Hyperluminal is a well-presented 160-page art book in the Titan Books series of artist collections. It features Jim Burn’s beautiful and detailed science fiction and fantasy-themed artworks spanning from his 1970s acrylics through to his more recent direct-to-computer digital creations. It features a range of illustrations which are mostly final works and published sci-fi book covers. After an intro by Joe Halderman, the text is kept minimal with the odd explanatory paragraph sprinkled amongst the pages of glorious colour images.

Burns is a popular multi-Hugo award-winning artist from Wales who graduated from Saint Martin's School of Art in London in 1972. He quickly joined the newly established illustration agency "Young Artists" and has been with that agency (now called "Arena") ever since. He is probably best known for his artwork for science fiction and fantasy book covers. Initially, this was for UK publishers such as Sphere Books in the 1970s before branching out to work for American clients in the 80s including Bantam Books, Ace Books, Berkley and Byron Preiss. Burns was the illustrator for Frank Herbert's "Eye" - a collection of science fiction short stories published by Berkley in 1985 and has subsequently produced covers for other big-name authors such as George R. R. Martin (2000 BCA covers for Game of Thrones titles) and Terry Pratchett (The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy). Apart from book and game covers, Burns briefly worked with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner where he was involved in early concept design for futuristic cityscapes and vehicles before Syd Mead was brought on board.

Jim Burn's work is distinctively realistic, subtly textured and detailed. He is a master of character art with photo-realistic illustrations of beautiful people set against smooth, streamlined machines and spacecraft. His character paintings are always intricate with great care taken with every costume, poise and hairstyle. A particular favourite of mine is "Sol Transit Complex 7" (1977) which is shown on page 10 of Hyperluminal. This is a scene first published in Harry Harrison’s book "Mechanismo" where Burns joined an array of other famous artists including Chris Achilleos, Angus McKie and Tony Roberts in illustrating Harrison's vision of the future. The painting shows some new arrivals at a spaceport with a typically charismatic 1st Pilot leaning over the reception desk. Through the floating glass desktop, you can see the floor which is also clear glass revealing further views of the spaceport below. In the background is a delta-winged craft reminiscent of 1970s fighter jets - likely a homage to Burns’s prior career as a trainee RAF pilot where he racked up 146 hours of flying time before starting his art foundation course.

Another classic, on p62, is "The Lovers" (1982) based on the 1953 novel by Philip Jose Farmer that “broke the taboo on sex in science fiction”. Here two photo-realistic characters stand next to an archetypal Burns streamlined and shiny futuristic vehicle (a flying car in this case) with an alien planet backdrop showing a huge moon and the ruins of a futuristic city. The woman stares at you, directly out of the picture, which draws you into the story captured by the painting.

Beginning with the chapter “Into the Land of the Fae”, the last third of the book veers away from pure science fiction and heads in a high-fantasy direction with images of dragons, elves and wizardry. According to Burns, sometimes the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy “get very blurred”. This is illustrated in the following chapter, “Encounters with Otherness” where the science fiction and fantasy imagery are clearly mixed.

Typical of art collections in the Titan Books range, the pictures are very well reproduced with many full-page images which help to show off Burn's highly detailed painting to its best effect. Quite a few pictures are carried over a double-page spread including the artwork that forms the background to the introductory text and the titles at the start of each chapter. A few more sketches showing his creative process would have been nice, together with an index of images. The book also shows slight favouritism towards more recent pictures and it would have been good if more of the 1970s classics (like those mentioned above) were shown a bit larger. These are minor quibbles, however, on a fantastic book that is difficult to fault.