Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss

My father introduced me to Sci-fi world when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My dad used to have a copy of Space Wars: Worlds & Weapons, and I remember that the ships impacted me most were the ones by Chris Foss. After 25 years I decided to investigate and I found this one. I would completely recommend it to anyone that is a fan of Chris Foss, but mostly to those who aren't but do like inmense ships, space wars, or mecha in general. Chris Foss is an amazing artist and this is a perfect compilation of his work. The images are sharp and the colors are vivid and there are a lot of them. Given that he is a prolific artist I think the format of the book is good enough, it would be impossible to have this amount of work on bigger pictures format. The hardcover is flawless and it has some UV coatin with a big "F" printed with glossy varnish that is only visible on certain angles, the rest of the cover is matte. It has a LOT of images, a really nice buy at a very nice price. I think this is an amazing book for fans, and will do an amazing gift for anyone interested in this kind of stuff.EDIT:So I finished reading this book and wanted to give an update on my review. I didn't have any books on my own from Chris Foss, my father has some, but I didn't. I think for the price is an AMAZING book, probably (as others reviewers said) others books were better in the past, but for someone who only have 1 book this is a must. I found all the pictures I knew from other compilation works on this one, and the pictures are bright and colorful. It has some introductory text at the beginning but after that it's only eye candy. I really liked it.Probably the only think I didn't like about the book is that the footnotes for each picture are located placed vertically on the edges of the pages. You have to turn your head 90° to read the name of each picture, and after some time it gets really frustratig. I ended up looking the pictures and then reading again the book rotated, just to read those footnotes. That's a really bad design but, anyway, the pictures of Mr. Foss are what you bought this book at the end.Highly recommended book.

If you're a fan of sf art, or even glanced at the sf section of a bookstore during the 1970s or 1980s then you know Chris Foss. This collection includes virtually all (if not all) of his published sf works. Many of these have been published in previous Foss collections (21st Century Foss and Diary of a Spaceperson), but I think this includes all of those and then some. This book is virtually all artwork, very well reproduced in color, mostly one to four paintings per page, which for the most part is large enough. There doesn't seem to be much organization or structure in presenting the paintings for the most part, other than the groupings of Dune concept work, military/thriller book covers mostly in one place, but if there is an order to the sf paintings it eludes me. There's basic information on each painting (title/book/publisher/date of the book cover it appeared on), an introduction by Rian Hughes, bio profile by daughter Imogene Foss, and brief appreciations/recollections by Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky who worked with Foss on an abortive 1970s film version of Dune. There are well over 120 sketches from Dune concept work and other sf efforts, as well as a few samples of Foss's earlier and non-sf works. I would have liked to see a few more sketches from his Diary of a Spaceperson work, or unpublished personal or other conceptual works. Overall, however, this book lives up to its title as the definitive collection of Foss's work -- it has essentially all of his major commercial works, and good samplings of his other art. Finally, this book is a bargain at this price. Well worth purchasing by anyone who enjoys science fiction and space art, or commercial illustration.

Shipping from a used bookstore was perfect. Item is new as statedGreat big solid book filled with artwork. Great escapism and many many ideas for fantasy spaceship modeling.

My first thought about this massive volume is that somebody recognized that Foss's highly influential style deserved a book celebrating his entire career, and not just superficially. And thank God that person exists! There is so much content here that it's almost overwhelming. The print quality is very good for a "bargain-priced" book and the hardcover binding seems to be of good quality.I'm a huge sci-fi and hardware fan and I have been a Foss fan since I first saw his book covers in the 70s. He is without a doubt one of the hyper-influential proto-modernists (just to pile on some buzzwords!)of sci-fi art. It's odd that we have yet to see a quality big-budget sci-fi movie utilizing his distinctive designs, though attempts have been made. Probably just as well - Hollywood fails more than it succeeds, and I'd prefer to keep the wonderful worlds and scenarios of his artwork within my own imagination.I'd say my favorite trio of sci-fi artists are Foss, Berkey, and Mead. It's great to see such a solid and packed volume that truly honors a great among giants of sci-fi art. Buy it now!

