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Ships of the Line
They dared to risk it all in a skiff of reeds or leather, on a ship of wood or steel, knowing the only thing between them and certain death was their ship. To explore, to seek out what lay beyond the close and comfortable, every explorer had to embrace danger. And as they did so, what arose was a mystical bond, a passion for the ships that carried them. From the very first time humans dared to warp the fabric of space, escaping from the ashes of the third World War, they also created ships. These vessels have become the icons of mankind's desire to rise above the everyday, to seek out and make the unknown known. And these ships that travel the stellar seas have stirred the same passions as the ones that floated in the oceans.
While every captain has wished that their starship could be outfitted in the same manner as the sailing ship H.M.S. Beagle -- without weapons -- that proved untenable. From the start, Starfleet realized that each vessel, due to the limited range of the early warp engines, must be able to stand alone against any attack. Thus arose the idea, taken from the days of wooden sailing ships, that every Starfleet vessel must stand as a ship of the line. Through the actions of their captains and crews, countless starships have taken on that role. Here we remember some of those ships and their heroic crews.
In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek , here for the very first time collected together are the spectacular images from the highly successful and acclaimed Star Trek : Ships of the Line calendars. Gloriously rendered, each of these illustrations was created exclusively for Pocket Books. With text by Michael Okuda ( The Star Trek Encyclopedia ), the story of each of these valiant starships comes to life.
While every captain has wished that their starship could be outfitted in the same manner as the sailing ship H.M.S. Beagle -- without weapons -- that proved untenable. From the start, Starfleet realized that each vessel, due to the limited range of the early warp engines, must be able to stand alone against any attack. Thus arose the idea, taken from the days of wooden sailing ships, that every Starfleet vessel must stand as a ship of the line. Through the actions of their captains and crews, countless starships have taken on that role. Here we remember some of those ships and their heroic crews.
In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek , here for the very first time collected together are the spectacular images from the highly successful and acclaimed Star Trek : Ships of the Line calendars. Gloriously rendered, each of these illustrations was created exclusively for Pocket Books. With text by Michael Okuda ( The Star Trek Encyclopedia ), the story of each of these valiant starships comes to life.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2006
44 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 27, 2015
Oh okay every now and again I have to let the inner geek out and rum rampant (under adult supervision I promise) and this was the result. I have always had a love of Star Trek although I do promise you I am too young to have seen the original series - I do remember not only the films but more importantly The Next Generation - how sad am I that I can remember some of major teenage accomplishments against airing dates of this show!
Anyway moving swiftly on I still enjoy reading the books that came from this franchise - and this I will admit was one of the better produced ones. From bitter experience I know that the quality varies hugely - not only in the content and style but also in the actual printing and presentation. However this book does not disappoint, the production and presentation is without fault and the images are all to a very high standard - something I will admit that I have not seen for Star Trek books in a long time. My only misgiving is that the book is presented in a landscape format which considering the page count and the number of pages in the book does tend to want it to be be pulled out of shape - but this is a minor issue against the quality of the prints inside.
The book is a must for all fans as it covers off all the ages and series and hints at some of the material around them too- so much so I have spent the latter part of this evening googling the shows and these suggestions.
I guess for a non-Star Trek fan its just another book that puzzles and confounds you as to what the appeal is all about - but for those who know, then this book is amazing and I apologise to all the other reading that was put on hold while I read it - and now back to normal programming.
Anyway moving swiftly on I still enjoy reading the books that came from this franchise - and this I will admit was one of the better produced ones. From bitter experience I know that the quality varies hugely - not only in the content and style but also in the actual printing and presentation. However this book does not disappoint, the production and presentation is without fault and the images are all to a very high standard - something I will admit that I have not seen for Star Trek books in a long time. My only misgiving is that the book is presented in a landscape format which considering the page count and the number of pages in the book does tend to want it to be be pulled out of shape - but this is a minor issue against the quality of the prints inside.
The book is a must for all fans as it covers off all the ages and series and hints at some of the material around them too- so much so I have spent the latter part of this evening googling the shows and these suggestions.
I guess for a non-Star Trek fan its just another book that puzzles and confounds you as to what the appeal is all about - but for those who know, then this book is amazing and I apologise to all the other reading that was put on hold while I read it - and now back to normal programming.
October 12, 2016
This is a great coffee table book of Star Trek ships.
May 4, 2024
Magnificent Ships!!
