Any fan of the Terran Trade Authority series ?

[Gaarst]

Just wondering if there was anyone here who enjoyed Stewart Cowley's Terran Trade Authority series.

I myself only have had the Spacewreck book, but I've had it for several years, and it is among the things that gave me a great interest in space.

I rediscovered it recently, and wish I had the other books of the series, unfortunately they are either hard to find, or quite expensive.

As I read only one of the books, I'm not the most cultivated about the topic, but I know enough to enjoy what I read!

Above all, what drew my interest when I got this book was the whole universe created by the author and described in the book and also the unique graphic style of the illustrations: futuristic but somehow uncomfortably realistic.

For those who don't know it, the original series is made of 4 books written by Stewart Cowley (but illustrated by several artists) between 1978 and 1980:

• Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD
  
• Great Space Battles
  
• Shipwreck: Ghost Ships and Derelicts of Space
  
• Starliners: Commercial Travel in 2200 AD
  

In the TTA timeline, humanity has conquered space as soon as the 21st century and these books tell the story of this conquest, mostly by description or stories of individual ships.

The books are fairly large with illustrations usually covering half of the pages, and descriptions and stories of the drawn ships on the opposite page.

There have been additions to the series later on, mainly a reissue of the original books, and Galactic Encounters, a non-canonical addition to the original books written by Cowley under a pseudonym.

If anyone would like to talk or discuss about the books, please do so !

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I suggest your local library for getting books. And, no, I haven't read those books, but they sound a lot like Joshua Mowll's books.

[Godot]

It is really funny that I found this thread by googling for images of the TTA book by Cowley to show them as examples for great SciFi art :D

Long time ago I owned the german versions of Spacewrecks as well as Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD and I have to agree ...
the great illustrations combined with the stories were deeply inspirational ... especially the ones in "Spacewrecks"
(I especially loved the story about the huge derelict battlefield they found IIRC on a planet in the Alshain system ... with the huge rotting machinery of war, the skeletons and a few degenerated last members of the species which waged the war that led to the whole extinction of their civilization)