Bold gold lettering announces ISAAC ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION across the top of this October 1987 cover, complete with the period price line (“$2.00 U.S./$2.50 CAN.”) and a “192 PAGES” badge tucked into the corner. The typography alone places it firmly in the late-1980s magazine rack world, where high-contrast titles were designed to grab attention from a distance while promising a hefty, story-packed issue.
Dominating the artwork is a glowing, serene goddess-like face rendered in rich reds and purples, hovering like a cosmic icon above a stark, icy ridge. Tiny human figures climb and stand on the snowy slope below, their silhouettes emphasizing scale and adding a note of expedition and awe, as if the landscape itself were a threshold to something mythic. The color palette shifts from cold blues to warm, radiant tones, blending science-fiction grandeur with a hint of spiritual or archetypal imagery.
Prominent cover lines spotlight Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Mother Goddess of the World” and Ian Watson’s “The Moon and Michelangelo,” with additional names including Jack Dann, Bruce Sterling, and Bruce McAllister. For collectors and readers searching Asimov’s Science Fiction October 1987 cover art, this issue offers a vivid snapshot of how the genre marketed wonder in that era—mixing big concepts, recognizable bylines, and an illustration that suggests both alien vastness and ancient symbolism.