The universe is weird how it sets me up sometimes.
A few days ago I wrote an article that will be sent out soon to those fantasy readers signed up for the Terry Brooks newsletter. In it, I discuss why fans often ask where the interior illustrations went after the first three Shannara novels. The art supplied by the Brothers Hildebrandt and Darrell K. Sweet added a sophistication to those books, I think, and gave them an additional beauty that we almost no longer see anymore.
That isn’t all. It also gave readers a physical vision of what the characters, places, and artifacts in the series look like—at least according to an artist’s interpretation.
The fans, in short, love interior illustrations.
Then yesterday, I ran across the cover for Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld and I remembered Leviathan, the first book in the series. Leviathan, which is almost a five-star book on Amazon, is jam-packed with gorgeous interior artwork by Keith Thompson. It is a heavy book, printed on high-quality paper. It reminds me of the books from the late 19th century, nicely bound with a great deal of care put into their crafting, masterpieces in and of themselves.
I decided to see if Behemoth would also be given the same treatment. Scott was more than accommodating in talking about it, including a new Keith Thompson image from the new book!
Here is the interview:
Suvudu: Hi Scott. Hope this interview finds well. How are you?
Scott Westerfeld: Enjoying my new office. I finally decided to move the writing thing out of my apartment, and found a lovely room in an old iron-frame building on Broadway. The place has very steampunk bones, with 15-foot ceilings, giant factory windows, and radiators that look like Fritz Lang designed them. A great place to write.
S: Last year you published Leviathan, a YA book set during the events of World War I that has been greatly embraced by an adult readership. A year or two removed from when you finished the book, what has it been like watching it find its rather large niche? Gratifying? Or is the pressure on now for its sequel, Behemoth?
SW: Many old hands in publishing assumed that Leviathan would skew younger than my previous work, because of the illustrations. So I was gratified when my first piece of fan mail came from an Australian officer serving in Afghanistan. As I’d hoped, the mad-scientist beasties and machines work as fantasy for younger readers, but more as fantastical alternate history for adults. I think the gnarly military details help on the adult end too. But the real test will be what the crowds look like as I tour for Behemoth. Younger? Older? Some of both? And maybe more boys than, say, the crowd for an Uglies book. I’m waiting to see.
S: Steampunk is on the rise. Leviathan sold extremely well and authors like Cherie Priest (Boneshaker) are winning awards. What do you attribute this to? Are other sub-genres worn out? Or have people begun to broaden their reading tastes?
SW: Because of its fifty illustrations, color end papers, and all that, Leviathan had a long pre-publication schedule. I started it back in 2006, when I had to EXPLAIN to the publisher and the sales force what steampunk was. So it’s been great to see the sub-genre gain some currency (and in the true sign that you’ve arrived, people shouting at you that it’s so OVER).
In a funny way, though, I think steampunk has nothing to do with the zeitgeist. Some people just seem to be wired for it. Cherie Priest and I were on a panel recently, and she spoke of being on Disney’s 20,000 Leagues ride at age ten and saying, “Yes, this! THIS is what I meant!” Some people just like baroque complexity rendered in metal and gears. This thing called “steampunk” is just a way for us to find each other and make cool stuff.
S: The US cover for Behemoth is gorgeous, especially the greens. Did you have any input into it? And will Keith Thompson be reprising his role as interior artist, supplying those beautiful images we saw in Leviathan?
SW: Yes, Keith is doing the interiors again, except this time there are 55 instead of 50. A ten percent bonus! Also, we’re doing a few double-page spreads for the first time, and a whole new set of color end papers. So like Leviathan, but moreso.
Another cool thing about Behemoth is that we get to see Clanker Istanbul, which has its own levantine steampunk style. The Ottomans use machines, but in the shapes of animals (giant mechanical elephants! The Sultan’s falcon-beaked airyacht!). And I know it doesn’t sound drool-worthy, but Keith’s tiled floors are amazing.
As for the cover, I do have consultation, but it’s mostly the publisher’s job. They have a sales force who talk to booksellers every day, and who know what sells and what doesn’t. In a way, the cover is the single biggest advertisement for the book, and advertising isn’t my forte. I wouldn’t WANT too much control.
S: As with most things in the industry, I’m sure you are a year ahead and Behemoth has mostly been put to bed. Are you working on the third book in the series right now? How is it going?
SW: Behemoth is long finished, but the illustrations are only just finalized, because the images lag the text by a few months. This puts pressure on me to get my chapters to Keith on time (and to get it right the first time, and not go back and rewrite something that’s already been drawn!). The text for the third book, Goliath, is halfway done, and I THINK it’s working out. Last books in a trilogy are always tricky, because you have to balance their story with all the big trilogy arcs that are coming to a close. That’s particularly tricky with this series, which introduces new settings and characters as a matter of course. (We’re traveling around on an airship, after all.) But I’m extremely happy with the Big New Historical Character in this book, and even better, I’m only a few days from getting the first batch of Goliath illustrations from Keith.
S: Thank you for joining us on Suvudu, Scott. Got any parting words for your fans?
SW: Just thanks for all your support and enthusiasm. I’m hoping that the Leviathan series’ success will mean that more illustrated novels for adults and teens see the light of publication. I think it’s a real loss that the illustration industry crashed a century ago (due to photography) and robbed us all of those old-fashioned plates and captions. It’s a different kind of storytelling from both prose-only novels and graphic novels, and I think there’s a place for it in our culture.
Haven’t read Leviathan? Read Chapter One for free or listen to it to see if it is to your liking! Feel free to visit Scott at his website as well!
Behemoth will be published October 5th.
I thought that was the case – publishers taking over the cover design specs. I’m rather disappointed – They really ought to have continued the original; the new designs look tacky and clashes with the illustrations. If it’s inviting to some – fair enough- but I personally found the original more enthralling [and just knowing Keith Thompson was responsible was enough to pick it up].
I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I am very big on covers…
Sadly I’m hesitant to buy it. Even the UK version is… weird. Is there NO cover that continues from the original publication?
The cover for Behemoth, and the retrograde cover for Leviathan, are abysmal. The original Leviathan cover was the reason I picked it up and then recommended it to all my sci-fi reading friends. It’s a steampunk book, and the cover fit perfectly with the story and with Keith Thompson’s illustrations.
I was really looking forward to Behemoth giving us another brilliant covering featuring a more organic setting. Instead we get a shiny teen face slopped on the cover as so many other YA books have and that makes it look as if it’s some teen romance book. Not only that but from even a slight distance the face looks eerily disembodied as the rest of the cover is so dark and the face is so bright.
I honestly think the cover was a major miscalculation. I think it has alienated a lot of fans and will not draw any new readers in. This is actually the first time I have seen anyone at all praise the new cover, with the concensus being that the UK cover, while not ideal, is a massive improvement.
It is just really disheartening that what could have been a brilliantly produced series that would stand out on a bookshelf and hold it’s head high in the company of such classics as Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights, has instead been relegated to the annals of another failed commitment by a publisher to have the conviction to produce something more than just a story.
At least the story, by all accounts, is still the top-notch storytelling we have all come to expect from Westerfeld. I have not read it myself. I have to wait for my library to get a copy as I sahn’t be purchasing it. My hope now is that when the series is finished an omnibus edition will be released (mega-hardback that will be) and it will be more in keeping with the artistic style with which the series began.