If I may somewhat drunkenly ask, since you have brought up the subject of covers, what on earth is on the cover for the Night Shade edition of Shadow of the Scorpion? My husband questioned me on it and by the end I still had no idea what it was supposed to be. It doesn't look like a scorpion to me and appears to be biological in any case, having hairy legs and all. The closest I can come is a hooder, which still doesn't make any sense in the context of the novel. It reminds me a bit of the Dan Simmons Hyperion series, where it took them three books to give the shrike the proper number of arms.
buildergen, I have no idea what they were thinking of with the Night Shade cover. I guess it is supposed to be a Prador but looks more like a scene out of Starship Troopers to me. Definitely not a hooder since that looks more like a giant millipede.
But have you seen the new German covers I posted a while back?
weirdest experience was going thru this sf journalist's sf collection. a lot of the books over there look like paperback manga from the covers. some spikey haired dude and some doll on a future cycle or whatever with very few covers. people by stuff by whats on the spine. the PKD? Aldiss? stuff was pretty minimal from what i remember. pretty odd experience for me.
your Japanese print of Cowl must've been a real splurge for the publishers.
Sorry Neal, love the books (every one except maybe 'Cowl') but cannot stand the covers. Fortunately underneath is always a neat black hardcover with some smart gold lettering. Why does no one ever put the spine titles horizontal, like they used to, so they can be easily read on a bookshelf?
If I may somewhat drunkenly ask, since you have brought up the subject of covers, what on earth is on the cover for the Night Shade edition of Shadow of the Scorpion? My husband questioned me on it and by the end I still had no idea what it was supposed to be. It doesn't look like a scorpion to me and appears to be biological in any case, having hairy legs and all. The closest I can come is a hooder, which still doesn't make any sense in the context of the novel. It reminds me a bit of the Dan Simmons Hyperion series, where it took them three books to give the shrike the proper number of arms.
ReplyDeleteGreat novel, odd cover in any case.
Jen W
Neal,
ReplyDeleteYou have been blessed with some very stylish UK covers. Both the original and new ones. Not many authors are that lucky.
The german ones are a shower of S**t. The american ones I have see are barely much better.
There is an art to cover art and some countries just don't get it.
Neil/Skar
buildergen, I have no idea what they were thinking of with the Night Shade cover. I guess it is supposed to be a Prador but looks more like a scene out of Starship Troopers to me. Definitely not a hooder since that looks more like a giant millipede.
ReplyDeleteBut have you seen the new German covers I posted a while back?
weirdest experience was going thru this sf journalist's sf collection. a lot of the books over there look like paperback manga from the covers. some spikey haired dude and some doll on a future cycle or whatever with very few covers. people by stuff by whats on the spine. the PKD? Aldiss? stuff was pretty minimal from what i remember. pretty odd experience for me.
ReplyDeleteyour Japanese print of Cowl must've been a real splurge for the publishers.
Sorry Neal, love the books (every one except maybe 'Cowl') but cannot stand the covers. Fortunately underneath is always a neat black hardcover with some smart gold lettering.
ReplyDeleteWhy does no one ever put the spine titles horizontal, like they used to, so they can be easily read on a bookshelf?
OT but a couple of things you might like -
ReplyDeleteClimate zealots talk crap:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/4990704/Nobody-listens-to-the-real-climate-change-experts.html
Transparent metal -
http://www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=16005
It's not chainglass but hey...
chainglass! wow!!!
ReplyDeleteanyone see phonehand?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html