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12 days of space and sci-fi books: Check out these festive holiday titles for your gift list or yourself!

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Yuletide season is officially upon us and here's a joyous array of new titles to add to your holiday reading list.

a book featuring antique celestial maps
(Image credit: Taschen Books)
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As the classic crooner Andy Williams once sang, "It's the most wonderful time of the year," and that means snowmen, reindeer, sleigh bells, mistletoe, and Good 'Ol St. Nick.

But it also means checking off your holiday gift list with sparkling literary treats for all your geeky friends and loved ones whose tastes include superheroes, galactic adventure, roaring rockets, starry skies, human spaceflight, queries from the cosmos, and excursions to the magical galaxy far, far away. Of course, if you're looking for last-minute gifts, you should check out our guides to the best Fallout gifts, best space stocking stuffers and 10 best gifts under $100 for kids.

Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story

a book cover for a book on the Gemini Program

(Image credit: St, Martin's Press)

If it weren't for the Gemini Program that taught NASA astronauts how to walk in space and maneuver spacecraft for docking procedures, America would never have made it to the Moon.

Told in his butter-smooth style and punctuated with expertly detailed accounts of the historic mid-'60s missions, New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Kluger ("Apollo 13") brings back all the guts and glory of those heady days when the final frontier was still an unexplored environment fraught with innumerable perils.

You can read our exclusive interview with Author Jeffrey Kluger on this new book.

Just Visiting This Planet

cover of a book titled Just Visiting This Planet

(Image credit: Blackstone Publishing)

Here's the engaging sequel to last year's Merlin's Tour of the Universe from celebrity astrophysicist and New York Times bestselling author Neil deGrasse Tyson, which contains 200 more space science questions and answers compiled from readers that first appeared in a column in The McDonald Observatory's StarDate Magazine.

This newly updated 350-page hardback has been fully refreshed since it was first published in 1998, and collects a constellation of fun responses to queries about planets, stars, comets, black holes, moons, gravity, galaxies, space travel, and more, all told through the wise and wonderful Merlin, a timeless cosmic traveler from Planet Omniscia.

You can read our exclusive interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson on this book in full.

Final Orbit

the cover of a sci-fi book titled Final Orbit

(Image credit: Mulholland Books)

From one of the most seasoned astronauts who ever left Earth, Chris Hadfield spins an involving yarn centering around NASA flight controller Kaz Zemeckis and China's clandestine role during the space race in the third installment of his The Apollo Murders series.

The plot unfolds in 1975 when a fresh Apollo mission blasts off to rendezvous with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a new era in Soviet-American friendship, when a shocking orbital accident alters the course of this cooperation. Complicating the matter is the launch of China’s first astronaut, Fang Kuo-chun, whose own flight steers him on a perilous path intersecting with the Apollo crew.

Check out our exclusive interview with author Chris Hadfield in full.

Gemini and Mercury Remastered

the cover of a book titled Gemini and Mercury Remastered

(Image credit: Black Dog & Leventhal)

Imaging expert and NASA historian Andy Saunders (Apollo Remastered) follows up his ambitious photographic account of our Apollo Program with this deluxe 320-page edition chronicling the Gemini and Mercury flights with hundreds of restored images curated from the archives of our storied space administration.

His newest masterwork was years in the making and delivers an insider's peek into these vital missions that provided the foundation for the success of our later trips to the moon. Project Mercury and Project Gemini revealed key questions regarding space travel, the human condition, and the limits of their fragile spacecraft in the most hostile of environments. Saunders' restoration process blesses us with never-before-seen photos that fully expose the mission dangers and awe-inspiring vantage points in astonishing clarity and color.

You can read our exclusive interview with the author, Andy Saunders, in full.

Star Wars: Master of Evil

a book cover for Star Wars: Master of Evil

(Image credit: random house worlds)

Veteran Star Wars author Adam Christopher spins a harrowing yarn from the events following Revenge of the Sith as a raw and vengeful Darth Vader yearns for the arcane mysteries of life and death while being scrutinized by Emperor Palpatine.

Consumed by the addictive elements of the Dark Side, Vader must make a pilgrimage to the scorching planet of Mustafar, where he endeavors to perform a necessary ritual by bleeding a kyber crystal to create his personal lightsaber. The energies unleashed in this unholy ceremony allow for a frightful glimpse into the horrors of the Force. Joined by the Emperor's scarlet-clad Royal Guard and its leader Colonel Halland Goth, the. Sith Lord will travel to the fringes of the galaxy where a strange shaman dwells.

You can check out our recent exclusive interview with the author, Adam Christopher.

Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy (Volume I) & The Star Wars Legacy (Volume II)

A two-volume book set with a spaceship cover

(Image credit: Abrams Books)

If you're lucky enough to score this two-volume, 800-page behemoth showcasing the work of Lucasfilm's visionary artist and designer Doug Chiang this Christmas, please drop me an email and let me know how I can join your family!

