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Nov 09

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Bibliomancer Comments: Surrender Earth to its enemy? What a great plan! Why didn’t I think of that?!‽

Published 1966

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: 7.25 out of 10)
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26 Responses to “The Solarians”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    There’s no cause for alarm, they’re actually from Dyno-rod.

  2. Raoul Says:

    North Korean rocket general and his Muppet® bodyguards.

  3. Francis Boyle Says:

    Giant mutant kiwi batmen, Batman!

    1966 was a strange year, folks.

  4. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    I shall probably regret asking, but…does this need the Sir Mix-a-Lot tag?

  5. B. Chiclitz Says:

    “Ok Earthman, surrender that fabulous dinner jacket! It will go perfectly with my boots.”

    (Why is the guy in the back wearing boots?)

  6. fred Says:

    Yet another spaceman wearing jodhpurs. This is officially a thing now.
    Trump ignites ‘The Official Presidential Uniform’ kerfuffle.
    The alien in the foreground looks serious. John Wick/Liam Neeson ‘Taken’ serious.
    Unsafe steep w/o handrails ladder on a spaceship.
    Spaceship gonna topple over to the left.

  7. Lillie Awesome Says:

    You’d think that a place named Solaria (Solaris?) would be sufficiently warm that its lifeforms wouldn’t evolve such a thick insulating layer of fur, feathers, or whatever, but here we are.

  8. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Is that an eldritch Palmer, perchance?

  9. JuanPaul Says:

    Is a spherical spaceship really the most practical design for spherical people?

  10. Anna T. Says:

    So, since the aliens are apparently a mutant kiwifruit-bat hybrid, were they accidentally created by New Zealanders?

  11. Tor Mented Says:

    Could Palmer trust the Solarians’ plan of covering Earth in Wiffle balls?

  12. Tat Wood Says:

    It’s called ‘Solaria’ because the sun’s only thirty feet away. Check the shadows if you don’t believe me.

  13. B. Chiclitz Says:

    The Earthman looks like he got his jacket from Frederick’s of Hollywood, his Jodhpurs from the Raj Surplus Store, and his hat from the North Korean army, home of the biggest military hats in the galaxy!

  14. Francis Boyle Says:

    @Anna T.

    Have you seen Peter Jackson’s early work?

  15. JuanPaul Says:

    I would love to see what thier chairs and beds look like.

  16. THX 1138 Says:

    They’re actually something the ship’s cat coughed up and were put to good use.

  17. A.R.Yngve Says:

    I’d like to pinpoint the exact date when this type of “cover spaceship” design fell out of fashion. (It has to be later than ’66, which in itself is remarkable.)

  18. fred Says:

    Not having read the book the jump from today’s cover to this version is perplexing.

    http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/5/59/THSLRNSDWB1973.jpg

  19. Tor Mented Says:

    I just read the Wikipedia entry for the book, and now the blurb doesn’t seem as nonsensical. Also, the human character’s costume is supposed to be ridiculous. “This is a comic-opera military uniform festooned with gold braid, ribbons and medals. Palmer feels ridiculous, especially compared to the Solarians, who have dressed in costumes of uniform black with only a sunburst emblem on the left breast.”
    @fred: the cover above seems to represent the contents much more closely.

  20. JuanPaul Says:

    Looks like the Solarians also designed their own robots.
    http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Cosmic_Computer.jpg

  21. Bibliomancer Says:

    Those Solarians will never fit their fat round asses into that tiny rocket ship.

  22. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @fred: “jodhpurs” needs to be a tag. We do see them entirely too often on the older works. Although certainly not on the cover you found.

    So, are the two humans(?) right next to the rocket (hope it doesn’t fire the main engine) the Solarians, being in simple black with an emblem?

    Then who, pray tell, are the armed kiwi/bat things? The enemy mentioned in the blurb, I guess.

    No explanation for the giant wiffle balls of doom.

  23. Tracy Says:

    Planet of the ambulatory kooshballs!

  24. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Killer Kooshballs In SPAAAAAAAAACE!

    (Also, that might be Mulder and Scully standing by the rocket.)

  25. Albert Stadt Says:

    I trust the Solarians implicitly!

  26. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @fred: your alternative cover brings new meaning to the term “control-top hose”.

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