The woman beside the guy touching his nipple looks to be doing a somersault while plunging to her doom…I guess if you have to go, you may as well go in style!
There’s another one on the monster’s right hand, just left of David Weber’s faint praise. This one seems much more in control of its situation, so it probably isn’t called Orson.
The more I read the review-quote blurb, the more disturbing it sounds… Who the hell are these “discerning people”? Is it like “right-thinking people”? Or “People who are fussy about what to read?”
OK, so you have a cover in which a whole bunch of characters from the stories within are fighting a giant monster [1]…and losing? I think AR Yngve is right, the monster must be a metaphor for the editing job that threw together this turkey of a collection.
Laumer is,,,uneven, even his stuff from before the stroke. Looking at the table of contents, ( https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416521097/1416521097.htm ), the only one I clearly remember reading is “Night of Delusions” and that’s a book written before his stroke that reads like it was written by someone suffering from a stroke.
The exploding orange type would have tipped me off before even getting to the picture. And the ubiquitous Weber. Wonder if he sent “improved” versions of the stories to Flint? I’m now blind from trying to read the blurb.
Is everyone at the publisher completely color-blind? At least in the cover layout department? (We know nobody there has taste)
Still, at least Orson the cat gets work. Posing nicely, unlike his plummeting stunt double.
I don’t remember Laumer ever writing a story about random characters vs. an extra-giant Marvel character, but I’ve missed some. I agree with @Bruce that @ARY’s right, the monster is a metaphor.
@BC: Like me, you interpret the quote as meaning “Discerning people have always read Keith Laumer for a lot of reasons […]” and the […] consisted of “mostly because they like guilty pleasure schlock sometimes.”
Discerning peoples’s head just exploded. And speaking of explosions this cover is subtle for a Baen in not having any. I mean clouds FFS. You’re not going to win the 14 year old boy market with clouds.
January 12th, 2012 at 9:46 am
“RARR! This halfhearted cover quote make me so MAD!!!”
January 12th, 2012 at 11:35 am
It was all fun and games climbing on the big monster. Until a cat jumped on it’s right hand and scared the crap out of it!
Look carefully 😛
January 12th, 2012 at 11:53 am
“Discerning people have always read Keith Laumer for a lot of reasons […]”
Talk about a back-handed compliment…!
January 12th, 2012 at 11:54 am
Oh, and by the way, the cover is the artist’s interpretation of
“Edited By ERIC FLINT”.
January 12th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Does it look to you like he’s yowling because one of the falling humans has punched him in the left nipple?
January 12th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
What I like about it is, it’s so subtle.
January 12th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Trust me, if the Twilight movies had featured this guy, they wouldn’t have felt so long.
January 12th, 2012 at 3:38 pm
It might be the cat, SI, but I’m inclined to blame the bear in his armpit. That always puts me in a bad mood.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Yoss> You just blew my mind! This picture is amazing!!!
January 12th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
There’s also a guy in a thong just above the bear. This is a picture that just keeps giving!
January 12th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
What kind of creature is this? The scales of a reptile, the moobs of a mammal. No wonder he’s so mad.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
I know!!!! Look waaaaaay in the back (above the “L” in Flint) and there’s what appears to be some kind of livestock.
January 12th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
You have a totally logical reason to paint a dwarf hanging from a giant nipple ring and don’t do it. This discerning people is NOT delighted.
January 14th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Great, this kraken sprays people from his nipples.
January 18th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
The woman beside the guy touching his nipple looks to be doing a somersault while plunging to her doom…I guess if you have to go, you may as well go in style!
January 18th, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Those are some serious abs….I wonder who his trainer is.
May 31st, 2013 at 1:36 pm
Is that a housecat falling down near the bottom? I think so…
May 31st, 2013 at 8:24 pm
@FearofMusic—isn’t this another arrow in your “weird pecs tag” argument quiver? Certainly seems to be, with those nips and all . . . .
June 1st, 2013 at 5:16 am
@Tom– do you mean the animal falling towards “edited by ERIC FLINT�
June 1st, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Yes. I think that’s storied housecat and sci-fi cover denizen Orson.
June 2nd, 2013 at 10:47 am
There’s another one on the monster’s right hand, just left of David Weber’s faint praise. This one seems much more in control of its situation, so it probably isn’t called Orson.
June 4th, 2013 at 8:37 am
The more I read the review-quote blurb, the more disturbing it sounds… Who the hell are these “discerning people”? Is it like “right-thinking people”? Or “People who are fussy about what to read?”
Eh? Eh?
January 14th, 2016 at 8:41 pm
Bob ended his AD&D campaign in style by having Dagon show up: total party kill, hirelings, followers, trained attack bears, the lot.
November 1st, 2019 at 4:15 am
Let’s hearken back to the blurb, first mentioned by @ARY many moons ago.
“Discerning people have always read Keith Laumer for a lot of reasons […]”
Although none of those reasons ever had anything to do with discernment.
November 1st, 2019 at 4:16 am
Swole Lizardo was displeased when the party of adventurers activated their portable Tesla coil just inside his right wrist.
November 1st, 2019 at 6:14 am
OK, so you have a cover in which a whole bunch of characters from the stories within are fighting a giant monster [1]…and losing? I think AR Yngve is right, the monster must be a metaphor for the editing job that threw together this turkey of a collection.
Laumer is,,,uneven, even his stuff from before the stroke. Looking at the table of contents, ( https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416521097/1416521097.htm ), the only one I clearly remember reading is “Night of Delusions” and that’s a book written before his stroke that reads like it was written by someone suffering from a stroke.
[1] Looks more like the Abomination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abomination_(comics) than the Hulk.
November 1st, 2019 at 6:43 am
Oh, yes, this could only be…
BAEN!graaarrrr
The exploding orange type would have tipped me off before even getting to the picture. And the ubiquitous Weber. Wonder if he sent “improved” versions of the stories to Flint? I’m now blind from trying to read the blurb.
Is everyone at the publisher completely color-blind? At least in the cover layout department? (We know nobody there has taste)
Still, at least Orson the cat gets work. Posing nicely, unlike his plummeting stunt double.
I don’t remember Laumer ever writing a story about random characters vs. an extra-giant Marvel character, but I’ve missed some. I agree with @Bruce that @ARY’s right, the monster is a metaphor.
@BC: Like me, you interpret the quote as meaning “Discerning people have always read Keith Laumer for a lot of reasons […]” and the […] consisted of “mostly because they like guilty pleasure schlock sometimes.”
November 1st, 2019 at 9:30 am
Trouble at the Baen nail bar.
November 1st, 2019 at 11:05 am
Discerning peoples’s head just exploded. And speaking of explosions this cover is subtle for a Baen in not having any. I mean clouds FFS. You’re not going to win the 14 year old boy market with clouds.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:19 pm
Perhaps the only cover in BAEN history where the women wearing nothing but(t) thongs are not the centerpiece.
November 1st, 2019 at 3:00 pm
“POOL’S CLOSED!” screamed the behemoth.
November 1st, 2019 at 4:00 pm
And thus begins the impeachment of Donald Trump.
November 1st, 2019 at 4:24 pm
Here’s a shout-out to all the little people!
November 1st, 2019 at 10:47 pm
@Francis: No explosions, no female boobs, no giant weapons, a man in a thong — their usual audience will be puzzled.