What Press and Readers say...
"...This collection serves as a how-to guide, with creator bios and explanatory paragraphs bundled with their works rather than collected glossary-style at the rear. That does leave a few images, like SMS' Edvard Munch-inspired Weltallschrei, a little crushed, but when a page explodes, as does Chris Askham's DayGlo collage Rise of the Robots, the effect is extraordinary.
"The trade-off for this kind of book is that smaller images mean more new artists get exposure. By breaking down the work by themed chapters – from crinoline-draped steampunk to alien worlds that doff a pseudopod to H.P. Lovecraft – the breadth of both style and innovation within the genre blooms like a triffid."
-- Richard Whittaker, the Austin Chronicle
"Sci-Fi Art Now is one of those books that you’re either already excited about after these few words and pics... Kinda like a story anthology of compilation CD art books featuring the work of many artists are an acquired taste and not for everyone.
"Fortunately for me, my brain is random and scattered enough that I absolutely dig the mix of artists and art styles showcased in the book. And this makes an excellent addition to my collection of art books."
-- Phil Reed, Battlegrip.com
"Normally when I pick up a book about Sci Fi or Fantasy art, I get one of two things: curvaceous women in chain-mail bikinis or 150 pages of spaceships. So for me, Sci-Fi Art Now was quite the find... I don't recall reading an art book that gets the artist input on the piece, and it added an extra layer for me to appreciate... 5/5"
"A lovely coffee table book highlighting contemporary scifi art from a wide range of creators."
-- Annalee Newitz on io9.com
"SciFi Art Now, edited by John Freeman with a foreword by legendary artist Chris Foss, is out now... The list of contributors is also impressive, including John Picacio, Bob Eggleton, and many others. Freeman's been posting art by many of the artists in the book over at his blog, and here are some of our favorites. Tons more at the link."
-- Charlie Jane Anders on io9.com
" There are far too few SF artbooks around at the moment so any new one that pops up, like this one, Sci-Fi Art Now, has to be checked out. Granted that there are places you can look up on the Net, indeed author John Freeman points out three such websites in the back of the book, but it doesn’t beat having a book in your hands that you can sit back and peruse away from your computer screen and not have to remember where you saw such-and-such a page cos you didn’t add it to your favourites list..."
-- Geoff Willmetts, SF Crowsnest.com
"There's always been naff art, and collections have always had plenty of it... Thankfully, there's plenty of the good here. Jon Sullivan's Line of Polity, Ron Miller's Io-Like World and John Picacio's Fast Forward 2 are stunning images, and there are many more... A well-presented selection..." (4 Stars)
"Late last week, a beautiful volume arrived in the mail and I have finally been able to sit down and peruse it. It is Sci-Fi Art Now. There aren't exclamation marks in the title but perhaps there should be.
"It really is a satisfying volume: everything from its shape to its heft to its striking cover. And that's before you even open up the book and find yourself engaged by a myriad of artistic styles and fantastic subjects."
What our contributors say...-- Guy Haley, SFX Magazine, December 2010 edition
"... The book also shows off the true love that writer Freeman obviously has for science fiction as his choices of material are intelligent and diverse. Sci-Fi Art Now is a great book giving a glimpse into the rich world of science fiction illustration, past, present and future."
-- Joel Meadows. Tripwire Magazine
"Late last week, a beautiful volume arrived in the mail and I have finally been able to sit down and peruse it. It is Sci-Fi Art Now. There aren't exclamation marks in the title but perhaps there should be.
"It really is a satisfying volume: everything from its shape to its heft to its striking cover. And that's before you even open up the book and find yourself engaged by a myriad of artistic styles and fantastic subjects."
"If you seek top-class modern sci-fi art from world over, this great collection is for you. It's a nice combo of everything science-fictional."
-- Artist and contributor Bob Bello, Sci-Fi Almanac
"I really enjoyed the variety of styles and themes. From realist Flash Gordon-like paintings to digitally colored cartoon illustrations, there's certainly something in the book for every taste. The chapters are conceived with a true sense for sci-fi genre and the captions with the comments of the authors themselves is a great concept.
"What's missing, in my opinion, is more strange, alien worlds, more robots and maybe much more of the retro-future stuff. Perhaps we'll see those in a a second volume profiling modern sci-fi artists world? In the meantime, if you're a true sci-fi fan, you simply must have a copy of this lavishly illustrated book laying on your coffee table. "
-- Artist and contributor Berislav Krzic
"It’s one beautiful 'coffee table book,' and covers the wide open territory of great science fiction. It’s a joy to have my illustrations included be in it. About the only downside is that with all the fantastic artists represented in the book, there comes that terrible feeling that I’ve somehow sneaked into somewhere that I don’t belong. It’s that strange fear captured (somewhat in its inversion) by Groucho Marx when he said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.”
-- Artist and contributor Duncan Long
"Very well done, great layout, printing and the content is outstanding."
-- Artist and contributor Randall MacDonald
"For any fan of science-fiction this is a wonderful book. I was amazed by both the high quality of the book itself, as well as by the high quality of the artwork contained in it. The layout of the book maximises the size of the artwork - this is not a book containing tiny thumbnails."
-- Artist and contributor John Malcolm on amazon.co.uk
"Wow! Sci-Fi Art Now is absolutely stunning. I like how you've given each image it's own page and space to shine.. some of the work is simply gorgeous; John Sullivan and Picacio's catching the eye immediately... although my image 'Salamar' printed a treat if I do say so myself, the black background makes the image 'ping'... this now takes centre stage in my library of my own work in print, this includes other books on Illustration, book jackets, and countless magazines my work has appeared in. Well done, you should be really proud of the final product! Just brilliant! running out of superlatives..."
"It's absolutely beautiful! I'm very, very pleased with the quality of the reproduction! (My only regret is not knowing the different chapter topics: I could have sent you more art than I had!) Anyway, thanks for inviting me to be part of this! And congratulations on the wonderful job you did..."
-- Illustrator and contributor Ron Miller(read our interview with Ron here)
"The line up is an impressive one, as is the quality of the work within its pages too...I feel extremely privileged to be a part of this book."
-- Artist and contributor Tim Perkins
(read our interview with Tim here)
(read our interview with Tim here)
"The release of Sci-Fi Art Now to me is like stepping back to those days of the late 1970s and early 80s, a brilliant collection of sci-fi art which I'm very proud to say my work features in... To top it all off the foreword to the book is written by the legend that is Chris Foss accompanied by one of his startling spaceship paintings. From a ten year old boy devouring the art in Spacebase 2000 to having my work in a book with the Chris Foss, I guess you could say I'm pretty happy with that!"
-- Artist and contributor Graeme Neil Reid
