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Nov 30

Meet the Space CarniesClick for larger image

Ryan Comments: I don’t know about Circus World, more like Pepto-Bismol World.

Published 1981

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: 5.60 out of 10)
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15 Responses to “City of Baraboo”

  1. THX 1139 Says:

    There’s Noah way this is a good idea.

  2. fred Says:

    The cover artist was smart to hide the clown. Clowns are evil.

  3. Ryan Says:

    No matter where I click, I can’t remove these space sheep.

  4. drlemaster Says:

    Sadly, Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI is currently closed for Covid. Though I have been by there before, and it doesn’t look much like the cover. And there are, indeed, clowns. So many clowns.

  5. Framcis Boyle Says:

    None more pink!

  6. FluffyGhostKitten Says:

    Warning: the real Baraboo is not this pink. No place on Earth is this pink.

  7. Bruce A Munro Says:

    Once again, looking at the treatment of circus animals through rose-tinted lenses.

  8. B. Chiclitz Says:

    They should have listened to the warning about the pink acid.

  9. Tat Wood Says:

    Ironically, the elephants are the one thing not pink here. So they can’t even cite ‘Dumbo’ as an inspiration.

  10. fred Says:

    Some interesting variant covers.

    http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?3377

  11. A. R. Yngve Says:

    Sounds fun but they don’t tell you about the less glamorous part of the planet called “Manure World.”

  12. GSS ex-noob Says:

    I read this book in the 80s, and I don’t remember any planets being completely pink. Maybe in the future, people see pink planets instead of pink elephants?

    @fred: It says a lot that this is the best cover the book ever had! At least it’s recognizably a circus with a spaceship (but thankfully no clowns depicted). Much better than the German edition with the art repurposed from an entirely different book.

  13. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @A.R. Yngve: you’d better be ready to move your ship when the giant dung beetles come rolling their thousand ton manure balls.

    Actually, clowns are much less scary in space. [1] Aliens just assume that’s their natural coloration and mode of dress, and if they act oddly, well, alien species.

    [1] Well, to anyone _aside_ from humans.

  14. Yamamanama Says:

    The German version just ganked the cover from Tanith Lee’s Day by Night for some reason.

  15. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @Yamamanama: vagaries of international copyright law meant they didn’t have to pay for it?

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