Ships Of The Line Second Edition; does anyone have it yet?

[Mage]

For a while I was considering buying the first edition, untill I heard about the second edition coming up.
The second is out now, and I was wondering if anyone bought it yet, and if it has all the same stuff from the first edition plus more, or if it is a whole new book in itself.

 

[Daddy Todd]

It's been delayed and won't be out until December, so I don't think anybody has it yet.

 

[Mage]

Oh, I didn't know about that. I was just going from what I though the original release date was.

 

[Markonian]

According to Amazon, release date is December 2nd.

I'm going to the get the Kindle version first because I'm moving after New Year, but I'm sure to get the printed version as well afterwards.

 

[Mage]

According to Amazon, release date is December 2nd.

I'm going to the get the Kindle version first because I'm moving after New Year, but I'm sure to get the printed version as well afterwards.

Do you own the first edition aswell? If so, could you let me know if it's worth buying both version or if the second version has everything from the first?

 

[Markonian]

Do you own the first edition aswell? If so, could you let me know if it's worth buying both version or if the second version has everything from the first?

I don't have the first version. I was considering to buy it when the announcement of the 2nd ed. came around.

Supposedly it contains all of the images of the Ships of the Line calendars, plus some text.

 

[Avro Arrow]

It's been delayed and won't be out until December, so I don't think anybody has it yet.

Actually, I picked it up yesterday. It was a surprise, since I forgot it was coming out at all. I had actually gone to the bookstore to get Foul Deeds Will Rise.

Do you own the first edition aswell? If so, could you let me know if it's worth buying both version or if the second version has everything from the first?

I own the first edition too, but I haven't really had a chance to look at the new one yet. When I do, I'll try to compare the two, but I'm not sure when that will be, so maybe someone else will jump in in the meantime.

 

[Mage]

It's been delayed and won't be out until December, so I don't think anybody has it yet.

Actually, I picked it up yesterday. It was a surprise, since I forgot it was coming out at all. I had actually gone to the bookstore to get Foul Deeds Will Rise.

Do you own the first edition aswell? If so, could you let me know if it's worth buying both version or if the second version has everything from the first?

I own the first edition too, but I haven't really had a chance to look at the new one yet. When I do, I'll try to compare the two, but I'm not sure when that will be, so maybe someone else will jump in in the meantime.

That's ok, I can wait. Curious as to what you'll think.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I got the first edition cheap on eBay last year, but can't see the appeal of it or the calendars over freely available Trek wallpapers.

 

[Markonian]

I got the first edition cheap on eBay last year, but can't see the appeal of it or the calendars over freely available Trek wallpapers.

Imho, there are two appeals over fan-made works. Firstly, some of them are from people actually involved in the series, and are based on original meshes. Example: Doug Drexler.

Secondly, the books and calendars are licenced material. That means they can be mined for content and included in Memory Beta!

 

[tomswift2002]

I got the first edition cheap on eBay last year, but can't see the appeal of it or the calendars over freely available Trek wallpapers.

Imho, there are two appeals over fan-made works. Firstly, some of them are from people actually involved in the series, and are based on original meshes. Example: Doug Drexler.

Secondly, the books and calendars are licenced material. That means they can be mined for content and included in Memory Beta!

You also forgot that some of the images used for "Ships Of The Line" are not even images that were 'recently made'. There have been a few pre-production images in the calendars as well.

But hopefully this second version will include images from, I think it was the 2002 calendar. The original did not include images from that calendar, since that was designed in the more traditional calendar design where you had the image in the top square, while the dates were in the lower square, (kind of like a 4:3 TV image) which was unlike the other Ships of the Line Calendar that featured the full image across both squares, in a widescreen (16:9) image.

 

[Kertrats47]

I got the first edition cheap on eBay last year, but can't see the appeal of it or the calendars over freely available Trek wallpapers.

Imho, there are two appeals over fan-made works. Firstly, some of them are from people actually involved in the series, and are based on original meshes. Example: Doug Drexler.

