And More Pictures!
After posting a number of pictures of eye-candy, I should also show you some pictures which excite me even more.
Yes, of course, I mean the Gallardo’s cover paintings for a few of my favorite of Lin Carter’s Ballatine Adult Fantasy series.
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft
Beyond the Golden Stair by Hannes Bok
Lud-in-the-Mist By Hope Mirrlees
Those who have read these books will recognize the elements of the story, faithfully if phantasmagorically rendered: the cats of Ulthar, the steps beyond the Gates of Deeper Slumber, the zebra of the mighty isle of Baharna, the fabulous sunset city glimpsed only in a dream three time by Randolph Carter.
Likewise, the nostalgic reader will recognize the strange elfin fruit from Fairyland floating down the river Dapple, or the flower-women of the planet Voltap in the triple-sun system ruled by the listless tyrant-enchanter Maal Dweb.
The Well at the World’s End by William Morris
Poseidonis by Clark Ashton Smith
Xiccarph by Clark Ashton Smith
Some delight me as much for the titles as the pictures. Well at the World’s End, in my humble opinion, is of all titles for a fantasy novel the most fantastic, more redolent of a sense of eerie wonder, unless it were, perhaps, the even more eerie title Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. These titles promise us that they are set, in the words of Lord Dunsany ‘Beyond the Fields we Know’. To this day, Lud-in-the-Mist brings a wry half-smile to my lip, whereas Xiccarph echoes in my heart like the strange blare of far oriental trumpets.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
