Robot Dreams

The picture above is from the book cover of ‘Robot Dreams’ by Asimov. (Well, that’s obvious!!)

Bought this book second-hand from a pavement seller last Saturday. Would have even if the cover was plain black since I love Asimov, but was blown by the cover art. The roundness of the robot – the arch of his foot, his rear, the top of his head. The purple highlights on his metallic body and the warm yellow highlights on the left. The sea beyond – sparkling, yet a sort of greyish-greenish blue. The way his body is slouched. The eyelids and the slightly open ‘mouth’. ‘Robot Dreams’. Yes.

Looked up the artist, Ralph McQuarrie on the net and found some great stuff on his site. He has designed for the Star Wars trilogy – R2D2, Darth Vader, the ‘H’ and ‘X’ crafts – are all his designs. Lovely etchings, more book covers and concept art as well. (Title of this post linked to his site).

I find good science fiction art ‘chilling’. There’s no better word to describe how I feel when I look at it. And I don’t mean ‘chilling’ to mean scary or disturbing. I mean it in a very positive way. It makes my mind soar and stimulates my imagination. Gives me a sense of peace. Makes me go back and look again and again.

The only person I can really talk Sci Fi with is J. The both of us still love the classic Asimovs and are not too fond of the newer Greg Egans and William Gibsons. Only thing is he is a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan and I am not. Can’t stand the three new ones at all. The original trilogy is better, but according to me doesn’t qualify as Science Fiction.

The only true Sci Fi movie according to me is ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. I liked the visual imagery in ‘The Fifth Element’ as well, but the whole thing about ‘love’ being the fifth element and the key etc was too clichéd.

And now I go back on the net to see whether I can find a poster version of this cover!