Fantastic Metropolis

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David Langford

Alasdair Gray’s anthology The Book of Prefaces (2000), which like most of his books calls attention to splendid excesses of design—commentaries in red running down the margins, for example, and pages at the end devoted to 33 ink sketches of everyone associated with the book. Gray writes his own blurbs, too: “To every generation appears an ageing writer who, with some published work behind him and no ideas for more, decides to produce THE BOOK OF BOOKS by grafting together pieces cut from the corpus of other writers: mostly the mighty dead whose copyrights have lapsed. These books compare with a work of true genius like Frankenstein’s monster and Michelangelo’s David. They are uglier but more popular.” Less obtrusive good design: the 2001 Walker reissue of Sylvia Louise Engdahl’s Enchantress from the Stars. Even though it won’t lie open on the table without assistance.

Jay Lake

Sadly, I find recent books tend to a higher proportion of production errors and cost-cutting decisions re paper weight, typesetting, than the books I remember as a kid. This may be my adult, writerly/editorial perspective intruding. My favorite book ever was the limited edition printing of Gene Wolfe’s Empires of Foliage And Flowers, a book for which I paid more money than I ever did before or will again.

Tanith Lee

The fascinating Margaret Atwood’s gorgeously produced hardback of Oryx And Crake. In this case, I ignore the dust jacket—the actual cover is luminously wonderful.

Des Lewis

The hardback edition of City of Saints and Madmen. Honestly. The latest paperback translation in Vintage Books of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Reading Proust makes me feel like a book myself. As if he’s reading me. Arkham House books.

Nick Mamatas

I thought Album Zutique #1 was cute. Fit in the pocket! Very important.

Javier A. Martinez

The hardback version of City of Saints and Madmen is a beautifully designed book. I like how you’ve made the cover part of the narrative flow of the novel. House of Leaves by Danielewski is a nice package. Mieville’s latest, The Scar, is beautiful to look at. As for quality, John Hopkins U Press does a nice job. Comic Book Nation is a very well put together hardcover book with nice binding. Delany’s books with Wesleyan U Press are also very nicely done. Nice cover art, nice packaging, nice font, good use of images to convey the themes of the works.

Michael Moorcock

Savoy is for me the epitome of great modern book design. Most of their design is done by John Coulthart, who has also designed some excellent books for Ministry of Whimsy and Night Shade, whose design and care I also greatly admire. Savoy’s edition of Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus, Skene’s Zenith the Albino, Richardson’s The Exploits of Engelbrecht, and several others are outstanding. Savoy doesn’t publish for profit, of course, and this allows them to spend enormous amounts on paper stock, binding, and half-tones. In some ways they represent a modern ideal of the book as an art form—David Britton and Michael Butterworth publish books as others might make sculpture, paint pictures, or create jewelry. Profit is not an important element in what they do. Britton does not select the books he publishes for any other reason than that he is driven to publish them. Savoy also issues records on the same basis and they, too, are objects of art rather than commercial design. Their version of P.J. Proby, the Texas soul singer, reading Eliot’s The Waste Land is an act of pure genius.

Darren Nash

Alastair Reynolds’ covers look fantastic; although I deplore her attitude, the hardback of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is a very impressive package; and at the risk of nepotism, the hardbacks of Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Arabesk trilogy are superbly produced.

Richard Eoin Nash

MIT Press’s book on Gordon Matta-Clark. Taschen’s series Projects On The City.

Lance Olsen

Anything Fiction Collective Two has done recently.

Milorad Pavić

Interactive, nonlinear ones.