Sep 29
Don’s Art Direction: It has dragons. People ride them. Put the woman in a swimsuit even though she’d freeze to death at that altitude. Make the guy look like some kind of alien elf, just to cover both the SF and fantasy genres. And it’s written by a chick, so do the main coloring in shades of lavender and rotting-orchid pink.
Published 1980 (maybe)
Many thanks to the Don!
September 29th, 2010 at 9:15 am
It takes a lot of hair gel to it it stick out like that.
I rather like the steering wheel on the foreground dragon.
September 29th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Pern is a registered trademark? A household name.
I’m also enjoying Don’s shelves! Teasing me with what might lay below.
September 29th, 2010 at 11:12 am
The dragon rider holding the steering wheel is making “Vrrooom, vrrooom” noises…
September 29th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Tell me…do the dragons pull their necks back on the upstroke, and stick their necks out on the downstroke? What about their legs?
September 29th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I’m quite sure Anne McLawyerHappy imagined her dragons to be a lot more silky and graceful. I prefer these, though. They seem to have character.
September 29th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
@ Dead Stuff
Have you ever seen the old Warner Bros. cartoon with the vulture (I believe his name was killer) who mixed it up with Bugs Bunny a time or two?
That’s the effect I imagine after your post … and now I hear them singing “I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee.”
September 29th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
For the love of… I have this abomination in a box in my basement. It’s the old SF book club edition, and it was one of the 5 books for a buck or whatever I got when I joined 25 some years ago. Come to think of it, all of those books I got from them are probably candidates for here.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
“The Dragonriders of PERM?” Heh, nice one.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
@A.R.Yngve: I thought the exact same thing.
September 29th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
The dragon farther back is eyeing the closer rider quite hungrily.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
@Jen! Wish I could say I meant that as a joke…. Coffee first… posting second. I’ll remember from now on 🙂
September 30th, 2010 at 4:51 am
@SI: Be careful what you ask for.
@NGpm: That was Beaky Buzzard. And damn you, I think I just hurt myself laughing.
@DrStrngeluv: SFBC is still publishing it, and still using this jacket art to this day and hour. Fear.
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:25 am
Probably my favourite book series of all time, but it certainly has some of the worst cover art. They can never seem to get the dragons looking pretty enough.
October 4th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Dragons are hard to draw. Have you ever tried to get one to sit still for a portrait?
October 5th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
This artist so totally kicks Michael Whelan’s butt, I mean even though he did the original Pern book covers, the switchover to this guy was genius, sheer genius. Makes me feel brown and yellow and pink all over.
December 3rd, 2010 at 5:07 pm
When I asked Anne McCaffrey to sign my copy of this book, she said, “A dragon with a steering wheel? Oh, Lord, what next?”
Says it all.
April 22nd, 2022 at 2:37 am
Gosh, I’ve got a “Pile o’ Perns” in my collection and I’ve never seen this before. Thanks, @Don for sharin’! I would proudly display this one in a gold lame picture frame – it’s kooky good.
April 23rd, 2022 at 12:03 am
@Emster: Just goes to show you didn’t have an SFBC membership at the time. Because this is the cover I have.
April 25th, 2022 at 12:32 am
@GSS ex-noob – true! At the time, my hometown library had an unusually well stocked SF section, so I rarely bought my own. Found most of my current used/mismatched set at the local thrift, and occasionally get tricked by cover art switcheroo.
April 25th, 2022 at 2:05 am
This is a set of the first 3, which I read all separately in my high school library, in covers which did NOT feature dragons with steering wheels. I think they were the Whelan covers.
April 25th, 2022 at 4:07 pm
“Say, does this dragon come with automatic transmission?”
April 26th, 2022 at 2:58 am
I don’t see a stick shift, so I guess it does.