The Citadel of the Autarch

Gouache on board. The cover to the British paperback edition of the fourth and final volume of Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. Considered by many to be one of the most important works of 20th Century Science Fiction, it is also one of my favorite novels in any genre. The British editions were my first encounter with Wolfe's masterpiece and Bruce Pennington's paintings for the four books in the series have never been equalled. This is by no means a costly painting but its value to me far exceeds that of pages many times its price. These covers (especially that for The Shadow of the Torturer; the original is rumored to belong to Wolfe) have shaped how a generation of readers have come to see Severian's world.

Note how the covers for "Shadow" and "Citadel" mirror each other: the light and shadow, the walking and mounted protagonist, the peaks of the man-made and distant structures, and the cross motif.

The focus on the photo above is a bit soft, and the picture was taken under slightly harsh fluorescent lighting conditions.