March 1, 2015
In honor of the passing of Spock, I picked up this nice collection of art featuring ships of the series. I can't see if they were paintings or computer-generated images, but they are still interesting and often beautiful. When I picked it up I was actually hoping there would be schematics and details on all the ships, but no. Still enjoyed it however.
November 25, 2015
This is a gorgeous art book collecting the art from the Ships of the Line calendar series. Sadly I missed some of the Star Trek series (I'm a TOS, TAS, and TNG girl) so some of the ships were totally new to me. It was a perfect book for taking to appointments because most of the art is self-contained. The blurbs for each told the story.
It is highly recommended for Star Trek fans.
It is highly recommended for Star Trek fans.
October 2, 2016
Nice pictures not enough content
The pictures of the ships were beautiful but the lack of information about them left a lot. If you're looking for a book about the ships, this isn't it.
The pictures of the ships were beautiful but the lack of information about them left a lot. If you're looking for a book about the ships, this isn't it.
December 22, 2016
This is a good book, it talks about the history of each ship and the crew that runs each ship and how they overcome the odds placed before them and there's some poetry as well
November 14, 2024
Hey there book lovers! It is your Star Trek-loving pal, Ninetoes, coming at you with your book of the week and a review of Star Trek: Ships of the Line. I have coffee in my system, and my thinking cap on, so let’s do this!
So, to start, a big Ninetoes Loves Books shout out to my sister, Janice, for surprising me with this one! Yesterday, I was sitting in my living room and heard a thump on my porch. There was a box there and in it was this splendid book.
Well, since I called this book splendid, the cat is out of the bag. I LOVED it with a capital “L” and a hefty Live Long and Prosper! The art in this book is stunning. It is a collection of many illustrations of the Star Trek Ships of the Line Calendars. Text with each ship is provided by Star Trek historian Michael Okuda. Needless to say, I loved this book!
I give Star Trek Ships of the Line 5 very enthusiastic bookmarks out of 5!
Happy reading!
Live long and prosper!
So, to start, a big Ninetoes Loves Books shout out to my sister, Janice, for surprising me with this one! Yesterday, I was sitting in my living room and heard a thump on my porch. There was a box there and in it was this splendid book.
Well, since I called this book splendid, the cat is out of the bag. I LOVED it with a capital “L” and a hefty Live Long and Prosper! The art in this book is stunning. It is a collection of many illustrations of the Star Trek Ships of the Line Calendars. Text with each ship is provided by Star Trek historian Michael Okuda. Needless to say, I loved this book!
I give Star Trek Ships of the Line 5 very enthusiastic bookmarks out of 5!
Happy reading!
Live long and prosper!
October 17, 2018
A fabulous book for Star Trek fans. The illustrations are the star - all range from extremely good to amazing. The texts are cursory but really don't need to be any more than that. My only gripe is that the format should have been larger - would have given the pictures even more of an impact.
January 10, 2019
Excellent
... With one small flaw. Rather than the paragraphs of non ship information for rag picture, i would have rather read ship designations and learned more about the various classes. But the art is beautiful.
... With one small flaw. Rather than the paragraphs of non ship information for rag picture, i would have rather read ship designations and learned more about the various classes. But the art is beautiful.
April 6, 2019
A collection of Ships of the Line calendar series imagery with short snippets by Michael Okuda. Although pretty and nostalgic, the book could use a proper introduction and perhaps more information on the images and their creation.
May 2, 2021
A nice easy coffee table book read featuring plenty of images of starships from years gone by. The text was good but I couldn't help but feel it took up space that would have been better off used for more images.
July 24, 2023
The illustrations are great. I wanted to know size, crew compliments, what the ships were commissioned … I got blurbs about the story related to the illustration or a quote. Not what I was looking for.
January 15, 2021
Beautiful paintings from the calendar series
May 10, 2021
A great resource if you like sci-fi ship designs.
June 19, 2021
Beautiful art :)
August 22, 2014
Bookworm Speaks!
Star Trek: Ships of the Line
by Doug Drexler and Margaret Clark
****
This edition of Bookworm Speaks is first for Bookworm, as it is not a novel. It is a science fiction book but it is an art book. In celebration of the beloved science fiction series’ fortieth anniversary, Star Trek Ships of the Line was created using images from the ships of the line calendar series.
The Story: The book has no story in that there is no real plot or characters. That being said, what it does have is art book story detailing the saga of the various Star Trek television shows. It begins with Enterprise, then The Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the various films. Each image has a block of text that describes what is going in the picture.
