Piers Bizony

NASA Missions to Mars from Piers Bizony is, as expected, a visual feast. What sets it a bit apart from many coffee table books is just how much good information it contains.

If your main interest is as a large format book for perusal and display, you will be very pleased with this. The photographs and other illustrations are clear and the captions are informative. If, in addition to the visuals you want a book that will offer good reading, this will be even more to your liking. While not extensive or too detailed the text does walk us through the history of our fascination with Mars, from sci-fi to various missions.

This is that coffee table book that certain of your friends will not only flip through but ask to borrow so they can go through it more closely. So be prepared to fill that spot when they go home. In other words, this will be one of your books that might generate discussion among your friends all by itself. What sci-fi do they remember? Who among them followed missions more closely than others? Who, when young, thought about space travel? Okay, that last one will include most everyone.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (plus d'informations)

This gorgeous coffee-table book with its stunning illustrations is one every reader is sure to reach for again and again. Beginning with the “Collier’s” magazine illustration depicting a reusable spaceplane atop a Wernher von Braun-designed rocket and ending with a depiction [from space] of the most important planet in the solar system, each incredible illustration helps to define the American space mission.

Since its inception in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has depended on artists to depict space missions and the possibilities that astronauts might encounter in space exploration, providing a representation of what the nation might gain through the space program. Each of the illustrations included here come from NASA's archives or from its principal contractors, providing readers with a unique collection of artwork that reveals the context and compelling nature of America's space programs.

Each section includes a narrative providing relevant background and describing the accomplishments during the time frame of the chapter. The caption for each illustration contains all information available, including the artist, the date, and its relevance to a particular space program or mission. Some, such as Robert McCall’s “First Men on the Moon,” are sure to be familiar to many readers; however, most will be enthralling new discoveries to treasure.

Included in the book: First Comes the Dream: How Art Showed the Way to Space; This New Ocean: The Dawn of the American Space Age; One Giant Leap: the Voyages of Project Apollo; Islands in the Sky: Inhabiting the Realm of Earth Orbit; Brave New Worlds: Back to the Moon and Toward the Red Planet; and The Expanse: Exploring Depths of Space Beyond Mars.

Readers with an interest in NASA, space exploration, and/or art will all find much to appreciate in this extraordinary volume.

Highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)