Pustynna Wlócznia (Polish Desert Spear) Illustrations
Lots of stuff going on as I try to prepare for my first real vacation in years. Sometimes I struggle to come up with stuff to post on the blog, but not these days. I have about seven half-written entries, not to mention a growing pile of simply amazing entries in the Warding Contest, and lots of amazing art from European publishers.
Take Fabryka Slow (Word Factory) in Poland, for example. The Polish are the first international publishers to release a translated edition of The Desert Spear, and proud of it. Apparently there are others in Poland who share this pride, as well.
The first installment of Pustynna Wlócznia hits bookstores tomorrow, Friday June 18, and is approximately 600 pages of warded, demony goodness. The second half (another 600 pages) will be out in August.
The Polish translations are one of my favorite foreign editions, because unlike most publishers, they include amazing illustrations. Back in late 2008 I shared some of the illustrations from Malowany Czloweik (The Painted Man) on the Peephole, and all agreed they were fabulous. Pustynna Wlócznia is no different, with a whole new slate of illustrations by the great Dominik Broniek. Fabryka Slow has kindly given me permission to repost a dozen of them here. I have yet to receive my samples of the new book to check placement, but let’s see if I can figure it out anyway, without giving out any serious spoilers:
Obviously the Mimic & Mind Demons, plucked right from page 1 of the book. No spoilers there, just pure, pure awesomeness:
The smaller demon here is clearly a flame demon, as you can tell from its burning eyes. I’m guessing the other one is a field demon, common to Rizon and parts of Angiers. On open ground, there’s nothing on 4 legs faster than a field demon:
Flames demons + snow = fog:
Arlen, bad ass and haunted by the call of the Core:
This is clearly from the scene where One Arm… er, forget it. Spoiler. But awesome!
Jardir’s first taste of ward feedback with the Spear of Kaji:
Uber sexy Inevera… wait, “uber” is German. This is a Polish blog…
*Consults Google Translate*
Wspaniala Seksowna Inevera in her diaphanous robes. Dangerous. No wonder the Krasians tend to keep their women covered up. She could start a war like that.
Kickass picture of Twilight Dancer. A half-wild Angierian mustang with warded hooves might not be able to outrun a field demon, but it can trample the fuck out of one:
Mind Demon Snackie Snack:
Arlen & Jardir, flip sides of the same spear:
Not sure where these guys are busting into, but I’m glad the sun is out and I’m somewhere else:
Qasha throwing the alagai hora:
Whoa, now those are slick! My only long-time regret about not knowing how to draw is the fact that I’ve never been able to put pencil to paper and sketch out the scenes that flood my mind as I read an amazing book.
I’ve always been jealous of people with that gift. I know it’s a skill that can be developed, but to just have that innate talent… sigh, that must be so nice.
FlawemradoinAEGRNOasdvpoiaerg.
Or, to put it in another more coherent way; These are pretty freakin’ awesome! They put appropriate-sized butterflies of excitement in my stomach.
“A half-wild Angierian mustang with warded hooves might not be able to outrun a field demon, but it can trample the fuck out of one.” Class.
Hope the Vacation treats you well!
Oh my WAAAAARD those are so awesome! I really love the off-kilter feel of them all. The illustrator really brings out that nightmare element, the haunting that everyone feels. The compositions give so much depth and feeling to the scenes, the conflict the characters. Just wow.
Can’t the American version do this?!
Yeah! Dominik ruleZ. 😉 Thouuugh Inevera should be WspanialA and SeksownA since the ending Y in Polish is for male and A for female. 🙂
Love your books, I already got the Spear in Polish and I can’t stop reading. The only think that stops me this morning is coffee since I wouldn’t understand a word before my coffee. 😀
Paula, how dare you have the Spear already, it’s not even 1:00PM in Poland 😉
I think due to my busy schedule today I will have to wait till tomorrow to buy it.
Thanks, Paula. I fixed Inevera to be female super sexy instead of male. We don’t want people getting the wrong idea about her.
You know, I’d like to point out another nice feature of Polish release (I’m not so sure if it’s different from other countries, though). Pou publisher put some varnish on the cover. As a result, if you look at it at correct angle, the runes will be visible. It looks more or less like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQHKqhxZL2k (sorry for poor quality,and room in the background, but the effect is visible).
Only thing that made me annoyed is, that after such a long wait I finished Desert spear (well, first part of it at least…) in one night, despite promising myself I’ll read no more than a chapter every day. Considering this, it’s good, that Desert Spear in Poland was split in two separate parts ;)(though, in my opinion, they shouldn’t make a cliffhanger out of it).
Without a doubt, You are my favorite, foreign author. Rest well on Your holidays, You surely deserve it :).
Wow, it looks like they used a spot uv treatment to highlight the wards. That is a pricy printing technique, but it looks awesome! One more reason I can’t wait to get my samples. None of my other publishers have done anything like that.
Glad you enjoyed the first half. I don’t even know where they cut the story, yet, so I don’t know what cliffhanger you mean.
Please don’t post a spoiler, though!
Hym…
I cannot wait for the second half… I bought this book the day before released. And I ended reading it in the noon of day of premier.
Good job 🙂
GAWD! Just today i found out that Pustynna W?ócznia came out. If i find more arts than you have posted on the site i will mail you them, OK Peat?
U won’t that’s all of them 🙂
Love these. We need a graphic novel collaboration between you two…
Grrr~ you were first this time but let’s wait for the second book! 18 days and counting…
The second part has just appear. Have U seen illustrations for the second part?? 🙂
http://www.fabryka.pl/ksiazki.php?ibook=447&flash=y
on this page there are only a few 🙂
[…] Wlócznia, which as I understand it is a pretty straightforward Polish translation of Desert Spear. As with part 1, the Polish edition is illustrated by the amazing Dominik Broniek. More than that, Fabryka Slow is […]
I do not know how are the illustrations in other releases but I really do like ours (Polish). The publishing house – Fabryka S?ów – did some very good work about it.
Bo jak polak co? zrobi to nie ma hu.. na ?wiecie ?eby go w tym pobi? hehe móg?byn napisa? po angielsku ale jako? nie widze potrzeby ;p jest du?o translatorów w internecie wi?c ambitniejsi sprawdz? sobie hehe
Ah I read it in Polish but I never thought that those great pictures got drawn by a Polish artist. I have to tell that I never thought about it, but it is good to know. It only makes me like the book a whole lot more. But still I’d love to have a chance to read both in English.
I was just randomly researching when i stumbled on you work. Its fanatastic I hope you do a lot more art work. They truly are incredible. I LOVE the one with the one armed demon/monster. Just Fantastic, I hope i see more in the Future.
You actually made several excellent stuff with ur blog post, “Peter V Brett
:: Peephole In My Skull”. I’ll become heading back to ur site before long. Thx ,Keenan