The cover of the Berkley Medallion edition of Budrys Inferno, typifying the work of Richard Powers: Two medusa-like shapes (for lack of a better word) float above the surface of a planet (well, there’s one crater in the foreground), against a sky of pale red, pink, and tan. The only solidly human representations appear as the form of two stylized, silhouetted figures fighting (or dancing?) in the lower left.
In the foreground looms the stylized head (well, I guess it’s a head – it certainly looks like it’s viewed from behind!) of an alien observer. But, is the observer viewing the horizon, or looking at us?
Like much of the art of Richard Powers, answers, explanations, and identification are uncertain.
Contents
Introduction – essay by Algis Budrys
Silent Brother, from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1956
Between the Dark and the Daylight, from Infinity Science Fiction, October, 1958
And Then She Found Him …, from Venture Science Fiction, July, 1957
The Skirmisher, from Infinity Science Fiction, November, 1957
The Man Who Tasted Ashes, from if Science Fiction, February, 1959
Lower Than Angels, from Infinity Science Fiction, October, 1956
Contact Between Equals, from Venture Science Fiction, July, 1958
Dream of Victory, from Amazing Stories, August-September, 1953
The Peasant Girl, from Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1956
