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IF YOU joined the Science Fiction Book Club back in 1981, then chances are you chose as two of your four books for a buck, The World of Tiers Volume's One and Two. Plus it was stated that both volumes counted as one selection. Yay! It was also an easy choice to make because you knew Philip Jose Farmer was a fun author to read (Riverworld slogs aside), and you were going to get two great new covers by the supremely talented Boris Vallejo (not to mention a free tote and free bonus copy of Julian May's The Many-Colored Land & The Golden Torc. Yay! again).
Of course, after you received your books you quickly realized that these club editions from Nelson Doubleday were rather cheaply made affairs and might not hold up against repeated use or as long-term collectibles. To some it may have felt like the old bait-and-switch, and in essence it sorta was, but the SFBC was able to counter those sentiments by issuing unique special editions, including hardbacks of paperback originals, one of a kind omnibus's (such as the Tiers), fresh cover art on most of their jackets (or larger versions as compared to paperbacks), and discounted prices in comparison to retail, plus you could cancel your membership at any time after fulfilling your initial pledge to buy four additional books during the coming year. Those things, I believe, more than anything else, are what kept the SFBC alive for more than seventy years, only recently shutting down in 2025 due to lagging sales and memberships.
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'After our capture by the Romans, we were taken to the camp of Germanicus, and he looked us over. His wife, Agrippina, was there with a little brat about four years old hanging onto her tunic. Suddenly the brat tugged at his mother and said, "I want," pointing at me. A centurion was about to lead us away, when Agrippina stopped him with an imperious gesture. "Hold! Caligula wishes the young barbarian. Take it away, burn that filthy wolf skin it is wearing, scrub it, and bring it to my tent." I saw my mother's lip tremble, but she kept here head up. Father didn't even flick an eyelash. I never saw them again but for the one time in Rome. I then dedicated my life to one purpose--vengeance. Someday I would kill a Caesar.'
BORIS VALLEJO was born in Lima, Peru, and attended the National School of
Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the US in 1964.
He entered the fields of the fantastic in 1971, producing magazine
covers for both Warren and Marvel publications. But paperback covers
were proving to be more lucrative than magazine covers so Boris quickly made himself available to paperback houses, gaining momentum with every cover he produced. His hyper-realistic style proved popular with SFF readers too and within three years after producing his very first paperback cover for Edgar Rice Burroughs's historical novel I Am A Barbarian (Ballantine, September, 1975), Ballantine rewarded him with a solo art book, The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo. It contained 40 full-color plates of his striking artwork and set the tone for what would follow for decades to come: scores of great book covers, album covers, movie posters, and stunning, semi-erotic fantasy paintings bursting with dynamic human figures and imaginative monsters.
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Stellar 1 was published in 1975 in the same month as I Am A Barbarian. It was the first installment of a new SF anthology series from Ballantine edited by Judy Lynn Del Rey, who along with her new husband Lester Del Rey would help revitalize the publisher's once-prominent science fiction and fantasy lines, eventually rebranding them under their own last name. Boris became a part of that revitalization.
'Remember the story that first turned you on to science fiction and perhaps made you a fan for life? Who, if anyone, is writing fiction--especially short fiction--like that now? And where is it being published? Science fiction should be fun... should offer some of that sense of wonder and achievement we used to expect as a matter of course. And that is what the Stellar series is all about. This first volume showcases stories by the major writers in the field--with each story in print here for the first time anywhere.'
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William Tenn's Of Men and Monsters was published in December, 1975. It's Tenn's only full-length SF novel, although he published more than 60 short stories in his lifetime. Tenn is actually Philip Klass, a WWII combat veteran who was raised in Brooklyn, New York. Klass was a technical editor at an Air Force radar and radio laboratory and at Bell Labs before becoming a teacher of comparative literature at Penn State University for 22 years. He is regarded as a SF humorist and that's why I never got around to reading him--I always took my SF seriously! Though I remember attending a Harlan Ellison lecture once where he was about to reveal something unbeknownst and possibly even funny about Klass, but then he got sidetracked and never came back full circle. Instead, for the third time, I had to hear about Ellison mailing a dead gopher to an editor who had wronged him. Err!
'Eric the Only was anxious to become a man... eager to perform his initiation Theft from the Monster World and to be accepted by the elders of his small tribe. Then the women would notice him... and one woman in particular might begin to take him seriously. He had learned well the rules of stealing. He had long anticipated his just rewards. He had carefully plotted and schemed. He had minimized all the risks. But though Eric understood the merciless ways of the Monsters who had long ago driven his people into the wretched burrows, he could not anticipate the treachery of men. Suddenly--without warning--the best laid plans of Eric the Only went violently astray.'
