Classic Australian SF - cover drafts

[ashr501]

NOTE: Edited to add 5th cover draft. 2nd book cover changed based on editorial feedback.

Chimaera Publications, publishers of Aurealis magazine, will be launching a series of six books at Worldcon 2010 (Aussiecon 4) reprinting some long-forgotten classics of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Featuring introductions from some of the biggest

Comments

[nyssa_p]

Just to give my totally expert opinion, I like em :) I love the simplicity of it and the colours. Great, great, great :)

[ashr501]

Thanks, Nyssa! And, being someone who reads, reviews and promotes a lot of fiction, your opinion in extremely valued. I want the covers to be striking enough that people can't but help by the entire collection :)

[nyssa_p]

lol I was being sarcastic about my 'expertise', but okay :P I would look at them in a shop. They're professional looking (which usualy gets to me about a lot of independent book publishers - I'm REALLY picky about covers) and interesting without being over the top - y'know, like with the Russian pole dancers like Fallon and Larke got? :P

[ashr501]

I know you were being sarcastic! Which is why I tried to offset it by hinting that you shouldn't be :P You're opinion on things like this IS valued, and a readers opinion is most important. If readers don't like the cover, whose going to buy them?

As to 'professional' looking... well, I like to think of myself as a professional :P

But, it is definitely 'striking simplicity' that I'm going for. And, the fact that the 6 covers should all work well together. Makes it difficult to design for, but it has definitely been fun :)

[ashamel]

I can't say I've heard of the books, but the covers are great.

[ashr501]

Thanks, David!

The Crowned Skull (Fergus Hume) was first published in 1908 - occult mystery, african relics.

The Shrieking Pit (Arthur J Rees) published 1919 - mystery, occult hints that all get explained in the end much like many early books like this (Hound of the Baskervilles, etc)

Vandals of the Void (James Morgan Walsh) published 1919. An amazing science fiction 'Space Opera' before E.E. Doc Smith and the like! Possibly the first depiction of an interplanetory space battle ever!

A Bid for Fortune, or Dr.Nikola's Vendetta (Guy Boothby) was published in 1895 and was the first of the Dr.Nikola series. This is definitely one of my favourites of the Classic Australian SF series (almost as good as Vandals of the Void).

[ashr501]

I've just added a 5th book cover for the entry too:

"A Week in the Future" by Catherine Helen Spence (published 1889)

And I've modified the draft image for the 2nd book in the series based on editorial feedback.

[eneit]

you know I've read all those, and I really love these covers for those stories!

[ashr501]

Thanks, Sharyn! I've just added a 5th book cover draft to the page too, for "A Week in the Future" by Catherine Helen Spence.

[eneit]

I'd have to say, the covers for Vandals of the Void, and A Week in the Future are probably my favourites. But I think they are all great.

[viciousdisorder]

Will you tell me when they are released so I can look into tracking down copies? I think they might just make useful birthday/christmas presents if they are released before the start of December :)

Oh and... the covers are really nice too btw.

[ashr501]

Thanks! The books will be released at the World Fantasy Convention next year - Aussiecon 4, Melbourne, Sept. 2010.