INVADER

Cover illustration for C.J. Cherryh

Jan 23, 2026

Dramatically lit by warm light, an alien with onyx skin stands close guard with hand on the shoulder of a human male who protectively clutches his shoulder bag. With the unfixed gaze of the blind, the man is staring out as if he's listening while seeing nothing. His guard holds up a futuristic pistol as she spies around the corner to see a male of her species with a long braid running down his back. He wears similar black leather with flaring shoulders. Past the thin tree cover, two jets streak past. In shallow relief on the wall that provides cover, flowers flourish on curling stems, but the facade is riddled with a dozen bullet holes. — INVADER (1995), Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 30” x 22”

In a chapter introduction for Wonderworks, C.J. Cherryh wrote:

To my mind, there cannot be so great a difference between the imagination of the writer and that of the artist. Both see. A writer’s instinct is to tell that vision in such elaboration and detail that the reader can live through that moment and into others, a flowing process and internal. An artist captures that same vision in an instant, wholly—freezes all the individual moments of it into the attitude of a body, the set of a hand, a face the quality of the light: one moment which implies and evokes all the others.

LEFT: Black and white concept for INVADER featuring a human male descending the steps of a castle surrounded by a cadre of onyx skinned alien guards. He's dressed in light clothing creating a spotlight of contrast with his guards in dark military uniforms. At the top of the stairs, a female rests a hand on the wall staring out. RIGHT: Black and white concept for INVADER featuring a human male riding on a massive alien horse. He follows a female alien rider who turns back halfway off panel. Rendered in silhouette behind them is a group of alien riders winding through a forest of bare tree trunks. — Preliminary concepts for INVADER

That, to me, is illustration. It's a joy as a writer to open that thin envelope from my publisher...to see, suddenly, the same vision which I lived during the months of my solitary work now made visible.
I look at it as into a mirror of my own mind, seeing, for the first time the thoughts of someone else casting back my own: my people reflected through other eyes and now become someone else's too.
The moment brings a curious sense of affirmation—a feeling that, unlike daydreams that vanish, now they are real: someone else has seen the vision too, and others will see it after.

LEFT: Preliminary concept for INVADER featuring a man standing in front of a taller alien. A pair of jets streak past the trees loosely rendered in the background. RIGHT: Preliminary concept for INVADER featuring a human male protectively clutching his shoulder bag while a much taller alien woman with onyx skin lays a hand on his shoulder. She holds up a pistol with her other hand. The wall behind them is riddled with bullet holes. — Preliminary concepts for INVADER

Aha, I say, I know these people. That’s the way they were when I last saw them.
And I know that in partnership with and regardless of all the words I have laid down in the book—that will be the vision of all the readers who come to it. My people will look so to them; most readers will hardly be aware whether they obtained their vision from the cover or from my words: indeed, likely both are inextricably intertwined.
That is the power of illustration. I have been asked questions at times about a character’s nature or origin or attitude, and the questioner adds: “They looked as if...”—without seeming to be aware that there are two sources for his impression.

It’s that partnership of words and art invoked again.

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