Alexander Páez reviews Mecha Samurai Empire, by Peter Tieryas

Alexander Páez has kindly reviewed for us Mecha Samurai Empire, by Peter Tieryas, the sequel to United States of Japan. You can also read this review in Spanish at Alexander's website, Donde acaba el infinito. Hope you like it!

Review Soundtrack: Álex suggests reading this review while listening to the main theme of Mazinger Z, by Ichirou Mizuki (YouTube, YouTube) 

Some years ago, I got an ARC copy of a book at my email. It was an Angry Robot book: United States of Japan by an unknown author at that time, Peter Tieryas. I contacted him by Twitter and since then we speak now and then. With that warm and proximity that is so Tieryas. Now, in 2018, Peter Tieryas has positioned himself as one of the emergent authors that you must read. He has succeeded in the international market as in the anglosaxon. And he hasn’t lost this close touch, this proximity to the readers. The story repeats itself, I got an ARC copy of his new novel and I start reading it as soon as it gets into my Paperwhite. I need more of his world. I need more mechas. I need more sci-fi. Mecha Samurai Empire is this new novel that is also a sequel to the previous novel but both can be read as stand-alone works. Oh, and it was worth. So much.

If the first novel was a dystopia, a homage to a Phillip K. Dick novel, this second one is a novel about war, about humanity, a tribute to the sub-culture surrounding mechas, videogames and probably a more Heinlein-reminiscent novel. In Mecha Samurai Empire, Japan and Germany won the World War II and they divided North America. West is Japanese, a hybrid between Japanese and North American culture, while in the East, the Germany area, it is more divided between non-Aryans and “normal” citizens. You probably already knew this if you read the previous novel. The truce between the Japanese Empire and the German Reich is uneasy, mechas versus biomechs, but they usually stay out of each other businesses. Usually.

Mecha Samurai Empire begins with Mac, a student struggling with his grades, but a guy who is incredibly good at videogames, especially with “portical”, something that grants with a chance to enter the mecha examination program so he can fulfill his dream: to be a mecha pilot. Mac is attended by the state, since both his parents were killed in The Battle of San Diego. They were both mecha pilots.

Peter Tieryas doesn’t write typical heroes. You probably are wondering when Mac will have his chance to save the world, to be a hero. Well, actually on different occasions, but the way Tieryas drives the plot is brilliant. This are not hero worthy situations, most of them are a fruit of chance, or sometimes he is in the right place at the right time. Tieryas also does a lot of criticism to the military structure, with poor leaders that lead to a lot of trooper deaths and so on. While I don’t really care about military criticism (I guess this is an important issue in USA, but in Spain not really) I think it’s very clever because you can take the philosophical exploration and put it into a bigger picture. While I was reading this novel, I reckoned it felt a lot like a Kojima game. A Metal Gear Solid game. It’s about soldiers, but it has a bigger picture. Mac isn’t a philosopher, but he encounters situations that really question his motivations. For instance, he has a German friend, and that is not very keen to the eyes of his companions. 

I have to admit, the best in this novel? The mecha battle. Oh my. So funny, so well written, so epic. This was something the readers wished for more in the first novel. And here we have our wish. Granted by Tieryas. I would LOVE to see a movie about this novel. Mecha Samurai Empire isn’t as dark as the previous work, it’s more war-like, more dynamic, faster. And I really enjoyed the change in style and narrative. It really feels like Tieryas had a lot of fun writing this novel. And you know, mechas vs other things is always a win-win. My recommendation is that you should read it, but don’t expect a new dystopia, this is not (very much) it. It’s a criticism to war, military states and totalitarianism. Another great work by Peter Tieryas.

Alexander Páez reviews Summerland, by Hannu Rajaniemi

It is a great pleasure to have Alexander Paéz reviewing for us Hannu Rajaniemi's latest novel: Summerland. Hope you enjoy it and remember that you can read the review in Spanish at Alex's blog, Donde acaba el infinito.

Review soundtrack: Alex suggest reading this review while listening to In The Summertime, by Mungo Jerry (YouTube, Spotify).

I do hold some respect before reading a book by Hannu Rajaniemi. The Quantum Thief was a tough book, full of hard to understand ideas. But it was thrilling and full of that sense of wonder. I did not discover that in his Collected Fiction that I read some years ago, which for me was a little bit weird. Some short stories were really good, and some others not that much. Added to this, I’ve decided since some months ago not to review books that I dislike. But with Summerland I’ll do and exception because I think it holds some great ideas that you may find interesting.

Summerland takes place during the Spanish Civil War and it is told as a chronicle or a story about some secret wars played by the most powerful European countries at the time. So yes, it is a novel about spies. But then fantasy comes in, they have discovered that life and death have no meaning whatsoever. They can communicate with the Dead using some mediums through a possession. A fight to possess and control the Summerland begins.

Hannu Rajaniemi mixes real history events and people with characters, and this gives a perspective to the story and a point for the reader to hold to reality and to certain events. The bad part (and there is always a bad part to every story) is that the characters felt really misused or unused. Some of them feel like tools, some other like “hey, look at this guy, he appears here”. I can’t restrain myself in doing a (maybe unfair) comparison between Summerland and The Last Days of Paris by China Mieville, which blew my mind when I read it. Mieville book does everything right where Summerland just fails.

Summerland was a long awaited project by Rajaniemi, and science takes a huge role in the book. It is Marcone and no one else who discovers this world beyond Dead or Alive. And yes, it is fantasy at its purest, but the huge elements of science work really well in the story. Rajaniemi also takes part in the ongoing gender discussion, but for me it just felt like “agenda”. It’s not elegant at all and it feels like some characters just screaming to the reader “hey, we think women are not weak, you see us? We really think that!”. I wished for a cleverer way to put it. Rajaniemi works best at criticizing politics and some ways the System works.

Some other interesting ideas in Summerland are the safe way to travel to this world beyond with a ticket so the soul can fix itself to the world in order to not disappear. And the interesting idea of a god, or the absolute force. Sadly, I do not recommend this book whatsoever. I felt it was pretty boring for the most part of it, and I had the impression that it was just spinning around. There are a lot of ideas and story parts that I did not enjoy at all, but let’s just leave them aside. I will be waiting for the next Rajaniemi book, overall I think he is a really interesting author to follow.

Novedad en Insólita: El largo viaje a un pequeño planeta iracundo, de Becky Chambers

Insólita Editorial puso ayer a la venta El largo viaje a un pequeño planeta iracundo, de Becky Chambers, con traducción de Alexander Páez. El libro tiene 512 páginas y un precio de 22,95€. Podéis leer la reseña de la novela que Antonio Díaz escribió para nosotros, así como la entrevista que le realizó a la autora.

Esta es la sinopsis del libro:

Rosemary Harper se une a la tripulación de la Peregrina, una vieja nave tuneladora, sin saber muy bien qué esperar de su primer trabajo. Aunque la nave ha visto tiempos mejores, le ofrece un pequeño lugar al que llamar hogar durante un tiempo, algo de aventura en los confines más alejados de la galaxia y, lo que es más importante para ella, la oportunidad de dejar atrás su pasado. 

La tripulación está compuesta por individuos de diferentes planetas, especies y géneros; desde Sissix, la amistosa piloto reptiliana, a Kizzy y Jenks, los ingenieros que mantienen la nave en funcionamiento; pasando por Lovey, la IA de la Peregrina. La vida a bordo es caótica, aunque bastante relajada: justo lo que Rosemary necesita. 

Hasta que les ofrecen el trabajo de sus vidas: la oportunidad de construir un túnel hiperespacial a un lejano planeta. Si completan el encargo, ganarán el suficiente dinero para vivir holgadamente durante años… Pero antes deberán sobrevivir al largo viaje a través de los confines del espacio. 

Sin embargo Rosemary no es la única persona a bordo con secretos que ocultar, y la tripulación pronto descubrirá que el espacio puede ser vasto, pero las naves espaciales son muy pequeñas.

Alexander Páez reviews The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander

I am greatly honored to host this review of The Only Harmless Great Thing by my friend Alexander Páez, a huge fan of Brooke Bolander's work (and, in fact, the translator into Spanish of one of her stories). Hope you enjoy it, and remember that you can also read the review in Spanish at Álex's blog, Donde acaba el infinito.  

Review Soundtrack: I suggest reading this review while listening to Radium Girls, by Pat Burtis (Spotify).

I’m going to make this short, as the story here is short as well. A quick punch to the guts. A brief “Holy cow” swearing. A short realization that you’ve read a huge and profound story. An angry story. An “I’m tired of this shit” story. If you have read "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies" you may know what I am talking about. I will call it Rage Writing. Stories that comes as a ferocity burst of being tired of this society that allows inequality, injustice and suffering. 

The Only Harmless Great Thing is a story hard to talk about. I read it in two days and I felt like I was in a hurry. I needed to finish it as soon as possible. Get rid of that anger. Get rid of than painful story. This novella is a mix of two real stories: Topsy the Elephant and the Radium Girls. The first one is about an elephant that was publicly executed on Coney Island and the Radium Girls is a group of women who ended poisoned because of their work with radioactive stuff. Although the events happened in different timelines (1903 and 1917) Bolander builds her fiction among these two events occurring at the same time. In Bolander’s novella we have the electrocution of an elephant that causes a nuclear explosion at the coast of New York. The story goes back and forward between many protagonists and characters, before and after the Topsy execution and the aftermath explosion. Bolander introduces songs, lullabies, a fable about an ancient elephant mother, and media pieces. All of it makes a collage of small stories, tiny points of view that the reader must put together to understand what is going on. Just imaging that someone throws a lot of documents on your table and you have to reconstruct the whole story. It is fun. It is exhausting. It is challenging. It is Bolander.

The transitions in the story are smooth and perfect, you don’t feel like as a reader you are being pushed around in a fuzzy way, but that you are being on your own in a huge gallery and you kind of choose what piece you approach. The book is very short, yes, but is has so much to say. It actually says so much. Funny how many things we have to say about such tiny pieces and so less about the incredible long ones. The Only Harmless Great Thing is a fable about nuclear waste, slavery, fighting women, animal abuse, patriarchy and many more metaphors you will find. To end this, I will speak about the beginning of the book, which opens with a huge mountain of nuclear waste, the total extinction of humanity. And over there are living the irradiated elephants. Eternal. Brooke Bolander’s writing is like a roar, a vast battle cry. And we can’t ignore it.

Miquel Codony reseña Las estrellas son legión (The Stars Are Legion), de Kameron Hurley

Es un placer volver a acoger en Sense of Wonder al gran Miquel Codony, que nos ha cedido amablemente la publicación de su reseña de The Stars Are Legion, la novela de Kameron Hurley recientemente publicada por Runas como Las estrellas son legión (con traducción de Alexander Paéz). Esta reseña apareció originalmente en el episodio 16 del podcast NeoNostromo. ¡Espero que os guste!

Banda sonora de la reseña: Miquel sugiere leer esta reseña escuchando Warrior Lesbians from Outer Space, de Droidi (YouTube)

Kameron Hurley es una escritora con una personalidad intensa que se refleja en sus textos. Todavía es una recién llegada al mercado español, pero lo cierto es que el libro del que hablaré hoy, The Stars Are Legion (Las estrellas son legión, editado en español en Runas), es su septima novela, que se suma a un libro de ensayos (The Geek Feminist Revolution, a punto de ser publicado en español y lectura recomendable) y numerosos relatos. Ha ganado dos premios Hugo y un Kitschies, entre otros… O sea: es una jugadora de las grandes ligas y su obra tiene consistencia y originalidad. 

¿Qué caracteriza a sus textos? Bueno, sobre todo la introducción de un trasfondo feminista que dinamita, sin renunciar a ellas —aunque parezca una contradicción—, las convenciones de los diferentes géneros que ha tratado hasta la fecha: ciencia ficción post-apocalíptica, fantasía épica y, en el caso que nos ocupa, space-opera con un toque de naves generacionales. Personajes no normativos, heroínas fuertes y un espíritu de provocación son algunos de los elementos que se repiten en su obra y que, de hecho, le dan valor; pero además es una escritora habilidosa con la planificación del argumento y la construcción del mundo, que conoce bien los referentes del género y sabe subvertirlos sin renunciar a ningún aspecto de la tradicción “friki”. Como suele suceder con los textos de ficción con un componente más o menos reivindicativo, habrá lectores que sentirán cierto rechazo debido a ello. Bueno, personalmente me parece una actitud un tanto inane.

Además de ser una novela francamente interesante, Las estrellas son legión es una muestra magnífica de las características de Hurley que he ido mencionando. Por ejemplo, reformula algunos de los principales clichés de la space opera, y de las naves generacionales, convirtiendo a estas últimas en naves orgánicas que se comportan como mundos en simbiosis con una tripulacion que no necesariamente conoce la historia o el alcance del entorno en el que vive; o el planteamiento de un universo narrativo en el que solo existen mujeres, con lo que el significado de la reproducción y la sexualidad (elementos importantes de la trama o, al menos, de la ambientacion) toma un significado totalmente distinto al que nosotros les atribuimos. Aunque la historia no fuera interesante, el tratamiento de estos elementos justifica la inmersión en la lectura del libro, pero es que la historia es alucinante: bien escrita, con varias capas de lectura, con personajes carismáticos y una tensión entre ellos que ríete tú de Juego de tronos. Muy bien, vamos.

No todo es perfecto: el desarrollo del argumento no consigue mantener la tensión de forma constante, algunas de las premisas pueden tambalearse si se piensa mucho en ellos y recurre con demasiado abandono al Deus Ex Machina, pero en conjunto la novela está estructurada de forma inteligente y la relación entre forma y fondo funciona perfectamente. 

Le pongo 4 estrellas, pero creo que es una de esas novelas que mantendrá su vigencia durante muchos tiempo y que podría llegar a convertirse en un clásico del género. Que esté escrita con intención, y que sea una novela no vinculada a una saga más amplia, no hace más que aumentar su interés. Básicamente, si eres aficionado a la ciencia ficción es una de las publicaciones de este año que no deberías dejar escapar. Es una lectura que pide un esfuerzo, pero compensa de sobra. Por cierto, aunque yo he leído el libro en inglés, la traducción de la edición en español es del amigo Alexander Páez y todas las reseñas que he leído coinciden en destacar la calidad de la misma, así que un detalle más para aumentar el atractivo del libro.

Novedad en Runas: Las estrellas son legión, de Kameron Hurley

Mañana se pone a la venta un nuevo título de la colección Runas: Las estrellas son legión, de Kameron Hurley, que ha sido traducido por Alexander Páez. El libro tiene 352 páginas y un precio de venta de 18€. 

Esta es su sinopsis:

En los confines del universo, la Legión, un sistema de naves-mundo que se van pudriendo poco a poco, se desplaza por los intersticios de las estrellas. Parece que nada es capaz de detener la agonía de esos mundos, en los que durante siglos dos familias han estado luchando por la supremacía, y se pone en marcha un plan desesperado. 

Zan no recuerda quién es. Recupera la conciencia entre personas que dicen ser su familia y le aseguran que tiene en sus manos la salvación, porque solo ella es capaz de abordar el Mokshi, esa misteriosa nave-mundo abandonada que puede sacarlas de la Legión.

Zan tendrá que elegir de qué lado está en una campaña genocida que la llevará desde los límites de la Legión hasta el vientre mismo del mundo.

Una space opera sobre un amor trágico, la venganza y la guerra.

Novedad: Japón especulativo, relatos asombrosos de fantasía y ciencia ficción

Ayer se puso a la venta Japón especulativo, una antología que recoge relatos de ciencia ficción y fantasía de autores japoneses y que ha sido traducida por Alexander Páez. El libro tiene 336 páginas y un precio de venta de 19€.  

Esta es su sinopsis:

El género de la ciencia ficción en Japón eclosionó en la década de los años 50 y 60 de la mano de escritores visionarios que combinaban la milenaria tradición literaria nipona con las nuevas tendencias de la ciencia ficción occidental. 

El fruto de esta mezcla de exotismo y vanguardia, sumado al nada envidiable mérito de haber sufrido la guerra atómica, dieron como resultado relatos innovadores y efervescentes, donde mitología y tecnología juegan un papel importante, en un intento por redefinir la identidad japonesa tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial reflejando su pasado en el espejo de futuros alternativos, mundos imaginados o visiones simbólicas de la realidad. ¿Te atreves a mirar en el espejo?

Vídeo: Presentación de La hora de los desterrados (Celsius 2016)

Abrimos la semana con el vídeo de la presentación en el Celsius 232 de este año de La hora de los desterrados, la nueva novela de Pablo Bueno. Le acompañan Alexander Paéz... y su habitual horda de groupies. 

Espero que os guste (y quiero oíros cantar lo de "Es Pablo Bueeeeeeno, lalalalalalá"). 

Nuevo episodio del podcast de los VerdHugos

Ayer se publicó un nuevo episodio del podcast de los VerdHugos, en el que hemos tenido el placer de contar con Armando Saldaña y Alexander Paéz como invitados especiales. 

Durante más de tres horas (¡seguimos sufriendo incontinencia verbal!) hablamos sobre las nominaciones a los Hugo, los Arthur C. Clarke, los Locus y los Ignotus, además de irnos por las ramas (faltaría más) y dar nuestras habituales recomendaciones literarias. 

Como siempre, podéis descargar el episodio desde archive.org y también desde iTunes e iVoox. 

¡Esperamos que os guste mucho!

Nuevo episodio de VerdHugos Podcast

Como no podía ser de otra forma, nos ha costado un triunfo editar un nuevo episodio, pero ¡ya estamos aquí de nuevo! 

Y esta vez traemos a dos invitados especiales: Alexander Paéz, del blog Donde acaba el infinito, y Carrie Patel, autora de The Buried Life. Con ellos hablamos durante la primera parte del trabajo sobre el trabajo de Carrie y sobre su novela, recién publicada. 

A continuación, nos centramos en los Premios Nebula, los Kitschies y los BSFA y hacemos nuestras recomendaciones habituales. 

¿A qué estáis esperando? ¡Corred a descargarlo!

Esperamos que os guste mucho. 

Vídeo de la MirCon 2014: Mesa redonda sobre blogs y literatura fantástica

Gracias a la colaboración de Antonio Guisado me complace poder ofreceros la grabación de parte de una de las mesas redondas a las que no pude asistir en la pasada MiRCon (había prometido grabar la presentación de Alucinadas, que se celebraba a la misma hora). Se trata de la mesa redonda sobre blogs y literatura fantástica, en la que participaron Sergio Llamas (de El rincón de Koreander), Alfredo Álamo (de Lecturalia), Alexander Páez (de Donde acaba el infinito) y Marc J. Miarnau (de La casa de El). 

Muchísimas gracias a Antonio y espero que os guste el vídeo. 

Alexander Páez interviews Jon Foster

As a part of his Brandon Sanderson special, Alexander Páez is interviewing today three of the artists that have illustrated Sanderson's works. He has been so kind as to letting me reproduce the English version of the interviews (you can read the one with Ben McSweeney and the one with Michael Whelan) and you can read the translation into Spanish at Alexander's blog, Donde acaba el infinito. Hope you enjoy! 

Alexander Páez: Are you specialized in fantasy illustration, or do you find yourself comfortable working in other contexts?

Jon Foster: I think that every artist needs a foundation of skills that can work for any genre, and once they have those skills, they will usually gravitate towards artwork that interests them the most.  I always loved sci-fi/fantasy books as a child, so it seemed natural for me to focus on that type of artwork in the beginning of my career.  However, since our interests are constantly evolving, I find myself becoming increasingly interested in more historical editorial work, like the jobs that I get from National Geographic.  I also enjoyed working on illustrations for the beginning sequence of “The Leftovers” on HBO because it was unlike anything I had done before, and it challenged me to create many figures that would then be animated in post production.  

AP: How is your workplace? Any technique that you prefer to use?

JF: My workplace is very relaxed.  I have my computer set up next to my canvases, sketch books, and other art materials, because I often go back and forth from painting traditionally to painting digitally.  I often use Z-Brush and Blender to create 3-D references for my illustrations.  I find that these programs help me visualize lighting, volume, and give me a point of view of the scene I will be painting.

AP: How does the digital illustration affect your work?

JF: I think it is very important for every artist to continue to paint traditionally, but it it always nice to have the option to erase something you don’t feel is working in the piece...which you can do if you are working digitally.

AP: What graphic novel or book, would you have liked to illustrate?

JF: It’s very hard to pick just one piece of work, since I admire so many authors and what they have accomplished.  However, if I was to pick something right now it would probably be L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” series...and of course any book by Brandon Sanderson.

AP: Is there any work of yours that you appreciate specifically?

JF: One of illustrations that makes me the most proud, is “Mistborn: The Final Empire”.  I felt that I was free to experiment with color and pattern, and I also enjoyed the challenge of trying to convey movement and action in the piece.

AP: You did several covers for Brandon Sanderson’s novel. Do you read the book first? Do you imagine the whole world and then pick up an image of it and put it on the paper? Do you discuss with the author the ideas?

JF: I feel very fortunate to have done cover work for the talented Brandon Sanderson.  Yes, I always read the book before I start my work process.  I usually take notes on parts of the book that create a lasting image in my mind, and the I refer back to them when I start to work on the illustration.  Most of the time, I discuss my ideas with the Art Director of the company that is publishing the book.

AP: What was your first work for any Sanderson’s novel?

JF: “Mistborn: The Final Empire” was the first illustration I did for Brandon Sanderson.

AP: What kind of “colours” do you think that fits more with Sanderson’s novels? Why did you chose the one you did for Mistborn?

JF: I venture into color very slowly from black and white, to monochrome, to tri-tone, and then to full color.  Working digitally has made my work much more dynamic color-wise…as it allows for lots of experimentation, while at the same time, giving the option to press “control z”.   I have to find a color harmony that works, and those colors change for every cover.  

AP: Are we going to see more works of yours in upcoming Sanderson novels?

JF: I hope so…I think he is a very talented author and I enjoy reading his books!

AP: Did you find any work for Sanderson novels especially complicated? Why?

JF: All of them because there was so much wonderful imagery to work with from his book.  

AP: What image (scene) or character of a Sanderson’s novel would you like to illustrate?

JF: There are far too many characters to choose from because his books are packed with descriptive details.

AP: Do you think that we can judge a book by its cover?

JF: No, but I hope to convey the mystery and magic that I feel when reading the book in my illustrations.

AP: Do you think that Sanderson’s novels are specially good for a graphic work? 

JF: Absolutely, and not just for covers...his books would make fantastic graphic novels.

Alexander Páez interviews Michael Whelan

As a part of his Brandon Sanderson special, Alexander Páez is interviewing today three of the artists that have illustrated Sanderson's works. He has been so kind as to letting me reproduce the English version of the interviews (you can read the one with Ben McSweeney and check out for another one later today) and you can read the translation into Spanish at Alexander's blog, Donde acaba el infinito. Hope you enjoy! 

Alexander Páez: We know a lot about your works on Robert Jordan’s novels and now on Brandon Sanderson’s novels. Are you specialized in fantasy illustration, or do you find yourself comfortable working in other contexts?

I only did the one Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson novel: A MEMORY OF LIGHT.

But I have always done a variety of book covers: science fiction, fantasy, horror. My paintings have appeared on books for Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Anne McCaffrey, Michael Moorcock, Tad Williams, Robert Heinlein, and Stephen King - just to name a few of the most popular authors.

AP: How is your workplace? Any technique that you prefer to use or you feel more comfortable?

For my illustration work, I usually use Acrylics, but I also do work in Oils.

AP: How do you feel with digital illustration? Do you combine them with more traditional art?

Some digital art is excellent, some is not. It’s neither better nor worse than other forms of art, it’s just different. A computer is a tool for producing a finished work of art and just like with paints and brushes, the most important part of the process is the artist who is doing it. Sometimes, I do sketches and other preliminary work on the computer, but on the Sanderson covers, I sketched and painted them in the traditional way. The computer probably won't replace traditional painting for me. I would miss the tactile sense of actually holding and physically manipulating my art by hand. There’s no comparison between the “romance of the studio” and sitting in front of a monitor! However, it’s certainly the direction that the illustration field is going. Among new illustrators, I’d guess that the majority of them work digitally. It’s ideally suited to the publishing world for artists, art directors, and printers.

AP: What graphic novel or book, would you have liked to illustrate?

Since the 1990's, my main focus has been my personal gallery work and the covers I do for special authors. So far, I haven't been interested in doing a graphic novel.

AP: Is there any work of yours that you appreciate specifically?

I have many favorites for different reasons. There are ones that I enjoyed the process of painting, there are others that remind me of a favorite book, and still others that I regard as important works in my development as an artist. My most successful commissions are ones in which the image says as much about me as it does the book which inspired it. Some examples: THE GUNSLINGER ON THE BEACH, 2010: ODYSSEY TWO, THE SNOW QUEEN, ROBOTS OF DAWN (GISKARD), DRAGON ABOARD, THE WAY OF KINGS.  In fact, THE WAY OF KINGS is my most favorite cover painting of the last decade.

AP: You did several covers for Brandon Sanderson’s novel. Do you read the book first? Do you imagine the whole world and then pick up an image of it and put it on the paper? Do you discuss with the author the ideas?

I always read the manuscript - usually 2 or 3 times. First, I usually discuss cover approaches with the art director. With Brandon's covers, I also get input from Tom Doherty - the owner of Tor Books as well as from Brandon and his staff. Most notably, Ben McSweeney who has done the interior illustrations for the Stormlight Archive has been an invaluable help to me in realizing the details of Roshar's flora and fauna.

AP: When making the cover art for a book, there is a problem with the spoilers. How do you choose the scene you want to illustrate?

I would never want to show a spoiler on the cover! I think about that a lot when deciding on an image.

AP: Did you know about the Cosmere? Does that have any influence on the illustrations?

The Cosmere is news to me! I looked it up in Wikipedia and it is very intriguing and I hope to learn more about it before I work on Book 3.

AP: What was your first work for any Sanderson’s novel?

A MEMORY OF LIGHT - the last book in the Wheel of Time series by Brandon and Robert Jordan.

AP: Are we going to see more of your work in upcoming Sanderson novels (apart from the Stormlight Archives)?

The third book in the Stormlight Archive, but not Brandon's other series. I only have time for 1 or 2 book covers per year.

AP: Did you find any work for Sanderson novels especially complicated?

Yes - Brandon's vision of his universe is so complex and visually detailed.

AP: What image (scene) or character of a Sanderson’s novel would you like to illustrate?

There are too many to choose from!

AP: Do you think that we can judge a book by its cover?

One of the main reasons I became a cover artist is that I wanted the reader to be able to judge the book by my cover. As a reader myself, I always find it frustrating when the cover doesn't tell you anything about the book inside, or even worse, gives you the wrong idea. I don't think a cover image should always be a narrative scene from the story - a great cover can be an image that evokes the feeling and themes of the story. But for epic fantasy, narrative scenes often work well.

AP: Do you think that Sanderson’s novels are specially good for a graphic work?

Yes - Brandon's imagination and world-building skills are very visual  - there is an illustration idea on every page!