gaming,I believe.
Feedback welcome--Mark
Enzo, Thanks for the regards to my son;he is just getting over a virus,which
is why I did not get back to you in a timely fashion earlier.
Great Space Battles--stories of space battles involving human
forces;only remember @ 3 of them:
1.small story of human mutants-banished from earth after becoming
victims of proxima nuke strikes from previous book (inference of how
ugly the prejudice of humans can be seen in the tale,I remember)--take
up residence in outer rim worlds and turn to space piracy until smashed
by FLEA-Federal Law Enforcement Agency (good illustration of power
armored recon trooper hovering off of ground shooting into crowd of mutants
trying to capture him)
2.FLEA smashes another band of illicit ship/spare parts traders;the
ships and parts were coming from a planet that was called "the spaceship
graveyard"--for some unknown reason ships from many eras and races were
orbiting around this planet until discovered by smugglers (one of the ships
was us space shuttle
3.main story dealt with human colonists in a system of worlds discover and
attacked by unknown race;earth sends fleet to investigate and find underground
cities on one planet,but cannot find out identity of inhabitants,so they set
up a blockade. System natives launch blockade run,first using holograms to
test human defenses,followed by real fighters escorting transports (came from
nother in system planet);one transport damaged and captured with
prisoners and cargo--prisoners are humanoid,cargo is weapons,food and
unidentified milky white substance;prisoners only reveal they are natives
(believe descended from earlier settlers,not sure though),but start dying from
disease quickly;one of the prisoners asks for "droth"
to breathe but does not compute for humans at first--until humans
realize it is the white milky substance captured in the transport;its function
is to fight the planetary inherent disease that would normally
kill human/humanoid life forms
Earth sends more ships/grond units to end the conflict as they figure
humanoids will either surrender or die;the noids choose option
3--counterattack!
Noids underground cities turn out to be city ships--massive ships that
lift off from ground,heavily armed and armored;there are 8 of them and
are escorted by large noid fleet--human forces outnumber them and have
better ships--apparently.
Noids unveil another secret weapon--jamming capability that renders most
human ships unable/barely to maintain control (most earth tech ships
rely on computer cotrols for the most part,with manual controls strictly as
backup);so noid fleet blows through earth fleets and heads out of
system--towards earth!
As earth fleet struggles to regroup,they do get word to human kind to muster
ships that have manual controls mainly;as there is some lead time before noids
arrive (dont know how long) so earth pulls all the old ships out of mothballs
it can find with manual controls to reequip its fleet. So the aliens show
up,the battle ensues in sol system,one of our light carrier squadrons finds
the jamming source(2 alien ships outfitted with long range antenna and
projector arrays,plus advanced alien electronics)
and blows them away.now our better ships move into the battle--as well
as those ships that pursued from alien homeworld,some of which got back
in time to join in the battle--and our numbers and now better ships
prevail;the last cityship crashed into ocean instead of doing kamikaze on Hong
Kong (remember illustration of cityship crashing into large
communications tower--the tower looked like larger version of washington
monument,but was dwarfed in size by cityship)
Very exciting--so much soI still remeber most of the relevant details
and many of the illustrations some 18 years after owning this
book--would love to have it again if possible--definitely scenario rich
for gzg games!
Space Disasters--recounted tales of ships lost in space:passenger liner
that air leaked out and froze into large ice cube;colonizer ship that fusion
power plant blew;explorer vessel that harbored deadly disease that drove crew
insane before they died;the gunship Malmo drifting back to earth from the noid
homeworld,air gone from leaking hull sustained in battle with the city
ships,its crew long dead (all ships were ordered to pursue city ships as best
they
> staci & mark Drake wrote:
> [quoted text omitted]
(cool discriptions snipped!)
> If you ever find anyone of these books,get them!They were phenomenal.
I loved those books!
I found mine at a used book dealer.
I've got three of them: Spaceships, Spacewrecks(the neatest one afaiac),
and Great Space Battles. I think there's one about Space Stations-
anyone know of any others?
Thanks,
Mark
> Donald Hosford wrote:
> staci & mark Drake wrote:
My brother has this one--I remember reading it many moons ago, and
thinking,
gee, I really want the non-earthers to win! That Federal government
doesn't seem too worried about other folks...
[quoted original message omitted]
My brother has this book too. One of the stories (can't remember whether it
was this book or the Great Space Battles one) had a revolt against earthgov
in it--interesting reading.
Rob
[quoted original message omitted]
I have no idea where to get these books (except for searching your local used
bookstores, of course). My brother got his when they were first published (was
that late '70s or early '80s?).
I remember the picture of the FLEA powered armor guy blasting the unarmored
pirates...cool picture.
Another cool picture was the Terran fighter blasting out of a station bay
while the station is under fire near Mars (IIRC).
I used these books as inspiration for some of my scratch-build warships.
I'm going to have to borrow those from my brother again, I think.
Rob
[quoted original message omitted]
I have just returned from my friend's house, and he has all of the books in
the first series...that we know of. They are (in order of writting):
Series Title: Terran Trade Authority Handbooks Author: Steward Cowley The
Books:
Spacecraft 2000 - 2100 AD
Great Space Battles Spacewreck (Ghostships and Derelicts of space) Starliners
(Commersial Space Travel in 2200 AD Book Size: About 12 inches high, by 9.25
inches wide. With a colorful book cover. Fairly large books... Notes:
According to the info page, this series was printed in England by Jarrold &
Sons Limited, Norwich. Status: Completely out of print!
Then there is the "other" series. Of this one, we only have Star Quest and
Worlds At War. We would, of course, like to see the rest.
Series Title: Galactic Encounters Series Author: Steven Caldwell The Books:
Aliens In Space (A guide to the inhabited galaxy.) Star Quest (The account of
the first epic voyage beyond the Perimeter.) The Fantastic Planet (A
description of the most mysterious world yet discovered.) Worlds At War (The
many aspects of warfare in space.) Settlers In Space (Colonization and the
struggle for survival on distant worlds.) Space Patrol (A profile of law
enforcement in the Federation.) Book Size: About 10.75 inches high, by 8
inches wide. Also with colorful book covers. Notes: According to the info
page, they were by Crescent of New York, but printed in Italy. Status:
Completely out of print!