The second book of fantasy illustrations by Chris Achilléos, Sirens, is a feast for the eyes, bursting with full-colour art, sketches and development drawings in everything from oil paint to airbrush and inks. Achilléos's glamour and fantasy artwork ranges from his acclaimed Doctor Who and Star Trek book covers to the erotic pin-ups that made him famous, embracing along the way Greek mythology, role-playing games, Tolkien and concept movie posters for the likes of Blade Runner and Supergirl...

Sirens is the second book to feature the art of Chris Achilléos. Like 2004's Amazona, Sirens showcases Achilléos's various passions and main areas he works in. So, we have chapters on sci-fi and fantasy, Amazons, fighting fantasy and erotic pin-ups. There's also a chapter (even if it's only spread over eight pages) that covers his book covers for Star Trek and Doctor Who as well as one that examines his concept artwork for movie posters.

The text is running through this book is interesting. We start off with a rather in depth biography, and then we are walked through the other chapters by author Nigel Suckling - whose writing style is informative without it seeming like he's sucking up to his subject, or trying to stuff irrelevant information into the text just to pad out the pages. Suckling has done his homework and the result is a thoroughly researched and well constructed book which flows naturally from one chapter to the next.

While an interesting enough collection, this is only really going to appeal to fans of Achilléos. If you're a fan of any one of the subjects covered here there are better collections that just concentrate on the areas you're interested in - be that erotic pin-ups or fantasy art work.

7

Nick Smithson