Terran Trade Authority Handbooks

Some fantastic books i found online ages ago, All of the illustrations came from 70's Sci-Fi book covers, and the stories were written around them... Love it!

Enjoy!



Terran Trade Authority Handbooks

The Terran Trade Authority is a science-fiction setting originally presented in a collection of four large illustrated science fiction books published between 1978 and 1980. This series was written by Stewart Cowley.

The Terran Trade Authority is Shown as a Group and an evolution of the World Trade Authority

The books formed a connected space-opera milieu, describing the future history of mankind's expansion into the galaxy, presented in the guise of official handbooks by the trade organization from which the setting takes its name. However, the books sometimes contained contradictory information (e.g., the nature of early FTL technology).

Compared to other science fiction settings, the TTA setting appears optimistic about man's place in the universe, though elements of violence and authoritarianism do appear in the books. It features a strong undercurrent of wonder and adventure, due in part to the inclusion of various mysterious alien relics and incidents that are left unexplained by the author.

According to the series original timeline, humans - aka 'Terrans' - became starfarers in the early 21st century, with the development of the DeVass Warp Generator. This is described as a spacefold-style faster-than-light drive, which brought space at the origin and destination into proximity, allowing a vessel at the former to transfer to the latter without crossing the intervening distance.

The future history states that after remote exploration of nearby star systems, contact was established with the inhabitants of the Alpha Centauri star system (the 'Alphans'), with whom Terrans quickly became friends and allies. The second alien encounter at Proxima Centauri (with the 'Proximans' - long antagonistic towards the Alphans) resulted in the two-decade long 'Proximan War.' This war drove the development of space technology, resulting in many of the starship designs that inhabit the TTA universe and facilitating its further colonization.

The original four books are:

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

In addition, the books Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD and Great Space Battles were collected together and published as Spacebase 2000 (1984, UK/US). All the books are currently out of print, but can often be found through auction sites or used booksellers.

Large color illustrations cover at least half the pages in each book. Most of these illustrations are reprints from book covers, which explains why they sometimes do not exactly fit with each other.

All the illustrations were made by now-famous science fiction painters such as Jim Burns, Alan Daniels, Peter Elson, Fred Gambino, Colin Hay, Robin Hiddon, Bob Layzell, Angus McKie, Chris Moore, Tony Roberts, and Trevor Webb.

Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD
This book covers the events immediately prior to and after the Proximan War Era and descriptions are presented in that context. The book is presented in the same manner as an aircraft recognition guide, made up entirely of spacecraft descriptions which relate their role and performance in the war if applicable, and occasionally their history afterwards. (Some of the ships in the book are nonmilitary in nature.) There is also a section on unknown aliens.

Great Space Battles
This book is divided in two parts:
- The Laguna War: A novelette about an interstellar war between Earth and Laguna (Beta Hydri) in 2219.
- A set of very short stories mostly about exploration of dangerous planets and minor battles.
Unlike Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD, the book contains stories instead of individual spaceship descriptions. This causes some problems as many illustrations were not always coherent within a single story.

SpaceWreck: Ghost Ships and Derelicts of Space
As was the case in the second part of Great Space Battles, the book is a collection of many unrelated very short stories about dangerous planets and space disasters. Since the stories are short, they usually have only one illustration, which avoids the problem of coherence between illustrations.

Starliners: Commercial Travel in 2200 AD
This fourth book is a return to the principle of the first book i.e. an illustrated list of spaceship descriptions instead of a collection of stories. However, being set in a time of peace, it speaks only of commercial companies offering flights to exotic planets.