Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph McQuarrie has died. I was a huge Star Wars fan when I was growing up. I was a very lonely kid, living in a neighborhood where there weren't any other kids living nearby, let alone kids my age, and a busy street and my parents kept me from venturing up the hill to the kid paradise neighborhood that was about a ten minute walk away. I lived a lot in my own head, and it was long time before I found people who shared my interest in SF/F books and movies and TV. When Star Wars came out, there was a huge amount of hype, and it proved to me that there were other people out there who liked the same things I did. (I'd been told that I was the only one, never mind all those SF/F books in the library and bookstore.) Later I stumbled on Star Wars fanzines, wrote fanfic, finally escaped to college to meet other fans in person at SF/F conventions. But for a long time there, it was just me and the books and fuzzy Star Trek reruns on the TV channel that was just slightly out of range, and Star Wars' promise that there were others out there like me, lots of them.

One of the products that was released after Star Wars was the portfolio of original concept drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. (They're pictured here, on the Star Wars wiki) If Star Wars set my imagination on fire, those drawings were like jet fuel. Star Wars was awesome, but the vision of it in McQuarrie's head was something else, something that to this day has defined "sense of wonder" for me.

Some of my favorites: the Massassi Temple, Mos Eisley, Grand Audience Chamber I pinned them up all over my walls and poured over the descriptions in the portfolio. They gave fascinating glimpses of some the previous versions of the story and the world; for example, there's one where Luke is a girl.

There's no telling how many creative imaginations that Ralph McQuarrie's drawings sparked. J.R.R. Tolkien has a quote about fantasy as escapism, to the effect that if we value freedom of the mind and soul, we have a duty to escape and to take as many people with us as we can; if that's true, Ralph McQuarrie was sure as hell one of the people digging the tunnel under the barbed wire.

ETA: (more images from The Art of Ralph McQuarrie)

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I found out about a couple of neat reviews late last week:

Diary of a Text Addict: The Cloud Roads So, remember the "sense of wonder" that science fiction is supposed to have? This has got that. Plus a sympathetic protagonist, various interesting other characters, some hard-won battles, creepy evil folks, and lots of neat stuff to explore.

Publishers Weekly: The Serpent Sea Wells makes it work, powering through on sheer creativity and characterization. Using its alien protagonist to explore the politics of gender and belonging, this is a fascinating read for SF readers looking for something out of the ordinary.
This one was a huge relief to see, since hopefully now more libraries will know the book is out and order it. When PW didn't review it in January when it came out, I was afraid they weren't going to review it at all.

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