1986 / Ebook / 92 pages / Various***
Scoff at its speculations of a modest moonbase and continuing dominance of the VHS format by 2019 if that gives you pleasure, but as Clarke makes clear in his introduction, this is more aspirations than expectations (which is the case for utopian sci-fi generally, when its not being satirical, idiots). He brings together a bunch of specialists in various fields, few of them writers, to wax prestalgically to varying degrees of accuracy and interest. Reality sometimes kept up. Excellent synthwave cover.
1997 / Ebook / 96 pages / USA
****
I haven't read Future Noir, but this made do as a lightweight substitute covering the production, symbolism 'n' shit, with a few production sketches thrown in. I don't know whether it stopped being amusingly verbose after the introduction or if I just got used to it.
2009 / Ebook / 168 pages / USA
***
A concise and comprehensive overview of a singer who's apparently better than the other singers they have. I don't get it, but I'm strange.
2010 / Ebook / 96 pages / Germany
***
It was a bit optimistic to hope for a fresh take, but this wasn't any meatier than a Wikipedia page, complete with several pages of synopsis for a film that most people reading this will probably have seen.
2020 / Audiobook / 164 pages / USA
***
Primarily an advert for a podcast, this goes over well-known trivia from the films before exploring the lesser-discussed expanded universe of cartoons, comics, rides, musicals and other works of minimal value tellingly described as "content."
