Dec 07
JuanPaul Art Direction: What we’re looking for is a cover that seems to question the reader’s worthiness to buy this book. It should almost say, “Kid, what are doing here? Look at us: Cat Men in spacesuits with our own f-ing spaceship. Do you REALLY think you can handle this?”
Published 1990
December 7th, 2020 at 10:18 am
OK, who’s brought out the ball of wool?
December 7th, 2020 at 12:36 pm
They just better hope the humans aren’t equipped with lasers – or strategically deployed cardboard boxes.
December 7th, 2020 at 1:51 pm
You’re going to lose. Really. Lose every war with Man. So just turn around right now, go home, and leave BAEN covers to more important things. Like….women in catsuits.
December 7th, 2020 at 2:43 pm
(old joke:) “I’m lookin’ fer the man who shot my paw.”
December 7th, 2020 at 2:54 pm
I know it’s probably just artistic convention, but man! (Kzin!?) Those spaceships are packed tight. Give yourselves some elbow room, cat folks: space is big! Between the crowd of spaceships, the crowd of letters, and the apparently limited space behind that display screen or Pong game or whatever it is, the picture has a positively claustrophobic air to it.
Those outfits look rather uncomfortable for someone covered with fur. And the Kzin in back – well, maybe it’s just fur, but it looks like he’s got a honkin’ great chin, the Jay Leno of cat-people.
@JuanPaul: of course they’re looking at the reader as if they’re a member of an inferior species. That’s the opinion of domestic cats, too.
December 7th, 2020 at 4:32 pm
I wondered what the inside of one of these looked like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWq_VXCjolY
But wan’t it nice of millionaire bestseller Larry Niven to allow his name to be bigger than those of the three, count’ ’em, three real authors of this book, two of whom some people had heard of but wondered if they were still around?
December 7th, 2020 at 5:04 pm
Fearsome looking, but helpless against laser pens.
December 7th, 2020 at 7:55 pm
Not the overwhelming space armada, not the (except for the revolver) high tech weaponry, not the fancy suits, not even the attempt at looking smug, can hide the fact that basically these cats are idiots.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:21 pm
@B. Chiclitz: It is canon that the Kzin suffer from Leeroy Jenkins syndrome.
December 7th, 2020 at 9:22 pm
Judging by their smiles, I’d say that Carole Baskin’s husband was delicious.
December 7th, 2020 at 10:47 pm
I see it’s fixin’ to be Howling Time!
@Tor: old joke, but entirely appropriate.
@Tat: Can you imagine how big one of those units would be for an entire ship full of cats that size?
SM Stirling got the best deal out of it; he’s not sold as many books as the others (esp. in 1990) but at least you can read his name thanks to the white type in the middle of the cover.
@Bruce: You’d think cats would want more personal space. Nothing sets off a growl and hiss fest at my house than the 2 of mine accidentally touching. Solo cat person ships can be very small, though, like a nice cardboard box.
This doesn’t have any cleavage or oversized weaponry, but it sure is ugly with all that darkness and clutter. The claws on seated pistol-wielding kitty are… improbable. I’m betting the cover’s embossed, of course.
It is also canon that the Kzin were first defeated by humans with… a laser.
I say the week has started off in fine GSS style thanks to BAEN!growlhiss-pewpew-coughhackhairball
December 8th, 2020 at 2:35 am
@GSSX-n (Prev.):
Solo cat-person ships can be impossibly small….
December 8th, 2020 at 3:53 am
@Hammy: Yes, so small you can’t figure out how the cat-person even got into it and fits, or sits.
December 8th, 2020 at 10:38 am
You know, not one of this series’ book covers have a catperson in a mankini on them…
December 8th, 2020 at 9:54 pm
@THX: Or a cat-woman in a catsuit.
December 21st, 2020 at 2:18 am
DID YOU KNOW?
The Kzin rock group “Pawdas Priest” was a cult phenomenon in the galaxy until its tragic early demise during the infamous Bad Catnip Scare.
Here the lead singer and keyboard player are shown on the cover of their bestselling album “Paws To the Wall”.
August 7th, 2024 at 4:28 am
How do you pronounce Kzin, anyway? In my head it sounds like kissin, but surely space war enthusiasts wouldn’t tell people they were reading Man-kissin books.
August 7th, 2024 at 4:45 pm
BAEN shold do a Pierson’s Puppeteers series. Puppeteers – Safety Wars, where everything made safer is dual purposely made extremely more dangerous.
August 7th, 2024 at 5:07 pm
@Candlejack: hello, glad you could make it to the wake.
I think we ought to follow Leonard Nimoy on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B65HEhBR-1s
August 8th, 2024 at 3:03 am
@Tat: Presumably Niven told the actors/production how to say it, or at least spelled it out in the script. The Z is definitely a z-sound.
August 9th, 2024 at 11:10 pm
@Tat I reckoned time might be running out to ask.
Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
August 12th, 2024 at 9:06 am
The Jim Henson Company should make the official movie/series of the Man-Kzin Wars. Send requests to them at the website:
https://www.henson.com/