Becky Chambers on the illustrations for Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

I come from a theater background, and with that comes an understanding that the look of a story changes with every person who touches it. You will never see two productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Into the Woods that are anything alike, even though the script is the same. I find that sort of creative malleability intoxicating, and one of the things I’ve loved in the years since the Wayfarer books first hit the shelves is seeing all the different artistic permutations of the characters and species within. I’ve seen everything from digital renderings to gorgeous pastels to pencil doodles in notebook margins. I have some of them framed on my office walls at home. It never gets old. There’s always a thrill in seeing other people’s takes on something that started in me.

Given that, I was very excited when I finally got the email containing Zoë van Dijk’s artwork for this edition of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. What I was not expecting, however, was for my jaw to hit the floor as soon as I opened the file. I shot out of my chair, ran for my office door, and called down the stairs.

‘Hey!’ I yelled to my wife.

‘You gotta come see this right now.’ She hurried up, and she stared at the monitor. ‘Whoa,’ she said.

‘I know,’ I said.

‘Whoa,’ she said.

‘I know,’ I said.

Dear reader, I know it’s the nature of promotional materials to be hyperbolic, so I need you to understand – I’m being thoroughly, utterly, hand-on-a-stack-of-stardust honest here. These illustrations look like the inside of my own head.