Digital Waterfalls - TTA Handbooks and Galactic Encounters

TTA Books and Galactic Encounters
Here is some background material and information about the TTA books that provide the background to my galleries on Digital Waterfalls along with some information on the elusive 'Galactic Encounters' series by Steven Caldwell (aka Stewart Cowley). Click on a thumbnail image to find out more information about the books and the artists that contributed to the books.

TTA Handbooks
The Terran Trade Authority handbooks were written by Stewart Cowley in 1979-1980 depicting a fictional near future where man has reached the stars by nations collaborating on joint projects to explore the solar system and nearby stars. The writer has used a huge amount of artwork originally produced by a number of artists (also used for the covers of a number of sci-fi books produced from the mid-seventies to the early eighties) and a background written around the scenes to produce a fairly believeable background. Much of what Cowley has written has already come to pass, for example ion drives are in common use in space probes (though less powerful than those employed in the TTA books!) There are four books in the series - 'Spacecraft 2000-2100AD' covers the first hundred years of Man's exploration in space and the Proxima Wars, 'Great Space Battles' looks at the conflicts the federation has been involved in, including the Laguna Wars in the 23rd century. 'SpaceWreck' looks at incidents when spaceflight takes an unexpected turn and some of the derelicts of space. The final book 'Starliners' looks at spacetravel throughout the federation in the 23rd century and some of the member worlds.

Galactic Encounters Series
Originally thought to have been written as a loose 'homage' to the original TTA books by another writer, these were actually written by Stewart Cowley under a different name for IBP Publications. Some artwork that was originally rejected for the Hamlyn series was used in these books (though much of it is still of a high quality and a small amount has been repeated) by all the same artists that helped contribute to the original series.

How did the TTA books come about?
More information on the background to the TTA series can be found on Philip R. Bank's website (see the links page) including an interview with Stewart Cowley.

TTA Links
Terran Trade Authority on Answers.com

Philip R. Banks Interview with Stewart Cowley

Terran Trade Authority Handbooks