Secondly, the books and calendars are licenced material. That means they can be mined for content and included in Memory Beta!

You also forgot that some of the images used for "Ships Of The Line" are not even images that were 'recently made'. There have been a few pre-production images in the calendars as well.

But hopefully this second version will include images from, I think it was the 2002 calendar. The original did not include images from that calendar, since that was designed in the more traditional calendar design where you had the image in the top square, while the dates were in the lower square, (kind of like a 4:3 TV image) which was unlike the other Ships of the Line Calendar that featured the full image across both squares, in a widescreen (16:9) image.

If that's the calendar I'm thinking of, I loved that one! There was a really great understated shot of a bunch of workbees that I thought was very impressive.

 

[JD]

I got the first edition cheap on eBay last year, but can't see the appeal of it or the calendars over freely available Trek wallpapers.

Imho, there are two appeals over fan-made works. Firstly, some of them are from people actually involved in the series, and are based on original meshes. Example: Doug Drexler.

Secondly, the books and calendars are licenced material. That means they can be mined for content and included in Memory Beta!

Not to mention that they can also inspire scenes in epic TrekLit trilogies.

 

[tomswift2002]

I just saw about 10 copies at my local Coles. It's twice as thick and twice as heavy as the first version. I wasn't able to look in it, but unfortunately, due to the width of the book (its the same width as the first book), the store only had room on the shelf for about 5 copies of "Acts Of Contrition" and one copy of "Disavowed". All the other Trek novels were gone (most likely sent back to S&S).

So I guess my local Coles is hoping it'll be a big seller for Christmas for it to take so much shelf space (not to mention but here in Canada it is a $37 book).

 

[Daddy Todd]

My copy came from Amazon today. I did a side-by-side comparison with the original edition, and it seems like the reproduction isn't as sharp as first time around, unfortunately.

No, that's not right. The problem is that the reproductions are TOO sharp, as if someone processed the image files with too much Photoshop "sharpening" so they look pixellated (dithered? -- not sure what's the right term here.)

It's clearly noticeable when you do a side-by-side comparison with the 2006 edition.

 

[tomswift2002]

with the older pictures it could also be the original files are not as compatible with whatever software was being used now to create the book as they were in 2006.

 

[Markonian]

I've got the book as ebook and am satisfied with the visual quality on the screen.

A welcome bonus are the descriptions for each picture. The hitherto unidentified NX-class starships beside Enterprise are identified.

The SOTL 2015 images are not included.

Criticism: The edges of the images have been cut off generously. Take a look at ships that are along the edge and compare the calendar image, e.g. ISS Enterprise peeking at USS Defiant. Rademaker's ringship suffered the worst, Imho.

I'm also disappointed that the centerfold images are not included. Flint's castle is among my top ten of SOTL productions, and I would have loved to get another look at the Columbia-class orthographic.

Overall, it fulfills its duty - giving me a look at the images of the calendars that I've missed. It doesn't replace the originals though, therefore I'm going to keep the dead-tree timekeeping devices.

 

[Mage]

My copy came from Amazon today. I did a side-by-side comparison with the original edition, and it seems like the reproduction isn't as sharp as first time around, unfortunately.

No, that's not right. The problem is that the reproductions are TOO sharp, as if someone processed the image files with too much Photoshop "sharpening" so they look pixellated (dithered? -- not sure what's the right term here.)

It's clearly noticeable when you do a side-by-side comparison with the 2006 edition.

This, and two comments on Amazon, makes me less then enthusiastic about this.

 

[tomswift2002]

I picked my copy up yesterday (for $10 off) while Boxing Day shopping. I really wish that the original month/year had been put in the book for when the image first appeared, but some of the older pictures appear to have been scanned from a hard copy source, rather than being generated from the original files, as some of the finer details were pixelated and blurred.

 

[Mage]

That's a real shame. From what I've gathered sofar, this is not something I'm going to buy.