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Sep 15

For anyone who hasn't seen 80's Top of the Pops, this sums it up perfectly!Click for full image

Scott B’s Art Direction: Take a woman with highly improbable hair, with a snake wrapped around her shoulders. Sexy, eh? But we need to make it all technological-like, so the snake’s actually made of fiber-optic wires or something. And throw a computer keyboard behind her, to make sure people get it. Technology! Also put a giant floating head in the background — you know I require that on all my covers!
Published 1991

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.48 out of 10)
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30 Responses to “Mindplayers”

  1. A.R.Yngve Says:

    “She blinded me with science!”

  2. bincat23 Says:

    and high speed lan venom.

  3. THX 1138 Says:

    We won’t forget you, Toyah! Thunder in the Mountains video, wasn’t it?

  4. Scott B Says:

    Toyah crossed with Flock Of Seagulls?

  5. fred Says:

    What was wrong with the old afterword?

  6. A.R.Yngve Says:

    “Scientists are not sure what this is supposed to represent.”
    (Mike Nelson, MST3K)

  7. Don Hilliard Says:

    She seems to be extremely suspicious of her own hairdo. I can’t blame her.

  8. jerk of all trades Says:

    Presenting: THE 80’S, NOW IN PAPERBACK

  9. SI Says:

    When I was a young boy, working with awesome computers always looked something like this.

    But now I know the cold hard truth…

  10. drlemaster Says:

    It’s one of those pictures where different people see different things. In this case, some see a woman with improbable hair, fiber-optic snake, keyboard, and superimposed profile, while other see an woman with 80’s hair being attacked by a headcrab, fiber-optic snake, keyboard, and superimposed profile.

  11. Pat Cadigan Says:

    Aw, I always really liked this cover and consider it superior to the original cover on the first edition. But I guess one person’s cover art, like one person’s theology or politics, is another person’s belly-laugh.

    PS: What was wrong with the old afterword was, it didn’t exist.

    Just sayin’

  12. Tom Noir Says:

    More evidence for my thesis that ridiculous hair and 80’s computers go together like peanut butter and chocolate!

    Although, that stuff on her head looks pretty dangerous. I’m not sure if I’d prefer the hair or the snake…

  13. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    What is that in the upper left corner? An azure abdomen with three indigo incision scars?

    @Pat: Ah, another author graces us with her presence! I hope you’ve had a belly-laugh yourself. Or at least a belly without major surgery. πŸ™‚

  14. DaveM Says:

    The copy of the book I purchased had a wraparound cover image as seen here
    http://www.imagekind.com/mindplayers_art?IMID=3b5d5b0b-6978-4d4f-806a-47e05c56ccd9
    This cover however is just another “generic 80’s cyberpunk” and the story is anything but that (it’s damned good actually).

  15. Hammy Says:

    What? Seven years and no “author in the comments” tag? There he is, up at #11….

  16. Tat Wood Says:

    @Hammy… er, she.

  17. Hammy Says:

    Tat@prev.

    A thousand pardons I beg, and abject apologies to Ms. Cadigan….

  18. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Hammy: And Ms. Cadigan is a delightful, wickedly funny person. She MC’d the Hugos a few years back and I was lucky enough to talk to her at some length this year at Worldcon.

    She says the one deadline she’s pleased to have missed was the one the doctors gave her that she wouldn’t see 2014. As are we all.

    Last I saw, her actual hair was curly and a light purple.

  19. Hammy Says:

    @GSS-xn (prev.):

    It’s good to know that Ms. Cadigan has a sensible outlook on life.

    Most days I feel out-of-my-depth here at GSS – nowhere near as funny, sardonic, or even (dare I say it?) erudite as the other posters here. I’ll keep trying, though….

  20. Longtime_Lurker Says:

    @Hammy: you and me both. It’s reassuring to know that Imposter Syndrome exists on GSS.GSS!

  21. Tag Wizard Says:

    @Hammy – Don’t worry. Most of the “funny, sardonic, erudite” comments here still follow Sturgeon’s Law.

    Keep coming back!

  22. THX 1139 Says:

    @TW: I’ve never been so insulted in all my born days! Oh, wait – yeah, I have, actually. Quite a few times. As you were.

  23. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Hammy: Your comments are usually at minimum slightly amusing, which is what we’re all here for.

    I have to go for pedantic erudite b/c by the time I get to a new cover, everyone else has already taken the low-hanging fruit of obvious jokes, comments, and filk.

    Ms. Cadigan opened our conversation with “So how the hell are ya?” as if we’d been friends for ever, even though she doesn’t actually know me.

  24. Tat Wood Says:

    As luck would have it, I was watching “The Champions” again last night and wondered to myself: whatever happened to Alexandra Bastedo?

    Apparently, the 80s happened.

  25. fred Says:

    There’s the face of a classic Roswell alien in her hair.

  26. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @fred: not seeing it. A muppet monster, maybe.

    “A pleasure to read, and a writer to admire ” – Analog employee whose actual name nobody would recognize.

    The same way late 60s futures involved very short skirts, 80s and early 90s futures involved really big hair. No doubt 2022 images of the future will also be hilariously dated in a decade or two.

  27. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @fred: So there is! Maybe that’s what she’s looking at. Even rad 80s hair wasn’t supposed to have aliens in it.

    @Bruce: The top of the alien’s head is right where the hair goes from orange to pink.

    Still no “author in the comments”. Also, she doesn’t get near enough credit for being a cyberpunk pioneer, before all the guys whose names you know.

  28. Hammy Says:

    @fred, Bruce, GSS x-n (three prev.):

    I had to look closely, but now I see it, too. It’s a rather astonished Gray, I would guess, judging from the open mouth. I wonder if alien-infested hair makes one’s scalp itch….

    GSS x-n: 3 1/2 years later, and I’m still embarrassed that I misgendered Ms. Cadigan up there. All I had to do was read DSWBT’s comment @13 – clearly wrote “her presence”…. πŸ™

  29. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Hammy: Wouldn’t you look astonished too if you’d wound up in that hair on this cover?

  30. Hammy Says:

    @GSS x-n(prev.):

    Nonplussed, at the very least!

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