Federation: The First 150 Years

I guess the Star Trek Vault's jumble of pull outs bits and pieces must have done pretty well, as the next Star Trek reference book on the horizon is doing the same, and adding an electronic pedestal as well! Federation: The First 150 Years, by David A Goodman, will chart, as the title suggests, the first 150 years of the Federation. If it's doing so strictly from the formation of the Federation in 2061, that will take us from just after the end of Enterprise, and the Romulan War, through the run of TOS, and up to the Tomed Incident - Which curiously means the period goes from the start of one period of Romulan isolation to the next. The press release for the book suggests it will explore at least as far back as First Contact as well, with the century that follows, including the Enterprise-era, leading up to the formation of the Federation. I can't wait to see what sort of exploration they give to the Kelvin era, in fact the entire first century of Federation history is largely unexplored.

The 176 page book will include documents from Federation history, including treaty excerpts, intelligence reports, and letters, accompanied by colour and black and white illustrations by Joe Corroney, Mark McHaley, Cat Staggs, and Jeff Carlisle, including views of "epic battles, alien species and heretofore unseen ship designs, among them the Romulan attack on Starbase 1, and the Xindi Avian". There will also be five pull-out documents: Zefram Cochrane’s first sketch of the warp drive engine, a hand-penned letter from a young Jim Kirk, biological information on the Trill, blueprints for the U.S.S. Enterprise, and an in-universe letter form the author.

At this stage I am completely sold, this sounds amazing. But there's more! The book also comes with an electronic pedestal, with light and sound features including narration by George Takei. I can't say I'm so excited by this price-increasing, book-shelf-irritating feature, but I suppose it at least demonstrates some faith in the brand to be able to pull off something so (literally) flashy.

Here's Amazon's blurb for the book:

Assembled as a Special Exhibit on Memory Alpha, Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the United Federation of Planets.

This unprecedented illustrated volume chronicles the pivotal era leading up to Humankind's First Contact with Vulcan, the Romulan War, the creation of the Federation, and the first 150 years of the intergalactic democracy. Meticulously researched, this account covers a multitude of alien species, decisive battles, and the technology that made the Age of Exploration possible. It includes field sketches, illustrations, and reproductions of historic pieces of art from across the Galaxy, along with over fifty excerpts from key Federation documents and correspondence, Starfleet records, and intergalactic intelligence.

Housed in a pedestal display complete with lights and an audio introduction by Admiral Hikaru Sulu, this deluxe edition also features five removable documents from the Federation Archives, including Zefram Cochrane's early sketch of the warp-drive engine, a handwritten letter from young Jim Kirk, and the first-known diagram of a Trill symbiont.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.co.jp.