I don't know how much longer I will be blogging, or even want to blog. I'm starting to realize that my time might be better spent drawing and painting, or perhaps traveling, especially since I'm worried about the onset of arthritis slowing my hands down. But before I stop altogether I'm going to create a Paperback Palette Cover Art Hall of Fame post and Boris's Mahars of Pellucidar will be chief among its inclusions. It is perhaps my favorite of all his artwork.
John Eric Holmes Pellucidarian pastiche was published by Ace in 1976. A sequel, The Red Axe of Pellucidar, was ready for publication in 1980 but subsequently blocked by the Burroughs estate for reasons only they can provide. Though in 2022 they relented, re-releasing both novels in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audio CD as part of its Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe series. Richard Hescox produced the cover art on both books. A third novel was planned but never written.
'Varna halted in the trail, sniffing the air. I sniffed myself, but my smog-dulled sense of olfaction brought me no information. "What is it?" I whispered. The answer to my question leaped into the path before us. It was the most terrifying apparition I have ever seen in my short life. The beast was six feet long and four fee high at its powerful shoulders. A stump of a tail lashed the air behind it and huge claws were unsheathed on each of the massive forepaws. It was the head that was most incredible, however. From the bared upper jaw descended two enormous scythe-like fangs, each at least a foot long. I had stood as a child in Rancho La Brea Park and gazed in fascination at the life-like statues there, and I recognized the living engine of destruction that now crouched before me. It was a sabre-toothed tiger.'
Boris produced cover art for several gothic novels during the 1970's but they are nearly impossible to find online or in used bookshops. Gothics tend to be hoarded by their devotees and are rarely resold.
To Walk the Night by Jane Land (Ballantine, May, 1976--Note: Jane Land is a pseudonym of Kathryn Borland): 'Shannon Fitgerald had accepted the job at the Villa Albana to escape summer doldrums. She agreed to dress as a Gibson Girl to help recreate the aura of the great 19th century mansion, but somehow became entangled in the cursed Sturgeon family tree. Suddenly Shannon had become the living embodiment of a young Linnie Sturgeon, one of a beautiful female line whose lives had been tragically marked by infidelity, scandal, and murder. It all started as a rather eerie game, until Shannon realized someone was trying to kill her. With growing terror she understood: the key to her pursuer was not in the present at all, but in the past--unforgiving and unchangeable...'
Eight Candles Glowing by Patricia Muse (Balllantine, June, 1976): 'Shipwrecked! When Jessamyn Jenkins found herself injured but alive on the strange, remote island off the Florida Keys, she thought that she'd been saved. But her rescuer, Reeve Carstairs, who lived in a decaying mansion with his young son, had other plans for her. Jessamyn was forced to remain and become the boy's tutor, forced to become part of a dangerous and bizarre charade where the dead were not allowed to die--and where she herself would fall hopelessly in love with a man no longer alive.'
Hatchett was published in paperback by Ballantine in 1976. It's a hard-boiled suspense novel featuring a tough, female private eye. There are only two reviews of it online, but both appear to be rather positive. Regardless, I've yet to read my copy. Lee McGraw is said to be a pseudonym of Paul Zakaras. If that's true then here's some bio on him: Zakaras was born in Telsiai, Lithuania, in 1940. His family fled the Soviet occupation of their homeland during WWII and came to the US as refugees in 1948. Zakaras earned his Master's in English at the University of Washington and for many years wrote for Billboard magazine in Chicago. He also taught literature and writing at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Maryland, and at Santa Monica City College. He was particularly passionate about teaching Shakespeare and the American short story. Zakaras was married to his college sweetheart, Laura, for 54 years, until his death in 2022.
'Chicago has supercrooks the way Philly has founding fathers. Capone, Dillinger, Dion O'Banion. The Crime Lords. But now there is a new Kingpin of the Rackets, a finger in every fat illegal pie in town, one step ahead of the pack and a mile ahead of the cops. No one knows who he is. But Hatchett, the wiliest private eye in town, aims to find out any way she can.'
Blood Red, Sister Rose is a historical novel loosely based on the life of Joan of Arc. It was published in paperback by Ballantine in 1976 with an appropriately composed cover illustration by Boris. It's author, Australian native Thomas Keneally, is noted for having written the Booker Prize winning novel, Schindler's Ark (1982), with was made into an important film by Steven Spielberg in 1993.
