Ron Miller: Firebrands - The Heroines Of Science Fiction & Fantasy
(1998 - Paper Tiger)

The firebrands of the title are the major females of sci-fi & fantasy literature to that date. The book contains a lengthy essay from Pamela Sargent, as she canvases the stories of the two genres, both well-known and obscure, to exhibit examples of the strong feminine side. So, Ron Miller produced well more than a 100 paintings that are portraits of these women, many times depicted as just such, or alternatively presented within a context of each's atmosphere or adventures. While I rarely speak to quality here, I feel that I have to share my impression that while half of the images are striking & well executed, a significant portion of the other half seem 'awkward', 'pedestrian' or 'uninspired'. The book is 112 pages with 102 of them giving half-or-better to the art (86 of those feature a single large reproduction). All are captioned with the character's name, along with the title of the series, book or story they came from, as well as the authors' names and literature publication years. The one double-page-spread is satisfactory. There are so many heroines presented nude, or nearly so, that I surprise myself by stating that it seems pretty gratuitous (especially when sometimes is employed the transparent dodge of some errant object happening to be directly in front of the subject's genitalia). I think this project would have been better served with the painting load being shared out to several different artists. Another special note that has to be made is that Ron Miller has edited a similarly entitled book of stories (with one of these art pieces on the cover) called THE FIREBRANDS OF SCIENCE FICTION - You do not want to confuse that publication with this art book.