I love technical manuals. No, not like the stuff that I write; I mean hardware spec manuals. Let’s limit that to military tech manuals. Oh, sure, I’m always curious to see how a TV or calculator is put together, but I wouldn’t buy a book of diagrams of those things. Military subjects are more interesting, though. Battleship deck plans? Tempting, and I’d at least give it a look. But what really grabs me are guides to fictional military tech.
My obsession probably started with Battletech. I bought the Technical Readout: 3025 when I was a wee lad of…well, it looks like I must’ve been 16 based on its publication date. I bought the 3026 book (Vehicles and Personal Equipment) shortly thereafter. I’ve bought the other Battletech guides since then (all except for Dropships and Jumpships, as it was pretty thin), but the 3025 and 3026 books are by far the best. The art in these two books is vastly superior to the rest of the line. These two books are the only guides where the artist portrays a realistic sense of perspective, and he does a good job of matching the weapon loadouts with the descriptions. The later guides are spotty in both areas. But did I buy them, anyway? Yes, I did. I just can’t resist books full of future-tech pictures and descriptions.
Eventually, I bought the Battletech game, and even played it a couple of times. The guides are much better than the game.
Since then, I’ve purchased other tech guides for other games. I resisted the urge to buy the tech books for Shadowrun only because I read through them a few times during college gaming sessions. I bought a guide to Heavy Gear tech despite the fact that I don’t play the miniatures or RPG game, but I have at least played one of the HG computer games. I have the second, too, and I plan to get around to playing it, someday. And the guide was on sale, so that further eroded my already-weak resistance.
Star Trek? Nope, managed to resist the various guides for that. Star Trek tech just seems even more unrealistic than 30-foot tall giant robots. Yes it does.
But Star Wars? Yeah, I bought the relevant Essential Guides (Weapons and Technology, Vehicles and Vessels, Droids). Who cares about an “Essential Guide to Characters”, or an “Essential Guide to Worlds and Moons”? Hardcore Star Wars nuts, that’s who. Me, I just like the tech. Stories (origin and typical or specific uses, for example) to go with the pictures are bonuses, and that’s another reason why the 3025/26 BT guides stand out. The SW guides are pretty good with that, too.
Of course, I also discovered the anime Perfect collections. I spent ten years searching for Macross Perfect Memory, and it was worth it. They just packed that book with line drawings, cutaway views, and close-ups of the mecha and vehicles. Sure, the text is all in Japanese, but that’s a minor quibble. But I’ll admit that I bought the Robotech RPG books solely for the drawings, specs, and bits of text translated from the Perfect Memory book. The RPG itself is based on the Palladium system, and I don’t recommended it.
I recently purchased a Macross vehicle collection book from Japan. I love me them giant transforming space fighters. Yes, even the shuttle that transforms into a giant mecha. Sure, it’s silly, but it looks so nice.
Oh, there’s more: Captain Harlock Perfect Guides, Space Cruiser Yamato graphic albums, the Gundam Encyclopedia. I’m an sf tech junkie, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.