'For centuries the story of Joan of Arc has held a special fascination for writers all over the world. Each has seen her in a different way. Novelist Thomas Keneally is no exception. For him Joan--or Jehanne--is a rather ordinary young girl, a plain-spoken bewildered adolescent--albeit one who literally saved France for Charles VII. Concentrating largely on the Maid's lifting of the siege of Orleans, Keaneally's research has been impeccable and his interpretation brilliant. As victory is assured, Jehanne--who by this time is regarded by many as an unchivalrous transvestite witch--undergoes a natural transformation which at once makes her woman and inevitably seals her doom. And she knew it.'
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Ride the Golden Tiger by Jonathan Black was published in paperback by Bantam in 1976. Black appears to be a pseudonym, and at this point I don't know what the author's real name is, but he also published under the pen-name John J. Smith. I own four of the Black novels but have yet to read a single one. This cover, like the Keneally, was one of several non-SFF covers that Boris produced throughout the 1970's and '80's.
'Rutledge, the brawling millionaire prospector. Sita, his exquisite courtesan. Auerbach, the powerful French financier. Vivian, the pampered international adventuress. Rahman, the ruthless oil-rich sheikh. Sturdevant, billionaire scion of one of the most famous families in the world... RIDE THE GOLDEN TIGER across continents to the sensual playgrounds and sizzling manipulations of the world's most exotic power brokers--the men and women who love, live and die for raw gold.'
Robert Abbett introduced me to Edgar Rice Burroughs's BARSOOM when I was a teenager. For me, he will always be the definitive artist of both John Carter and Dejah Thoris. But everybody has their own favorite. It could be Richard Clifton-Dey, or Richard Corben, or Gino D'Achille, or Frank Frazetta, or Hugh Hutton, or Bruce Pennington, or Michael Whelan, or Boris Vallejo. Heaven help you if it's Mahlon Blaine.
This first edition of A Guide to Barsoom by John Flint Roy was published in paperback by Ballantine in October, 1976. It was republished by Ballantine in 1980 with a Whelan cover, and in 2012 by ReAnimus Press with cover art by Neal McDonald Jr.
'...WHAT'S INSIDE:
A Geography of Barsoom.
A Biographical Dictionary: all the people--past and present--who appear in the series.
The Flora and Fauna of Barsoom.
The Language, Religions, and Customs of Barsoom.
A General Barsoomian Glossary.
Quotations, Proverbs and Expletives from the rich heritage of Barsoom and from the pen of John Carter.
--And Lots More.'
Andrew J. Offutt's historical novel My Lord Barbarian (Del Rey, 1977) is perhaps Boris's most infamous paperback cover because it's an idealized self portrait of him and his first wife, Doris. Reminds one of Carly Simon's hit song "You're So Vain." Two years later Boris would revisit his self-portrait for Angela Carter's novel Heroes and Villains (Pocket, 1979), but this time with an exotic, cultural spin on it. Magnificent, really, both covers (ditto for his cover on A Guide to Barsoom). Illustrators often used themselves and their significant others as models, wisely saving money in the process by eliminating the need for outside modeling assistance.
My Lord Barbarian: 'Valeron car Nadh swore violently. It was an impossible situation. The Emperor was dead--killed by the vilest sort of treachery. And, if that weren't bad enough, his beautiful daughter, Aleysha, was being forced into marriage... a heinous marriage to her father's assassin! Valeron had but a few days in which to halt these nefarious schemes... only a few days in which to rally the Kings on the other worlds of Carmeis... only a few days to catch the villain before he became the most powerful ruler of all. Unfortunately, there was one small problem. Valeron car Nadh, Warlord of Branarius, was locked in prison, accused of murdering the Emperor... and they had left him there to rot!'
Heroes and Villains: 'Across a mysterious landscape... of ruin and wilderness the Professors are all that remain of human order in the world. Here crops are cultivated, books are still read, children are schooled. But outside the walls of their fortress villages, beasts roam and the land is peopled by savage, strangely costumed barbarians who raid and plunder. Marianne belonged to the people of civilization and reason--but the young barbarian Jewel has taken her for his own, into a world of animal virility and savage splendor, of HEROES AND VILLAINS.'
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Demon in the Mirror was published in paperback by Pocket in 1978. It's the first and so far only book I've read by Andrew J. Offutt, or his co-writer Richard K. Lyon, but I was so impressed with their achievement that I was tempted to turn it into a separate review post. But I didn't. So, for this instead curtailed version, where to begin? Well, how about with Boris's cover art, an absolutely flawless painting of a flame-haired, rapier-wielding woman sitting astride a chestnut mare. Boris could have easily gone for broke here, considering the story's imaginative material, adding a fearsome monster or three, but he surprisingly did not and so I say kudos to him for his restraint.
