#Spacecraft from 2000 to 2100 AD

[technicallyclassyperfection]

bob layzell from "spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD" by stewart cowley, 1978

[jollijeff]

pressurewaves:

from the Terran Trade Authority Handbook of Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD

[lasagnaisnotapasta]

Friendly reminder that, according to this book from almost 50 years ago, we should already be taking cruises to Mars and we’re 5 years away from developing warp drives.

[humanoidhistory]

Angus McKie illustration from Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD by Stewart Cowley, 1978.

[spaceintruderdetector]

from Terran Trade Authority Handbook SPACECRAFT 2000 To 2100 AD / 1978

[rowecommaadam]

Terran Trade Authority Interview

Okay, this big text-heavy post isn’t from me. You can find it online over at this website. It’s a great interview with Stewart Cowley, author of the Terran Trade Authority sci-fi art book series from 1978-1980. 

I’m just reposting this as kind of a backup. Cowley doesn’t have many interviews out there, but his candid thoughts are the best secondary materials out there on the TTA. There’s no reason why the original site would go away (and honestly no reason why this tumblr post won’t be erased either!), but a few redundancies can’t hurt. The rest of this post is in the voice of the original interviewer, Philip Banks:

Some time back I got a very pleasant surprise in the form of an email from Stewart Cowley himself. In fact it was something of a shock for me - it simply wasn't something I expected to get despite having had contact from the other Stewart Cowley who is also writing books. Not only that but he supplied a lot of information on the hows and whys of the books. Accordingly, with his permission, I've taken the emails he sent me and edited them into an interview of sorts. I hope fellow TTA fans find it as interesting to read as I did.

Without further ado, here is Stewart himself...

(Stewart Cowley) Someone mentioned your site to me so I checked it out. It brought back a host of memories. Spacecraft 2000-2100AD was the first book I ever wrote and represented a major point of change in my life. I was working as a graphic designer when I had the idea. I was doing work with an illustration agency called Young Artists based in London UK. They happened to represent a new generation of brilliant artists working in the SF arena, and I was really excited about their work. The only outlet for their illustrations at the time were paperback covers, but I felt convinced more could be done with the amazing images they were producing.

I persuaded them to loan me file transparencies of art samples and had them stuck on my lightbox for a couple of weeks. I'd look at them every day, trying to think how they could be utilised. Then one day I remembered a book I'd had seen as a child. It was Jane's Fighting Ships - a survey of the world's navies - and it hit me. Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD was born. Being a designer rather than a writer, I tried to find someone to author the project but couldn't find anyone with the same vision as I had. I wanted someone who could not only create specifications for the spacecraft shown, but set them in a believeable historic context.

I had already discussed the project with Hamlyn Publishing who wanted to do it and issued a contract. As I was running out of time, I started writing it myself and sent sample text to them to keep them quiet to buy time until I could find a suitable author. They liked it, so I thought, what the hell, and finished it. The rest is history as they say.

(Philip Banks) That actually answers a question I was going to ask , which was whether Janes Fighting Ships was an inspiration for the first book particularly.

(SC) The book went on to sell 800,000 copies in eight languages so they asked me to do a sequel. Space Battles was produced in 3 weeks and as you rightly point out in your review, suffered in quality as a result. That also did well, nevertheless, and they commissioned a further title. The strong sales of both books gave me more clout and I was able to insist on having more time to complete the following two titles; Spacewreck and Starliners.

I'm afraid I must also own up to the Galactic Encounters series by Steven Caldwell. I'm not proud of those six books. I was approached by another publisher to write for them, and they offered me enough money for me to quit my job as a designer and become a full-time writer. I confess that I just did it for the dough and all I had to work with were the images that I had rejected for my earlier books. It wasn't only for contractual reasons that I used the pseudonym of Steven Caldwell. So that's the story behind the TTA in a nutshell.

Incidentally, there isn't a combo of the second two TTA titles as far as I'm aware.

(PB) What was the idea behind the combo books? Simply a way for the publisher to re-use material and get more sales or was it a way to do a reprint of the first two books when the later two came out?

(SC) The combo was the publisher's response to requests from their customers who apparently felt there was a demand for it.

(PB) You mentioned pretty much authoring the series entirely yourself - how did Charles Herridge, co-author on Great Space Battles, fit into the picture?

(SC) Charles was the publisher who commissioned the books from me. Because of the almost impossible deadline he contributed some of the storylines and worked closely with me on others so I felt he should share the writing credit.

(PB) Whose idea was the 'Space Warriors' book? It seems to have been the idea of the TTA Books stripped down and targeted at nine to twelve year old readers, so was it a publisher request?

