Twins Greg and Tim Hildebrandt were a big name in fantasy art back in the day. They did a lot of very high quality fantasy art illustration for calendars, book covers, etc. In 1979, when they were at something like their peak, they illustrated and co-wrote a fantasy novel called
Urshurak. A couple of years after it came out I saw an old magazine article about the book with reproductions of a couple of the illustrations. Years later, after I got to be a bit of a fantasy fan, I recalled the illustrations and began wondering what the book was like. But I'd forgotten the title! Recently I found a used copy and finally had the chance to read it.
Urshurak was published with dozens of elaborate b&w drawings and sixteen beautiful full-color plates. The Hildebrandts were clearly going for the same effect seen in the great illustrated classic editions with art by the likes of N.C. Wyeth and others of his generation. Art-wise they succeeded. They really did do high-quality painted illustration. Story-wise...well I didn't go in expecting the writing to be as good as Tolkien, but
Urshurak's writing is practically fanzine-quality stuff. It's not surprising the book fell into obscurity and never had any sequels. Still, it's worth owning just for the art. The only problem with that, IMO, is the silly armored bikinis the Amazons in the story are shown wearing into battle.
If they'd put this level of illustration into the service of a truly good story, that would have been something.