Now the story itself: Tiana is a female pirate, quick witted and even quicker with her rapier and dagger. She gets conned though by a sinister wizard into retrieving the severed body parts of another wizard, which have been strewn throughout the realm for safety's sake. What happens then is mostly episodic, each chapter being an attempt to gather those body parts from a different, dangerous location, and each chapter a bold reminder of why I used to read sword & sorcery stories so enthusiastically in my youth, primarily Robert E. Howard's tales over and over again, but nevertheless, it was my favorite genre for several years.
Here's a few examples of the fourteen chapter titles that indicate the kind of dark, literally astonishing adventures that ensued:
Bargaining with the Devil
Sisters of Death
Riding the Thunder
Bird of Prey
Incident in Dark Forest
In the Tomb of Kings
The City of Shadows
The Garden of Turgumbruda
Pyre of Ice
Paying the Devil
Now the authorship: Career wise Richard K. Lyon was a chemist, with a Ph.D earned from Harvard University. But at his wife's suggestion he started writing fiction in his spare time. She liked Robert E. Howard's Red Nails so much that she wondered if he could write a story that was similar, featuring a female pirate not unlike Valeria. Yes he could, and did, turning it into a full-length novel, but it went unsold. So Lyon approached the wordsmith Andy Offutt, and between the two of them they not only revised Demon, but completed an entire trilogy around Tiana, which was then sold to Pocket Books. They also collaborated on other stories and Lyon wrote more than a dozen by himself. But not having read either author before I wasn't sure whose voice and ideas were predominate in Demon, if any, and I was very much interested in finding out. Then I remembered that Offutt's son Chris had written a memoir about his dad, endearingly entitled My Father, The Pornographer. Apparently, Offutt's primary income during the 1960's and 1970's was derived from writing pornographic novels, more than 400 of them. He was considered the "king of twentieth century smut." My plan was to merely peruse Chris's memoir in order to glean some insight into Demon, but once I started reading I couldn't put it down, finishing it in one sitting. What a fascinating journey it told! But unfortunately there was no mention at all of Offutt's collaboration with Lyon except for a few citations at the back of the book. So I guess technically the answer to my question will always be lost in the lore.
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Post apocalypse novels were hot back in the 20th century, and probably still are today. Z For Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien was published by Dell Laurel Leaf in 1977. The Girl Who Owned A City by O. T. Nelson was published by Dell Laurel Leaf in 1980. O'Brien's YA novel is considered a classic, especially within its targeted age demographic. Nelson's maybe not so much unless you thrive on his brand of libertarianism.
Z For Zachariah: 'Her name was Ann Burden, and as far as she knew, she was the last living person on earth. There had been a war and after the phones and the radio and TV went dead, there was no sign that anyone else was alive. Ann though she was the only survivor until she saw the smoke of a campfire coming closer each day. It had to be a person, someone walking, exploring the countryside as he came. And so it was--a man, called John R. Loomis, wearing what he called a safe-suit, the only one in existence. Ann was glad to see another human being. It was more than she had hoped for. But was it really a good thing that he had come? What kind of person was John R. Loomis? He seemed pleasant enough. Yet he said odd things in moments of delirium as he recovered from an unexpected attack of radiation sickness. What would his coming mean?'
The Girl Who Owned A City: 'A killing virus has swept the earth, sparing only children through the age of twelve. There is chaos everywhere, even in formerly prosperous mid-America. Gangs and fierce armies of children begin to form almost immediately. It would be the same for the children on Grand Avenue but for Lisa, a ten-year-old girl who becomes their leader. Because of Lisa, they have food, even toys, in abundance. And now they can protect themselves from the fierce gangs that roam the neighborhoods. But for how long? Then Lisa conceives the idea of a fortress, a city in which the children could live safely and happily always, and she intends to lead them there.'
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Boris proved to be just as good at designing spacecraft as any of the genre's acknowledged gadget masters. I'm not sure if Gateway was his starting place but Boris would continue making spacecraft art all the way into the early 2000's. Frederik Pohl's multiple award-winning novel was published first in hardback by St. Martin's in 1977, then in paperback by Del Rey in 1978. I loved the book, and a couple of years later I was lucky enough to meet its author at a B. Dalton's in Littleton, Colorado. Nobody but nobody was paying attention to Pohl, so I purchased his The Cool War and chatted him up for a few minutes. My brother Gary took a snapshot of our time together and Pohl seemed very grateful for the attention. It's just too bad The Cool War turned out to be such a cold read compared to Gateway.
