Apr 23
Eron Comments: While my girlfriend was like “Hey! I own that book!” it’s pretty hard to argue with a half-naked man fencing an immensely bored looking black unicorn. Also, while I am assured by said girlfriend that it has something to do with the story, the man’s blue hat is epic.
Leo Comments: If I were to sword fight with a unicorn, I would probably have my shirt off too.
Many thanks to Eron and Leo who both sent this in!
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:56 am
So I take it French guy with the Robin Hood hat is the “adept apprentice”… Also, does the title indicate that infinity is incorrect grammatically?
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Infinity can’t be split?
‘Before we fence mighty unicorn, why should I have the advantage of clothes? If you are naked, so I will be too!’
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
The guy on the right is clearly drunk. Only he can see the ‘unicorn’ he’s so intent on fighting.
Wait, you can see it too? Then you must be as drunk as he is! You disgust me … at this time of day, too.
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
That is spectacularly camp.
April 23rd, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Poor Piers Anthony. Out of the dozens and dozens of books he has written (most highly successful) i’ve never yet gone into a 2nd hand bookshop, seen one of his covers, and thought “hmm, well layed out, modest artwork. Looks good, i could read that”
I wish i could say my quest to find a good Piers Anthony cover is over, but alas, its a man fencing with a unicorn.
April 23rd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
In the artist’s defense, you’ll notice that the unicorn has its shirt off too.
April 23rd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Another one I own….
April 23rd, 2010 at 4:15 pm
touche, LP.
…and he is also displaying his rippling unicorn muscle.
April 23rd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
The thing is though…Man fencing unicorn actually occurs in the novel. Followed by Man f**king unicorn in human form, which comes after man f**king robot.
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
SophaLoaf: this book cover more than any in recent memory reminds me that I’m going to have to loose some weight before I can realistically expect a shirtless, rippley-muscled, jauntily-capped young man to cross swords with my horn.
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:53 pm
CapnMarrrk: to quote Jerry MacGuire, you had me at man f**king unicorn.
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Fencing with unicorns. Of course!
Read this book long ago. As with most of his books, you get the point in the first 50 pages and then he keeps re-iterating the same thesis points over and over.
April 23rd, 2010 at 7:23 pm
“Sword fight.” *snicker*
April 23rd, 2010 at 9:16 pm
What CapnMarrrrk said.
Also, this is one of the worst series ever, and the cover art gets dramatically more awful, if I recall.
April 23rd, 2010 at 9:25 pm
topless men always feel inadequate when faced with a unicorn
April 24th, 2010 at 1:13 am
I READ THAT BOOK IN MY YOUTH! — It is actually a very decent series and Piers Anthony is a very good writer (seriously) — Read his Xanth Series – great series.
April 24th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I vaguely remember my early teenage self enjoying this series. Always get the books confused, though. Was this the one with the extra long description of strategies for Rock Paper Scissors?
Also that hat is giving me King’s Quest flashbacks. King Graham? Is that you? Why are you posing half naked with a unicorn?
April 24th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
King’s Quest was awesome. I dont remember any unicorns, i DO remember eating magic mushrooms.
Did that hat design ever actually exist outside of fictional sources? I’m gonna bet it didnt.
April 25th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Ok, I read the book(s). Actually the Unicorn is a girl, which he later has sex with, as well as a robot. He’s not actually fencing with her, but sparring. The whole series is kind of a social commentary on how people have sold their souls to the energy concerns, and it kind of takes Magic to fix the problem. It’s actually a good series, but an acquired taste.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Believe it or not, as amazingly weird and bad the cover is, I might actually pick this book up and read it based on some of the comments above. I’m just trying to imagine the conversation with Piers about the cover. “You see Piers we want to show a unicorn fencing against a shirtless man with a robin hood fetish. What do you think?” Anyone know if its on Amazon or if theres an audiobook?
April 26th, 2010 at 4:00 am
The cover is the second gayest thing I’ve ever seen.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:50 am
The unicorn looks to me like it has no idea what is going on: it’s not sparring, it’s just standing there trying to figure out if the demented body-builder is going to give it a cube of sugar or not.
Capn’s, squicky sex is something of a Piers Anthony trademark: it was fairly low-key in the Xanth series, probably because it was popular with kids, but one of the books was entitled, I kid thee not, “The Color of Her Panties.” (I wonder how well he sells in Japan?)
April 27th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Um, well… Somehow, I don’t think trying to get the supposed virility boost that powdered unicorn horn is said to endow is helped by proving you don’t really need it after all…
April 27th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Was the cover artist deliberately making fun of the book? Because the artwork is not without professional skill or gloss, so it’s hard to think the silliness was accidental…
:-S
April 29th, 2010 at 5:48 am
Hold up. He has sex with a unicorn *and* a robot? I’m buying this. Now.
April 29th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
This is bad awesome is what it is. Unicorns RULE
April 30th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
The premise of the series is quite interesting. There are two worlds which to a certain extent are reflections of each other. One is Magical the other is Scientific.
