Aliens in Space, An Illustrated Guide to the Inhabited Galaxy, Steven Caldwell
Crescent Books New York, 1979
64 pp, 31 full color illustrations, 15 b/w illustrations
I suppose this is the title that introduced me to the TTA universe; that sneering feline is the most memorable image I have from the series. Perhaps this was the one book that always seemed to be available from my local public library. More recently, it was the first book I re-acquired as I began scouring the web for the TTA book series. The guide outlines a variety of alien lifeforms on ten different worlds, from the sophisticated human-like Alphans, to numerous deadly man-eaters.
I got to know the Galactic Encounters AFTER reading the 3 first TTA Handbooks. Even though I was able to get half the series in the early eighties, I never got the chance to get Aliens in Space until maybe 10 years ago. And it was the first time I got to see pictures of Alphans and Proximians. I really liked the bit about the wigs. Cowley really did wonders in making unrelated artwork come out as a whole. Too bad we never got a chance to see Flofarzinians and Natans 🙁
Thanks for this great site!!!!
PS: and thanks for the non-TTA but still thematically related books. I have to get Galactic Aliens!
Hi Cosmicdiadrone!
Thanks for dropping by…I totally agree about the Flofarzinians! They would have been something to see. Galactic Aliens is great book and a lot of fun to leaf through. My slim review hardly does it justice. My sole critique is that the artwork isn’t specifically attributed to the appropriate artist; they’re all list as contributing artists. Still, you’ll recognize many of the styles and the binding and print quality are very good. You should be able to get a second-hand copy from Amazon.
Thanks again!
My Sister and her husband found this book lying in the middle of a country road they lived on. One night they went out to a local small store near their country home . It was raining out and as they were driving home they noticed something in the middle of the road that looked like a purse or something and when they got out to look they found this book. It really freaked them out and they took it home and dried it out . One day when visiting them my sister told me about the book they found. I was really leery to read it . She told me she didn’t want it and I could keep it if I wanted to. That was back in the early 1980’s. I kept the book and don’t really read it just show it to people to get their reaction and to tell them the story about how they found it. Really kind of creepy ya know?