Rating: 
Summary: A promising idea that disappoints
Review: The "Star Trek Starship Spotter," by Adam Lebowitz and Robert Bonchune, is a good example of a great idea that is spoiled by a poorly thought out execution. The book seems to be modeled on classic "real world" reference works like "Jane's Fighting Ships." The "Spotter" contains profiles of starships seen in the fictional world of the various "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures. Both Federation and alien ships, of all sizes and configurations, are included.Each type of ship gets two 2-page spreads. The first is a technical overview with information on manning, propulsion, weapons, etc. The second 2-page spread is a full color illustration of a representative ship from that class. And therein lies the problem. Each illustration is actually spread over two pages. Thus, you can't fully and clearly see each ship unless you break the spine of the book in an attempt to flatten out the spread. This poorly conceived presentation greatly detracts from what could have been a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Starship Spotter: The Redemption
Review: The team who brought us Star Trek: Starship Spotter have apparently redeemed themselves from the mistakes made from that horrid Star Trek: Ships of the Line 2002 calendar, but did manage to make some new minor mistakes. In Starship Spotter, crisp clear pictures allow the ships to be seen in all there beauty, including a never before seen shot of the Voyager Aeroshuttle! The ship shots include a brief bio on the ship classes & stats. (some ship experts can debate the accuracy of the stats) The only things keeping me from giving this book a perfect score were the annoying use of the Workbee, some of the ships appeared a little too dark, (some of the larger ships and all of the shuttles did not have enough lit surface space and/or lit windows) But the most distracting aspect of this book was that the binding ran down the center of every ship. Maybe a future update can undo this problem. Starship Spotter was a valiant attempt. Hopefully, if they can do an update in another format which can remove the binding down the center of each picture, I will look forward to future attempts from these talented individuals to provide us with more examples of there work!
Rating: 
Summary: Already been done
Review: There's plenty of Star Trek websites that feature schematics of starships featured in this book. Most of them provide more information than published. A Google search will turn up these sites and you'll enjoy the lot of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Not an essential Trekkers' book
Review: This book is a disappointment. As a lifetime Trekker I thought it would be wonderful. But there were too few ships and the illustrations were poor.
Rating:
Summary: Not an essential Trekkers' book
Review: Unbelievably, Pocket Books has put out a book focusing on the ships of Star Trek. Even more unbelievably, they didn't think, and/or do the research, in presenting the art of these fine ships! Every ship is presented on two pages, that's right, the binder for the book cuts the ships in half. I was sooooo looking forward to this book! But, didn't buy it. You'd figure the folks who put the holes in the calendar so you could hang it sideways would appreciate the obvious, and lengthen the book so the entire art of each ship has it's own single page. Major disappointment! :-( Dan
Rating:
Summary: Awful layout ruins what could have been an awesome Trek book
Review: Unbelievably, Pocket Books has put out a book focusing on the ships of Star Trek. Even more unbelievably, they didn't think, and/or do the research, in presenting the art of these fine ships! Every ship is presented on two pages, that's right, the binder for the book cuts the ships in half. I was sooooo looking forward to this book! But, didn't buy it. You'd figure the folks who put the holes in the calendar so you could hang it sideways would appreciate the obvious, and lengthen the book so the entire art of each ship has it's own single page. Major disappointment! :-( Dan
Rating:
Summary: Already been done
Review: What they did put in the book was alright, however, what they left out made the price seem a little hefty. It almost appears as if they said, "hey, here's a quick way to make some quick cash, slap this together and the devoted fans will buy it." Which I'm sure is the case. If you do some quick cross referencing with the encyclopedia, you'll also discover that some of the "facts" do not match up. This one is for the collector's, like myself. It does provide some eye candy, but not too much substance.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the price!
Review: What they did put in the book was alright, however, what they left out made the price seem a little hefty. It almost appears as if they said, "hey, here's a quick way to make some quick cash, slap this together and the devoted fans will buy it." Which I'm sure is the case. If you do some quick cross referencing with the encyclopedia, you'll also discover that some of the "facts" do not match up. This one is for the collector's, like myself. It does provide some eye candy, but not too much substance.
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