Jul 06
Corwin Comments: Where to start… A truly wretched color scheme with a bright pink neon title, two title fonts that go in four different directions. Then the rest of the cover is way too busy including a blue shark, a green sub with pink polka dots, and a man hole cover. And lest we forget, the story has a computerized Ayn Rand as one of its characters.
Published 1998
Flying shark!
Many thanks to Corwin.
July 6th, 2010 at 9:54 am
This is glorious… simply glorious…
Someone is throwing a giant Frisbee at the trade tower buidlings!
July 6th, 2010 at 10:02 am
somehow i am waiting for the shark to turn to face me from the cover to sing me ‘”Don’t Worry, Be Happy”
July 6th, 2010 at 10:22 am
I think I saw this discussed on a Channel 5 documentary called “The Twin Towers – What Really Happened?”. Hijacked aircraft? No, ’twas a flying shark, a spotty submarine and a huge manhole cover what brought them towers down.
July 6th, 2010 at 10:41 am
What is the purpose of writing “a novel” on a book cover?
July 6th, 2010 at 11:01 am
anon asked:
“What is the purpose of writing ‘a novel’ on a book cover?”
Well… it’s a desperation device of sorts. Like shouting “We’re RESPECTABLE people! Honestly!”
July 6th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Anon> Possibly to let people know it is a novel. Not some drug endued hallucination you might be having in a book shop… not that I have had any experience with that type of thing.
July 6th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I sense a connection between the “Sewer” in the title and the cover…..
July 6th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Ceci n’est pas une pile of crap
July 6th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
In Soviet Russia, shark jumps *you*…
Thomas Pynchon thinks it’s “dizzyingly readable” – I love that. I always judge the quality of books by how nauseous they make me feel.
July 6th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
@John T
Do you suppose they made the title “dizzyingly readable” to mirror the review of the contents?
Maybe I’m giving “them” too much credit.
July 6th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
There is this, though, which makes the whole thing slightly more reasonable, if not any less garish:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0907_050907_glowingshark.html
July 6th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
We all live in the pink polka-dotted submarine!
July 6th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
I remember that novel. My gosh it was wretched.
July 6th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Man, I have that one. I really gotta get some of my collection shot before you do them all.
July 6th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
My! I seem to have gotten a case of whiplash from reading the text on this cover.
July 7th, 2010 at 12:29 am
cover shark says “I’m just a dolphin, ma’am”
July 12th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
This would look fantastic next to “Hunters of Red Moon”
July 14th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Sewer, gas, electric? That’s the author’s ‘bills to pay’ list, surely. There must’ve been a ghastly communication error.
July 15th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
I read this book years ago and remember really loving it. Not the cover, however. The cover makes my eyes ache. All the more incentive to keep reading, though. As long as you’ve got the book open, you don’t have to look at what’s on the outside.
June 14th, 2015 at 6:42 pm
Was there ever a less enticing name for a trilogy?
“The SPACE Trilogy!”
“The LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy!”
“The HUNGER GAMES Trilogy!”
“The, uh… Public Works… Trilogy?”
June 14th, 2015 at 7:12 pm
@Tom:
The 401(k) Trilogy
The Municipal Bonds Trilogy
The Civil Service Trilogy (that eventually encompasses five books and a short story collection)
Readable? Maybe. Dizzying? For sure!
June 15th, 2015 at 1:18 am
Actually, this is one time that specifying that the book is “a novel” might be justified, since the reader could hardly be expected to guess.
June 15th, 2015 at 12:38 pm
What are the other books in this trilogy?
“Schools, Highways & Waterworks” and “Park Rangers, Pothole Fillers & Bridge Inspectors“?
June 15th, 2015 at 12:45 pm
@DeadRobot: Instead of “a novel” they should have that printed on the cover. Then again, either way the lady doth protest too much, methinks.
June 15th, 2015 at 2:12 pm
@anon 23: ‘Parks & Recreation’ was taken. They even had trading cards http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2013-press-pass-parks-and-recreation-trading-cards
June 15th, 2015 at 8:19 pm
While I do think Matt Ruff is a better pen name than, say, Wally Paper, Knive Kitchen or Woody Tablé and that it definitely is many steps above Shaggy Karpeth, I would have expected a novelist to come up with a name with a bit more pizazz (not piss-ass)..