Spacecraft: 2000-2100 AD by the fabulous Stewart Cowley

Interior cover of Spacecraft: 2000-2100 AD by Steward Cowley depicting an AAF 212 Hornet

The central inspiration for my Instagram (@magnum_thrax), and this ongoing series of posts, is Spacecraft: 2000-2100 A.D. by Steward Cowley. The idea is simple but brilliant: find awesome sci-fi paintings (in this case of spacecraft) and then write descriptions or short stories around them. It's a sci-fi coffee table book in a sense, but more engaging: Cowley built a larger narrative through his spacecraft descriptions, telling the story of the TTA (Terran Trade Authority), its expansion out into space, and eventual war with Proxima Centauri. It's all done in a straight faced, matter of fact way that sells the whole concept. 

The details are so grounded and believable, you'd think this universe really existed.

My father bought me this book and Spacewrecks when I was maybe ten. It was Alien before Alien, ‘true’horror stories in space. I foolishly gave up Spacewrecks at some point, but I've held on to Spacecraft. I spent a good deal of time pouring over its pages as a kid over bowls of late night cereal. I've always thought the idea was fabulous and deserved repeating. 

There are other books in the series, but they weren't anywhere near as good. There's a revival series, using CGI versions of the original art, but it defeats (for me) the original purpose: adding depth to preexisting sci-fi painting. What I love really is how Cowley wove a story inspired by the art. The painting captures your attention for a moment. When you accompany it with a story that riffs on the visuals, it adds a whole new level of depth and meaning.

I was particularly fond of the Interstellar Queen. In just a couple pages, he built up a romance around a purely fictional ship design:

"Anyone who has visited a major spaceport will have seen the distinctive and elegant shape of the world's most advanced spaceliner poised for its next journey into deep space. The Interstellar Queen is the most recent of the Queen Line ships and the only one designed to operate between the stars. It was introduced in 2046 to meet the growing demand for access to Alpha Centauri, following the Trade Agreement signed with the inhabitants of the double star system in 2039..."

Yikes.

That's just a little over a decade away now. We haven't gotten anywhere near as far in terms of space travel as sci-fi writers thought we'd be, way back in the 1970s. We have some catching up to do...

The Interstellar Queen being approached by a shuttle craft

The military ships have details of the larger conflict embedded into their descriptions, allowing you to suss out the larger history of the Proximan conflict as you progress through the book. I thought this approach was fabulous: I was intrigued by the larger picture, but had to glean it out of the details, putting effort and concentration into it. The approach drew me in and made it all the more immersive. His writing style riffs off of books on real aircraft in particular, many of which cover WWII designs; these inevitably have some comment on the larger conflict (supply and resource issues, losses, successes, capabilities, what rendered them obsolete, etc). 

I loved the rivalry suggested between the AAF 212 Hornet and the K13 Shark, for example. Little touches, such as the Hornet turning ahead of firing, are a neat bit of riffing off the illustration that Cowley was referencing: 

"Extremely popular with the front-line crews, the Hornets did much to boost morale at a time when the enemy seemed to be gaining in technological superiority. The introduction by the Proximans of the new Shark interceptor had dramatically increased their defensive and offensive ability, and the appearance of the Hornet came as an unpleasant surprise. Although the enemy ship was certainly the faster of the two, the Hornets' superior armament earned the ship among enemy crews the nickname 'Sklathill', which roughly translates as dangerous fish or water creature. 

Rather ironically, the high degree of technological sophistication on both sides allowed a minor design aspect of the Hornet to give the ship an important advantage. The two upper laserlances were mounted at a pronounced angle to the directional line of the hull, permitting the ship making an attack to begin its escape turn fractionally before firing.To appreciate the significance of this manoeuvre it is necessary to remember that attacks of this kind were executed in fractions of a second."

So good!

Cowley also includes line drawings and cutaways of ships showing weapons layout or ship decks. The details are nonsensical and meaningless, but even so I loved them as a child. 

A line art diagram paired with the description and painting made it all the more immersive

There are some amazing Star Wars reference books I've browsed in the bookstore that have the most ridiculously detailed cut aways of spacecraft I've ever seen. The level of detail is mind blowing, and I love them. I imagine the artist must have based the machinery on existing ships and aircraft, and embellished from there, but the visual inventiveness of these has always left me gobsmacked. 

An ACM 113 Fatboy under fire by Proximan warships

I've tried to do something similar with my Instagram, with the help of MidJourney, detailing the history of the world Magnum Thrax and the Amusement Park of Doom is set. 

I'm not sure how successful that was, as Instagram is so image driven, and there are caps on how much you can write. I'm not sure many people even read the descriptions. I'm hoping to expand upon, and embellish, them here as motivation (and time, which I never seem to have enough of) allows. 

I don't have the mad sci-fi skillZ Cowley does, but it gives me something high to aim for. 

I haven't seen anyone else try the approach Cowley used, of an immersive sci-fi coffee table book, riffing off the best paintings in sci-fi, but it'd be great to see it again. 

As it is, these are forgotten books and vivid childhood memories.

If you like dead astronauts, ghost astronauts or dead alien ghost astronauts, this is the book for you!