'Rich man, dead man. Those were the choices Gateway offered--the same for women, too, of course. Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe... and on reaches of unimaginable horror. The Humans who rode the alien Heechee spacecraft stored on the planetoid couldn't know whether the trip would make them millionaires or corpses. When Bob Broadhead came out to Gateway, he thought his problem was simple--wait till the mission felt right, then ship out. But watching returned prospectors scraped from the insides of their ships, falling in love, feeling his nerve dwindle--all these things changed him. Then, years later, Robinette Broadhead, a three-mission veteran, famous and permanently rich, has to face just what happened to him and what he is... in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void he finally drove himself to take!'
I debated whether or not to include this cover of Jerry Pournelle's SF novel West of Honor (Pocket, 1978), because Pournelle always came across to me like the worst sort of pompous ass, not unlike the blurbs on his books. But I gave in because Boris has a way of making everything better that what it really is.
'John Christian Falkenberg is the most efficient man in CoDominium, the most efficient military machine in history. He is fighting for peace and justice throughout the galaxy. His mission: to free the people of Arrarat from the alien gangs destroying the idyllic planet's peace and beauty. Now the fate of Arrarat rests in the hands of John Christian Falkenberg. John Christian Falkenberg--whose name will be written across the galaxies in stardust and rocketfire. Why does he do it? Because he can.'
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Seeing or reading anything about the Six-Million-Dollar Man always reminds me of Dan at Dead Man's Brain, who wrote one of the wittiest and most informative articles ever on the 1970's cult TV series of the same name, covering goofy episodes, novelizations, action-figure dolls, and even a talking key-chain accessory. Naturally, Dan has many of the books based on the series including its inspiration, Martin Caidin's Cyborg. This Ballantine paperback reprint of it was published in 1978, six years after the novel was first published in hardback by Arbor House and paperback by Warner.
'Austin was dead, at least he should have been. What was left of him after the crash wasn't enough to make living worthwhile. But the government's Office of Special Operations thought differently. They were willing to pay any price to make Colonel Steve Austin into the kind of man they wanted. And what OSO wanted, OSO got... a wholly new kind of man, a man bornn of a marriage of bionics and cybernetics. Here would be a human being with electronically engineered parts that functioned perfectly. Powerfully. Incredibly. A cyborg! But once they had Steve Austin together again, they told him what they had really wanted, what they had wanted all along. A weapon...'
Carl Sherrell started writing fiction late in life, at the age of 47, completing five genre novels including Arcane (Jove, 1978) before passing away unexpectedly at the age of 60 in 1990. His books received some superb cover art though, by artists such as Stephen Fabian, Harry Quinn, Richard Corben, Hector Garrido and Boris Vallejo. Sherrell himself was a commercial artist, who sometimes produced illustrations for fanzines and other esoteric publications. I've included one of his best just below, from the July, 1980, number 26 issue of Fantasy Newsletter (which, by the way, was a great newsletter with regular contributions from folks like Karl Edward Wagner and Fritz Leiber). You can see that Sherrell was no slouch when it came to drawing, and I hope I can say the same thing about his novels when and if I actually start reading them.
'The Lovers... The Devil... The Hanged Man... The Fool... The Tower... The Priestess... The Moon... The Magician. Cards in the Tarot Chapters in the Legend of Arcane. A cloud of yellow dust shrouded the Valley, encircling the primitive, cave-dwelling tribe who lived there. And from this cloud emerged a man the called "The Fool." A man who would become their Emperor. A man who held the secrets of the World in a bag of tooled black leather. Secrets to be used for healing... or for holocaust...'
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Keepers of the Gate was the first of 14 novels by clinical psychologist Steven G. Spruill. Dell published this first paperback edition in 1978. Spruill would later lean more towards horror and suspense than SF with novels like Hellstone (1981), Painkiller (1990) and Nightkill (1997). Though my favorite title of his will always be Absorbing Spongebob: Ten Ways to Squeeze More Happiness Out of Life (2005, as by Steve Harriman).
'Eridani III... An ancient garden of perfection, dwelling place of the Proteps. For years the Earth had coveted this lush Eden far beyond their reach in the stellar vastness. But now the Terran starcruisers could make the eleven-light-years' journey within a mortal lifetime... and now the superior Proteps coldly prepare to annihilate the Earth--before the invaders can approach the legendary planet... It is up to one man--Earth's bionic-powered Jared Hiller--to stave off the horror of interplanetary war. Alone, he dares to storm the gates of paradise, to discover the ancient and terrible secrets of an immortal race... and to win a beautiful and intriguing woman whose love could change the destiny of two mighty worlds...'
Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber Volume 1 & 2 were original hardback editions sold exclusively by the Science Fiction Book Club starting in 1979 (Volume 2 had the same exact Boris cover). The deal in 1979 was four books for 10 cents. Wow! How could anybody pass that up? There was a hitch though; both volumes were counted separately, so unlike the Tiers omnibuses you only were allowed two more picks if you did choose the Ambers. However, within those two volumes were all five of the original series novels. Wow! again.
'Amber is the one real world, casting infinite reflections of itself--Shadow worlds that can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite blood. Unfortunately, the royal family is torn by jealousies and suspicions. And the disappearance of the clan patriarch, Oberon, has intensified the conflicts by leaving Amber's throne apparently up for grabs...'
I've said this before in my blog, but my biggest regret as a book collector was not buying every 1970's, 80's and 90's mass-market horror paperback that was ever published. But I'd be willing to bet that somebody has, and it would be interesting to know what a collection like that would be worth. I have about 300 horror paperbacks myself, in mostly fine condition, including this copy of Hugh B. Cave's The Nebulon Horror (Dell, 1979). It usually sells online for between $10-25. Calculate that by maybe three or four thousand paperbacks and I guess there's the answer.
'Nebulon, a sleepy little Florida town. It had never known trouble, never expected it from its smallest, most innocent residents--the children. But something awful was growing in the youngest minds. It began with a child's brutal attack on her mother's lover. A pet obscenely mutilated. A baby drowned in the lake. A man blinded, then savagely stabbed to death. As the small, familiar faces turned away without feeling, the clues led to old Gustave Nebulon's house and a door that, if opened, might release all the hate the world could hole...'
Windsound was published in paperback by Berkley in 1981. Boris's medical man was modeled by the ubiquitous Steve Holland, and the woman by the book's author, Doris Vallejo, who as we all know was Boris's first wife. The brain's model is anybody's guess. Doris wrote another novel too, Loves and Lunacies (2016), and the text in four art-associated books: Mirage (1982), Enchantment (1984), Ladies: Retold Tales of Goddesses and Heroines (1992), and The Art of Rowena (2000).
'Once Nim Arra had been a man. Now he was only a brain. A pulsating tissue, kept alive in a laboratory, nurtured and cultivated so that he could voyage to distant galaxies on telepathic waves... Once Eno had loved a man. Now she refused to give him up, even as she shrank from the horror he had become...'
Boris was commissioned to produce the cover art on Ballantine/Del Rey's 1982 4th printing of Leigh Brackett's Book of Skaith 1, The Ginger Star, and he did his usual excellent work, but the reprint's of volumes 2 & 3 defaulted back to Ballantine's original artist, Jim Steranko. Steranko will probably be recognized forever as the definitive illustrator of Eric John Stark, but in this situation I would have preferred more Boris.
'Where was Simon Ashton? Ashton had disappeared somewhere--somehow--on Skaith, the dying planet of the Ginger Star, and Stark was determined to find him, no matter what the cost. Everyone on this exotic planet had heard of the strange Dark Man from another world, but no one was talking. Not the Farers. Not the Wandsmen. Not even the Irnanese. All clues led to the mysterious North--stronghold of the tyrannical Lords Protector, whose impregnable castle fortress was guarded by the infamous telepathic Northhounds. And Stark was on his way, despite the price on his head and the fatal prophecy of a beautiful priestess...'
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Cheon of Weltanland (Daw, 1983) was undoubtedly written to cash in on the popularity of slave themed fantasy novels such as Janet Morris's Silistra series, Sharon Green's Mida series, and of course John Norman's infamous Gor series. They all got their fair share of great cover art too and Cheon was no exception, so yes, take a bow, Boris, you've earned it. Wow! The author, Charlotte Stone, is apparently a pseudonym of Charles Nightingale and Dominique Roche, who, despite this book being advertised as Book 1 of the Four Wishes, never followed up with any further volumes. Nightingale is, I believe, an artist based out of Suffolk in the United Kingdom, and I believe he produced the cover art on a self-published edition of Cheon in 2002. The cover art for that item can be viewed on isfdb but unlike Boris's version it is not composed to my liking.
'Freed from the tyranny of conquerors and the slavery of the ape-people, ward and student of a Hyperborean witch, the girl Cheon was to be granted four wishes. This is what she said:
"That no. man shall again do to me as the Bunnish men and the men of the Dark place did...
"That I may grow tall and strong and skilled in the use of weapons, that I may slay me as I please...
"That I may be a witch skilled in sorcery, yet beautiful like the dawn...
"That I may be a queen as my father promised me, the queen of the Northlands..."
So begin the first novel of the high adventures of Cheon of Weltanland, in that world beyond the civilizations we know, who as wanderer and slave, as warrior and queen, was to become a legend in her own time.'
