THE LAND LEVIATHAN

Granada / Panther paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"A BARBARIC NEW DARK AGE- 

IN AN ALTERNATIVE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

Seeking the answer to the mystery of life, Captain Oswald Bastable visits the Temple of the Future Buddha and is thrown through time to a new twentieth century. Plague, anarchy and superstition rule the world where he finds himself. Bands of diseased mutants pillage the continents while pirate U-boats prowl the oceans. 

But from this chaos emerges the Black Attila, commander of the African Hordes and master of the most terrible weapon ever devised by Man - the Land Leviathan, a terrifying ziggurat on wheels, a moving mountain of deadly artillery. 

At last, after centuries of cruel oppression, the Land Leviathan helps the Black Attila establish Black Power on an unimaginable, global scale. Unimaginable that is, to anyone except Michael Moorcock who has rewritten the history of the twentieth century in his own totally original, biting style."

THE WAR LORD OF THE AIR

Granada / Panther paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"THE ADVENTURES OF OSWALD BASTABLE, TRANSPORTED TO A WORLD EPICAL-HISTORICAL-FANTASTICAL 

This is the amazing story of Captain Oswald Bastable, late of the 53rd Lancers - stowaway, opium addict and time traveller extraordinary. 

Beginning in Nepal in 1903, Bastibale is jettisoned into a brave new world seventy years in the future: where the British Empire is stronger than ever, cities soar skyward, and the airship rules supreme. 

But when Bastable discovers to his dismay that his own ship is alive with fugitive anarchists, two cultures and two moralities clash. Together they, and all mankind, await the fearful advent of the War Lord of the Air."

THE BEAST

Granada paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by Richard Clifton-Dey.

"THE BEAST... 

As a child he hunted the frightened night creatures, left a musky trail and tore flesh from splintered bones... 

HAS BECOME MAN... 

But the Beast has invaded the bodies of several people. Now, as Barry, he has a wife and young family to protect... 

AND IS HEADING TOWARDS HIS FINAL GOAL... 

A chance meeting with a beautiful young Indian leads him to a Navajo reservation where he discovers the astounding possibility of the great leap which will take them both into another dimension. The beast needs to go. Barry the man has to stay..."

MISSION OF GRAVITY

VGSF / Victor Gollancz Science Fiction paperback, 1987. Cover
painting by Tony Robers.

"Never had a journey been so long... 

Never had the stakes been so high... 

Mesklin was a living nightmare for any human explorer: a vast disc-shaped planet with a crushing gravity up to 700 times greater than Earth's. It was a world so cold that its oceans were liquid methane and its snows were frozen ammonia. Yet the planet held secrets of unimaginable value to mankind, mysteries which could only be unlocked with the help of the mesklinites, tiny creatures bizarrely adapted to their surroundings. But it was only at the end of their journey that the resourceful Mesklinite captain laid down his side of an extraordinary bargain."

FANTASTIC ADVENTURES JUNE 1952

Cover painting by Walter Popp, illustrating a scene from
The Woman In Skin 13.

LIGHTSHIP

Paper Tiger paperback, 1985. © Jim Burns.

Painting for the cover of Larry Niven and Steven Barnes' Dream Park.

Big Boy Loco, from Planet Story; Burns' collaboration with Harry Harrison.

Spaceport, from Harry Harrison's book Mechanismo.

Painting from Richard Avery's The Deathworms Of Kratos.

Painting for Frank Herbert's Heretics Of Dune.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SCIENCE FICTION ILLUSTRATION

Jupiter Books hardback, 1974. Cover painting by Frank R. Paul illustrating
Life On Uranus for Fantastic Adventures magazine.

This book covers ground from roughly 1884 and like Brian Aldiss' book Science Fiction Art - The Fantasies Of SF (1975) there is heavy bias towards pulp artwork, in particular those from the 1930's; the most contemporary piece of artwork I found was from an issue of Fantastic Adventures dated 1940. Paul's cover illustration was accompanied by the following text:

"The inhabitant of Uranus lives on a rigorous planet indeed. He is confronted with tremendous gravity, dense atmosphere, poison gases, and great storms."

Cover for Astounding Science Fiction, April 1938 by Howard V. Brown.

Cover for Astounding Science Fiction, November 1938 by Howard V. Brown.

Cover for Amazing Stories, August 1927 by Frank R. Paul.

Cover for Fantasy - Thrilling Science Fiction #1, 1939 by by S. R. Drigin.

Cover for Fantasy - Thrilling Science Fiction #2 by S. R. Drigin.

