On Stranger Tides is one of my favourite Powers novels - I mean come on! Voodoo magic? Zombie Pirates? The Fountain of Youth? Who doesn't want to read an adventure chock-full of all that stuff? I remember I first read that book back in the late 80s and as well as loving the novel, I was captivated by the cover art - I'm talking here of the UK edition published by Grafton, which featured an amazingly strong cover image painted by Richard Clifton-Dey.
The artist died in 1997, but left behind an incredible body of work, now highly sought after by collectors. This wasn't always the case - a few years ago now, I began to make enquiries about his pirate painting and these led me (after some considerable investigation work!) into contact with his agent, the hugely helpful Alison Eldred who told me that following his death, Clifton-Dey's widow had basically shut down his studio and put everything under wraps. Perhaps my interest in the pirate painting might convince her it was time to look at allowing some of the originals on to the market. On my behalf Alison kindly travelled down to visit Mrs Clifton-Dey and found a treasure trove of his work, all stored, preserved and untouched since his death. And there also she found, in perfect condition, the pirate painting and also his cover art for the Grafton edition of The Anubis Gates (this edition being the very first Powers book I ever read, and largely becuase of the cool cover!), along with the preparatory sketches for both commissions. I ended up with both the paintings and the sketches and no, they're not for sale!
In this recent blog entry, the wonderful American artist Jim Gurney wrote a piece about his experiences of producing the cover art for the original Ace edition of On Stranger Tides, a painting that has been reused a number of times, most recently on the recent Czech translation and on the Subterranean Press reissue of the novel
published earlier this year. You can read this fascinating article by following the link above. Most interesting to me was the inclusion of the image shown below of Gurney's preparatory watercolours for the eventual image - a wonderful accompaniment to Clifton-Dey's pencil sketches above. As to which of the two images make for the best cover... well, that is a debate that will run and run!
As we all know, time moves slowly in the Powersian world, hence the lack of site updates over recent weeks. However, here's a round up of recent bits 'n pieces for you....
A brand new translation of The Anubis Gates has recently been released in South Korea - the first Powers novel to be released in that country.
Issued as two volumes (volume one is the blue copy and volume two the yellow) by Woongjin ThinkBigCo. Ltd, this is a trade paperback officially released back in Sept 2007.
Subterranean Press have released their trade and limited editions of On Stranger Tides although there's no news yet as to when their lettered state will be available. Meanwhile Powers reports that he has been checking the galleys of the forthcoming Subterranean editions of Last Call, Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather. Subterranean also made this announcement regarding a Blaylock project to which Powers will be contributing.
Baycon 2008 is only a few weeks away (May 23rd thru 26th)- and Powers will be there as guest of honour.
Secret Histories : A Bibliography of the Works of Tim Powers is on schedule for release at the 2009 British Eastercon at which Tim will be guest of honour. I can now confirm that there will be a lettered state of the book and PS Publishing will soon be taking pre-orders. Watch this space! (And I can can add that the lettered state will have something very, Very, VERY special as part of the package!) More on this in due course.
Happy New Year to all (I always wonder how far into January we can keep wishing each other that!). There's not a great deal of Powers related news around at the moment, but here's a few relevant bits and pieces for you...
The French edition of Three Days to Never will be published on January 17th. This is the first foreign language translation of this most recent Tim Powers novel to appear and it has been issued as a smart trade paperback by Denoël, the same publisher who brought out the French edition of Declare. As with that previous title, Denoël have once again commissioned cover art from Manchu. I really like this artwork, and I recommend following the link to the artists' web site where both Powers covers are on display as well as many other wonderful works. The ISBN of À Deux Pas Du Néant is 978-2-20725947-4 and the cover price 25 Euros. Here's a link to the ordering page at Amazon.Fr. My thanks to Gilles Dumay at Denoël for sending along a copy for the site archive.
In other news, further to this previous entry, Subterranean Press have announced that they will be using James Gurney's original cover art for their forthcoming trade and limited reissue of On Stranger Tides, due in the spring. Each of the Subterranean states will feature a different cover layout and Gurney will apparently be signing the limitation sheet. You can pre-order this book via this link to Amazon.com.
Subterranean have also announced that they are to reissue Ubik: the Screenplay by Philip K. Dick. This release is to include the introduction Powers wrote for the original Corroboree Press edition, released way back in 1985. This new edition will feature cover art by Dave McKean and will have a new Afterword written by Tad Williams. The release will be a cloth bound hard cover of 1500 copies and there will be a further 26 lettered, tray-cased copies signed by Powers and Williams. The book is scheduled to appear in August. You can pre-order this title via this direct link to Amazon.com.
Further to my previous entry, Subterranean Press have now officially announced their forthcoming limited edition of Powers's pirate book, On Stranger Tides published twenty years ago this very month.
Scheduled for release in April 2008, the SubPress edition (ISBN 9781596061675) is due to be issued in three separate states - a trade hard cover priced at $18.95, "250 signed numbered hard covers, bound in a premium cloth and a different dust jacket design, with an exclusive portfolio section of piratical illustrations by Powers," and 26 leather-bound tray-cased, lettered copies, which will include one further drawing not included in the limited. The two signed states are priced at $75.00 and $250.00 respectively.
You can pre-order the trade edition via this link to Amazon.com - you'll be helping this site in the process.
The Subterranean Press web site has recently carried news of two new Powers projects they have in the pipeline.
A new edition of On Stranger Tides is to be published - described as an "...limited and ultra-affordable trade hard cover edition." This is set to be limited to 250 numbered and 26 lettered copies signed by Powers, plus an unsigned trade edition. On Stranger Tides has only recently been reissued by Babbage Press, and, of course, previously appeared as a signed limited edition from Ultramarine Press back in the eighties. However, this new Subterranean edition is certain to eclipse that previous limited state, which was notorious for using the poor quality printed pages from the original Ace edition.
Also announced is a new limited set of the three books in Powers's Fisher King Trilogy - sometimes known as the Last Call Trilogy or the California Trilogy. Comprising Last Call, Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather, Subterranean will be issuing the three novels together, as a matching limited set (of 1000 numbered and 26 lettered), with artwork by J.K. Potter. Though Last Call has previously been published as a limited edition by Charnel House - indeed, undoubtedly the most beautiful and lavish limited edition of any Powers book to date - the two other novels have never been released thus. Additionally, due to corporate complications Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather ended being published by a different company than Last Call, making a mismatched mish-mash of collector's book shelves. I applaud both Powers and Subterranean for seeking to put this right and, frankly can't wait to get hold of a set!
Further details, including news of any other contributors, on both these exciting projects will follow when I can gather more information.
Martin Šust, editor at Laser Books in the Czech Republic has kindly sent in this image of the cover of his brand new Czech edition of On Stranger Tides, which as you can see, uses James Gurney's original cover art from the 1987 Ace first edition.
This new edition, the first appearance of this novel in the Czech Republic will be released on Monday 29th of October. A small format paperback edition, the Czech title is Plout na vlnách podivna, the translation by Jiří Engliš and it will be priced at 249 Kč. Not sure about the ISBN for now, but I've got a copy on the way (thanks Martin!) and will add all the details to the On Stranger Tides page in due course.
Martin also hinted of a possible Czech edition of The Stress of Her Regard being in the pipeline and confirmed that there is deal on the table with another Czech publishing house, Triton (anyone know of a web site for them?) for a forthcoming Czech translation of Three Days to Never.
Ironically there look to be far more Powers books in print over there in Czech Republic than there are here in the UK! Publishers take note.
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The French edition of 
.