"That I may grow tall and strong and skilled in the use of weapons, that I may slay me as I please...
"That I may be a witch skilled in sorcery, yet beautiful like the dawn...
"That I may be a queen as my father promised me, the queen of the Northlands..."
So begin the first novel of the high adventures of Cheon of Weltanland, in that world beyond the civilizations we know, who as wanderer and slave, as warrior and queen, was to become a legend in her own time.'
Agent of Vega by James H. Schmitz is a collection of four linked novellas and novelettes that was published several times in paperback back in the 20th century. First by Permabooks in 1962, then by Mayflower (UK) in 1964, then Tempo in 1972, and then by Ace in 1982. The Lannai, a rather sexy alien telepathic adept with fluffy hair like feathers, was only depicted on two of the four covers, the Tempo (upper) and the Ace (lower). Tempo's cover art remains uncredited, but I think it could be the work of Gino D'Achille.
Ace edition: 'From the ashes of the Galactic Federation rose the Vegan Confederacy, drawing together again the far-flung children of old Earth, and joining them in alliance with other intelligent races that had arisen to travel the space-ways. But not every being was happy to see peace return to the Galaxy. The Vegan Confederacy read the lessons of history well, and when trouble appeared, the Zone agents were called into action. Highly trained, resourceful men and women whose loyalty to the Confederacy was beyond question, Galactic Zone Agents moved behind shields of mystery. Few knew that they existed at all. No one knew their most closely held secret. They carried a powerful weapon into each mission, for the Agents of Vega were all high-powered telepaths.'
I was going to save these two Boris covers for a special themed post I'm working on but I decided to forgo that in favor of placement here, where they belong as two of Boris's best book covers.
Firedance by Scott Baker (Tor, 1986): 'Rafti is a beautiful firedancer--until she dies in a firepit and is brought back with a murdered girl's ghost-soul sharing her body. Double-souled--the mark of the shaman--Rafti is forced to a new destiny by the priest who has resurrected her... Moth. Moth, too, is double-souled, and cursed to discover the secrets of necromancy. He lives a life of nightmare paths, phantasmic visionquests and constant battle--he sails the River of Death, fights the World-Eel and the stars, steals from the palace of a dead god and from the thousand arms of the Earth goddess. And at every turn, Moth's teacher, his gods, his allies, his ancestors, and even his magical weapons try to kill him. And now Rafti joins him in a world where masters destroy their students and priests betray their gods. Because magic cannot be avoided. But magic cannot be earned. Only stolen. Stolen from the souls of the dead.'
To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert E. Heinlein (hardback, Tor, 1987): 'Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to readers of THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead... So begins Robert A. Heinlein's newest novel, TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET. Filled with the master's most beloved characters, this compelling work broadens and enriches his epic visions of time and space, life and death, love and desire. It is also an autobiographical masterpiece--and a wondrous return to the alternate universes that all Heinlein fans have come to know and love...'
I recently read a commentary over at Por Por on the most overrated SF writers of the 20th century. Asimov headed the list. I haven't read everything by Asimov, nor everything by any other author that I've enjoyed, but I have to disagree with tarbandu while still conceding the first part of his main point that Asimov was... "a canny self-promoter who churned out Product [while more talented authors struggled to get noticed]." In my opinion the original Foundation trilogy was great, and it was one of the best examples of novel length SF that any kid could ever hope to read, the kid in this case being me, especially in the late 1960s before the influx of everything else that actually improved the genre. Prelude to Foundation (Doubleday, 1988) though was met with mostly negative reviews, or mixed reviews at best, and I think that speaks to the fact that when a series is stretched beyond its normal capacity it will generally suffer from ennui. And in the latter half of his career Asimov was doing too much of that with books like Fantastic Voyage II, Foundation's 5, 6, & 7, and yes, even Robots of Dawn. Though without question I love Boris's dome on the jacket of Prelude.
'It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall--those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future. Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future--an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.'
'It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall--those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future. Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future--an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.'
I'd like to amuse myself by thinking that this is Boris staring out at us through a hole he made in the SFF box of his own imprisonment. But as we all know, Boris has produced cover art in every genre that there is, including and most especially, the horror-thriller genre. Possession was published by Doubleday in hardback in 1988, and it's one of 36 novels that award-winning English author Peter James has published since he began writing in 1981.
'Alex Hightower was expecting her son home on school vacation. Half asleep, she saw him enter her room. Heard him speak. Then the police appeared at her front door with the shattering news: young Fabian Hightower was dead, killed that morning in a blazing car crash. Fabian was gone. Or was he? She had seen him, heard him, and now, as the days wore on, she began to feel him... wanting her, reaching out for her--cruel, cunning, demanding. Not the charming child, the handsome young man she knew and adored, but a boy who had lived in the darkest shadows... a creature who had unearthed Alex's blackest secret and done unspeakable evil... a demon determined to possess her, to reel in evil--again and again and again...'
