The selection of balance between colors used in this illustration is perfect.
(Really.)
Moving from foreground to horizon, we find a steady gradation of colors ranging from a steely greenish-blue landscape, to buildings in muted (and foggy) purplish blue to bold and crisp bluish-purple and then, insignia blue towers, horizontally banded with grayish blue, and occasional yellow. The towers themselves are backlit by a rising (or is it setting? – I think it’s setting) sun, itself behind a veil of undulating red and yellow clouds.
And, the blimps in the left add a sense of balance and scale.
Alas, the purple whatever-it-is (an extraterrestrial kangaroo, perchance?) doesn’t – really “fit”, and the foreground space would have been better occupied by another blimp, or something like one of the floating, curved, metalloids typical of the work of Richard Powers. I wonder if the artist was influenced by the Tauntaun, in The Empire Strikes Back…
Contents
The Red Queen’s Race, by Isaac Asimov, from Astounding Science Fiction
Flaw, by John D. MacDonald, from Startling Stories
Private Eye, by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore), from Astounding Science Fiction
Manna, by Peter Phillips, from Astounding Science Fiction
The Prisoner In The Skull, by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore), from Astounding Science Fiction
Alien Earth, by Edmond Hamilton, from Thrilling Wonder Stories
History Lesson, by Arthur C. Clarke, from Startling Stories
Eternity Lost, by Clifford D. Simak, from Astounding Science Fiction
The Only Thing We Learn, by Cyril M. Kornbluth, from Startling Stories
Private – Keep Out, by Philip MacDonald, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
The Hurkle Is A Happy Beast, by Theodore Sturgeon, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Kaleidoscope, by Ray Bradbury, from Thrilling Wonder Stories
Defense Mechanism, by Katherine MacLean, from Astounding Science Fiction
Cold War, by Henry Kuttner, from Thrilling Wonder Stories
The Witches of Karres, by James H. Schmitz, from Astounding Science Fiction