DAETRIN

Cover illustration for The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman

Jun 16, 2025

A mirrored perspective staring out the viewport of an alien spaceship. The interior is framed by a series of arches. The walls are textured like rock with ripples radiating throughout. On the right of the panel, a man in white jumpsuit trimmed with orange leans against an arched bulkhead. He presses a sensor with the flat of his palm. The white light of it bathes his right half. Behind him a spaceship approaches a cool blue cloud-covered planet. In the foreground of the panel left, an alien with spiky black carapace grips the wall with one of its four arms. It reaches across its body with the lower arm opposite, fingering a similar lighted sensor with a talon. Hips round sharply as it twist its torso to reach the sensor. A sheathed dagger is belted at its waist. Behind the alien, an orange sun glows warmly in contrast to the planet mirrored on the other side of the panel. — DAETRIN (1990), Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 21" X 29"

The most unusual aspect of this commission is that it was largely painted while I was being videotaped for a local TV show. I was taking a big risk in allowing this to happen.

Alternative preliminary concept for *The Madness Season*

I had come to think that I couldn't really create in anything other than the womb-like studio in which I'd been working for the past several years. I presumed that the tangle of wires, the lights, and the presence of other people in my studio would distract me to no end, preventing me from completing any work of consequence.

To my surprise, these things hardly affected me at all. I blocked out enough of what was around me to do my work without great difficulty. Probably the knowledge that it was strictly a temporary situation made it endurable.

LEFT: Against a star field, a female figure spreads wings high with her left half tinted red and her right half blue. Her legs are a swirl of mist as if she's just materializing. Her hair is rendered loosely in a similar upward swirl. RIGHT: Charcoal sketch featuring an alien covered in spiky protrusions. Its body is shaded black while its face is highlighted in white with eyes round and wide giving it an innocent look. — KIRI (1990), Acrylics on Watercolor Board - 16” x 6” and TYR (1990), Charcoal on Paper - 7” x 4”

I knew from the start that the painting would appear on half the books as painted and on the other half "flopped"—with the back side front, so to speak. This had a sort of playful appeal: which books would sell more, the ones with the alien on the front or the ones with the human?

Preliminary concept for *The Madness Season*

In addition, I was intrigued with the idea of seeing the two different books in stores side-by-side on the bookshelves, the two forming a whole image of the cover art.

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Additional images from DAETRIN

LEFT: Figure detail from DAETRIN featuring an alien with spiky black carapace gripping the arched bulkhead with its upper arm while the lower arm opposite reaches back across its body to finger a lighted sensor with a taloned digit. Menacingly, the top of its long rounded forehead ends in a crown of wide spikes. Low set orbitals are accented with thinner pointed flourishes that trail off the side of its cheek. A pronounced maxilla juts forward with no mandible to match. Behind it, a spaceship approaches an orange sun glowing warmly through the viewport. RIGHT: Figure detail from DAETRIN featuring a human male in white jumpsuit trimmed in orange. He leans against the arched bulkhead to press a lighted sensor with the flat of his palm. Behind him, a spaceship approaches a clouded planet radiating a cool blue glow through the viewport. — Details from DAETRIN

Full wraparound cover for THE MADNESS SEASON by C.S. Friedman, published by DAW Books — *The Madness Season* by C.S. Friedman (DAW)

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Diana Stein

Jun 23

I went downstairs and checked the bookshelves - but I, too, would love to know.

given a choice today, I would have gone for the human

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Mia Kleve

Jun 22

I don't know of many cover artists who did "flopped" covers. The first one I ever saw was another of yours for C.S. Friedman's IN CONQUEST BORN. I loved that the publisher did covers with each of the main characters on the front.

DAETRIN

Cover illustration for The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman

Additional images from DAETRIN

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