When I came across Unwilling to Earth (fix-up, Tor, 1992) during a recent bookstore run it seemed to tick three things in the box right away. One: a nice cover by Boris that I had never seen before. Two: a writer that I had never heard of before (who also wrote SF under the pseudonym Paul Ash and whose real name was Pauline Whitby, 1926-2015). Three: a female author who had apparently earned enough respect within the SF genre to be nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and more than once. However, when I started to read the first of the four linked stories about a young girl going off to college on a far-flung Earth I was put off almost immediately. Written in the first person, Lizzie came across as instantly annoying. So I quickly perused the rest of the book and then determined, disappointingly and perhaps unfairly, that this just wasn't my kind of scholarship.
'Raised on a rough and rugged miner's planet thousands of light-years from civilization, Lizzie Lee is an unlikely candidate for higher education. So when she's tricked into accepting a scholarship to the most prestigious university in the galaxy--on Earth itself, the last thing she wants to do is go. But she can never resist a challenge either, whether it's solving a murder mystery on the moon, negotiating a hostage crisis amidst a collapsing civilization, or preventing a global war, so she's going to prove to those arrogant Earthers that she's got what it takes--or her name isn't Lysistrata!'
A friend of mine, Jon, swore that these two novels by Vernor Vinge were the best SF novels ever written. Jon has read a lot more SF than I have so I tend to trust his opinion, so I went shopping and bought a nice paperback copy of each book to read on a rainy day. That day hasn't come yet because I keep pushing them aside in favor of, well, almost anything else. I guess alien-universe-building is not really my thing, but it may be yours and it definitely was for the majority of folks who vote on the Hugo Awards.
A Fire Upon the Deep (Tor, 1993): 'Vast, riveting far-future saga involving evil gods, interstellar war, and manipulative aliens. No summary can do justice to the depth and conviction of Vinge's ideas. The overall concept astonishes; the aliens are developed with memorable skill and insight; the plot twists and turns with unputdownable tension. A masterpiece of universe-building.' --- Kirkus Reviews.
Fleeing a menace of galactic proportions, a spaceship crashes on an unfamiliar world, leaving the survivors--a pair of children--to the not-so-tender mercies of a medieval, lupine race. Responding to the crippled ship's distress signal, a rescue mission races against time to retrieve the children and recover the weapon they need to prevent the universe from being forever changed. Against a background depicting a space-time continuum stratified into 'zones of thought,' Vernor Vinge has created a rarity--a unique blend of hard science, high drama, and superb storytelling. A mind-stretching, challenging novel.' --- Library Journal.
A Deepness in the Sky (Tor, 2000): 'After thousands of years of searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free, innovative traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for the alien planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifty years... Amidst terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by the Qeng Ho and Emergents alike. More than just a great science fiction adventure, A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love.'
* * * * *
WHILE preparing this main course on Boris, I decided to read an online article I found, titled, Frank Frazetta vs Boris Vallejo. In the piece, the author, herself an artist, compares style characteristics between the two professionals, ultimately praising Frazetta over Vallejo, but also perhaps at the expense of him. She makes some interesting points to be sure, but to someone like me who is relatively non-judgemental towards art and artists (in other words, I appreciate most all art and illustration regardless of who crafted it or why), her examination came across as mostly irrelevant, like trying to compare apples to oranges. Of course I'm also someone who doesn't approve of professional art shows awarding prizes, which are based on the opinions of only a few judges, or in some cases, one judge. I would rather have actual sales be the determining factor, assuming that such a thing can even be measured. But I do realize the importance of praise in most situations, especially when it is given in earnest and not at the expense of others.
So I guess my point is if I had one; If you like Frazetta more than Vallejo, then by all
means spend your money on Frazetta, but don't disparage those whose
tastes run differently than yours.
Here's a related story to mull over: For more than a decade my library held an annual staff art show which included paintings, drawings, collage, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics and origami. At the opening night reception a first place ribbon would be awarded, usually voted on by appointed judges. But on this one particular night it was going to be by the attendees themselves. There was a small stipend to be won too. One of the entrants duly arrived with a dozen of her friends and family members, who each voted for her piece to win, rigging the election in her favor. The murmur of resentment from the rest of the entrants could be felt not only immediately, but for weeks afterward at work. The next year the staff art show was cancelled, and it has never been reinstated.
[© March, 2025, Jeffersen]
