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Mar 08

Awww now that depresses me.. someones taken a bite out of my fruit.Click for full image

Thanks to Nix who says:

_Patterns of Chaos_ is a slightly famous book with a lot of amazing setpiece scenes which could have been used for the cover, starting with the destruction of entire planets, meticulously described, and ending with a transgalactic trip to a memorably unpleasant destination. If any book counts as overblown space opera, this one does.

So what did they use for the cover? A scowling cowled bloke, a weird plant, a badly-designed castle and a random number generator.

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: 5.01 out of 10)
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14 Responses to “Patterns of Chaos”

  1. SI Says:

    He does look very sad about his fruit.

  2. Simon Says:

    Has the look of a piece of art that didn’t make the cut for the gatefold of Led Zeppelin IV.

  3. James Lovegrove Says:

    I know it’s usually nipples on this site, but does anyone else see something suggestive about the V-shaped foliage nestling in the folds between hills? Are all these covers just some kind of secret Rorschach test? Is Good Show Sir really run by a Dickian vast alien intelligence which is scoping out the minds of humanity in order to find The One?

  4. SI Says:

    I would probably go to the doctor and see about that weird hair growing from my stomach.

    Darn it James. You’ve figured us out. Although to be fair most people consider ‘The One’ to be some sort of leader highly skilled in Kung Fu. The One we are looking for simply has to go and collect our Indian take-aways. The best curry places just don’t deliver.

  5. Nix Says:

    James: this book was published in the 60s. Of *course* it’s meant to be suggestive, and ‘arty’ as well. Unfortunately it ends up looking depressing.

    It’s like what Baen Books does with its covers, only inverted.

    (I strongly suspect that the publisher had only one cover pre-drawn and just slapped it on this book because no other was available, and the thought of letting an artist do a cover *after* seeing the book, or even knowing what book it would be, was unthinkable.)

  6. Adam Roberts Says:

    I don’t see what the problem is. That is a Barcode Plant. It’s how all the main supermarket chains grow their barcodes.

  7. Felix Says:

    I don’t know how it correlates to the content, but the cover doesn’t look so strikingly bad in itself. It’s just mediocre and antiquated.

  8. mybadpants Says:

    I’m pretty sure based on the style, the publisher and the time it was published, it’s a Rodney Matthews cover; so the fact that it looks like a Led Zeppelin album isn’t a coincidence.

  9. Tom Noir Says:

    This looks like something the artist doodled on the back of their notebook during a particularly long and dull maths lecture.

  10. TC Says:

    This is awful. If that’s a Rodney Matthews i will eat my own eyelids.

  11. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Wow… they found the ONLY segment of a Hieronymus Bosch painting where nothing interesting happens, and used it for the cover.

  12. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    ‘On beyond this city, beyond even the Menhirs of Youpici, in the pale foothills and tar fens, you shall find the Shattered Elderberry bush. Seek it if you dare, approach it if you wish. But if you smell its wafting fragrance, Brother, you shall discover: yes, it does smell like your father.’

  13. Jon Says:

    Ah, another example of “ellipsis interruptus”. Class, what do you think the full text of the pull quote really is?

    “Hits a new high in imagination, but as we all know, imagination isn’t all that’s needed to write superb science fiction.”

  14. anon Says:

    “Machinations in ITU hatch engines powering cries of ‘iii..‘!” — Agaze in a Lax Gym
    Pico Plank
    PANTS CHAFE ROOST

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