Erik Reale, author of the Dead Machine Dreams series

Many of the books I recommend show more concrete, impressive proposals of retrofuturistic design, such as architectural achievements or predictions of space travel. Prisoner’s Dilemma focuses on the development of game theory as a field of mathematics, primarily John von Neumann. It’s an informative mix of history and explaining game…

I hesitated to include Russian Cosmism in my list of recommended books because I didn’t want the inclusion to be confused for an endorsement of any idea present. This book, edited together in English by philosopher Boris Groys, contains various essays from Russian theorists and philosophers from 1910-1940, some of…

Miller, Shindell, and Weitekamp’s book is easily the most widely-encompassing book on spaceships I’ve found, covering both real spaceships and the concept in the popular imagination. Starting with fantasies from decades before space travel was remotely possible, chapters move through developments in multiple countries’ space programs and the most iconic…

Bizony’s book covers artistic depictions of space travel from the beginning of the space age, content ranging from detailed schematics of hypothetical spacecraft to promotional artwork, in styles ranging from sketches to dynamically colored illustrations. It also provides historical context for the illustrations, such as which projects the schematics relate…

This book influenced development of my work by thinking about what architecture, and design in general, says about the people who built it. The bunker architecture described by Monteyne shows the aspirations, biases, contradictions, and often wishful thinking of people planning for the end of the world, including whom they…

Typeset in the Future is a fascinating book covering graphic design across decades of science fiction films, providing details not only of the exact font types but how and why they were used in particular ways. Individual styles and common patterns in futuristic fonts get discussed and explained with humor…