For more than 25 years, Jim Burns’s imaginative book covers have delighted the giants of the science fiction genre—Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke among them. In witty, informative commentary, filled with anecdotes and reminiscences, Burns himself explains the concepts and the process behind the creation of his spellbinding paintings. Several authors weigh in too, recalling their pleased reactions at seeing art that gave shape to their words and brought their visions to life.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
whoosh...!,
By "kadixjvr5408urransyxzq" (Kent, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Transluminal: The Paintings of Jim Burns (Paperback)
I have loved Jim Burns's art since forever, and always regretted that I missed out getting a copy of his collection "Lightship" a few years back. So when "Transluminal" came out, I made sure to grab a copy hot off the presses, and I was definitely in swoon-mode as soon as I cracked the covers. Burns is simply the best SF illustrator of the last twenty-five years. This is not to say that there aren't tons of other great artists out there; Moebius and H.R. Giger are also amazing and wonderful. And I fondly remember the time when Richard Powers ruled the paperback world. But when the fashion in SF publishing turned from abstraction to narrative art, it all could have gone so very wrong. Fortunately, that was about the time when a young Welshman fresh out of the R.A.F. was beginning his career, and he has gone on to define the standard for beautiful jacket art. Burns combines old-master technique with a big and wild imagination, and his covers often make me buy books I might've passed up otherwise (in fact, I hate to say it, but the books aren't always as good as the pretty pictures). His baroque/organic gadgets, his ornately-sculpted spaceships, his lovely women and gorgeously bizarre aliens are all like dreams come true, and must give authors as many ideas as Burns gets from the stories he's assigned to illustrate. If only more SF films looked as good as Jim Burns's paintings (okay, well, "Babylon 5" did have some suspiciously Burnsian stuff in it...and a long time ago, Burns apparently did some pre-production work on "BladeRunner"...or so I heard). Anyway, if you love SF, and aren't snobbish about commercial art, this book is a great introduction into the world of a huge talent.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Art,
This review is from: Transluminal: The Paintings of Jim Burns (Paperback)
It's hard to find words that adequately describe the greatness of Jim Burns' artwork. You look at these works with a sense of wonder, amazement and envy.Like Chris Moore, his attention to detail is astonishing. Every part of the picture is treated with equal importance. (I love the way he paints every blade of grass, every little pebble and every single leaf in his backgrounds.) I have to confess, a lot of the SF books I have read were bought simply because Jim Burns did the cover. It's interesting to note that Burns was among many artists influenced by the British 1950s comic "Eagle", which featured the hugely popular story "Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future". When "Eagle" resurfaced in the 1980s I grew up reading this comic too. I'm currently in my second year at art college. I'm a little wary of admitting that I like SF art because a lot of lecturers tend to look down on it. Maybe they believe it's too commercial. But at home this is the sort of art I like to do. Futuristic architecture especially. Looking at Jim Burns' detailed paintings, you wonder if he suffers much from eyestrain. In the beginning of the book he mentions "airbrush thumb". Sitting at a keyboard might not be so comfortable either. Every artist has their cross to bear. With this book you could spend hours looking at just one painting. Perhaps in the future, centuries from now, people will look at Jim Burns' work the way we look at the work of Hieronymous Bosch.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The master of color,
By Alex (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Transluminal: The Paintings of Jim Burns (Paperback)
Jim Burns deals in vivid, constrasting colors and deep shadows, shiny surfaces and rich textures, acrylics, oils, and digital media, humans and humanoids full of predatory tension and energy. His art is comparable to Eggleton's in terms of luster, but is far more detailed, defined, spacious. Mr. Burns is almost excusively a science fiction artist, but he is not above doing fantasy. Included are the magnificent cover for Silverberg's "Lord Prestimion" and the covers for Duncan's "A Handful of Men" tetralogy, to mention a few. In any case, Mr. Burns seems to derive more inspiration from science fiction than fantasy - his sci-fi paintings just seem more alive. He is notorious for keeping to the letter of the subject material, and thus his artwork is full of detail. On a different note, I enjoyed the captions - written by Mr. Burns himself: they sparkle with wit and personality. A few paintings - this is especially evident in some of the humans - do suffer from minor parallax problems: just observe the case of minor cross-eye in the finger-knitting heroine on the cover, or, alternatively, the similar figure on the painting for Bear's "/" ("Slant", not "Slash"). Otherwise, this is an indispensable book for lovers of fantastic art.
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