Diary Of A Spaceperson by Chris Foss (book review)

I came across ‘Diary Of A Spaceperson’ by Chris Foss, purely by accident on the internet auction website at a reasonable price and in good condition. I’m less impressed with Foss as a writer because doing so as a diary isn’t always a good idea unless there are regular events going on.

However, the art is jaw-dropping. A combination of his book covers, many of which are double-page spreads. Added to that had a lot of pen and ink sketches showing himself a capable figure artist, with many of them semi-nude. It’s an interesting contrast to his covers, where they were primary spaceships or exotic land vehicles that had no real relevance to the stories but they sold the books. This book also proves different as there are 3 cover art pieces that had people, all right one was in a spacesuit and another alien, but the majority were mechanical. If you get this one book, then you get the majority of his pieces making it somewhat unique.

I do think the appeal of a Chris Foss cover and why they sold books so well isn’t because it was exotic spaceships and land vehicles but a lot down to composition, colour choices and detail. All very appealing to SF fans. From an engineering point of view, I doubt if any of them could be built in real life although you might smile, as with looking at clouds and seeing animals and seeing images in his designs if you look at Foss’ art long enough.

There have been several books of Chris Foss’ work and, I suspect, you might have some of them but this one looks pretty rare after 30 years. Don’t miss completing the set if you can.

GF Willmetts

May 2023

(pub: Dragon’s World, 1990. 133 page large illustrated hardback. Price: look around. ISBN: CN 3556)

check out website: https://chrisfossart.myshopify.com/