February SFFKIT: The Art of SFF

This month we will be focusing on the art of science fiction and fantasy, and while writing itself is an art for sure, this topic is about the visual arts, such as covers, illustrations, or books about these arts.

You could read a fantasy or science fiction novel that has a beautiful or striking cover. These are a few that I particularly like, but there are so, so many of them!



Another option is to read a novel featuring illustrations. Here are a few examples - they are all Tolkien books, but I am sure there must be others out there.



Lastly, there are books about art in connection to fantastic worlds, dealing with how the art of books, films or games was created and displaying it. These are just a few I found:



I hope you enjoy this topic, and if you wish, please share the art you chose in this thread!

The wiki is here.

Question:
How do you get the covers of the books on your post? I have tried to find the answer.
Thanks for any help.
Leona

>2 mnleona: There is a thread here that explains how to do that and much more that I use as a reference all the time: How to do Fancy Things in Your Posts

>2 mnleona: What Mamie shared, and there is also this HelpThing.

Lots of great options!
Graphic novels can be great examples of art as well - several popular urban fantasy series has graphic novel ‘spin offs’ - World of the Marrok, Rivers of London - although I prefer original works like Linda og Valentin.
A few books in the Newford books has art as a central element or artists as main characters, like Memory and Dream, The Onion girl or The little country.
Likewise the Witness for the dead, in The Goblin Emperor series.

Planning to read The Arts and Beyond, a 1977 anthology edited by Thomas F. Monteleone, containing a dozen SF stories about the possible future of various art forms, each story accompanied by a newly-commissioned illustration.

>5 amberwitch: Oh, I had meant to include graphic novels and then forgot about it! Thank you for mentioning it!

>6 KeithChaffee: That sounds like a perfect option!

Thank you 4. I was reading Help but will look again. I love it when I see the covers. Appreciate the information.

I've got a SFF graphic novel that I've been meaning to read for ages--Candles by Lyndon White from Cast Iron Books. The touchstones don't work, but you can find it at castironbooks.com. The art is gorgeous, as I've found to be the case with all their books!

>9 whitewavedarling: beautiful! It reminds me a little of Van Gogh.

I think I am going to read The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.



For some reason this is a cover that I find quite memorable.

I'll be reading Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson. All of the Stormlight Archive books have illustrations.

Finished Candles last night (since the touchstones don't work, the link is here: https://www.librarything.com/work/28093697/book/215721484), and it was a lovely book to sink into. The art was fantastic throughout. Full review written for anyone interested!

Finished the third album in Le Grand mort, Blanche, written by Loisel and with artwork by Mallié. An eerie and creepy story, mixing sinister magic and the erosion of society across parallel worlds in a way reminescent of Stephen King in The Dark Tower. Beautiful artwork and some interesting characters with a bit of edge.
Unfortunately, the albums can’t stand on their own, as the visual is prioritized over story progress, resulting in a flaccid product.

Onyx Storm. The cover and the patterned edges. Well, and it's the 3rd book in The Empyrean Series.

Finished The Arts & Beyond, an anthology of SF stories about possible futures for art, edited by Thomas F. Monteleone.

sorry, wrong thread

I have completed my read of The House in the Cerulean Sea. This heart warming fantasy was a 5 star read!

I read Spectrum 19 which was a whole anthology of scifi and fantasy artworks. It was very fun to flip through! Thanks for this category!

I finally read (and looked at) The Map of The Hobbit, illustrated by John Howe and published with a text by Brian Sibley. This map is based on the map drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Hobbit. John Howe redrew it and also illustrated it lavishly with images from the novel and decorations in an Anglo-Saxon looking style.
The accompanying booklet contains a text by Brian Sibley in which he retells the novel. There is also a short explanation of each location that is featured in the map. There are more illustrations in the booklet as well.

The painting that was used for the cover of this edition is probably one of my very favourite Middle-earth paintings ever. It was created by John Howe as well and shows the front hall of Bag End and the view through the open door.

>20 MissBrangwen: Oh. Wow. I'm spellbound. What a cool concept!

And, great minds: I can join in this Challenge after all! I dug thru my bags o' books and found a copy of A Middle Earth Traveler, also by John Howe, featuring pencil sketches? Line drawings? of the peoples and places and events of Middle Earth. It even contains drawings of the Second Age, including The Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

Currently re-reading Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I first started reading this series in 2009 because I loved the wacky cartoon cover art by Lisa Desimini.

I read Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, whose gorgeous cover art was created by Kinuko Y. Craft. I love Craft's lush, detailed artwork, which gives me major Pre-Raphaelite vibes.

>22 Robertgreaves: How wacky indeed! And a bit chilling.

>23 christina_reads: Oh, that is stunningly beautiful!

The end of February snuck up on me, so I am retroactively declaring my reading of The Girl Who Drank the Moon as my Art of SF&F — I mean, honestly, look at that gorgeous cover! Read my review of the book here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/366543#8769247

>26 GraceCollection: That is truly gorgeous!

Thank you for participating everyone, and if you did not get to your planned read in February, please feel free to add your book at a later date and share the art you chose!

I read Tad Williams' Mirror World for this month. This is described as an illustrated novel. It is a collection of three stories set in Mirror World which, I believe, was a comic created by Williams, but the stories were not written by him. The artwork is what prompted me to buy this book. It is not comics or a graphic novel, just a nice, illustrated book. But unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy the stories.

I finished A Middle Earth Traveler and OMG is the artwork stunning. What I particularly loved was the fact that nearly all were pencil drawings, not colored drawings, so the details popped out from the page.

>20 MissBrangwen: In his Postscript, he mentions drawing this map.

>23 christina_reads: Ooooh, Kinuko Craft. Such a detailed artist, and I love her work for both Juliett Marillier and Patricia A. McKillip.