Galactic Tours: Thomas Cook Out of This World Holidays

by Bob Shaw, David A. Hardy (Illustrator)

Presents travel information and a variety of outer space vacations to such places as the moon and Venus

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

95 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

Bob Shaw was born in Northern Ireland. After working in structural engineering, industrial public relations, and journalism he became a full time science fiction writer in 1975.

Shaw was noted for his originality and wit. He was two-time recipient (in 1979 and 1980) of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. His short story Light of Other Days was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.

Reviews

[Timons Esaias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friends who ran an antique store came across this book and held it for me, and it's been sitting on my shelf for the usual decade or so, and I finally took it up and read it cover-to-cover, rather than just poking through it looking at the pictures.

Thomas Cook was a travel company, originally founded in 1841, and finally collapsing last year. It was still a going concern when this volume pretended to be its future guidebook to extraterrestrial travel. Small-type disclaimers deny all responsibility for claims made in the book. So typical.

This came out, originally, in 1981, and it would have been a bit more interesting then. It's basically an opportunity for David Hardy to display Science Fiction paintings, using the tongue-in-cheek travel descriptions to string them together. The fanciful descriptions are amusing, and (speaking as an SF writer) the pictures are still quite good as imagination starters; but the art is a bit dated for the present-day reader and the text is a period piece. Many of the services these out-of-this-world hotels offer are apps on everybody's cell phone, now.

I'll be shelving this with the books I flip through from time to time for inspiration, and that would be its recommended use.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite books as a child. I was reminded of it this evening while attending a lecture by the artist, David Hardy, to the Birmingham Science Fiction Group! When a couple of pictures from this appeared on the screen, it brought back all kinds of nice feelings.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was bought this as a gift by my grandparents in 1981, and I still have it 33 years later. It's beautifully illustrated, and presents a hopeful vision of the futuer.

[Amanda Ure · Rating 4 out of 5]

A second-division science unfiction book from the turn of the decade '70s/'80s, in a tradition which seemed to die out by about 1985, this is not as well known as the Terran Trade Authority series. I personally found it wasn't up to the standards of many other similar books at the time either as a picture book or in terms of the text, but it did have a justification for being a paper book, which is unusual for a book of this genre.

[Sterling Wesson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice pictures and format that's about it.

[Á · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book used to be shelved in the adults section of the Eugene Public Library. I remember drifting out of the children's section and discovering this book. Later, I found a copy at Powell's Books and had to own it. Beautiful pictures and humorous text done in the style of a travel guide.