Guo tackles Book of the New Sun covers…

You may remember that earlier this year we brought to your attention the artwork of Jian Guo, who had won a competition to design the new Chinese Lord of The Rings covers. Although it was Guo’s first novel cover, he was well known amongst the Deviant Art community for the unique art style that he’d applied to fantasy franchises such as Harry Potter and World of Warcraft.

Well, it seems that both the artists skills and readers’ approval has been noted by the publishing houses over in Asia, and the LOTR covers have landed him a new commission… this time the artist has tackled the hugely popular, highly regarded, Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. For those unfamiliar with the series, we follow Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who is exiled and forced to travel to Thrax and beyond. The style of the novel can be hard going for some, the first person narrative has been referred to as marmite, but for those who fall under its spell, the journey is one you won’t forget. For his reason, the books are consistently ranked in ‘top 10 fantasy/sci-fi series’ of all time lists.

Anyway, back to today’s star, Guo, Check these out:

For those familiar with Guo’s work, you may notice these are closer to his usual stuff than the LOTR covers were – in fact, these seem a kind of hybrid between his usual stained glass/colourful fantasy scene work compared to the softer, more conventional LOTR work he did. They actually remind me a little bit of the Terry Pratchett Discworld Collector’s Library covers (by Joe McLaren), which I really liked and raved about too (yeah, I do it a lot).

Describing Guo’s work is tough, but the artist himself says it is a kind of ‘glass painting style’ and who are we to argue? You can enjoy more of his work here!

P.S. I feel as though I’d be cheating you guys if I didn’t include the artist’s recent take on Guardians of the Galaxy… oooooooh:

What do you guys think? Wish you could read Chinese?

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