Chiang's Oscar-winning conceptual work is a revelation and this deluxe set not only reveals his creative work on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but also Attack of the Clones, The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Rise of Skywalker, and The Mandalorian.

Volume 1, The Cinematic Legacy, presents Chiang's work prior to joining forces with Lucasfilm and includes designs for Back To The Future Part III, Alien 3, T2: Judgment Day, The Mask, Jumanji, and many more.

The Art of The Fantastic Four: First Steps

the cover for a superhero movie concept art book

(Image credit: Marvel Universe)

Marvel's First Family came wonderfully alive in full retro-futuristic style this past summer as directed by Matt Shakman and produced by Marvel Studios.

The smash movie can be fully re-experienced in this 288-page deluxe slipcase edition, delivering a bounty of imaginative concept art designs, sketches, character profiles, superhero vehicles, costumes, environments, and behind-the-scenes peeks into the movie-making process. Also included is a companion volume breaking down Reed Richards' scientific gadgets, trinkets, toys, and inventions that make up his superpowered team.

The Launch of Rocket Lab

a book cover for The Launch of Rocket Lab

(Image credit: Blackwell & Ruth)

This inspiring title follows Rocket Lab's remarkable journey from tiny VC start-up to a global juggernaut in direct competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

It contains a wealth of behind-the-scenes photos and original interviews with founder Sir Peter Beck, his expert team, loyal investors, and industry experts that provide a colorful look at one of the major contenders in the current space race as they continue to grow as a force to be reckoned with.

Rocket Lab is currently the fastest company to launch 50 rockets into space, with a market cap of $13.63 billion, a planned mission to the Red Planet, and even aspirations to launch a mission to Venus someday.

Dune: The Graphic Novel: The Complete 3-Book Boxed Set

a 3-box set of the Dune Graphic Novel

(Image credit: Abrams ComicArts)

Just in time for some sweet sci-fi gift-giving, here's the complete 3-book Dune graphic novel adaptation of legendary author Frank Herbert for the 60th anniversary of the book's original publication in 1965.

This premium box set, written by Frank's son, Brian Herbert, with collaborator Kevin J. Anderson, contains vivid illustrations by Raul Allen and Patricia Martin that perfectly capture the galactic turmoil and mysticism that's enthralled readers for decades as one of the greatest interstellar sagas ever conceived.

You can read our exclusive interview with Kevin J. Anderson in full, too.

Nanocosmos: Journeys In Electron Space

a book cover for a title called Nanocosmos

(Image credit: Abrams Books)

The sublime beauty and mystery of the microscopic world are presented here by author, artist, and film historian Michael Benson. Now, in this six-pound, 320-page coffee-table book, Benson takes us all on a mindblowing trip into the realm of extreme magnification using the might of scanning electron microscope (SEM) technologies.

It's an ideal gift for space and science lovers as it offers a shocking glimpse of these tiny worlds that surround us daily. The images were captured from SEM scans Benson took over the course of six years at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Quebec, including radiolarians, dinoflagellates, and diatoms, as well as multiple types of insects, microscopic flowers, and even lunar samples obtained from Apollo 16.

Be sure to check out our exclusive interview with author Michael Benson, too.

Superman: The Art and Making of the Film

a cover for a Superman movie concept art book

(Image credit: Harry N. Abrams)

It's up, up and away with this beautiful concept art book from director James Gunn's Superman, which landed in theaters this past summer and raked in a comfortable $585 million.

Now, acolytes of the Man of Steel can witness how this superhero spectacle was created by a small army of Hollywood technicians and artists in this 176-page edition that whisks readers behind the scenes for DC Studios' blockbuster.

Writer James Field (The Art of The Batman) records every stage of the movie's production, beginning with Gunn and DC Studios co-chairman Peter Safran's initial brainstorming chats to casting, costumes, set design, and post-production VFX. It includes an intro from writer/director James Gunn and a David Corenswet foreword.

Cellarius Atlas

a book cover for Cellarius, an astronomy map volume

(Image credit: Taschen)

The wonders of the cosmos come alive in a bold new edition of the classic collection of constellation maps from famed Dutch-German mathematician and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596 ? 1665) that unveils these celestial atlas masterworks in unprecedented detail.

Initially published in 1660 in Harmonia Macrocosmica, this revised volume in a larger prestige format contains the complete 29 double-folio maps. These striking plates showcase sublime adorned skies, decorative borders and breathtaking constellations in this astonishing seven-pound reprint measuring 11.42 x 1.57 x 18.9 inches that restores academia's most stunning depictions of the heavens.

Jeff Spry
Jeff Spry
Contributing Writer

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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