SPACE

Content takes a back seat to production value in this glossy, oversized, superficial survey of space exploration. De Goursac opens invitingly enough—“This is your universe. Let’s take off into space!” But then he launches a look at the history of rockets, the U.S. space program and past and present exploratory missions to the (nine) planets that is not only routine, but so ridden with generalities that he seldom even identifies the astronauts in the pictures. Laye decorates each single-topic spread with a crudely drawn vignette or two, but the main visual events are the undifferentiated arrays of big, dazzling space photos and dramatic artists’ renditions that dominate each opening. Tasty eye candy, to be sure, deserving more than a narrative that quaintly uses only the male pronoun, barely notes that the space effort is international, and, when it comes to Pluto “and Beyond,” presents now-outdated information. The last may hardly be the author’s fault, but it weakens the appeal even further—as does the lack of an index or any leads to further resources. At best, a candidate for low-browsing orbit. (Nonfiction. 10-12)