Select pages only. Futurist and illustrator David Jefferis edited and co-wrote all of the volumes in Usborne’s influential World of the Future series (1979), which introduced a generation of kids to ideas few adults could grasp. While Star Wars had nothing of the speculative in it, Usborne and Jefferis understood that it could serve as a gateway drug into space science and more serious explorations of our interstellar future.
I was really lucky to talk to David, still very busy thinking and writing about the future, about his Usborne days and beyond. That interview will run tomorrow.
UPDATE: Mr. M.W. Schmeer has kindly notified me that the compilation of all three World of the Unknown books is online at the Internet Archive.
2 Warps to Neptune 
The omnibus of all three books can be found on the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/stream/Usborne_Book_of_the_Future_1979_pointlessmuseum#page/n0/mode/2up
Oh wow. I thought Usborne had that pulled from the original site that hosted the book. I’ll update the post. Thanks!
Looks like that archive has been pulled again. 😦 I loved these books as a kid and borrowed each of them from the library many times. It’s interesting to see