Thursday 19 May 2011

Cover Identity | Chong Takes Embassytown

As per the Subterranean Press site, the cover art has been released for the limited edition of Embassytown the exclusive publishers aforementioned will be putting out - apparently before the Autumn's upon us. And good Google, is it a sight for sore eyes or what?

Oh, for a high-res image of this lavish wraparound...


I expect a fair few of you will recognise the work as that of one Vincent Chong. Brownie points to you all.

For myself, the small print puts me out of contention: after all, not so very long ago I reviewed a rare art book which brought together some of Chong's most striking work to date. That piece is here, if you please. But though Altered Visions made for a truly impressive portfolio - "a modest but gorgeous collection of the work of one of the most promising new artists to have arrived on the scene in recent memory," I called it - you know what? I tend to think the man's gone from strength to strength since.

Is this his best piece yet? Well... personally speaking, I wouldn't say so, no. But near as dammit.

And that might just be me, because the yellows and browns and blues of the imagery above make for a distinctly different colour palette than that I'd imagined of Embassytown and its alien surrounds. At a push, I'd have to say I pictured deep reds and purples, slick and viscous rather than weather-worn. This seems a touch too Modern Warfare for my tastes.

But all the same, it's a beautiful image.

Beautiful enough I might just have to invest in a third copy of this incredible novel... which, now that I think of it, I should have an extensive review of - in which I make the case for China Mieville as a God of genre literature - ready for you all to read sometime within the next week.

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