The Good: The fact that each picture tells a story is what really separates this from other art books as well as art say from the internet as well. It is always such a letdown when you come across this superb picture of a starship flying through space. It is beautiful and provocative and when you scroll down to the description and all you see is Drawn on Artprogram X and 1600 by 1600 pixels. That’s it!? We want to no more! Who is on the ship? Where is it going and why is it going there at all? It’s these questions that inspire writers and these questions are answered in Ships of the Line. The little block of story on the page may be brief but it does add another layer of depth that makes the concurrent image more than just another pretty picture.
In space opera stories, the main focus is the characters of course and how they interact with the setting around them, many times the stories do not move beyond the bulkheads of the ship that they call home. The starship is more than just where the show is set. We see it travel through outer space in all its beauty, it fights enemies and gets wounded in the process. It has it’s own quirks and issues that the crew must deal with. In essence, the starship becomes a character all its own. It is exactly that motif that runs all throughout Star Trek, perhaps echoing the tales of ships and aircraft that were the mainstay of popular literature a generation ago.
The illustrations are top of the line, as to be expected from the world of Star Trek. Even if you are indifferent to Star Trek in general, no science fiction fan can deny the appeal of seeing beautiful starships traveling the heaven in a quality hardcover format.
The Flaws: The main problem Bookworm has encountered is the physical structure of the book itself. This book is obviously meant to be placed on a coffee table of someone’s house. It’s long and thin book and is an awkward fit on most standard bookshelves, it sticks out. Also, if one is not familiar with Star Trek most of the things mentioned in the stories may very well go over their heads. It is unknown where these people actually are for their whereabouts are shrouded in mystery, but they’re out there somewhere.
Final Verdict: Star Trek: Ships of the Line is a beautiful and creative look into one of the beloved aspects of the shows. A must have for any fan the legendary science fiction series or simply a fan of starships in general.
Four out of Five Stars
For reviews and more visit: jordan.danbrantley.com
Star Trek: Ships of the Line
by Doug Drexler and Margaret Clark
****
This edition of Bookworm Speaks is first for Bookworm, as it is not a novel. It is a science fiction book but it is an art book. In celebration of the beloved science fiction series’ fortieth anniversary, Star Trek Ships of the Line was created using images from the ships of the line calendar series.
The Story: The book has no story in that there is no real plot or characters. That being said, what it does have is art book story detailing the saga of the various Star Trek television shows. It begins with Enterprise, then The Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the various films. Each image has a block of text that describes what is going in the picture.
The Good: The fact that each picture tells a story is what really separates this from other art books as well as art say from the internet as well. It is always such a letdown when you come across this superb picture of a starship flying through space. It is beautiful and provocative and when you scroll down to the description and all you see is Drawn on Artprogram X and 1600 by 1600 pixels. That’s it!? We want to no more! Who is on the ship? Where is it going and why is it going there at all? It’s these questions that inspire writers and these questions are answered in Ships of the Line. The little block of story on the page may be brief but it does add another layer of depth that makes the concurrent image more than just another pretty picture.
In space opera stories, the main focus is the characters of course and how they interact with the setting around them, many times the stories do not move beyond the bulkheads of the ship that they call home. The starship is more than just where the show is set. We see it travel through outer space in all its beauty, it fights enemies and gets wounded in the process. It has it’s own quirks and issues that the crew must deal with. In essence, the starship becomes a character all its own. It is exactly that motif that runs all throughout Star Trek, perhaps echoing the tales of ships and aircraft that were the mainstay of popular literature a generation ago.
The illustrations are top of the line, as to be expected from the world of Star Trek. Even if you are indifferent to Star Trek in general, no science fiction fan can deny the appeal of seeing beautiful starships traveling the heaven in a quality hardcover format.
The Flaws: The main problem Bookworm has encountered is the physical structure of the book itself. This book is obviously meant to be placed on a coffee table of someone’s house. It’s long and thin book and is an awkward fit on most standard bookshelves, it sticks out. Also, if one is not familiar with Star Trek most of the things mentioned in the stories may very well go over their heads. It is unknown where these people actually are for their whereabouts are shrouded in mystery, but they’re out there somewhere.
Final Verdict: Star Trek: Ships of the Line is a beautiful and creative look into one of the beloved aspects of the shows. A must have for any fan the legendary science fiction series or simply a fan of starships in general.
Four out of Five Stars
For reviews and more visit: jordan.danbrantley.com
May 4, 2014
Ships of the Line by Doug Drexler and Margaret Clark (eds) with Michael Okuda providing text is a gorgeous book of Star Trek artwork. It features beautifully drawn images from the Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendars and was put together as part of the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek. The artists have taken various ships from all points of the ST universe (through 2006) and rendered them in scenes from both the series or movie from which they came as well as from their own imaginations. The result is a delight for Trek fans.