(SC) The request for a title for younger readers came from a publisher (Deans, I think). I was still living in the world of TTA and decided to keep the context for the stories in this title.

(PB) Is this the only direct spin off book from the TTA series?

(SC) Yes, as far as I'm aware. However, there may have been references to the TTA in the Galactic Encounter series, but I haven't looked these for about 25 years so might be wrong.

(PB) It has to be asked, what was the story behind the 'pasta master' modelmaking running joke?

(SC) I'd forgotten about this but it was a nickname I earned at that time because as my friends constantly reminded me it was the only thing I could cook. In order to try and interest some interest in my limited catering, I used to build exotic constructions out of pasta shells, giant clams, alien heads etc.,and stuck together with melted cheese to hide the unchanging sauces beneath.

(PB) Did any of the artists featured in the books thank you for promoting their work via these books? Do any keep in contact with you?

(SC) Yes. After the success of the first book, some of them got more involved and I worked with them on the selections. One or two had not done a lot of work before and the exposure in the books got them more work. I did stay in contact with one or two, like Chris Foss who went on to great things, but the currents of life eventually took us different ways.

(PB) Where you aware that the TTA books were a big influence on the two Homeworld games made by Relic?

(SC) Not at all. I didn't even know about them. If that's true, it's nice to know that the books meant something to some people. Most writers don't really get much in the way of feedback on their work and positive responses mean a lot.

(PB) Which is your favourite book of the series and why?

(SC) The first one was a milestone because it helped to change my life and created lots of opportunities for me. As a book, though, Spacewreck is my personal favourite. Space itself is a mysterious place and I loved the idea of astro-archaeology - starting with a mysterious artefact and working back to try and unravel it's story. Even if it is fiction, the process embodies the same sense of curiosity and a sense of the truly alien.

(PB) Was it a surprise to find a website out there dedicated to your books? Indeed are you surprised at how popular these books have turned out to be?

(SC) A complete surprise! Especially after so many years. When I wrote these, I don't remember there even being a world wide web available to people!

I want to thank Stewart for taking the time to answer these questions in such a candid fashion. Not only were the answers informative but it has solved a long standing mystery as readers of the TTA pages had been emailing me for some time about the Galatic Encounters series being very similar to the TTA books.

[70sscifiart]

Art from Stewart Cowley's Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100 AD

[bolinaosunset]

Angus McKie illustration from Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD by... https://ift.tt/2B8n63W from @humanoidhistory

[blippicrunk]

Interstellar Queen on Red Sky World by Angus McKie

Angus McKie is my favorite tronpunk era artist, for his renditions of spacecraft with a sense of gravitas and mass, and this particular spaceliner, here named the Interstellar Queen, is my favorite ship, and this is mt favorite of his many renditions of the Interstellar Queen.

This image wasn’t painted for the Terran Trade Authority series of books, but this and many other images of the Interstellar Queen appear in the series’ first book, Spacescraft: 2000 to 2100 AD, where it got its name.  This book has been mentioned already on Blippicrunk and is a milestone book of the 1970s wave British sci-fi artists.

Angus McKie’s image of the ship being fueled and prepped at a station also appears as the cover image of volume 16 of the 25-book anthology: Issac Asimov Presents the Great SF Classics, reprinting year-by-year the best sci-fi stories from 1939 through 1964.

https://blippicrunk.tumblr.com/archive

[retroscifiart]

Epic painting by Tony Roberts 'Double Star’, 1973 by Granada Publishing Ltd for the Robert A. Heinlein book. In 2001 it was copied/sampled/ripped off by Turner Prize-nominated artist Glenn Brown who was successfully sued. The whole kerfuffle put Tony Roberts on the map. I scanned this from Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD.

Check out my Greatest Scifi Soundtracks playlist on Spotify

[cluboftigerghost]

Art from Stewart Cowley's Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100 AD http://ift.tt/2ySF7Oi

[letstraveltoorion]

Why do I like Science-Fiction?

Strangely, as far as I can think of, I always did. I do recall enjoying cartoons and movies on flying saucer of the early ’70s. But I think my fascination for science fiction in the early ’80s.

 I remember that everything seemed to have hit me at once! On TV, cartoon show like Goldorak (UFO Robot Grendizer), Albator (Captain Harlock) and Capitaine Flam (Captain Future) were sweeping me off my feet. In theatre, movies like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica were taking my breath away. However, the real shock would come between 1982 and 1985.

