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The Transgalactic Guide to Solar System M-17
Profusely Illustrated by top science fiction talent. Where to go and what to see - Accommodations on 5 Fabulous Planets & Their Satellites. Welcome to Solar System M-17. Lying nearly ten billion light years away from our own solar system, M-17 consists of five planets and seven natural satellites. Here is the only official guide, served up with the care and quality that have become synonymous with the Transgalactic name. Your guidebook provides you with everything you need to know: where to go, what to do and how to get there. Concise histories are provided for each civilization, basic working vocabularies of each planet are included in dictionary format, and all accommodations have been carefully rated. Your travels through hyper-dimensional space will begin on the Transgalactic Star Cruiser, which is equipped with holograph libraries, casinos, special sex facilities, a four-star cuisine, and services to meet every need of creaturely comfort. But the planet themselves are the real stars. DIS - home of Tukkadis, fierce beasts adapted to endure fire-storms, and the bristling Alladis, whose phosphorescent excrement has lent a charming pastel tone to the planet's surface. MORANA - the Kashpagus' oozing planet. Here, you'll tour on foot and on the marvel of Moranses locomotion, the aoo. ARGOS - the planet to barbarian to bear, home of the Brutes and the good-natured trolls. URIEL - communication is entirely by odor on this decidedly pungent planet. VIRTUS - it isn't called the scholar's retreat for nothing. While touring all the don't miss sights described in this guide, Jeff Rovin has written several books, including "From the Land Beyond, Beyond" and "The Fantasy Almanac."
- GenresScience Fiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
35 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 12, 2016
It's amazing that one of the greatest works of science fiction world-building was achieved by the author of the How to Win at Nintendo Games series. Now, Jeff Rovin shows us how to build at world-building.
In writing the Guide, Rovin took a simple premise: create five planets with different chemistries, and derive an evolutionary and culturally history from that starting point.
Oh, and add alien dinosaurs.
Firstly, we need people to look at the alien dinosaurs. Rovin writes in the fashion of a company's tourist guide, as if Disney owned the Enterprise. Which looked like a swan.
The Star Cruiser and its history is amusingly detailed, and the satire that goes through the book starts early. One one hand, the family trip service reminds you that its brothel serves all sexual orientations! Right after this surprising bit of inclusivity, it also mentions that all legal drugs, from marijuana to heroin, are distributed as well.
The book settles in five chapters, starting from the evolutionary history . . .
. . . to the native life
. . . and tourist accommodations.
Some worlds are cooler than others, I admit.
Dis
Dis is a world that world fit great in any science fiction RPG. It's surface is a hellscape . . .
. . . with crystal plants . . .
and weird life. . .
. . . while the blind, tremor-sensing intelligent life hides in tunnels under the ground . . .
And try not to get slimed.
The Alladis are primitive, but really cool with their human visitors watching them jump to the next cultural level and remake their society.
Morana
Morana is completely terraformed, its inhabitants so focused on perfection that they've completely edited sex out of their biology.
That should tell you how interesting they are. Well, except for their crazy reality shows.
Argos
Argos is awesome.
Argos is what you get if you throw a box of action figures at a hyperactive eight-year-old gifted kid and asked him to create. Skynet-style machine overlords . . .
. . . and their Palladium Games-style robot hordes . . .
. . .hunt rebel humans . . .
. . .in jungle cities full of space dinosaurs . . .
. . . filled with orc-like ex-slave Brutes . . .
. . .WHO RIDE DINOSAURS . . .
. . . and the mysterious possibly-wizard gnomes.
Argos deserves to be immortalized on the side of a van or in an 80's cartoon.
Uriel
Uriel is a perfectly cromulent science fiction tableau of strange creatures, bizarre landscapes, and weird planetary physics.
It also smells. Not shabby at all.
Virtus
Virtus gave the younger me intense existential nightmares. The inhabitants, the Lam, are sarcastic philosophers who live rooted to the ground. Blind, they argue and bicker as many of them each day disappear, presumably to ascend to Heaven.
Humans are still wondering whether we should tell them that they're actually being eaten alive by a viscous, stealthy predator.
Have we mentioned yet a peaceful race of sensitive artists and poets who accept a pampered life of seven years of creation in return for being eaten as livestock by an even smarter race?