Amongst the 580 pieces displayed, 342 are sized ¼ of a page or smaller. It's a shame really, because at least a half of those are 4 or 5 star pieces worthy of a full page.In order for the rating not to be biased I opted not to include those 342 images in the rating.SPECIFICS:Page Count: 240Number of images: 580Small images: 342Half page images: 162Full page images: 642-page spreads: 12BW images: 3TEXT:Introduction: 8 pagesForeword by Moebius - 1 pageForeword by Alejandro Jodorowsky - 1 pageTitle and year for each pieceART:48 images: 5 stars116 images: 4 stars74 images: 3 stars0 images: 2 stars0 images: 1 starOverall: 3,5 Stars

An excellent large hardback book showcasing the work of Chris Foss.The huge number of illustrations are presented in chronological order, mainly from the 70s onwards and the vast majority of the works are on Sci-Fi themes as one would expect, featuring the sleek, futuristic spacecraft and tech vehicles that are his hallmark subjects.Mainly reproduced in colour, some on a large scale (all the better to appreciate his finely detailed work) there are also a small number of drawings and sketches in black and white, mostly confined to the earlier section of the book.There is no information on the medium or dimensions of the artworks, texts are limited to a general biographical outline.A great book to leaf through and a useful reference on one of the most respected and distinctive Sci-Fi illustrators in the business.

The media could not be loaded.  I managed to get this book from Amazon UK as it was released earlier there.This book is an amazing value for money. It's a rather large art book and it's filled with all these wonderful art from Chris Foss, mainly from the 70s and 80s. Each page typically has around 1 to 4 illustrations and there are a total of 240 pages. That's a lot of work!Chris Foss is an incredible sci-fi artist. There's a sense of realism that comes not just from how his works are painted, but also from the designs. For the ones that are printed full page, you can really check out the details that are put in. All are fully coloured and there are some line sketches as well.There are lots of variety of spacecrafts featured, space stations, alien landscapes and cities, a few robots, some ships and planes. Chris Foss certainly made space more colourful with his colourful spacecrafts. Many of these work have appeared on sci-fi novels, and have also inspired sci-fi film designs.It will take a while to go through this wonderful collection.Highly recommended if you're into sci-fi art.You can also check out more work at Chris Foss' website.(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I was stunned as a teenager in the 70s when I saw my first Foss book covers. I absolutely loved the images and they always played on my imagination. But this book is a cold collection of machines. When I compare them to a Jim Burns collection I see Foss's technical skill but Burns' pictures have life and emotions.All the pictures are brilliant in this book, but as a collection I am not tempted to reopen the book very often.

This book is definitely well put together and feels properly solid & heavy; good thick hardback covers too. Lots of associated information and background to go with the artwork.As I've only read a few pages I'll focus the review on quality & impression. Chris Foss is one of my all time favourite artists and this is the first book of his I've bought. From the first few minutes I'd seen many paintings I'd never seen before. At £18 the value IMO is great as an addition to my small collection. It matches up to the overall quality and design of artbooks published by companies like Taschen, which is good to see. There is no sleeve on the cover (unlike all my other hardback artbooks) but the cover itself is solid enough that it doesn't matter. Its also among the biggest of my artbooks, which to me is a big deal.My only niggle is there are some scuffs and gouges on the covers, but other than that, I'm very happy!

This is the definitive work on Chris Foss and his tantalising skills, about which superlatives seem inadequate. I bought it for my nephew's Christmas present, but in truth, I am wondering about getting another! It's larger and thicker than the previous work "Dragon's Dream" and surpasses it on every level: the colour `plates' reminiscent of the original `Eagle' annual have a majestic, deep, rich and vivid quality that gives life to the artwork of arguably the best SF artist. It contains more Foss artwork than one's mind can compass and some breathtaking double pages of some of his finest work including my all time favourite SF image on page 130/131.Given our somewhat overcrowded world that is supporting, I wonder, just about as many humans as it can: I suspect that mankind's continued existence will depend on spaceships with faster than light drive. Though I cannot see this breakthrough occurring in my lifetime I wonder if when men do journey beyond Saturn's rings to distant colonies in far flung planets, orbiting unimagined stars, whether any of those men will know of Chris Foss whose inventive mind has seen and given life to some of those things they will view and the technology they'll have used to get there! Wonderful.