Dec 17
Click for full imageReally… winning? Green? With a gold photoshop glow? Really? Well best add an exploding space ship in there too. Oh and some babe in a space suit completely ignoring the explosion. Hopefully that will distract from our winning colour.
(Rating: 6.28 out of 10)
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December 17th, 2009 at 6:57 am
I’m still on the fence about the E. Moon book covers (aswell as the STEN series).
They’re clearly pretty cheesey looking but at the same time they unmistakeably have a certain style (almost a brand image). And you’d see them and instantly know it was one of her books (although it could be confused with the STEN ones), I would be a difficult decision to republish them with different covers.
But you do have to wonder how the character on the cover ever became a Marine when she doesn’t even notice the galatic starship exploding behind her… they’ll let anyone be a space-marine these days
December 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
I’m well over the fence on this one and way into the next field.
I really think these covers aren’t too terrible. They are just really dam cheesy. The thought of a model actually posing for something like that. Ouch.
Though the title is somewhat ironically, losing.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Watch out! That little dagger-shaped spaceship is headed straight for your thumb! Ouch-alert!
December 18th, 2009 at 2:58 am
She’s not ignoring the explosion. She’s busy wondering how the hell she’s going to accessorise that minty green power armour.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Oh the font! The font! Not only 3D carved effect but it glows. In 2 differant colours!
No wonder the poor girl’s looking a bit self-conscious.
December 18th, 2009 at 6:27 am
You’re right MI, thats definately the default photoshop filter’s “Emboss” and “Glowing Edges” used in their full glory to excelent effect.
The girl is turning away to cry because she’s upset she doesnt get glowing edges too.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:29 am
It’s not so bad; a good example of the ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’ cover art approach for this sort of genre book.
And the power armour is really cool. Which I find worrying about me.
Happy christmas everyone.
December 19th, 2009 at 4:15 am
The armour is interesting. It seems to cover most of her vital areas. Luckily her face isn’t something deemed necessary for living.
Now to be fair it could have a visor.
It kinda reminds me of the old intros to games like Red Alert. Really cheesy character acting mixed in with a bit of drawn things on there.
January 8th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
The thing about the first three books in that series is that they really *should* have had horses on the front cover. Instead, even the first one had spaceships.
July 15th, 2010 at 8:52 am
oh, I have this with a horse on the cover! will submit.
that Orbit cover is not too bad, really, apart from who the hell is that girl anyway? Captain Heris Serrano, a 40-something black woman? Lady Cecilia de Marktos, a rejuved 80-something redhead (who doesn’t wear armour like that at any time)?
July 15th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Black people always get turned into white people on the covers of every fantasy book unless the inside *screams* ‘black’, because cover artists are white or something. (The classic example of this is every single cover of any of the Earthsea books ever published. Is Ged ever depicted as dark-brown-skinned? No.)
July 15th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
I love my 1970s box set of the Earthsea trilogy (back when it was only three books) but not only is Ged pasty instead of ruddy brown, Vetch is pasty instead of dark-skinned black. cos everyone in the world (all worlds) is white (unless they’re green).
and let’s not even mention that hideous travesty of Earthsea, that live-action mini-series with generic Anglo-Gaelic “medieval” cliches popping up everywhere, in the design, the casting, the music…*shudder*
You wouldn’t know from any of the Familias Regnant covers that Heris is Black, Esmaya is Hispanic, or that Cecilia isn’t a 20-something babe (she’s a 90-something babe)
July 15th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
@Nix: “(The classic example of this is every single cover of any of the Earthsea books ever published. Is Ged ever depicted as dark-brown-skinned? No.)”
Actually, yes, once that I know of: the current Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club omnibus of the Earthsea trilogy has a lovely and accurate cover painting by Leo & Diane Dillon. (I suspect their son was the model for Ged.)