There's a book floating around used book stores that I've considered picking up.  Any one have it? Read it?  Any good? [ATTACH=CONFIG]1908[/ATTACH]

The artwork of Wayne Douglas Barlowe is incredible and an inspiration to me. This particular book has led me to finding and reading many classics of science fiction. So far, every book of artwork by him has been worth the money at twice the price.

Didn't work for me. The art is far from the images of the aliens I already had in my head, and not in an interesting way. The books the art is based on are outstanding, however. They're true classics, but I'd recommend just reading the novels and letting your imagination draw them instead.

If you want good sf-related art books, Weta Workshop's The World of Kong, A Natural History of Skull Island, Whitlatch and Carrau's The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, and of Douglas Dixon's alternate zoology books (like The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution, Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future, or After Man: A Zoology of the Future) are all tremendously imaginative attempts at building fantastic alternate ecologies.

Quote from: Headless;1006023There's a book floating around used book stores that I've considered picking up.  Any one have it? Read it?  Any good? [ATTACH=CONFIG]1908[/ATTACH]

I never did like his interpretation of the Guild Steersman but most of the others are pretty solid.

Quote from: Pat;1006030Didn't work for me. The art is far from the images of the aliens I already had in my head, and not in an interesting way. The books the art is based on are outstanding, however. They're true classics, but I'd recommend just reading the novels and letting your imagination draw them instead.

If you want good sf-related art books, Weta Workshop's The World of Kong, A Natural History of Skull Island, Whitlatch and Carrau's The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, and of Douglas Dixon's alternate zoology books (like The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution, Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future, or After Man: A Zoology of the Future) are all tremendously imaginative attempts at building fantastic alternate ecologies.

There's one other book similar to After Man, and for the life of me I can't remember the title.

In this other book, humanity meets another spacefaring race that just wipes the damned floor with us, and devolves the humans on various colony planets into things more adapted to the planetary environment - one group was on a more or less idyllic world with few predators, so they were turned into little critters that didn't do much more than eat and screw.  Another group was on a high gravity world, they were turned into a colony of fleshy flat organisms that spread across the world like a quilt.  

The book is written as a history of humanity, and eventually details how some of the groups managed to regain sentience and re-evolve.  One group ends up as something fairly similar to Daleks if I recall correctly.  Anyone remember this?

If you can get it cheap I highly recommend it, that is if your sitting on the fence about it.

I signed that book out of the library probably 5 times total as a kid. Was hugely influential on my tween early 80's brain.

Almost all the aliens at that time I'd never heard of or read their associated novels. Led me to read some great books.

Wayne Barlows art is excellent as well imo. Also I'd recommend his "Alien Planet" book and it's TV "Documentary"

Haven't seen this since I was a kid but I loved it.

I've seen it around but never so much as opened it.

I have it. It is a very YMMV sort of thing and I did bot like some of the interpretations. Others were ok. And others were just kinda there.

It is though a nice little reference for books to possibly go out and read.

Id suggest hitting up a library and seeing if they have or can acquire a copy before buying. Unless its really cheap.

Semi-brainy Sci-Fi coffee-table art books like this and the aforementioned After Man were big in the eighties among a certain type of Omni-reading Middle-School geek (i.e. me and my friends). We got them from the library or as Christmas presents from well-off relatives and passed them around, pouring over them like monks, ruthlessly strip-mining them for gaming ideas. IIRC Barlow's Inferno, in which he tackled the subject of Hell, was better. After Man was by far the best of the lot and had some great, very believable "Monsters" and is one of the best bestiaries of an imaginary world ever.

I did page through After Man once. Weird as fuck.