What do you think?
Rate this book
Space Wars: Worlds and Weapons
Essef Art & Reference book - Reference book which is marvelously illustrated by dozens of artists, including Foss, Vallejo, Emsh Fras, Lehr, Leyzell and many others.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
4 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 27, 2025
These monstrous, colossal, pareidolic (?) smoky spaceships, zoomorphic robots and sand buried cyborgs were a consuming dinner table distraction as a youngster. Probably where I got my fascination with BDO’s in literature, cantilevered brutalism in architecture, etc.
January 9, 2021
My parents bought me this book as a Christmas present nearly 40 years ago and I still love it.
It’s a selection of essays on a variety of themes within science fiction up to that date, and lead to me reading lots of works and authors I might not have heard otherwise.
It’s also full of classic science fiction illustrations, and that’s what held my interest as a kid.
Rather than captioning them as what they were used for in books and magazines, Eisler uses the captions to tell the back story of a science fiction universe that only exists in this book.
It’s an odd mish mash of a book, but I still love it as much as when I received it that Christmas.
It’s a selection of essays on a variety of themes within science fiction up to that date, and lead to me reading lots of works and authors I might not have heard otherwise.
It’s also full of classic science fiction illustrations, and that’s what held my interest as a kid.
Rather than captioning them as what they were used for in books and magazines, Eisler uses the captions to tell the back story of a science fiction universe that only exists in this book.
It’s an odd mish mash of a book, but I still love it as much as when I received it that Christmas.
January 3, 2024
My uncle gave me this book when I was a young lad and I loved the artwork of the spaceships, alien landscapes and creatures throughout, it's the sort of artwork you could frame and hang on your wall it's that good. Being a reference book it has a lot of info about older works of sch fi which predate my time so I probably didn't read all of the text but I still have this book and still appreciate the artwork. Thank you to my uncle for giving it to me.
February 3, 2022
A million years ago, a man was quoted as saying, "The Golden Age of Science Fiction is twelve." Say this to some SF fans and they'll smile whimsically. Say it to others and you'll get a sour, churlish look. There's a strain of SF that relishes its roots in the pulp ghetto, the men in loincloths swinging broadswords on Venus or Mars, unfazed by little things like temperature or atmosphere. Then you have the fans (and writers) who have a complex about this kind of stuff, who (even if they read the pulps, and still have a secret stash) either demand scientific rigor or crave respect from literary gatekeepers.
"Space Wars: Worlds and Weapons" manages to do the nigh-impossible, satisfying cravings for both the scientific and the space fantasy. Its glossy, magazine cover-worthy paintings depict everything from harsh alien landscapes to blueprints of interstellar leisure cruisers. And while the paintings are obviously the star of the show, the accompanying text is good, too. It's lively, informative, and sometimes a bit cheeky, especially when it comes to the section on the time when SF finally overcame its prudery and started taking on sex. Maybe—after the last couple decades of interspecies trysts clogging up the magazines—it's time for SF to rediscover a bit of its shame. But that's a topic for another day.
I disagree with the author about some things, like his knock on Joe Haldeman's superlative "The Forever War," or his effusive praise for Ray Bradbury's purple prose with its pushbutton words about "dreams" and "poetry" and "stargazers." But fans are churlish people, and if the author and I were to ever meet I doubt it would result in a "City on the Edge of Forever" clash (although you can bet I would have my Spock ears on).
Going in, I knew the images would be gorgeous, but the engaging text proved a pleasant surprise. Highest recommendation.
"Space Wars: Worlds and Weapons" manages to do the nigh-impossible, satisfying cravings for both the scientific and the space fantasy. Its glossy, magazine cover-worthy paintings depict everything from harsh alien landscapes to blueprints of interstellar leisure cruisers. And while the paintings are obviously the star of the show, the accompanying text is good, too. It's lively, informative, and sometimes a bit cheeky, especially when it comes to the section on the time when SF finally overcame its prudery and started taking on sex. Maybe—after the last couple decades of interspecies trysts clogging up the magazines—it's time for SF to rediscover a bit of its shame. But that's a topic for another day.
I disagree with the author about some things, like his knock on Joe Haldeman's superlative "The Forever War," or his effusive praise for Ray Bradbury's purple prose with its pushbutton words about "dreams" and "poetry" and "stargazers." But fans are churlish people, and if the author and I were to ever meet I doubt it would result in a "City on the Edge of Forever" clash (although you can bet I would have my Spock ears on).
Going in, I knew the images would be gorgeous, but the engaging text proved a pleasant surprise. Highest recommendation.
