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In alphabetical order by artist:
Peter Cotton / TWBG, for Accelerando by Charles Stross (Orbit).
Bob Eggleton, for Wild Galaxy by William F. Nolan (Golden Gryphon).
Richard Marchand / Dean Harkness, for The Life to Come by Tim Lees (Elastic Press).
Stephan Martinière, for Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Tor).
Steve Rawlings, for Brass Man by Neal Asher (Tor UK).
Darren Wall / S&S Art Dept, for Aliens: Why They Are Here by Bryan Appleyard (Simon & Schuster).
Peter Cotton / TWBG: Accelerando by Charles Stross (Orbit).
A British cover that leapt off the shelves and for me shouted louder than most in 2005 is this design by Peter Cotton and the Time Warner Book Group.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
autopope has been blessed with great covers for his books, and this one's a sexy blend of a straighforward, bang-up-to-date display font with some sophisticated yet edgy illustration, both of which somehow fit, match and determine the style of the other (but Charlie does want to know what Cory Doctorow is doing on the cover of his book). Accelerando's US cover is almost as cool, but not quite, so for me this is score one to Old Blighty in that rivalry between UK and US SF book covers.
Bob Eggleton: Wild Galaxy by William F. Nolan (Golden Gryphon).
One rather over-the-top word seems to sum up this cover for me: joyous. There's often something that harks back to a more innocent age in Bob Eggleton's illustrations, as if he's revisiting SF themes from fifty years ago, and the cover of Wild Galaxy seems to exemplify this. It's nice to know there is at least one illustrator out there unafraid to throw scientific rationale out of the window and still indulge himself in some boyish enthusiasm for the kind of sketched-out ideas he probably had when he was a skiffy-reading teenager, and get them published all over the place. What we have here is a decidedly retro-cool spaceship that in a present-day context could be seen as nothing more than an aerodynamic fighter jet; with the backdrop of an entire galaxy and a strange alien asteroid city this beautiful, romantic and almost post-modern picture harks back to what pulp SF art used to be before greater realism was called for. And what I particularly like are the unusual and unexpected touches of pink that Eggleton has thrown in, a detail that elevates the painting further. Very pleasing.
Richard Marchand / Dean Harkness: The Life to Come by Tim Lees (Elastic Press).
Canadian artist Richard Marchand has already illustrated several covers for The Third Alternative, so he was probably the obvious choice to illustrate the cover of the first short story collection by one of that magazine's most regular contributors. Deeply strange, it is an image that is so mind-grabbingly there, a work probably simpler and more focussed that other even weirder stuff by Marchand but one that I couldn't help but look at admiringly for a few minutes more than I usually do, every time I pick up the book I'm reading. This alone tells me its a very successful cover. It's not only the image that has some resonance with the stories within (many of them being short retrospective tales on looking back with a greater wisdom), Dean Harkness's typography is also right: a single handwritten font with the childlike 'by' separating title and author. It's a clever device, having a naïvety that somehow, at the same time, both contrasts and reflects the image itself.
Stephan Martinière: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Tor).
Stephan Martinière, last year's BSFA 'best artwork' winner and a man well known for his impressive hard SF covers, shows he's also rather adept at illustrating fantasy novels. This eye-catching cover for Brandon Sanderson has the Martinière hallmarks of gravity defying technology with a strong dash of romance. Though it is an extremely detailed picture Martinière knows when to keep it in the background, and the composition throws your eye both around and into the picture. Its one of those covers that makes me stop, look and remember, even if I may not buy the book itself.
Steve Rawlings: Brass Man by Neal Asher (Tor UK).
Steve Rawlings has being doing some very creative covers for Neal Asher's novels for some years so I'm left wondering why they've not been nominated before. I think all of his covers for Asher's books are both challenging and pleasing to the eye, but in talking to fans I've discovered that many still don't realise they are portraits of the book's protagonists set sideways and wrapping onto the back. To look at the front cover only will give the impression of a colourful yet probably rather meaningless abstract; if you open out the book and hold it portrait-fashion it provides something of a revelation. What Rawlings achieves is something of a designer's indulgence, doing something unusual with the traditional book cover format. He gets his results mostly by Photoshop layering with different degrees of opacity and with virtually no other digital effects to over-elaborate an already complex image. Complemented by some simple and direct vertically-aligned typography for the title – again, daring, and the font works well – I'd call all Rawlings's covers for Asher's novels very successful indeed.
Darren Wall / S&S Art Dept: Aliens: Why They Are Here by Bryan Appleyard (Simon & Schuster).
In-house cover design, in the world according to starving artists, began as that bastard offspring of the computer revolution which meant publishers could certainly do it cheaper but rarely, if ever, better. Things have moved along somewhat since then, and I'm pleased to see Simon & Schuster's UK art studio also producing some very decent covers lately. Darren Wall is also the designer of the impressive hardback forianmcdonald's River of Gods, so I hope S&S are paying him well. The cover for Aliens: Why They Are Here succeeds with its directness, the challenging simplicity of the image matching the bare statement of the book's title. Therefore as it's not a science fiction novel it has to avoid appearing as such, as this book needs to be instantly recognised for the cultural commentary that it is. Instead, the grey alien as office worker hints at how we see each other, throwing back at us our own insecurity and alienation. And again, as with the other wrap-around illustrations above, the absence of any back cover typography (as well as the alien himself) only draws you in further. Well designed and well executed, it's probably my favourite cover of the year.
instant_fanzine)In alphabetical order by artist:
Peter Cotton / TWBG, for Accelerando by Charles Stross (Orbit).