 At the time, I was reading mostly bandes-dessiné (graphic novels) and science fiction was just another genre part of the selection. Back then, I was not making the difference between adventure, thriller and sci-fi. Then came the school’s assignment: each one of us in the classroom, had to pick up a novel and read it. Then we’d have to make a 2–3 page résumé of what we have read.

 Not knowing what to choose, I went to the library and picked up “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne. I kind of enjoyed it. Since it was my first novel, it made me curious and I started to read more. Of course, since I did not make the difference or favoured any particular genre, I read everything I could find; mostly “Bob Morane” by Henri Verne. This series of books contained many genres (adventure, spying, crime, etc.) but I did enjoy the science fiction better. Les tours de cristale (the crystal’s towers), La zone “Z” (The zone “Z”), Le chevalier noir (the black knight) were among my favourite stories.

 It is at that point in my life that I got hit by two separated events. The first was my introduction to the Terran Trade Authority (TTA) books by Stewart Cowley; and the second was a gift I received: my first novels on Perry Rhodan—a French translated German science-fiction series.

 Starting with Les Vaisseaux Spaciaux de 2000 à 2100 (Spacecraft 2000–2100 AD) and with the 3 other books (Great Space Battles, SpaceWreck: Ghost Ships and Derelicts of Space and Starliners: Commercial Travel in 2200 AD), then followed by the Galactic Encounters series; I was blown away! Those books described, via short stories, he challenges and tribulation of mankind as the journey on the galactic scene. Each story was enhanced by illustrations and painting from the best artist of the late 70’s and 80’s … mostly those from Peter Elson.

 Even today, I can say with confidence that no other works fired my imagination the way the art of Peter Elson (1947–1998) did. His work is still unparalleled to me. In my opinion, he is an unavoidable contributor of the genre. (Check is official page: http://www.peterelson.co.uk/)

Perry Rhodan was something else. The brain child of two German writers: K. H. Scheer and Clark Darlton (a.k.a. Walter Ernsting) started in 1961 with the heroes first landing on the moon, and still going on today! This series is the epitome of the Space Opera genre. A mosaic that spanned time and space going from the beginning of time and going to the farthest galaxies at the end of the universe.

Those two series were what got me hooked. And from Perry Rhodan, I drifted over the Anticipation Collection (by les Éditions Fleuve Noire). At the time, up to the late ’90s at least, Anticipation was the main if not the only source of French Science-Fiction. Not just French translated books and stories but actual French-speaking writers.

From Anticipation, I discovered writers like P.-J. Hérault; G.-J. Arnaud; Pierre Barbet; Robert Clauzel; M.-A. Rayjean; Frank Dartal; Dan Dastier; Jan de Fast; J.-P. Garen; Laurent Genefort; Maurice Limat. All of them gave me some interesting perspective by their visions along with some other writers (like Jimmy Guieu) from other francophone publishing houses.

Of the “CLASSIC,” I read only a few. For some reasons, I was never attracted to the mainstream or currents. I did jump into the bandwagon more than a few times (like Battletech and Warhammer 40,000), but for the most part, I always enjoyed stories by writers that were mostly unknown or less known.

As of the main question of why I like Science-Fiction in general? Well, at first, it was a very cheap way of travelling. I spent my youth in a very small town on the edge of civilization, surrounded by an endless forest to the north and the sea to the south. To that, you include long winters and some very short summer, which lead to a life strongly influenced by the weather and season changes. Add to that a kid who’s very curious of what was “out there” beyond the horizon … and let’s not forget that, at the time, television had only 4 channels available to us (3 French and 1 English). Cable TV was a luxury and the technologies (I.E. the cable) would not be available in our area until the very late 80’s and early 90’s.

With this taken into considerations, Science-Fiction, was to me, a ticket first class for adventures and evasion … a means to travel far and away in order to discover some fantastic landscapes and new countryside.

That was then! Mind you, it is still the case in some ways, but now, I discovered that I like a style of science fiction that makes me “think.” The genre that will open my mind to possibilities or force me to reconsider my position, conception or values. That’s why I am quite enjoying stories about alien civilization, galactic empires and stories that can span decades, centuries or even millennia… Stories on how technologies will affect a culture or civilizations, who in turn will affect its surroundings and environment, which in turn will affect the use of it very technology, and so on…

Incidentally, I also recently discovered I liked a subgenre of science fiction: the SF cop’s stories—a combination of two of my favourite subjects: Crime solving stories with science fiction … a fascinating subject as both law enforcements and organized crimes are racing to discover new ways for applied technologies, to further up their own goals. A very interesting topic.