One exist on an airless moon/planet which has a number of domes controlled by different Owners. The vast majority of the populace are serfs/slaves whose main entertainment is training for the Games the winner of which wins their freedom. Very imaginative Games.
The mirror world is a world of magic. Various areas are controlled by various spell makers each with their own specialty (and color) the populace is made up of various magical creatures and people.
The Hero Protagonist is a serf who competes in the games. His alternate personality in the magic world is the Blue Adept whose province of magic is bad poetry.( and I do mean awful ) Unfortunately the Blue Adept is killed and the walls between the worlds weakens for our hero. He steps between worlds to meet a young female unicorn. ( Who has been said to change into a young woman at wish) and the story goes on from there.
Yes there are some thematic ideas in the series and I did enjoy the idea of the Games but be prepared to put up with bad poetry and triteness if you wish to read this series. Hey, I read it.
Warning :
May have some sexist attitudes
Interspecies sex scenes
Not suitable for children under the age of 13?
April 30th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I thought the cover looked funny when I read it as a teenager. It looks even funnier now that I know more about art.
The most incongruous thing about it is that the artist has obviously got some idea about the story (or was given reasonably accurate information anyways), and there’s good technical skill too, so it avoids some of the worst flaws of fantasy covers (terrible anatomy/perspective and complete irrelevance)… and yet its so bizarrely BAD…
I mean, he/she even got the socks on the unicorn right, even though it looks visually distracting.
May 1st, 2010 at 10:31 pm
I loved that series!! The cover I think actually captured the whimsical nature of the novel.
May 5th, 2010 at 6:23 am
Artist for this one is Rowena Morrill.
May 5th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Thanks Don! Thought the artist tag had been added successfully last night but obviously it didn’t take. A tip of the cap to you.
May 6th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Your babble makes me want to poop my pants…
May 6th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Narwhal-horse Vs. oiled shirtless dandy. En Garde!
April 26th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
I read this when I was about 13. I remember being in such perplexity about the cover that sometimes when I picked the book up I would end up staring at the cover instead of reading it. I would wonder why the unicorn just stood there while the guy was trying to fence it. Why was the fencer in such a silly action pose? If you covered up one half of the picture, the other half would make sense, but put them together, and it was, well, stupid.
btw, 13 was actually a bit young for a Piers Anthony book….Probably would have been better to have waited at least 3 years before I tackled this one. It had the unfortunate side effect of causing me not to touch another Piers Anthony book until I was 18. Which might have been a good a thing, because I got tired of it reeeeal fast.
November 29th, 2013 at 9:01 pm
I don’t know who shirtless guy thinks he is fencing with, but it certainly isn’t the unicorn. He is out of line by about a metre, judging from the position of his boots relative to the unicorn’s front hooves.
Nice pose and musculature, though.
November 30th, 2013 at 3:03 pm
@Tag Wizard — We need a Rowena tag for this precious cover art.
July 3rd, 2015 at 2:39 am
“Have at you, unicorn! Oh, my trousers appear to be falling down. Let me just clutch at them with my off hand…”
July 3rd, 2015 at 10:25 am
Never bring unicorn to a sword fight.
September 23rd, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Here they were in happier times. Before the split.
September 23rd, 2016 at 1:26 pm
Much to my surprise, the Japanese covers are often tasteful, tame and dignified! Although they don’t appear to offer this one in Japanese…
September 23rd, 2016 at 1:32 pm
@DSWBT – How do I know those are really Piers Anthony covers and not just some random page from Japanese Amazon?
September 23rd, 2016 at 1:47 pm
アツトビビロマンサア: さあ、って。
September 23rd, 2016 at 2:19 pm
I think that gryphon is about to drop an unpleasant surprise on muscle-boy’s nice blue hat.
September 23rd, 2016 at 2:48 pm
VIRILITY MEETS WITHERS. 😉
September 23rd, 2016 at 2:49 pm
You can’t tell from this cover but our fencing hero (Stile) is a tiny dude. Horse jockey sized. Which he would have to be considering he is a horse jockey. With a magic harmonica. Which possibly may have changed into his sword.
September 23rd, 2016 at 4:37 pm
Is anyone else getting a strong Vladimir Putin vibe off this entire picture?
September 23rd, 2016 at 6:35 pm
@Tat Wood: Now that you mention it . . . if unicorns were real . . .
September 23rd, 2016 at 6:54 pm
@Tat, Anna: Fantastic. Now I imagine Mr. Stile speaking in the voice of Rick the Adventure Sphere.
September 23rd, 2016 at 9:51 pm
@Dead Stuff: I was thinking more this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAoRofHz67M
September 24th, 2016 at 7:09 am
Michael Flatley stars in an all new Riverdance extravaganza “Robin Hood and the bemused Black Unicorn”!
September 24th, 2016 at 8:52 pm
I remember this cover vividly from shelving at the library. It always struck me as odd mostly because both parties seem to be posing for the picture, as in “pretend you’re moving, but actually don’t move at all.” Epic title though.
September 25th, 2016 at 5:14 pm
I’ve been waiting all week-end for someone else to say it, but no one has, so I will…
@9, 11, 19: UNIPORNS!