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On a whim (and as a consolation prize because my gaming store had neither Feng Shui nor the recent White Wolf releases), I bought Starships, almost entirely for use as deckplans and ship designs for Fading Suns. Since this is my first Traveller purchase and read (although I now also own GURPS Traveller, but have yet to read it), I have to admit complete ignorance as to just how useful this book is to the game it was designed for. I would hazard to say that it worked pretty well, as long as all you want are some ships and some ship creation rules, then it succeeds beautifully.

it was a damn quick read

Mainly because I would guess that the word count is really staggeringly low for a book it's size, most of its space is taken up with deckplans and ship illustrations. I think that more information on how the ships look and feel (text-wise, at least) and some of their history - and some famous ships of that class - would have been more than worthy additions, but the authors did not agree. Other than the ships themselves and the creation rules (which are a bit more detailed than I need, but has some interesting ideas), there are also several NPCs who are infamous for their association with starships of one sort or another, some are interesting but most are just okay. The final feature (and what finally clinched my purchase) was the full-color gallery of art from Chris Foss, who had up till now been "that spaceship guy!" because his name escaped me. Never sure whether I entirely like any of his pictures or not, they are always memorable and interesting. Finally knowing his name and getting some of his work was worth the 8 bucks I paid in the bargain bin of my local store.

I'm not ashamed of being an impulse buyer

While Starships didn't rock my boat and launch my missiles into orbit, it made for a nice flip-through and some of the deck plans are going to be imminently useful in future games. I do actually recommend the book to Fading Suns game masters who can get it (preferably cheaply) if they want deckplans. As for use in Traveller itself, I'm unsure. Since this is pretty useful for a science fiction game in general, I would assume that it fills its role in the game it was published for as well enough.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

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