For this installment of A Tale of Two Covers, we look at my favorite book by one of my favorite writers: John Brunner’s Hugo Award-winning Stand on Zanzibar.

Stand on Zanzibar was published in 1969. I read it about a decade later, when I was in my mid-teens, and it pretty much blew my mind. It’s set in the far-distant future of 2010, when the Earth groans under the weight of a staggering seven billion souls, terrorists are the major threat facing America, China is a new economic superpower, erectile dysfunction and depression are treated with pills, and the head of state is President Obomi.

Pretty clear-eyed predictions (over the years, in fact, Brunner has been lauded for his amazing forecasting). But it wasn’t his predictive skills that drew me to the book — it was the brilliant structure. Brunner painted an astonishingly vivid picture of the future of our planet by interspersing his chapters with numerous brief vignettes, news items, book quotes, and snapshots of life all over the world. It was the most believable and compelling rendition of the future I’d ever encountered, and it has stayed with me for decades.

Many writers have compared Brunner’s book to John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy, and it’s clear that’s where Brunner drew his inspiration for the sprawling non-linear narrative. This was the book that opened my eyes to the true possibilities of the novel… that there were still fascinating ways to be innovative with storytelling, even in the late 20th Century.

But we’re not here to talk about the novel itself… we’re here to talk about its covers. I first read Stand on Zanzibar in the May 1980 Del Rey edition, with a cover by Murray Tinkelman (above right, click for bigger version). We’ve discussed Tinkelman before… he produced a set of highly regarded Lovecraft covers for Del Rey, and did the same for E. R. Eddison’s Zimiamvia Trilogy (many readers — me among them — consider those covers definitive.)

Usually the nostalgia factor weighs pretty heavily in these cases, and I admit I find the Tinkelman cover a standout piece of work. But I find I prefer Steele Savage’s cover for the original paperback edition, from September 1969 (above left). It’s a more beautiful piece of art, for one thing, and it also very effectively captures the theme of Brunner’s book — the effect of rampant overpopulation — as well as hinting marvelously at its structure, with its close-packed cast. All those stories, all happening side by side, to so many different people. I also find the tone of Savage’s piece more optimistic, with its diverse and often smiling cast.

For you completests, here’s the back covers for both books.

Here’s the complete publishing details.

Stand on Zanzibar (Ballantine Books, 650 pages, $1.65 in paperback, September 1969) — cover by Steele Savage
Stand on Zanzibar (Del Rey, 650 pages, $2.50 in paperback, May 1980) — cover by Murray Tinkelman

Stand on Zanzibar is still in print, 47 years after it was first published — an amazing accomplishment. It’s currently available in trade paperback and digital format from Orb Books, with a foreword by Bruce Sterling.

Our previous Tale of Two Covers was:

The Last Page by Anthony Huso

See all of our articles on fantasy art here.