Bob Eggleton, for Wild Galaxy by William F. Nolan (Golden Gryphon).
Richard Marchand / Dean Harkness, for The Life to Come by Tim Lees (Elastic Press).
Stephan Martinière, for Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Tor).
Steve Rawlings, for Brass Man by Neal Asher (Tor UK).
Darren Wall / S&S Art Dept, for Aliens: Why They Are Here by Bryan Appleyard (Simon & Schuster).
Peter Cotton / TWBG: Accelerando by Charles Stross (Orbit).
A British cover that leapt off the shelves and for me shouted louder than most in 2005 is this design by Peter Cotton and the Time Warner Book Group.
autopope has been blessed with great covers for his books, and this one's a sexy blend of a straighforward, bang-up-to-date display font with some sophisticated yet edgy illustration, both of which somehow fit, match and determine the style of the other (but Charlie does want to know what Cory Doctorow is doing on the cover of his book). Accelerando's US cover is almost as cool, but not quite, so for me this is score one to Old Blighty in that rivalry between UK and US SF book covers.Bob Eggleton: Wild Galaxy by William F. Nolan (Golden Gryphon).
One rather over-the-top word seems to sum up this cover for me: joyous. There's often something that harks back to a more innocent age in Bob Eggleton's illustrations, as if he's revisiting SF themes from fifty years ago, and the cover of Wild Galaxy seems to exemplify this. It's nice to know there is at least one illustrator out there unafraid to throw scientific rationale out of the window and still indulge himself in some boyish enthusiasm for the kind of sketched-out ideas he probably had when he was a skiffy-reading teenager, and get them published all over the place. What we have here is a decidedly retro-cool spaceship that in a present-day context could be seen as nothing more than an aerodynamic fighter jet; with the backdrop of an entire galaxy and a strange alien asteroid city this beautiful, romantic and almost post-modern picture harks back to what pulp SF art used to be before greater realism was called for. And what I particularly like are the unusual and unexpected touches of pink that Eggleton has thrown in, a detail that elevates the painting further. Very pleasing.
Richard Marchand / Dean Harkness: The Life to Come by Tim Lees (Elastic Press).
Canadian artist Richard Marchand has already illustrated several covers for The Third Alternative, so he was probably the obvious choice to illustrate the cover of the first short story collection by one of that magazine's most regular contributors. Deeply strange, it is an image that is so mind-grabbingly there, a work probably simpler and more focussed that other even weirder stuff by Marchand but one that I couldn't help but look at admiringly for a few minutes more than I usually do, every time I pick up the book I'm reading. This alone tells me its a very successful cover. It's not only the image that has some resonance with the stories within (many of them being short retrospective tales on looking back with a greater wisdom), Dean Harkness's typography is also right: a single handwritten font with the childlike 'by' separating title and author. It's a clever device, having a naïvety that somehow, at the same time, both contrasts and reflects the image itself.
Stephan Martinière: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Tor).
Stephan Martinière, last year's BSFA 'best artwork' winner and a man well known for his impressive hard SF covers, shows he's also rather adept at illustrating fantasy novels. This eye-catching cover for Brandon Sanderson has the Martinière hallmarks of gravity defying technology with a strong dash of romance. Though it is an extremely detailed picture Martinière knows when to keep it in the background, and the composition throws your eye both around and into the picture. Its one of those covers that makes me stop, look and remember, even if I may not buy the book itself.
Steve Rawlings: Brass Man by Neal Asher (Tor UK).
Steve Rawlings has being doing some very creative covers for Neal Asher's novels for some years so I'm left wondering why they've not been nominated before. I think all of his covers for Asher's books are both challenging and pleasing to the eye, but in talking to fans I've discovered that many still don't realise they are portraits of the book's protagonists set sideways and wrapping onto the back. To look at the front cover only will give the impression of a colourful yet probably rather meaningless abstract; if you open out the book and hold it portrait-fashion it provides something of a revelation. What Rawlings achieves is something of a designer's indulgence, doing something unusual with the traditional book cover format. He gets his results mostly by Photoshop layering with different degrees of opacity and with virtually no other digital effects to over-elaborate an already complex image. Complemented by some simple and direct vertically-aligned typography for the title – again, daring, and the font works well – I'd call all Rawlings's covers for Asher's novels very successful indeed.
Darren Wall / S&S Art Dept: Aliens: Why They Are Here by Bryan Appleyard (Simon & Schuster).
In-house cover design, in the world according to starving artists, began as that bastard offspring of the computer revolution which meant publishers could certainly do it cheaper but rarely, if ever, better. Things have moved along somewhat since then, and I'm pleased to see Simon & Schuster's UK art studio also producing some very decent covers lately. Darren Wall is also the designer of the impressive hardback for
ianmcdonald's River of Gods, so I hope S&S are paying him well. The cover for Aliens: Why They Are Here succeeds with its directness, the challenging simplicity of the image matching the bare statement of the book's title. Therefore as it's not a science fiction novel it has to avoid appearing as such, as this book needs to be instantly recognised for the cultural commentary that it is. Instead, the grey alien as office worker hints at how we see each other, throwing back at us our own insecurity and alienation. And again, as with the other wrap-around illustrations above, the absence of any back cover typography (as well as the alien himself) only draws you in further. Well designed and well executed, it's probably my favourite cover of the year.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-05 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 10:51 am (UTC)