On Saturday last I hied seventh forth to the picturesque Norfolk town of North Walsham,
to play a gig at the equally picturesque King’s Arms Hotel
with my band Stealer. Our presence had been announced beforehand
along with other forthcoming attractions including this:
Is someone not telling us something?
Meanwhile in other news, sales of Siege of Stars, first volume of my SF trilogy, are going well (find out how to get hold of it here) and the publisher is preparing the sequelae for publication. The impatient can get an advance proof of volume two, Scourge of Stars. And today he sent me a cover concept for volume three, Rage of Stars. Here it is:
It’s an interesting feeling, getting cover art for one’s own fiction as interpreted through the eyes of another. It’s especially gratifying that the artist, Clay Hagebusch, has taken pains to read the story, as the cover art illustrates a specific event in the book.
Now so close, the aliens were discernible (against a luminous background) as individuals, in the way they had not been during the remote observation of Lac 9352. Domingo would never forget the image of a swarm of black specks swirling around the King of Planets like a mockery of a shrouded gossamer ring, before a column of them plummeted like a spearhead into the Great Red Spot. It only took a few moments for the rich russets and browns of Jupiter’s cloudscape to be drained of all color; only a few more for the giant planet to implode and disappear into nothingness, as if it had never been.
You are Arthur C Clarke and I claim my gas giant-devouring monolith.
Ah! There’s nothing new under the
monolithsun. Jupiter gets the treatment in Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two, though it is transformed rather than destroyed. Gas giants do get rather abused in SF. Alien machines destroy one in Alastair Reynolds’ Redemption Ark, which I read recently, and I suspect there are many others.And don’t forget that gas giants get done-over (as it were) in real life too… The Shoemaker–Levy 9 chain of impacts back in 1994 to name but several. Some of those bits were a mile across, so while they looked cutely small on the planetary disc they must have upset the buses to the station – at the very least…
I find EE ‘Doc’ Smith best for planetary sized cataclysms. He destroyed an entire galaxy once, rather ingeniously I thought.
Did that have an impact on his no-claims bonus?
I don’t remember that. Was that in the Lensman books?
Ashley, I think it was ‘Skylark’.
Yeah. Right first time.
Or maybe it was Lensman. The one with the chlorine beings.
Just fancy – ” the cover art illustrates a specific event in the book.” – that’s a novel idea.
There’s a serious difference between word people and picture people. I’m a picture person – you are clearly a word person. However – your picture person has done you proud – he’s vey good.
As a word guy you don’t seem to have done too bad either. – I mean, three sentences and Jupiter’s been and gone. That’s some going.. – There can’t be much left of the universe by the end of an entire trilogy?
John – you’d be surprised how many covers are out there that bear absolutely no relationship to the content. And the event depicted happens quite close to the end of the third book.
To be honest I’m skint and might have to wait till your trilogy finds its way to the local charity shop at 10 pence a copy before I can read it. – But If I keep asking daft questions you might eventually give away the whole plot and I might bypass the wait. So having found that you don’t destroy Jupiter in three sentences till near the end of the trilogy – how many sentences does it take for you to destroy the rest of the universe?
But.
Your cover artist is awesome – Anybody who has yet to click on the Clay Hagebusch link in the main body of this post should do so immediately – before Henry does destroy the rest of the universe..
And
If the rest of the trilogy (the bit between the covers) is as gripping as the three sentences in which you destoy Jupiter, then it’s one hell of a trilogy. – I must make a point of visiting more charity shops than usual.
So
Warm congratulations.
Thank you John, you are very kind.