Michael Whelan

GREEN ANGEL TOWER (1993)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 27” x 36”

The cover art for the final installment of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, a terrific fantasy series by Tad Williams. The book spent five weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and changed the landscape of publishing. 1/6

#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #tadwilliams #ostenard #dawbooks

Oct 20, 2025 at 3:06pmWeb
Show threadMichael WhelanOct 20, 2025
The books were a literally accomplishment in fantasy that George R.R. Martin credited as a seed for his own epic A Song of Ice and Fire. 2/6
Show threadMichael WhelanOct 20, 2025
“Tad’s fantasy series…inspired me to write my own seven-book trilogy. I read Tad and was impressed by him…and said, ‘My god, they can do something with this form, and it’s Tad doing it. It’s one of my favorite fantasy series.” 3/6
Show threadMichael WhelanOct 20, 2025
The original hardcovers featured a hand-painted dustjacket, each featuring one of the swords that the series is named for. To Green Angel Tower featured Minneyar, which translates to Memory. 4/6
Show threadMichael WhelanOct 20, 2025
The hardcover was published with two cover variations. The first had Seoman and Miriamele on the front, while the alternate version flopped my artwork to feature their Sithi counterparts, Jiriki and Aditu. 5/6
Show threadMichael WhelanOct 20, 2025

At over 520K words, it was such a massive book that DAW released the paperback edition in two volumes with the artwork similarly flopped for the second volume.

Cover illustration for TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER by Tad Williams (DAW) 6/6

https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/green-angel-tower/

Show threadScott FrancisOct 20, 2025
@MichaelWhelan loved this art (so much that I have a framed print of the cover of Stone of Farewell on my wall!)
Show threadMichael VilainOct 20, 2025
@MichaelWhelan Recalling some of the covers I saw in my mom's library of SF paperbacks, I can imagine that artists or at least art directors now have actually read the books they're illustrating. Those abstract covers of 50s ACE paperbacks have nothing to do with what was in the novel.
Show threadSublimeOverloadOct 20, 2025
@MichaelWhelan Ok, now I'm picking that up. Thank you.