May 26
Click for full imageDavid Comments: I haven’t read this, so for all I know, centaurs and one-eyed jellyfish are essential to the plot. The S in JONES was cut off by the printer, not by me – it wraps round the edge of the cover (this is a hardback). The scan makes the colours look a bit more lurid than they really are. Published by Victor Gollancz, 1970
Another Heinlien! I’m flooded with them.
Thanks very much to David!
(Average: 7.49 out of 10)
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May 26th, 2010 at 9:58 am
I read it and the cover makes no sense what so ever to me.
May 26th, 2010 at 10:12 am
We’ve had cataur’s this week. But what the heck are those? Some sort of reptile horse creature?
I do like this one. Space jellyfish! woo!
May 26th, 2010 at 10:12 am
It’s awful, yet I love it.
Aren’t those the aliens from The Simpsons?
High tech champagne cork is a nice touch. In space no-one can hear you pop your cork.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:26 am
I see booby!
May 26th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Someone got their 11-year-old to do this as an art project. But what is the purple-headed knobby thing projecting out from the infinity loop? Surely it’s not meant to be some kind of spaceship.
It’s a Gollancz cover but, being as it’s from forty years ago, at least Simon can’t take the rap.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
I have no idea what this is supposed to be but I kind of love it in an it’s so bad it’s good way. It looks like someone doodled it in a really dull science lesson.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Did they have POD in the seventies? Cause that is seriously what this looks like.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I like the five-oclock shadow on the centaurs’ bellies. ‘We’ve been chasing one-eyed jellyfish all day! We haven’t had time to shave our bellies!’
May 26th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
That font really fixes it to 1970 for me.
I hope this book originally had one of those bland yellow Gollancz dust jacket so that the discerning reader could keep this bizarre design under wraps.
May 26th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
What is it with sci fi and fantasy covers making covers that denigrate the centaur race? Ugh. Now I’m going to the mini-me on my left arm.
May 27th, 2010 at 9:58 am
WTF? Heinlein couldn’t have approved this.. Not only has it nothing to do with the book; I could draw something better than this dross.
May 27th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
It really does look like a 5 year old drew it.
However, the fact its such poor detail, means you could almost get away with it on a train. Its almost post modern. Years ahead of its time. I mean just compare it to any of heinleins covers, its practically a masterpiece of style and minimalism. Scary thing is, I could definately see that cover fitting in on a modern shop bookshelf.
May 27th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
The numbers fit part of the plot of the book. A shame they’re in the background and almost impossible to spot.
May 27th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
The “wraparound” could be because it is a library binding, rather than a true hardcover. In fact, because it is shiny and doesn’t have a dust jacket, I’m going to put my money on library binding.
What happens is the binders strip the cover off the paperback, and bind it to a special durable cardboard with a reinforced spine to stand up to library use.
Sometimes, they don’t use quite the right size to fit the cover (I imagine this is b/c they only have a limited number of standard sizes) so they just wrap it around.
But that’s the ONLY defense I’m going to make for this cover.
May 30th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Well spotted! This is an ex-library book. The page for stamping the return dates can be seen here, if you care.
March 5th, 2020 at 9:15 pm
A definite “it’s skiffy so it must be for children” vibe about this cover…
March 6th, 2020 at 5:17 am
@ARY: It is one of Heinlein’s juvenile novels. And there are centaur-ish aliens.
March 7th, 2020 at 3:30 am
That’s one hell of a purple pushpin….
March 7th, 2020 at 8:23 pm
@Hammy: No kidding. It seems to be holding infinity! Sideways. Either that or it’s a #8 size pushpin
March 8th, 2020 at 3:33 am
@GSSxn: And here I was thinking it was the pivot point for the largest propeller in space. I was going to add “least-effective propeller in space”, but I guess that goes without saying…..