The book was a serendipitous find for me...just sitting there on the featured books shelf of our Friends of the Library bookstore waiting for me to bring it home. As any good Trek fan would, I did. And promptly sat down the same day (May 1) and read it straight through. And somehow forgot to write up a review--so here it is, better late than never. Highly enjoyable--I spent a delightful evening flipping through the pages and reading the descriptions of each piece. Now I'll be passing it on to my son.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
The book was a serendipitous find for me...just sitting there on the featured books shelf of our Friends of the Library bookstore waiting for me to bring it home. As any good Trek fan would, I did. And promptly sat down the same day (May 1) and read it straight through. And somehow forgot to write up a review--so here it is, better late than never. Highly enjoyable--I spent a delightful evening flipping through the pages and reading the descriptions of each piece. Now I'll be passing it on to my son.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
July 14, 2013
A beautiful book with artist illustrations of incidents from the various TV series and movies, and some that are just from an artist's imagination. Each illustration has a short blurb of text, that is basically an extract of what is occurring at the moment captured by the illustration. Many of these are straight from the episodes. Others clearly had to come from the imagination of the author. But all seem quite appropriate, and even touching, The chapters are roughly in chronological order (according to the original Star Trek timeline), so reading through the book is like seeing the 'history' of Star Trek. A great book for any Star Trek fan!!
February 19, 2015
It's not a deep book but it wasn't meant to be. It's a picture book with slight notes or segments of stories attached. But that is it's intent. If you like looking at really awesome "Star Trek" ships, then this is a good book. It's a collection of art, much if not all of it from the "Ships of the Line" calendars though some I've seen on the cover of novels so it has some ties to the expanded Trek universe (some of which was inspired by these images in the calendars).
I'd love to have known more of some of these stories. And more images of the alien vessels too. But it's still a book full of the pretty!
I'd love to have known more of some of these stories. And more images of the alien vessels too. But it's still a book full of the pretty!
February 23, 2015
This book unites the calendar-pictures of many years of the Star Trek calendars of the same name. It is not a reference work of any kind, especially as some of the ships shown here are complete fantasies and not even appear in the books of the extended universe of Star Trek. If you like that kind of space-ships in the Federation design, it is a nice book, else, well better spend your money on some real Star Trek books.
April 14, 2011
The ULTIMATE Star Trek coffee table book. I could spend hours (and I eventually DID) drooling over this collection of CGI drawings, celebrating the starships of the various Star Trek series. This book will convince you (as if any Trekkie NEEDED convincing) that the ships are just as much living, breathing characters as the people they transport. Utterly GORGEOUS!
November 3, 2015
Coffee Table Book que suma a su elegante diseño y bellas líneas un ilustrativo repaso a varias naves y eventos que la franquicia Star Trek ha presentado en su casi medio siglo de vida. Ignoro cómo será para los no familiarizados, pero los trekkers disfrutarán el recorrido por generaciones ficticias que se extienden más allá de la mitología catódica.
March 2, 2016
Great collection of art from Ships of the Line Star Trek Callenders. If you love ships from the Star Trek TV Shows and movies, you'll love this collection. I would have liked a bigger book though, maybe for the next collection.
Discus at:
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/24236/...
Discus at:
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/24236/...
February 18, 2009
I happened across this book at the bookstore tonight while I was browsing for other Trek novels and collections. The illustrations are absolutely stunning. It's almost a "Trek in pictures" in chronological order.
June 8, 2011
Love the artwork here taken from the calenders and the quotes at each chapter heading
Love to just sit and Look! And pretend I'm explorin' the univers in one of these cool, cool, vessals,
This Would make a great coffee table book...Hint! Hint! lol
xoDaleB.xo
Love to just sit and Look! And pretend I'm explorin' the univers in one of these cool, cool, vessals,
This Would make a great coffee table book...Hint! Hint! lol
xoDaleB.xo
January 8, 2015
A collection of art from the Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendar that has been in print for over 15 years. Beautiful depictions of starships from the Star Trek universe, although I was hoping for more detailed information on each class of ship.
August 18, 2016
For any Star Trek fan, this is a book you need to get, especially if you are a fan of the artwork used in the series. These are images taken from the Ships of the Line calendars, but the little blurbs on the sides that explain the image make this a worthwhile book.
March 20, 2008
It's Star Trek, enough said!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews