First look inside the new Stellar Cartography

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by 8of5, Sep 28, 2013.

  1. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I remember that. Also, the designer fictionally credited is a Federation Starfleet officer who probably served in the United Earth Starfleet pre-Federation. I'm therefore now wondering if the confusion depicted is intentional in some way, as Lt. Cdr. Millburn's own blurred memories.

    (Also, noticing the "Denobula Prime" error being reinforced here where the map should read "Denebola".)
     
  2. Plaristes

    Plaristes Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I got a copy, and while the book is cool for what it is, I'm still wishing there'd be Trek reference books on the same level of quality and detail as Star Wars's Essential Atlas, Essential Guide to Warfare, Book of Sith, etc.
     
  3. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Book of Sith and The Jedi Path are published from the same company that did Stellar Cartography and the Federation: The First 150 Years.

    As For the Essential Guides, those are Del Ray/LucasBooks, and we already know what Pocket Books stance is on coffee table books, so I don't expect to see anything like the Essential Guides for Star Trek any time soon. Maybe 47 North or even DK will explore something like them in the future, but I doubt we will get anything like them in the near future. They would be nice to get though, I agree.

    I'll be getting this soon finally. I saw a couple of reviews/unboxing videos on Youtube for the book and maps and was extremely impressed.
     
  4. Brefugee

    Brefugee No longer living the Irish dream. Premium Member

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    Regardless of quality and if this lived upto peoples expectations, will it be available one day in a digital only format for ebook readers.
     
  5. Wadjda

    Wadjda Commander Red Shirt

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    It would be neat if we could get a picture online for every book so we could know how the main characters look. Like they did it with the last Leia novel.
     
  6. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Dimesdan: Are you talking about an idea of "future-proofing" this project?
     
  7. Stevil2001

    Stevil2001 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm not convinced there'd be much of a point.
     
  8. Pixel

    Pixel Commander Red Shirt

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    My full review of the package is online - like I said earlier, very disappointed, especially considering the price point. This should have been a top class product, and it doesn't even succeed in replacing the previous star chart releases.

    http://www.geekchocolate.co.uk/inde...graphy-larry-nemecek&catid=38:books&Itemid=59

    My boyfriend is also extremely angry - this was his main present to me this Chrimblemas, and he knew how much I wanted it based on the publisher's description, and we both feel profoundly ripped off.

    Still, it's better than On Board the USS Enterprise...
     
  9. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    DK did do a Star Trek Visual Dictionary, but I don't know if it did well enough for them to want to do more Trek stuff.
     
  10. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Some people do like imagining original characters on their own, using the authors' descriptions to visualize them. :techman:

    Otherwise, there is this thread:
    http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=31760
     
  11. Wadjda

    Wadjda Commander Red Shirt

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    They can still do that even if they have pictures online.
     
  12. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    A got one at a clearance sale at The Works for £4.99 just before Christmas, so I doubt it set the world on fire.
     
  13. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Sure, but many fans complain when a visual fails to match their expectation, such as the cover art featuring George Kirk Sr on "Final Frontier", and Morgen and Asmund - or is it Gilaad Ben Zoma and Tricia Cadwallader? - on "TNG: Reunion".

    Once seen, it is hard to unsee. :rommie:
     
  14. Pixel

    Pixel Commander Red Shirt

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    Indeed, wildly off topic, but I just finished Richard Matheson's Hell House last week, and about fifty pages from the end, watched the film version, The Legend of Hell House, and despite everyone involved being utterly miscast, couldn't shake their faces when I finished the book.
     
  15. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    I've only seen photos online thus far, and I honestly don't know if I'll be getting this myself, but I have noticed a few welcome additions to the maps. The Dominion War spread has added Ventani (the location of Tret Akleen's homeworld, interesting to get a sense of its location relative to Prime), Devos (Son'a Ketracel-white production), and Mirada (I'd been wondering where it was, and assuming Cardassian-proximate given that Miradorn aren't anywhere in the political league of Tholians and Romulans). I also know that Vanguard Station was added to the Beta Quadrant overview map. On a less pleasing note, I also also know that Denobula has been thrown around all over the place to accommodate the Romulan War chronology from Federation: The First 150 Years (I much prefer the novels' version).

    I was wondering, how common are these additions and/or changes?
     
  16. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I ended up receiving this as a birthday gift, and have only gone through things briefly so far, but already my favourite map is the Federation Historical Map, I'll be putting that one up on my wall. The booklet is very interesting indeed as it is written in-universe.

    As mentioned above, I'm unsure what the point would be in releasing a digital edition of this. The book is a companion to the maps, not really a separate thing, and the selling point of this entire thing are the maps themselves. I suppose you could "enhance" the maps with media. I believe 47 North released a multimedia enchanced version of The Jedi Path earlier this year which looked really intriguing. I think Del Ray has done the same with a couple of their recent Essential Guides. That'd probably be the only way you would be able to release a digital e-book version.
     
  17. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Finally had a chance to go through the maps and I have to say for myself, this is exactly what I expected it to be. I have yet to read through the book, but I'm very impressed with the maps so far. I love the fact that on the Federation Historical Map and the Alpha and Beta Quadrant Map's you can see Starbases and Starfleet's Deep Space Stations. I put up the following maps on my wall: The History of the Federation, Dominon War, and the Alpha and Beta Quadrant Maps. I'd put up more but I'm out of room. I am very pleased with this book.
     
  18. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Good question, seconded.
     
  19. Mimi

    Mimi Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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  20. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    As I said earlier in this thread, it was a shame how this didn't really update the Star Charts to include ENT s2-4. Anyway I was just randomly watching DS9: The Adversary (season 3 finale) and noticed a couple of omissions there.

    Barisa Prime is noted as a Federation colony near Tzenkenthi space, yet whilst paging through the Star Charts while watching the ep I couldn't find it marked anywhere (which is odd as Barisa Prime is listed on the big list of UFP planets on the first fold out map)
    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Barisa_Prime

    And there's also the Tzenkethi colony world the Defiant is heading for to attack. Its name escapes me, but it wasn't marked on the map either; there's just the Tzenketh homeworld.


    So that was just a random ep I watched, which makes me wonder how many other minor omissions there may be on it, which again, it's a shame they couldn't have been fixed for Stellar C