Oct 10
Click for full imageTom’s Art Direction: We need a cover that is hip or groovy or whatever the kids are into now. Make sure it has big hair, shoulder pads, pink neon, the works! Oh and see if David Bowie is available.
Published 1986
(Average: 7.65 out of 10)
Loading...
Lastest Tweet
October 10th, 2011 at 9:48 am
Uh… Is he naked? And he looks moustachioed, but I can’t tell.
Creepy.
October 10th, 2011 at 10:39 am
A clearer image here: http://library.risingshadow.net/images/books/15071.jpg
I get the impression, from his name “Mama Maxwell”, to his moustached grin, he’s the kinda smooth talking P.I. “mutha” stereotype that ends his sentences with “baby” a lot (like the cool Futurama robot cop, “Aww yeah… baby”).
October 10th, 2011 at 10:40 am
He might as well be naked. I am sure those catsuits don’t leave much to the imagination!
And it’s another perfect time for what are they saying!!
Women: “Look here, we have to head out and recalibrate this array.”
Man: “How would you like me to… recalibrate you…”
Women: “Oh god… I’m going to throw up…”
October 10th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Isn’t that the lead singer of Hot Chocolate?
And are we to assume they’re in zero g? If so, how come the Thin White Duke’s hair isn’t floating about like a sea anenome with split ends?
October 10th, 2011 at 11:10 am
“Look dear, if you must insist on wearing it, you would look a lot cooler if you had a spider web design like this on that catsuit.”
October 10th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Yes! Already in 1986, SF publishers knew that those silly little “Mac” PCs didn’t have a future. Behold the glorious household IBM XP3000! It weighs only 2 tons — the housewife of tomorrow can’t live without it!
October 10th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
“Who’s the black private dick
who’s a computing machine with all the chicks
Maxwell!
Can you dig it?”
October 10th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Man: “It feels like I’m wearing nothing at all!”
Woman: “Stupid sexy Isaac Hayes!”
October 10th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
The Girl With the Gravity Defying Hair.
October 10th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Look carefully (at the sharper version of the image provided by Druaightagh), and you will see he has the glasses of Timmy Mallett.
It’s great to know that in the future there will be 1980s hairdos and specs, curvy CRT screens, and a Crossroads motel telephone switchboard in every space station.
October 11th, 2011 at 3:51 am
The far future bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1980s.
October 11th, 2011 at 3:51 am
…At least the catsuit-clad Eddie Murphy will be funny…
October 18th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
The floating man looks a lot like Snively Whiplash.
August 25th, 2015 at 4:44 am
Methinks there’s something wrong with the artificial gravity on this ship.
April 14th, 2016 at 11:34 pm
Trying to make out the blurb…
‘The spider…it’s a moon navel of bio-laundry. And panther used that dawn for dovecot-like fanning Brillo, and fool jodhpur Flan Hummel.’
Which doesn’t make any sense, until you learn that Brillo is a scrubbing up brush, and is probably used in the bio-laundry. Personally, I would think it too much for a jumpsuit, but maybe that explains why hers has a large opening down the front.
April 14th, 2016 at 11:55 pm
Is the title some kind of US sporting term? If not, how did those two words constitute a title that anyone thought would make people interested enough to buy the book? Were there sequels with titles such as ‘Grasshopper Dance’ or ‘Scorpion Attack’?
April 15th, 2016 at 1:15 am
‘With a minute fourteen to go, the Galoshes need to put some plays together.’
‘That’s right, Ron. The Weetabix came here today to play some football, and if the Galoshes don’t start playing football now, this football game will be all over.’
‘Coming out of the huddle, the Galoshes are looking to turn this game around…the Weetabix looking to stop it here…’
‘I wonder, Ron…I wonder if, with that long huddle, if the Galoshes have something big ready.’
‘Ten seconds on the play…Dimples back…Floorboard in motion…there’s the snap…Dimples four feet off the ground…and MAMA MAXWELL IS EXPOSING HER CHEST! MAMA MAXWELL IS EXPOSING HER ENTIRE STERNUM, SHE’S AT THE TWENTY, SHE’S AT THE TEN, SHE’S AT THE COMPUTER! AND THE GALOSHES HAVE THE LEAD!’
‘Excellent execution of the Spider Play there, Ron. Absolutely right out of the playbook. Janna Brill was doing amazing things with the force of gravity at the computer, and the Weetabix never had a chance. They never saw it coming.’
‘And the crowd are going wild. A beautiful, beautiful execution of the Spider Play by Posterior Dimples and the whole Sioux City Galoshes for the lead. And Manx Hareball, for the Weetabix, over on the sidelines…’
‘Oh, I’d hate to be the one in the next shower stall in the dressing room, Ron! If looks could kill, there would be french fried potatoes up and down that field.’
April 15th, 2016 at 1:40 am
@Dead Stuff: Good show, but don’t antagonise the Weetabix – their supporters look a bit handy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxesCdJeTI
‘You’re going home in a spider ambulance.
April 15th, 2016 at 1:13 pm
@Tat: originally, they were the Poughkeepsie Defenestrators, but that sounded too much like a real club name. 😉
April 15th, 2016 at 4:38 pm
“Spider Play,” the new bare-chested musical, with anti-grav orchestra conducted by Wadda Brillo and her magic baton.
April 15th, 2016 at 7:42 pm
So, a bit of Googling shows, and this is true, that Mama Maxwell is the MAN on the cover.
April 15th, 2016 at 7:46 pm
@Tom: A Boy Named Mama?
November 13th, 2020 at 6:40 pm
Based on this cover, “Spider Play” is the new euphoric that Mama Maxwell has consumed in significant qualities.
No matter what Blondie says to him, all he can hear inside his head is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDPMmaHWj1I
November 13th, 2020 at 9:18 pm
I’m firmly convinced that the Maxwell and Brill stories are set in a grim alternate universe where the fashion trends of the late 70s and early 80s never went away.
November 14th, 2020 at 2:22 pm
“Max, how am I supposed to get any work done with you hovering over my shoulder?”
November 2nd, 2022 at 8:28 pm
I’ve just read this, and the cover kind of sort of represents a scene from the book, most of which is set on a space station. Brill (her) and Maxwell (him) really are tall and thin. I still probably wouldn’t read it on the bus.
The cover of the kindle version is much, much worse.