Jul 16
Art Direction: Look, I’m telling you there is NOTHING more erotic than a naked women with an over-sized insect. Hold on a second who are those guys? What are they doing with a straitjacket? Hey, get off me. Wait, it’s still a good idea, I swear…. draw it… and remember meeeeeeeeee!
Published 1980
July 16th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Does the book actually involve… insectiality?
July 16th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I am not sure. But it certainly has some very suggestive lines. Like talking about some half women half insect with a sword impaled through her stomach, then questioning was she in pain or pleasure. Cause last time I check getting stabbed is pretty erotic.
Got this one for my birthday a couple of months ago, based on the cover. I have to say I find the writing isn’t… my style. So I didn’t finish it and just ended flicking through it and wondering if the line I just read was completely out of context or simply just strange. Guess that’s a nice way of saying I didn’t enjoy it much.
July 16th, 2010 at 10:23 am
That artist certainly seems to enjoy his naked women and large insects.
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/tag/chris-achilleos/
July 16th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWloYqmYpng&feature=related
July 16th, 2010 at 10:52 am
“We’re going to need a bigger rolled-up newspaper…”
July 16th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
“This is Dougie. He’ll be the artist for your book cover.”
“BuzzZZzzz!”
“For a cover we were thinking of a beautiful woman, dancing amongst the stars…”
“ZZ! No Woman! ZZZ! Big Bee! Queen Bee! ZZ!”
“Is it too late to sign with Penguin?”
July 16th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Hey guys, let us not judge. This could be a beautiful thing between a lady and a giant insect who just want to be together.
July 16th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
@cutmanmike
I’ve read this one. The plot does involve a race of insect-like aliens invading a “so far in the future it is a fantasy setting” Earth. No insect on girl action though I’m afraid. It is from the Viriconium series of novels and short stories.
Admittedly the cover is spectacularly awful and the prose of this particular novel is intentionally disjointed and confusing (it makes a LITTLE more sense if one has read the previous novel and recognizes the cyclical nature of plot and characters). Still I like the series overall and to anyone who likes their science fantasy prose rather over the top, I highly recommend the omnibus edition entitled Viriconium with a very thoughtful forward by Neil Gaiman.
July 16th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
The art direction reminds me somehow of GLaDOS, which makes me sad. Poor, misunderstood people/computers 🙁
July 16th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
The marketing department wanted to create extra buzz for this book
July 16th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
“There he goes carrying his new wife off to his house sized jar of jam.”
I deserve to suffer for that one…
July 16th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
In my opinion, ‘intentionally disjointed prose’ is like ‘intentionally bad coffee’. It may be done on purpose, but that doesn’t make it good.
Anyway, if I had been a fly on the wall for this scene I would have told that thing to buzz off and leave that honey alone. That would sting!
July 16th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
I must protest. This cover is nowhere near surreal enough for M. John Harrison’s work.
(Tom: Harrison is definitely among the more, ahem, artistic craftsmen of SF. Personally I think his work varies between incomprehensible, hilarious, and bloody awesome, mostly the latter: but I can understand if YMMV. I mean, _Light_ blew me away — in the non-literal sense — but a lot of people were turned off by the way virtually everyone in it who had a major enough part to have any kind of characterization was some sort of murderer or mass murderer or milquetoast murderer.)
July 16th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I think this is some sort of horrifying Butterfly Sex Effect . “this storm was caused because somewhere in the world a bug flapped its wings while screwing a naked lady”
July 17th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Well his work isn’t for everyone. But I think we can all agree that this is cover is just truely dreadful.
July 17th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
I’m sure there’s something very wrong with me for noticing this, but shouldn’t the bee creature be, you know, flying?
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Disjointed, of course, isn’t the same as bad. A Storm of Wings is a competent, even elegantly crafted story. Just as disjointed coffee… perhaps a foamy latte… isn’t necessarily bad coffee, so disjointed prose isn’t necessarily bad or even difficult to read. The movie Inception (and Memento) was disjointed, but perfectably followable if you’re not stoned out of your mind, and the craft behind it was rock-solid. A Storm of Wings was evocative, strange, and fascinating, the product of a writer who certainly knows what he’s doing.
May 18th, 2013 at 11:18 pm
/me is disappointed by a lack of storm.
How does the background fit together, anyway?
October 21st, 2013 at 8:29 pm
This cover still bugs me.
January 16th, 2017 at 11:03 pm
I like the font. The rest of it, no. Just no.
December 22nd, 2019 at 8:10 pm
Paul Verhoeven’s initial concept for the STAR TROOPERS movie was nixed by the studio.