MYTHOPOEIKON

Dragon's World paperback, 1976. © copyright Patrick Woodroffe

Cover painting for Three Hearts And Three Lions by Poul Anderson.

Cover painting for The Warlord Of The Air by Michael Moorcock.

Painting for Joe Haldeman's The Forever War.

"It is strange how we cling to the concepts of 'up' and 'down' when designing such machines. Surely these terrestrial attitudes will melt away once real ships are built for flight in deep space. But the illustrator is drawing for today's perspectives, and the book jacket must have a distinctly 'right way up' look."

Painting for Frederik Pohl's Day Million.

ROBOTS: FACT, FICTION + PREDICTION

Cover painting by Peter Tybus, based on a photograph of Eric, a 1928 robot
inspired by Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. 

Interior illustration by Paul Orban, from Asimov's Little Lost Robot, as featured in
Astounding Science Fiction, March 1947.

Illustration of Alpha by Ian Miller for John Sladek's Machine Screw, from
Men Only, XL, number 10, october 1975.

DORSAI!

DAW paperback, February 1976. Cover art by Paul Lehr.

"Donal Graeme, Dorsai of the Dorsai, was the final link in a long genetic train, the ultimate soldier, whose breadth of vision made him a master of space war and strategy - and something even greater. He was the focus of centuries of evolution, the culmination of planned development, and through him a new force made itself felt. 

The Dorsai were renowned throughout the galaxy as the finest soldiers ever born, trained from birth to fight and win, no matter what the odds. With Donal at their head they embarked upon the final, impossibly venture: they set out to unify the splintered worlds of mankind. 

Dorsai! Is the magnificent conclusion of Gordon R. Dickson's epic vision of the future, a vision as sweeping and brilliant as Asimov's Foundation trilogy."

THE INFINITE CAGE

Berkley Medallion paperback, July 1974. Cover art by
Richard M. Powers

"A little wisp of a man appears from who-knows-where, apparently suffering from delusions, schizophrenia, paranoia, and mental maladies not yet named. His misadventures in a hostile world would put Walter Mitty to shame for lack of imagination. He finds he has strange powers that bring him spectacular success at whatever he attempts - followed, it seems inevitably, by crushing disaster. At last, on the verge of utter despair, he stumbles onto a clue to the secret of his existence... 

Keith Laumer, famous for his witty novels of galaxy-hopping adventure, has created a spooky, funny, hauntingly brilliant novel that cannot be put down - and will never be forgotten- 

WELCOME TO ADAM'S WORLD."

FIVE TO TWELVE

Coronet paperback, second impression, 1974. Cover painting by
Chris Foss.

"The twenty-first century is drawing to an end. Earth's social structure has undergone a complete reversal - women dominate society and men have been reduced to the status of manipulated objects. Into this changed world comes Dion Quern, a self-styled troubadour who refuses to conform to the social norm. But he discovers that women are superior to men in both bodily strength and number. And how can one man hope to change a whole society?"

THE COSMIC EYE

Belmont paperback, September 1969. Cover painting by
Jack Faragasso (thanks: Mark).

"Morris should have functioned perfectly in the rigid totalitarian society of the future where every thought, every word, every action was controlled by the superstate. A state where everyone was watched night and day by the great eye of the internal security forces. It was a strange, in man was inhuman worlds, but the rewards were great for those who belonged to the right caste. Morris belonged to the master class which ruled the entire world by brain power or brutality, depending on which was needed. Morris was born right at the top - he had everything the technate society could provide - and yet he didn't belong. Nonconformity could mean liquidation, but he was prepared to take the risk."

ANALOG DECEMBER 1973

Cover painting by John Schoenherr.

SCIENCE FICTION ART - THE FANTASIES OF SF

NEL softcover, 1975. Central image (girl & alien) by Edd Cartier.

Painting by Malcolm Smith, on the cover of Imagination, June 1954.

Illustration by Hannes Bok, from his book The Sorcerer's Ship

Illustration by Henry Sharp, for William Tenn's The Last Bounce, from Fantastic Adventures,
September, 1950.

Illustration by Henry Sharp for Robert Adams' Empire Of Evil, from Amazing Stories, January 1951.

Illustration by Virgil Finlay for Abraham Merritt's The Snake Mother, from
Fantastic Novels, November 1940.

Illustration by Virgil Finlay for Leigh Brackett's The Big Jump, from
Space Stories, February, 1953.

The Man From Mars - painting by Frank R. Paul, from the rear cover of
Fantastic Adventures, 1939.

The 'key' to Frank R. Paul's The Man From Mars.