Oct 11
Click for full imageDon’s Art Direction: We don’t want this cover to just jump out at you, we want it to stab you in the eyes with a hot-pink icepick. And our dictionary defines “hermaphrodite” as “bored bloke with major addictions to mousse and Manic Panic”.
Published 1992
Many thanks to Don!
(Average: 8.47 out of 10)
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October 11th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Horrifying factoid from the isfdb: Thomas Thurston Thomas is not a pseudonym. Someone actually thought this would be a good name for their little boy. I suspect he’s crying about being born male because at least ‘Thomas’ isn’t a first name anyone could have given a girl.
And, um, I don’t think that’s meant to be an icepick. (It looks more like a recorder to me, but I think it’s *meant* to be more suggestive. Or perhaps creepy.)
October 11th, 2010 at 11:25 am
I’m quite disappointed that the T. in the middle name didn’t also stand for Thomas. Go big or go home, as my mother always said.
Anyway, is this book ACTUALLY about gay Xmen or is that merely implied by the cover?
October 11th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
That’s a tremendous fluminescent goatee / bookmark you have there sir.. ma’am.. wait
..I’m pretty sure the cover lass is indeed a lady, but there’s a hint of Raiden from Metal Gear Solid about him. Her. Whatever – awesome haircut. Are there instructions on the inside back cover?
October 11th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Everything that’s hair is ultra-pink.
So that means…
Gak!
October 11th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
I wonder how would apply for a job at the Baen cover art department. I know very little about art or visual design…so clearly I’m highly qualified.
October 11th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
this must be Sci-fi’s answer to generic Ziggy Stardust. watch out for this on the sci-fi channels original miniseries programing.
October 12th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
In its own way, this is very stylish artwork… it’s the “BAEN BOOKS” logo that completely ruins it. It’s like putting a “NEWT GINGRICH FOR PRESIDENT” sticker on the cover of the LADY GAGA FAN CLUB MAGAZINE.
October 12th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I am enjoying the steam background… like you’ve just stepped into your healthclubs steam room to see her/him.
October 12th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Oh, is that a *beard*? I thought it was something quite different (but also often pink).
October 13th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Definitely looks like a beard to me. My visual cortex is clearly too far indisposed to manage more than a single entendre.
October 13th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Re: The Authors name
I get the feeling that this is almost a “Major Major” moment from Catch-22…
However, unlike Catch 22, his parents resisted the temptation to go all the way, so to speak…
I also seem to remember that the hero/heroine of this tome, is a hermaphrodite, hence the inclusion of the “pink beard” in the cover art…
(My local library had a copy of Crygender, a long time ago, & I actually borrowed & read it…).
October 13th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Ah. So this is like a really, really bad _The Left Hand of Darkness_? A shame it was written 23 years later, really, or TTT could have claimed ignorance of how it really should be done.
October 15th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Re: Nix’s last post
More like a very 3rd rate Spy Thriller, given a S.F sheen, as it’s set on Earth in a unspecified, & undated future…
From what I can remember, Crygender is a entertainer, that used his androgyny (He’s a androgynous hermaphrodite) to kickstart a pop/media career..
Unfortunately, events from the past, from when he worked for a unspecified Intellegence agency, that used him/her in recruitment attempts that involved sexual blackmail, are now about to metaphorically “bite him/her in the bum” rather badly…
December 19th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
John McCain is on FOX News right now, waving the CRYGENDER cover in the air, and shouting: “See? THIS is what our once-proud military will be like from now on!!”
December 19th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@A.R. Yngve: Ironically, I bought that in an Air Force base exchange bookstore almost two decades ago.
December 19th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
🙂
July 18th, 2015 at 1:40 am
The tragic tale of a fellow whose head becomes engulfed by a sea anemone.
July 18th, 2015 at 11:35 am
@Nix: I think his parents just really wanted to call him “Tom-Tee Tom”.
July 5th, 2017 at 12:13 am
I get hat hair too!
February 9th, 2024 at 7:08 pm
“What do you mean my beard doesn’t make me look more macho?”