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Feb 12

Noooooooo!!!!! Your fine buttocks shall be avenged!!!!Click for full UNSHEEPED image

Daniel Comments: Bought this gem in an second-hand bookshop last year. I was slightly embarrassed taking it up to the counter. It’s rubbish on a number of levels: it’s a literally awful bit of artwork; it’s artwork that bears pretty much no relation to the story; and said story is a sombre dystopian yarn by Christopher Priest, a renowned purveyor of genre-crossing, award-winning novels that have more recently been reprinted by Gollanz with classy covers.
Published 1978

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: 8.36 out of 10)
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20 Responses to “Fugue for a Darkening Island”

  1. Phil Says:

    I have the hardcover first edition of this book (with this cover: http://www.amazon.com/Fugue-Darkening-Island-Christopher-Priest/dp/0571097944 ), and am taken aback by this monstrosity! It’s not a bad piece of artwork in itself, although gunman looks a bit funny of face, but it is so far adrift from what the novel is about.

    I normally would only use the “Gaah my eyes are burning” score for a piece of artiwork that literally makes my eyes sore. This one is really more of a “Gaah my brain is melting”.

  2. Adam Roberts Says:

    Cellar flooded? Call SHOUTING ZOMBIE CLUTCHING NAKED CHICK PLUMBERS INC. For all your dystopian plumbing needs!

  3. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Leaving aside the melty face, the artist quite obviously painted the model with his fist clenched, then tried awkwardly to wedge a gun in between the fingers. As well as, the foreshortening is off on the left arm. It makes it look as though the bloke has half a forearm…which, given his melty face, he might very well.

    Lastly, something looks off about the pose, as though it would be hard to support such weight with your legs pigeon-toed.

  4. Tat Wood Says:

    It’s a 70s dystopia. Every movie-goer knows that 70s dystopias star Charlton Heston, some guns and assorted naked women. But this is mid-70s Britain, so Chuck’s been replaced by that guy from The Wurzels.
    But, as Dead Stuff observed, they tried to keep faith with the Heston screenplay by blowing the entire effects budget on matting a rifle into his fist: you’ll have to take it from his cold, undead hands.

  5. THX 1138 Says:

    Edvard Munch himself couldn’t have painted a scene more anguished! Er… lose the neckerchief, though. Looks a bit camp.

  6. David Cowie Says:

    The gun seems to lack a magazine. No wonder he’s so upset.

  7. David Cowie Says:

    And another thing: I notice that both covers feature waves and a naked woman. Could someone who has read the book expand upon this?

  8. fred Says:

    WOLVERINES! (1984)
    Dude doesn’t have an ammo clip in his carbine thingy.
    Both a bubble and fog machine seems a bit much. At least there isn’t a mirrored disco globe.

  9. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @fred: KHAAAAN! (1982)

  10. Stevie T Says:

    @ fred and Dead Stuff: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (2005)

  11. FearofMusic Says:

    Are her legs all melty too? What, is that acid they are standing in? A bit of which splashed onto the face of anguished awkward fist man?
    Liking the skull on the stairs though.

  12. Phil Says:

    I’m sorry, Mr Priest, but if you insist on having your full name on the cover, we will have to eliminate the dot over the i in your surname. There just isn’t room for both, I’m afraid, and that’s my final word on this subject.

    Nothing personal, you understand. That nice Mr Ellison agreed to similar terms just last year, see: http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2010/05/the-beast-that-shouted-love-at-the-heart-of-the-world

    Mr Aldiss, on the other hand, was eager to retain the dotted i, and therefore agree to drop his first name: http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2013/01/the-eighty-minute-hour/

  13. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Why, I think the zombie is singing:

    “Aaannd I-III… wwwilll aaalways lllove braa-aaa-ains…”

  14. Ian Says:

    Christopher Pr1est, no?
    Or maybe the author previously known as Christopher Pr1est?

  15. Georgios Says:

    Buttocks and thighs a bit overdone, rest of female body not fully-fledged… Not a pedo-novel, I hope!

  16. David Cowie Says:

    And since we’re talking fonts elsewhere, did you know that i-with-no-dot (lıke thıs) is a Turkish letter?
    Christopher Prıest is Turkish. Who knew?

  17. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    SPOILERS

    KHAAAAN! (2013)

  18. Anna T. Says:

    Clearly, in the world depicted in this cover, his girlfriend was killed by the villains and he’s angrily and hammily declaring his vengeance. Why the girlfriend’s corpse is starkers is unknown.

  19. anon Says:

    Nice section F panic
    Her crisp poet shirt
    LUNA FORKS A NAIF GINGER DUDE

  20. Jon Says:

    “Pan Science Fiction”? Is that a brand, or an instruction?

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