Now that I explained to you why I like Science-Fiction, let’s hope I’ll be able to impress you with some of my crazy ideas...

Enjoy!

[fic-dreamin]

5.0 out of 5 stars The entire series

5.0 out of 5 stars An original and inspired early look on sci-fi starships This is a very great book with very detailed paintings of future warships and a good description to go along with each one, a must have for anyone who loves art, sci-fi, Space, war, or new ideas (or any combination of such), or is just interested in seeing what it is. No computer 3d stuff, just pure imagination. There is none of that old sci-fi pulp magazine rockets and UFOs and many of the starships in the book would put many of the spaceships used in movies today to shame (by judging how they looked like).My favorite warhip has to be the Wasp Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars been trying to buy this book for 34 years ! As others have stated , I too discovered this book when it first was published. It was the late 1970's and I was in Junior High. our school library had a copy and I used to check this book out ALL the time. When I was in studyhall in the library I would go get this book and reread it; over and over again. I would attempt to draw space ships in the style that were drawn in the book, and the story line was facsinating. Once I went to the Senior High I no longer had access to it. Needless to say I loved this book and never forgot about it (did not know it was part of a series). I never found this book in any of the used book stores that I used to go to over the years, and I went to alot of used book stores. Finally ended up in my old Junior High library a few weeks back on a school related matter and it made me decide to finally find the book online. After a few fruitless searches I finally decided to buy this book on the hopes that it would be ' the one' from its description and the art work in the ad. It was the book and I am happy I got it. Go to Amazon

4.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting and fun book to have... Take artwork of spaceships, say from the cover of books or from magazines, and write a history around each one, listing why they were made, what they did and what happened to them. Now put all this ships into a book, split the book into three parts: military, commercial and special function, add a timeline, blueprints and specifcations. Not only did I enjoy the book, but I even recognized much of the artwork used.I just wish there was more to the book and that the 'history' had more 'meat' to it. I may look for other books by the same author. Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent science fiction I read these books as a kid in the early 80's, and I haven't seen them anywhere since. I wish the publisher would reprint them, because, as I recall, the stories and the artwork are better than most of the sci-fi you hear about today (Star Wars & Star Trek included). The stories are basically a future history, but only going forward about one-hundred years or so. Definately worth buying if you can find a copy... Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Terran Trade Authority Library **Adapted from the Wikipedia article on the Terran Trade Authority**Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD (by Stewart Cowley, 1978)Great Space Battles (by Stewart Cowley and Charles Herridge, 1979)SpaceWreck: Ghost Ships and Derelicts of Space (by Stewart Cowley, 1979)Starliners: Commercial Travel in 2200 AD (by Stewart Cowley, 1980)Aliens in Space: An Illustrated Guide to the Inhabited Galaxy (1979)Star Quest: An Incredible Voyage into the Unknown (1979)The Fantastic Planet: A World of Magic and Mystery (1980)Dangerous Frontiers: The Fight for Survival on Distant Worlds (1980)(Printed as Settlers in Space: The Fight for Survival on Distant Worlds in the US)Worlds at War: An Illustrated Study of Interplanetary Conflict (1980)Space Patrol: The Official Guide to the Galactic Security Force (1980)The above series of six books was written by Stewart Cowley using the pseudonym "Steven Caldwell." They were published by Intercontinental Book Productions in the UK and republished by Crescent Books in the US. Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Time Capsule I bought this book with my birthday money back around 1979 when I was 9 years old, and it was the first thing I made sure I left the house with during my recent divorce. It contains incredible & stunning artwork that informed most of the late 70s and early 80s sci-fi/fantasy. A great nostalgia item for Gen-Xers, but I don't know how todays kids would receive it, as its aesthetic is decidedly foreign to the CGI most prevalent today. However, given a chance, perhaps they might pour over it for hours as I used to. Go to Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars A true sci-fi classic A wonderful book I used to read in high school, used to borrow it from the library all the time until somebody did not returned it. It made me dream of space and the future and when the library lost it, I felt really bad. Anyways I remembered it for over 20 years until I decided to Google it and found out its part of a series, once I found out that it was available, I had to have it for my private collection. The book has the power to take you to the stars......beautiful book. Go to Amazon

[humanoidhistory]

Art by Angus McKie from Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD by Stewart Cowley, 1978. The spaceliner on the right is called the Interstellar Queen, first introduced in 2046.

[spaceintruderdetector]

from Terran Trade Authority Handbook SPACECRAFT 2000 To 2100 AD / 1978

[humanoidhistory]

Bob Layzell art from “Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD" by Stewart Crowley, 1978.