Infinite Worlds : The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art [Hardcover]

Vincent Di Fate (Author), Ray Bradbury (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1997

This dazzling array of close to 700 images, encompassing some of the finest examples of the sci-fi genre's futuristic art and featuring the work of its greatest practitioners, is the definitive collection of science fiction art. 675 illustrations, 600 in color.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Infinite Worlds has a little bit of everything to offer those interested in science fiction art: a brief history of the field, short biographies of more than 100 artists, and 700 images from some of the finest sci-fi book and magazine covers ever created. Author Vincent Di Fate combines all of these elements to create a book that is as enjoyable to read as it is to look through. It even has a two-page digression on the influence of Stanley Meltzoff's famous painting for Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. Whether you're after a coffee-table art book or an encyclopedia of the science fiction world, Infinite Worlds is the book for you.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Studio (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670872520
• ISBN-13: 978-0670872527
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #857,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A coffee table book, but a beautiful one, May 6, 2000

By 

Mike Christie (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Infinite Worlds : The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art (Hardcover)

Infinite Worlds is divided into two lushly illustrated halves. The first half, "Doorways to the Future", is an eighty-odd page history of science fiction art. Di Fate goes back to Bosch and da Vinci, and then gives several pages to the late nineteenth century illustrators such as Robida and the early pulp artists before moving on to the genre work that fills most of the pages.

Di Fate's history is sound, and the stories are interesting, but he accompanies them with pictures that are distractingly gorgeous to look at and which make it hard to concentrate on the tale he tells. Page 34, for example, has a full page reproduction of the Startling Stories cover for van Vogt's "The Shadow Men" that shows a black robot firing a ray gun, with green rays shooting from its eyes, and a beautiful scantily clad woman struggling in its arms. How can you concentrate on the text with that sort of thing going on?

The second half (actually two-thirds by page count) of the book is called "Masters of the Infinite" and consists of (mostly) two page spreads of each of about a hundred artists. There's a little text too, maybe two or three paragraphs, to give you some context for the artist. Only the most influential get more than two pages--Freas of course, Frazetta, Whelan, Paul. Richard Powers gets four pages, which is good to see--he's not as well known now as he should be, perhaps because he did so much work for book covers rather than magazines; but he is a major figure.

There are a couple of odd omissions, which other reviewers have noted below. I'll just mention one: Chris Foss, who was perhaps the single most influential British sf artist ever. What makes the omission even more extraordinary is that di Fate acknowledges Foss' tremendous influence twice, on pages 82 and 84. Perhaps there were copyright problems, and Foss' work wasn't available; whatever the reason, it's a pity.

The only other negative comment I have is that the book is no more than a survey. Lovers of the work of any of these artists will have to go elsewhere for their fix of Bonestell or Finlay or Barlowe--no one artist has more than half a dozen works here. But that's what the book is designed to be, and *as* a survey it works wonderfully well.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine survey of a neglected field, May 14, 2000

By 

Anton Karidian (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Infinite Worlds : The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art (Hardcover)

I'll add just a couple of comments to the good reviews done on this. I see INFINITE WORLDS as a great survey of science fiction art - there is little purely fantasy art here. DiFate is himself a leading SF artist, and his narrrative in the book is enthusiastic and informative. If you ever get the chance to see him in person, as I did in Chattanooga, don't miss it! He clearly knows the field very well, but he uses artistic jargon sparingly. The book surveys a wide variety of styles, usually paintings but some in other media. Yet I think those who denounce his inclusion of earlier "pulp" art are missing his purpose in this. DiFate is trying to present here a history of SF art and to show its variety. He sees some of those "pulp" artists, especially Frank R. Paul, as very influential on later artists. Some of that work was of good quality, and takes up much less than half the book in any case. Incidentally, INFINITE WORLDS is also beautiful. The various sizes of the images is nicely balanced, and the book is large enough for full-page reproductions to look very impressive. Maybe this book will encourage more museums to take notice of the many fine science fiction art works that have been produced!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Invaluable Source, March 30, 2000

By 

Stephen Arkanell "cjm" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Infinite Worlds : The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art (Hardcover)

As a science fiction screenwriter and art designer, I looked a long time to find examples of classic science fiction artwork from the past century, and found myself limited to the covers of moldy and ragged original paperback editions. Then I found this book, which contained everything I was searching for in a single place. Here is a collection of the best work from the greatest illustrators, Chesley Bonestell, Paul Lehr, Richard Powers, Stanley Meltzoff, and countless others. This is a beautiful history not only of science fiction artwork, but of science fiction itself. My only complaint: like a lot of art books, the paintings are often spread over two pages, hiding the middle of the picture in the fold of the spine. But that's my only complaint.