Note: This may be a significant departure from the history and reference book reviews you may be used to seeing, but I am hoping that it may be of great interest to a select few modelers out there. Today, I am reviewing "Cosmic Motors: Spaceships, Cars and Pilots of Another Galaxy", by Daniel Simon. The book is almost a personal genre-oriented portfolio of Daniel Simon, described as an "automotive futurist". And with a foreword by the most distinguished and notable visual futurist of our time, Syd Mead, you can take stock in the description of Mr. Simon as an “automotive futurist".

 What is a futurist? A futurist is someone who can look towards the near or distant future and make an analysis of it. In the case of visual futurists, such as Syd Mead and Daniel Simon, they can look towards the near or distant future and provide what can only be described as a "realistic" and believable glance into that future. In the case of Syd Mead, specifically, he's given the world amazing visions of the future in such movies as "Blade Runner", "2010" and "Aliens". Thus, a visual futurist paints pictures of a possible future. More importantly, they make us believe it.

 In "Cosmic Motors", Daniel Simon has painted a pictorial history and product overview of an automotive manufacturer in a far-off galaxy, inhabited by people not so different from you or I. The vehicles exhibited in this book are strongly reminiscent of the familiar, but with a touch of flair and detail that's just not seen anywhere else. Throughout the book, he's created alternate visions of anti gravity racing machines, war machines which call to mind images of the polished steel air frames of the 1950's and 1960's, street motorcycles with startlingly different design schemes, and wheeled high-speed racing machines that look so familiar yet so extraordinarily different. And gorgeous.

 Daniel Simon takes us from the first rough sketch of a vehicle through the 3D model (be it physical or virtual) and into very convincing environment that seems utterly suitable for these fantastic designs he has fabricated. The imagery and the environments are stunning--and far more familiar than they are alien.

 Stunning though the book may be, of what use is this to a modeler? First, there's the inspiration: Just browsing through the pages will fire your imagination and compel you to go forth and assemble styrene. I’m already planning a future build based directly on one of his designs. Second, there's the simple fact that most--if not all--of the vehicles shown were created as physical scale models in the real world. While he does not go into any real detail on the process of creating these models, just seeing them practically come alive on 171 pages of glorious color imagery bring motivation to the scratch-builder to create something new and unique.

 For the amount and quality of the material, the price tag is very reasonable. I would highly recommend this book to sci-fi and automotive modelers and enthusiasts.

 For more information, visit the official website for the book: http://www.cosmic-motors.com/

 Or visit Daniel Simon's website: http://www.danielsimon.net/

 Review book courtesy of www.barnesandnoble.com.

Brent Curtis

February 2008

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