Non-fiction books covers and previews: Starships, Grudge, Nerd Search, and design

A new batch of covers and preview pages has been released for forthcoming Star Trek non-fiction books, spanning cat-based whimsy and a game book to starship catalogues and behind the scenes design. Continue below to check out all the latest.

First a newly announced book from Eaglemoss: Hero Collector and Penguin Random House is the latest in the Star Trek: Shipyards(ad) series, which aims to catalogue all the starships of the Star Trek universe. Star Trek: Shipyards - Alpha Quadrant and Major Races: Lysian to Zibalian(ad) will be the second of two books dedicated to the various aliens of the Alpha Quadran, following Acamarian to Ktarian(ad), and is set for release in April next year. 

Here's the new cover, featuring a wide variety of alien ships spanning the franchise, and a blurb which notes a few more of the featured species and starships:

More preview pages from Designing the Final Frontier

A few weeks ago I shared some of the first preview pages from the forthcoming book Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier - How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future(ad). Due out in August, authors Dan Chavkin and Brian McGuire will be taking us on a tour of the design influences and uses of real world products in TOS. 

Now some more pages, and a slightly updated cover, have been released, giving a much better feel for the book, and delightfully geeky and detail-obsessive book it is. Continue below to check out TOS design spanning architecture to salt and pepper shakers!

Designing the Final Frontier preview

Out this August is a gloriously geeky Star Trek book that will appeal to a very special blob of people in a venn diagram of Star Trek fans and those with an interest in design history! Coming from publisher Weldon Owen and author and design expert Daniel Chavkin is Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier - How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future(ad).

Simon and Schuster, who are distributing the book, have now released a new cover (still marked as not final in their Digital Catalog), which also lists Brian McGuire as an author or contributor. They've also released a few preview pages. Continue below to check them out.

Book bits: New books, Animated Series Guide previews, and more

A few bookish updates today, including new covers and preview pages of a couple of forthcoming releases. But first, new book news:

Original 1979 edition cover

New listings have confirmed two new books on the way, and for the first time in a while we know the title of one of them! Due out in October is an unusual release, a reprint of Gene Roddenberry's novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The rationale is for the film's 40th anniversary; there's no mention of whether there's any new content, such as an introduction, to mark that occasion. Like all the current novels, this will be a trade paperback release, and will also have an audio edition. There's no cover yet (but surely the iconic movie poster will be used), but there is a blurb:

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture with this classic movie novelization written by legendary Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry!

The original five-year mission of the Starship Enterprise to explore strange new worlds and to seek out new life and new civilizations has ended. Now James T. Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise have separated to follow their own career paths and different lives. But now, an overwhelming alien threat—one that is ignoring all attempts at communication and annihilating all opposition in its path—is on a collision course with Earth, the very heart of the United Federation of Planets. And the only vessel that Starfleet can send in time to intercept this menace is a refitted Enterprise, with her old crew heeding the call to once again boldly go where no one has gone before….

Another book matches the cryptic naming of the other recent new listings, known currently as Untitled LBH; you can only tell it's a Star Trek book as it's listed under Pocket Star Trek. Whatever it is, we can expect it in February 2020.

Coming this September is the new Official Guide to The Animated Series, from Aaron Harvey and Rich Schepis. Amazon listings for this now give us a brand new set of preview pages to enjoy, which give a wider idea of the book's contents (literally, the contents page is among them) then the previous preview. It includes one spread from the preview preview with a new image selection, so some updates must have been happening as the book approaches publication:

New Official Guide to the Animated Series book coming

Listings for a new TAS reference book have just started cropping up, revealing a rare treat for TAS fans coming this September. Written by Aaron Harvey and Rich Schepis, The Official Guide to the Animated Series, from publisher Weldon Owen, promises an in depth look into the making of the series, including production artwork and new interviews. Continue below to check out the cover, blurb and preview pages!