The Cloud Walker is a science fiction novel by British author Edmund Cooper. In the novel, Britain has been taken over by the Luddite Church, and machinery is considered to be evil. The book was originally published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1973. This edition is the novel’s first U.S. printing, also published in ’73.
Cooper was a prolific writer that wrote under many pseudonyms and dabbled in a number of genres. Over the course of his career, he published poetry, romance novels, and detective fiction. However, he was best-known for his work in the sci-fi genre. He also reviewed science fiction for The Sunday Times.
This was one of Cooper’s most successful novels. It was translated to several different languages and was reprinted on numerous occasions. The book was nominated for a Locus Award, but lost to Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.
The art for this edition was provided by John Berkey. Berkey, who is best-known for creating the original poster art for Star Wars, has been
Berkey painted more than 100 covers over the course of his career, including covers for Philip K. Dick’s VALIS and Frank Herbert’s The White Plague. He also created artwork for NASA and produced poster artwork for films like Superman III and David Lynch’s Dune. 2001. In 2007, his hometown, Excelsior, Minnesota, declared March 22nd to be “John Berkey Day.”