October 18, 2020
This old and rather strange book is one I've had since I was a kid, and I thought it was worth having a re-read of it as I'm currently teaching some students about science fiction. As I remembered Eisler's book is a unique amalgam of science fiction art combined with science fiction criticism. It does not present as one thing or the other, but as a mixture of serious (if short) essays on themes in science fiction literature accompanied by a mish-mash of illustrations captioned with a curious unstructured sci-fi universe.
This curious approach is both its biggest strength and most obvious weakness. Eisler has written a fairly decent thematic study of science fiction, however the essays are too short and the reader becomes distracted by the pictures. The illustrations are a good selection of artwork from (mostly) the 60s and 70s however they don't have a detailed and coherent structure.
If Eisler had written a book along the lines of the TTA titles from Stewart Cowley then perhaps he might have had a more successful book. Or, if he had written the text purely as a series of articles on certain themes in science fiction literary history then that would've been fine. Perhaps a critical appraisal of the illustrations would have been of benefit. Instead Eisler has tried to achieve two different goals with this book and I don't believe he fully realises either aim.
I'm not saying that 'Space Wars, Worlds and Weapons' is a bad book per se, and as I have had it in my possession for many a year I am fond of it. However I would suggest its best recommendation for a potential reader today is that it presents a unique if flawed large format book from a golden age of sci-fi.
This curious approach is both its biggest strength and most obvious weakness. Eisler has written a fairly decent thematic study of science fiction, however the essays are too short and the reader becomes distracted by the pictures. The illustrations are a good selection of artwork from (mostly) the 60s and 70s however they don't have a detailed and coherent structure.
If Eisler had written a book along the lines of the TTA titles from Stewart Cowley then perhaps he might have had a more successful book. Or, if he had written the text purely as a series of articles on certain themes in science fiction literary history then that would've been fine. Perhaps a critical appraisal of the illustrations would have been of benefit. Instead Eisler has tried to achieve two different goals with this book and I don't believe he fully realises either aim.
I'm not saying that 'Space Wars, Worlds and Weapons' is a bad book per se, and as I have had it in my possession for many a year I am fond of it. However I would suggest its best recommendation for a potential reader today is that it presents a unique if flawed large format book from a golden age of sci-fi.
November 17, 2022
Originally I owned this book as a hardcover before I was in my teens. This is NOT literary reference to science fiction. Also it is NOT a book for learning how to draw or otherwise appreciate speculative or fantastic art.
Uses the galactic war through time and space trope, with unseen time traveling aliens, of course.
Chris Foss's own illustrative work appeared as embellishment on British paperback book covers, especially with British edition reprint paperbacks from the likes of Philip K. Dick, specifically with Dick's Panther and Grenada offerings, which appeared on the overseas book import market about the same time as this book, in the late 70's or early 80's.
Uses the galactic war through time and space trope, with unseen time traveling aliens, of course.
Chris Foss's own illustrative work appeared as embellishment on British paperback book covers, especially with British edition reprint paperbacks from the likes of Philip K. Dick, specifically with Dick's Panther and Grenada offerings, which appeared on the overseas book import market about the same time as this book, in the late 70's or early 80's.
April 18, 2023
Translated into French in 1980, this book was an early inspiration in the genre for me. It’s a good retrospective of sci-fi works to that date, gathered into thematic chapters, providing a guide to further reading and exploration. Necessarily it’s quite a shallow canter through the subject, but the illustrations are wonderful. There’s a bit of fictional writing in the narratives attached to these illustrations, which can largely be ignored, together with the accompanying glossary. Being a stocking filler type of book, it’s short and can be leafed through many times without much thought.
April 30, 2018
A good collection of sf Artwork.
June 13, 2019
A surprising and welcome find in the used section of my local comic shop. I would have been obsessed with this as a kid. As it is some great concept art.
September 17, 2023
Art and science fiction woven together. Fascinating and gorgeous!
May 19, 2008
Wow! I don't think I remember any other book that stood out as much to me as this one. I was so young that the text got boring in some parts but the artwork really sets your mind going. I lost my original somehow, but found a used copy on Amazon.com. A great book, imaginative, with terrific illustrations.
July 13, 2011
This book contains fantastic sci-fi art from book covers and magazines from the 60's and 70's while describing the various sci-fi story themes and plot devices of much of the sci-fi books up to that time (this was published in 1980). The synopsis of different authors ideas I found very enlighting while, of coursse, the art was awesome.
September 9, 2014
Found my wrinkled, waterlogged copy while sorting through boxes after my recent move. I can't remember how many times I read through this book as a kid. Probably won't ever replace it, but it was fun to flip through the pictures one last time.
February 16, 2016
Great SiFi art book. Filled with lots of excellent pics and articles. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews