Hyperluminal: The Art of Jim Burns
Foreword by Joe Haldeman
Published by Titan Books, September 2014
ISBN: 978 17811 68448
160 pages
Review by Mark Yon
One of my favourite artists is Jim Burns. Perhaps this is because so many of my favourite books have a Jim Burns cover: from the original UK editions of George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones to the original Peter F. Hamilton Commonwealth covers, as well as books written by Robert Silverberg, David Wingrove and Joe Haldeman, writer of the Introduction here. Winner of three Hugo Awards, and more British Science Fiction Awards than any other author or artist, Jim’s work has been on my book shelves for as long as I can remember, back to the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Jim has been painting the Art of the Fantastical now for over forty years, and this book shows a selection of his work in a variety of mediums. This is a welcome update to Jim’s earlier book, Transluminal, from back in 1999.
Jim’s style is unique: whether digital, oil, acrylic or gouache, there is a certain something that makes ‘a Burns’ immediately recognisable. There is always a lifelike detail, a three-dimensionality to the work that is unique. The men and women are always gorgeous, the aliens always unusual, but usually based on the item they’re commissioned for – you see, Jim always reads around and about the thing he’s been asked to illustrate.
Hyperluminal brings the artist’s more recent work to the front by showing a variety of this work over the last forty years or so. And it’s great fun, for as well as the paintings there’s some nice stories throughout about how these paintings came to be. The cover to Greg Bear’s Slant has a Swanjet on it, based on the design drawn by Greg Bear himself, for example. We also get threaded through the artwork Jim’s thoughts on science fiction and fantasy, his likes and dislikes. Above all, what shows throughout is his love of the medium.
As Hyperluminal covers such a relatively long career, this book also shows the evolution of an artist. Whereas Transluminal was mainly paintings for book covers, Hyperluminal shows the development from his early drawings on Planet Story, co-produced with author Harry Harrison, to his more recent digital work. The changes are quite stunning, no more so than with the original painting, Wanderers, for the founders of Illuxcon, of which the cover forms part (and is fully across pages 56-57.)
The quality of the images shown here on heavy stock are so good that you can see the textures on which some of the pictures are drawn. My only regret is that there isn’t more of his artwork here. (I particularly miss Jim’s wonderful cover he produced for George RR Martin’s A Feast for Crows, which sadly was never used.) But that can’t really be a complaint.
Highly recommended.
I love Jim Burns’ artwork, and this is one of those rare art books that I really would like to get my hands on. That Reality Dysfunction cover is just great.