Ski-Ffy

Thursday, 8 June 2017

A FAR SUNSET

"For the first three planetary days, nobody went outside, nobody went outside the vessel. Vicinity tests were conducted. At the end of three days the airlock was opened and two armoured volunteers descended the nylon ladder into a forest that was already beginning to cover the scars of its great burning. The volunteers stayed outside for three hours, collecting samples but never straying more than a few metres from the base of the ship."

Coronet paperback, 1979. Cover artwork by Chris Foss.

Rear cover/synopsis.

Wednesday, 31 May 2017

A WORLD OUT OF TIME

"... he turned, fighting to stay on his feet. Under a hooded robe of white cloth with a touch of iridescence in it: a bent human form... while the cat-snake distracted him, she had struck. He saw her in shadow: tall and stooped, gaunt, her face all wrinkles, her nose hooked, her eyes deep-set and malevolent in the shadow of the hood. Her swollen hands held a silver cane aimed at Corbell's eyes."

Futura paperback, 1979. Cover artwork by Peter Jones.

Rear cover, etc.

Full artwork by Peter Jones.

SOUL OF A ROBOT

"At the far end of the hall a tall door swung open. Through it strode Gogra: a giant of a robot, twelve foot tall and broad to match. Gogra was coal-black. In his right hand he carried a massive sledge-hammer that in a few blows could have crushed Jasperodus to junk, tough as he was. Pausing in the doorway, the terrifying robot surveyed the hall. As soon as he caught sight of Jasperodus he lunged forward, lifting the hammer with evident purpose. Jasperodus backed away. Gogra's appearance was frightening; his head was thrust forward on his neck, reminiscent of an ape-man; and the face was a mask of ugliness as to arouse both terror and pity: Gogra's designer had sought to give his massive frame sufficient agility by filling his interior with oil under pressure; the safety valve for that oil was his grotesque grilled mouth, from which green ichor dribbled copiously and continuously."

Orbit paperback, 1977. Cover by Bob Layzell.

Rear cover/synopsis.

Tuesday, 30 May 2017

THE SWORD OF RHIANNON

"From the edges of the wide floor they hailed him and from the open galleries above, their depthless eyes glittering, their narrow ophidian heads bowed in homage. Sinuous bodies that moves with effortless ease, seeming to flow rather than step. Hands with supple jointless fingers and feet that made no sound and lipless mouths that seemed to open always on silent laughter, infinitely cruel. And all through that vast place whispered a dry harsh rustling, the light friction of skin that had lost its primary scales but not its sepentine roughness."

Ace paperback, 1975. Cover artist uncredited.

Rear cover/synopsis.

THE FACE IN THE ABYSS

"Her face was ageless - neither young nor old; free from time, free from the etching acid of the years. She might have been born yesterday - or a million years ago. Her eyes, set wide apart, were round and luminous; they were living jewels filled with purple fires. Her forehead was wide and low; her nose delicate and long the nostrils a little dilated. Her chin was small and pointed. Her mouth was small and hear-shaped; her lips were vivid scarlet. Down her narrow, childish shoulders flowed hair that gleamed like spun silver. It arrow-headed into a point on her forehead. It gave her face that same heart shape in which her lips were formed - a heart of which the chin was the basal point.She had little high breasts, uptilted. Her face, neck, shoulders and breasts were the hue of pearls suffused faintly with rose. Her coils began just below her tilted breasts."

Futura paperback, 1974. Cover by Patrick Woodroffe.

Patrick Woodroffe's full artwork.

Monday, 29 May 2017

PETER JONES - SWORD & SORCERY

"...science fiction, like any fiction, cannot help drawing on the conventions of the past. The writers do it; the illustrators do it. The genre which most self-consciously plays on historic forms and symbolism is often called 'sword-and-sorcery' or 'fantasy' to differentiate it from some imagined 'scientific' fiction."

-Solar Wind, 1980.

Artwork for Apparitions by Celia Green and Charles McCreery.

Artwork for Out Of The Body Experiences by Celia Green.

Artwork for Synaptic Manhunt by Mick Farren.

Artwork for The Dark Twin by Marion Campbell.

Artwork for The Chalk Giants by Keith Roberts.

Artwork for The Warlock In Spite Of Himself by Christopher Stasheff.

Artwork for The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee.

Artwork for The Storm Lord by Tanith Lee.

Sunday, 28 May 2017

CHRIS FOSS' DESIGNS FOR JODOROWSKY'S DUNE

"...suddenly in a bookshop in the pages of an English magazine I found splashed in a thousand colours what I had believed impossible to depict. These spaceships that pleased and moved me were Chris Foss'. I covered the studio walls where I was preparing the film with his works. All masterpieces. I hired various sleuths to track him down. You see, in those heady days I had power! I had a multi-million dollar commitment behind me: a commitment that remained unfulfilled. I had it in my power to call upon the best brains of our generation to collaborate on a project that was to give a messiah to the world. Not a human being, but a film. A film that would be out master. Dune had made me its apostle; but I needed others, and one of these was Chris Foss."

-Alejandro Jodorowsky.