If Voltaire, Douglas Adams, and Harlan Ellison got drunk together, Virtus would be the result.
Then there's the strange artifacts, frozen giants, and an ancient satellite the size of a moon . . .
. . . and, without context, here's this thing.
The book is spectacular. It's a constant stream of imaginative images and mind-blowing concepts. The art is stunning, with recognizable comic artists like Sandman's Rick Veitch. Hell, Rovin even gives you Tolkienesqe primers on the languages.
Whether read as a experience or mined for gaming ideas, this is a real undiscovered gem in the crown of the genre.
In writing the Guide, Rovin took a simple premise: create five planets with different chemistries, and derive an evolutionary and culturally history from that starting point.
Oh, and add alien dinosaurs.
Firstly, we need people to look at the alien dinosaurs. Rovin writes in the fashion of a company's tourist guide, as if Disney owned the Enterprise. Which looked like a swan.
The Star Cruiser and its history is amusingly detailed, and the satire that goes through the book starts early. One one hand, the family trip service reminds you that its brothel serves all sexual orientations! Right after this surprising bit of inclusivity, it also mentions that all legal drugs, from marijuana to heroin, are distributed as well.
The book settles in five chapters, starting from the evolutionary history . . .
. . . to the native life
. . . and tourist accommodations.
Some worlds are cooler than others, I admit.
Dis
Dis is a world that world fit great in any science fiction RPG. It's surface is a hellscape . . .
. . . with crystal plants . . .
and weird life. . .
. . . while the blind, tremor-sensing intelligent life hides in tunnels under the ground . . .
And try not to get slimed.
The Alladis are primitive, but really cool with their human visitors watching them jump to the next cultural level and remake their society.
Morana
Morana is completely terraformed, its inhabitants so focused on perfection that they've completely edited sex out of their biology.
That should tell you how interesting they are. Well, except for their crazy reality shows.
Argos
Argos is awesome.
Argos is what you get if you throw a box of action figures at a hyperactive eight-year-old gifted kid and asked him to create. Skynet-style machine overlords . . .
. . . and their Palladium Games-style robot hordes . . .
. . .hunt rebel humans . . .
. . .in jungle cities full of space dinosaurs . . .
. . . filled with orc-like ex-slave Brutes . . .
. . .WHO RIDE DINOSAURS . . .
. . . and the mysterious possibly-wizard gnomes.
Argos deserves to be immortalized on the side of a van or in an 80's cartoon.
Uriel
Uriel is a perfectly cromulent science fiction tableau of strange creatures, bizarre landscapes, and weird planetary physics.
It also smells. Not shabby at all.
Virtus
Virtus gave the younger me intense existential nightmares. The inhabitants, the Lam, are sarcastic philosophers who live rooted to the ground. Blind, they argue and bicker as many of them each day disappear, presumably to ascend to Heaven.
Humans are still wondering whether we should tell them that they're actually being eaten alive by a viscous, stealthy predator.
Have we mentioned yet a peaceful race of sensitive artists and poets who accept a pampered life of seven years of creation in return for being eaten as livestock by an even smarter race?
If Voltaire, Douglas Adams, and Harlan Ellison got drunk together, Virtus would be the result.
Then there's the strange artifacts, frozen giants, and an ancient satellite the size of a moon . . .
. . . and, without context, here's this thing.
The book is spectacular. It's a constant stream of imaginative images and mind-blowing concepts. The art is stunning, with recognizable comic artists like Sandman's Rick Veitch. Hell, Rovin even gives you Tolkienesqe primers on the languages.
Whether read as a experience or mined for gaming ideas, this is a real undiscovered gem in the crown of the genre.
May 10, 2022
If you ever plan on touring Solar System M-17 then this is the must have guide for the five planets and their seven moons. You will need your MasterPass card to finance you travels. During your travels you have the opportunity to observe and possibly interact with alien life forms with communication abilities ranked from I to VI. I are beings with verbal and written languages, VI are those with no ability to communicate. There is a vast variety of beings ranging from higher life forms to plants and microbial forms. As different as these life forms are, their environments are equally different. Transgalactic provides various means for exploring the various planets and moons in the M-17 system. They also have many hotels throughout the system to cater to your individual needs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews