LEGO Space by Peter Reid & Tim Goddard: Craft Book Review

Title: LEGO Space: Building the Future
Author: Peter Reid & Tim Goddard
Publisher: No Starch Press
Publication Date: November 2013
Number of Pages: 216
Series: Stand Alone
Reason for Discovery: ARC

This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

From GoodReads:

Come explore an incredible LEGO® universe in LEGO Space: Building the Future. Spaceships, orbital outposts, and new worlds come to life in this unique vision of the future, built completely from LEGO bricks.

A selection of step-by-step building instructions will have you constructing your own cosmic creations to play with at home. Marvel at interstellar battlecruisers, space pirates, charming robots, and other stunning builds from an amazing future!


I love LEGOs. I grew up building all sorts of fantastic creations when I was a child. When graduate school was stressing me out, I would buy a LEGO kit and marvel in building something. When I was writing my Master's thesis, I made a lot of LEGO buildings. When my husband saw my apartment for the first time when we were dating, he was very impressed with the huge bin of LEGOs that I had shoved under my desk. (Thank goodness!) When I saw that LEGO Space was available for review, I jumped at the chance. My husband and I both love LEGOs and my husband is an astronomer, so this book was a match made in heaven. My love for this book, unfortunately, dampened rather quickly. 

Let's discuss the details of this book. This book is written as a picture book with lots of LEGO scenes filling each page. The story is not good. I am not sure the age group that would like this story. Originally, I thought it was going for the 10-12 year old age group, but the vocabulary seems a bit old. I haven't been around pre-teens in a while, so maybe this is the correct age group. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this story. There are a lot of SF references in it, but they are not being used altogether correctly. 

The LEGO scenes, on the other hand, are really neat. There are some very cool spaceships in this book that I would want to build. There are also some small sets that would be neat to build as well. This book only has 10 designs that have step-by-step instructions. Unfortunately, the designs, for the most part, are for very small, simple structures. I don't want to build a satellite. I want to build the huge spaceship (like the one on the cover of the book)! The instructions are well done and are clear. If you have lots of LEGOs, you most likely have all the pieces that you need to build these designs.

Overall, I was really disappointed with this book. There were so many ships in this book that I wanted to make, but the designers did not provide their instructions. The designs that were provided were clearly written but were very simple. I can see the pictures are great inspiration for people who want to build cool spaceships.

I give this book 2 out of 5 blocks.


4 comments:

Jessica @ Books: A true story said...
November 4, 2013 at 12:47 PM

Aw too bad the story sucked. If you're not going to put instructions in there at least have a good story...

Tabitha (Pabkins) said...
November 4, 2013 at 3:00 PM

I used to really want to build the original millennium falcon lego pack the one that cost like 600 but when my hubs bought it for me way before we were married I made him return it lol cause I thought ti was too much for a present.

Unknown said...
November 5, 2013 at 8:21 PM

I was really surprised by the story. I wasn't expecting one at all, because I thought it was going to be very focused on building ships with LEGOs. I wish that the story could have been a bit more simple and that the authors didn't try as hard. Oh well.

Unknown said...
November 5, 2013 at 8:27 PM

A few years ago, my husband and I were at the LEGO store, and they were selling a smaller Millennium Falcon (it was only ~$30). We each bought one. I did a quick search online, and I don't think they are selling it anymore. :( Both of us really want to make the big Millennium Shuttle and the Death Star though! *sigh* We are going to need a LEGO room in our dream house. :)

On our honeymoon, we were near a LEGO store, and my husband bought the huge space shuttle set. We are having our one-year anniversary on Saturday, and he still hasn't made it!

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