Piers Bizony

This is a biography of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, but it's one that often takes a step back from Gagarin's life to offer us a somewhat broader perspective on the Soviet space program and the politics of the time. And that's a very good thing, I think. Space buff that I am, I knew quite a lot about the US side of the space race, but the Russian side has always been much more obscure. Which is not surprising, of course, given the Soviets' penchant for secrecy and obfuscation. show more Indeed, much of this book was based on interviews with people who really didn't feel free to talk very much until the 1990s. So it's very welcome for its ability to shed a little light on a murky but fascinating part of space history, as well as for the somewhat bittersweet portrait it paints of Gagarin himself as a smart, charming, interesting guy who suffered a bit under the weight of his fame and the strain of life in the USSR, and who died far, far too young. show less

This is definitely a fancy book, a making-of for 2001: A Space Odyssey formatted in the dimensions of the famous monolith. (I always remember from the novel by Arthur C. Clarke that the proportions are 1:4:9, the squares of the first three integers, though I have no idea if that was actually true of the film prop.) This looks pretty cool, but sometimes makes for inconvenient reading. The cover you see here is actually just a slip cover; the volume underneath is all black with four original show more graphics meant to evoke visual motifs from the film.

Bizony's history is pretty comprehensive, as far as I could tell, covering Kubrick's early career up until he decided to do a science fiction film in a broad overview, and then going into detail on Kubrick's collaboration with Arthur Clarke, the evolution of the script, the selection of actors, the filming of the special effects sequences, and so on. Sometime it's organized a bit weirdly (I don't know why the section on the music comes after the recounting of the film's release and reception), but overall it's packed with interesting details if you're into the mechanics of filmmaking, such as how that centrifuge set worked. Bizony sources his information from new interviews, archival interviews, and the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London, and it all seems quite thorough. Lots of good anecdotes, and I feel like most any question I've ever had about the making of the film was answered somewhere in here. (I wasn't sure at first about the chapter about whether extraterrestrial life really exists, but by its end, I decided I'd learned enough to make it worth reading.)

It would be a good book with just the text, but the real star of the book are the illustrations, which consist of large, high-quality images, taking in film stills, publicity photographs, concept art, set close-ups, pictures of the filming models, spaceship diagrams, and so on. The pictures are gorgeous, showing just how much thought went into every little aspect of the film. Few movies have such a unified aesthetic as 2001; it's hard to imagine wanting to pore over close-ups of control panels from many other films, but 2001 sustains such interest. Almost every image is beautiful, and the book has a large number of gatefolds that really show off the details at a large scale. Some are disrupted by the book's spine, but those are in a minority; what's more annoying is the sometimes random placement. Most of the time the images are near where relevant events are discussed in the text, but at times, it gets weird, with the images of the polka-dot alien Kubrick experimented with being housed in a totally different chapter than where the experiments are details, for example. But that's a small quibble; you could reread the book just for the images, I think, and have an amazing visual narrative to experience.

Combine this book with Peter Krämer's BFI Film Classics entry on the film, and you will have a pretty thorough take on the film as a whole, both background and interpretation. (Krämer gives some common pitfalls of 2001 discussion, and I was pleased to note that Bizony fell into none of them.) Now I just need to rewatch the movie-- it's been almost a decade since I last saw it, and I've no doubt these two books will give me a renewed appreciation for it. show less

The Art of NASA: The Illustrations That Sold the Missions by Piers Bizony is a beautiful collection of artwork that helped define NASA and space exploration for the general public.

No matter your age you will likely find several images here that will look familiar to you. For my generation (born 1958), space exploration was awe-inspiring and widely supported. I used to collect government and civilian publications. In those days we could call or write our national legislators and get a lot of show more free stuff. In addition, I lived in Greenbelt, MD, home of Goddard Space Flight Center, so space was everywhere. Many of the images in this book were likely in some of those publications, and they succeeded in lighting a fire for space exploration long before the current age of science denial took hold. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if some thought space was a big hoax, but I digress.

Both the text of the chapters and the substantial captions offer great contextualizing for each image as well as each phase of the space program. This is a book about the art, so that is what is emphasized. If I want science, I have shelves of both general science and textbooks to refresh my mind. This book is for art appreciation, the role of art in promoting science, and strolling down memory lane.

Highly recommended if any of the things I just mentioned appeal to you. This is for both the science and the art lovers.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

NASA Missions to Mars from Piers Bizony is, as expected, a visual feast. What sets it a bit apart from many coffee table books is just how much good information it contains.

If your main interest is as a large format book for perusal and display, you will be very pleased with this. The photographs and other illustrations are clear and the captions are informative. If, in addition to the visuals you want a book that will offer good reading, this will be even more to your liking. While not show more extensive or too detailed the text does walk us through the history of our fascination with Mars, from sci-fi to various missions.

This is that coffee table book that certain of your friends will not only flip through but ask to borrow so they can go through it more closely. So be prepared to fill that spot when they go home. In other words, this will be one of your books that might generate discussion among your friends all by itself. What sci-fi do they remember? Who among them followed missions more closely than others? Who, when young, thought about space travel? Okay, that last one will include most everyone.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less