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The author of the book is Canadian, but that’s still no excuse. One quibble I have is that the Canadian underworld element is called the Maple Syndicate, apparently with a straight face. After all, this book came out before Youtube so everyone wasn’t quite as familiar with memes as they are now. Some of the technology gets a little more space dedicated to it than it probably needs, but I’m not sure you can blame the authors for this. This is where the real meat of the setting lies and it’s all pretty interesting. It details all the technology, operative nations, militaries, criminal organizations and memes of the 22nd century. The next section is the Encyclopedia of Transhuman Space.

There’s also more rules for low gravity, radiation exposure, and how horrific outer space really is. Of course, this being a GURPS book, you were probably expecting a lot of basic information, so this book will meet those expectations. As a basic primer to our solar system, it’s pretty good but if you already know that stuff it doesn’t introduce much setting material. There’s a lot of scientific facts given in charts and tables, and a smattering of discussion of transhuman colonies in the solar system. The next section is a grand tour of the solar system. Coincidentally, this is also the year in which a game of Civilization ends (and a game of Alpha Centauri begins). We then get an extensive timeline taking us to the starting date of the setting, January 1st, 2100. Wearable computers are all the rage in 2011, which is somewhat right, if by wearable you mean in our pockets. Did you know, before 2010, the first human clone was born and that China has put a man on the moon? I didn’t either. Transhuman Space starts out with a big ol’ timeline and a quick discussion of the elements of the setting. There is a color version of the game available, which would probably help in discerning some of these vague shapes, but I don’t have it. Later books in the line go back to the traditional GURPS stable of artists and the results are mixed. His spacecraft are cool, but too many pictures of glowing-irised people emerging from the shadows gets a little trying. The art is by Christopher Shy, which means it’s dark, murky, and doesn’t seem to fit the setting. Transhuman Space places it much more realistically with its big extrapolation being the discovery of primordial black holes. Eclipse Phase has the advantage for having more up-to-date scientific information, but then introduces crazy sci-fi elements like psionics and stargates. Unfortunately, it was published in 2002 and so a few breakthroughs were missed (It still refers to Pluto as a planet and Ceres as an asteroid, for instance). It tries to be a rational explanation of the future of humanity based on the science of the day. I’m not a GURPS fan (roll-under, bleah) but it’s kinda generic so it’s not too hard to take the world information and move it over to another system. Transhuman Space is for GURPS 3rd edition. But there’s another transhuman game on the market.