Aug 03
Audes Art Direction: Hey, we need dragons. What, no dragon art available ? Slap that one from the bunch we’ve licensed for cheap with the… what ? Anthropomorphic weapon-wielding lizards, yeah, nevermind that there aren’t any in the boo… Oh, and some snazzy font, you know, one of those that scream fantasy or sci-fi, whatever, make it bright and bold.
Published 1992
Many thanks to Aude!
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:51 am
this is awesome!
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:05 am
You are indeed correct SophaLoaf.
This cover does in fact, Rock the Casbah!
I would gladly read this in public with pride that a huge man lizard was roaring on the cover with a crossbow.
August 3rd, 2010 at 11:08 am
LIZARD WARRIORS. If they made a game it would top Halo. Probably because I’d buy out every copy.
August 3rd, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I find it difficult to believe that that lizardman is able to correctly operate that crossbow.
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:18 pm
@Tom
Indeed! I’m always suspicious of things with pointy teeth and sharp claws wielding iron tipped tools! It would seem to be pointless to learn how to do so and confer little evolutionary advantage.
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Okay, here’s my obligatory comment because someone has to make it: I love Ms. Le Guin and her literary works. That said, this cover is awesome! It took me a while to realize that Terremer is the French title for Earthsea. When I think of themes like social alienation, internal moral struggle, and conflicting ideological worldviews the FIRST thing that comes to mind is crossbow wielding dinosaurs.
Oh man I would pay money to hear what Ms. Le Guin has to say about this cover. Anyone know her? I sort of know a guy who has worked with her in his own scholarship; maybe I should turn him on this website.
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:44 pm
To top it all off, the printers flipped the picture. You can see that the artist’s name is backward! I’m sitting here trying to imagine how the picture looks reversed!
August 3rd, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Ah, it’s French! That explains why I hadn’t heard of it. I’m a big Le Guin fan.
I’ll have to go reread Earthsea now… I must have skimmed the chapter about crossbow wielding lizard folk, and the voyeuristic eyes that watch them.
August 3rd, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Love the big lizard eye behind all the scythes, crossbows and quivers.
Pehaps the artist Ken Barr was a descendant of Leonardo. Mirror writing and all that.
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:22 pm
sparrowhawk probably knew the true name of the cross bow, so it wouldn’t fire at him.
August 3rd, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I dunno. I don’t think Le Guin would be quite as annoyed at this as at the myriad Earthsea covers which depict Ged as a blue-eyed white boy shooting blue flames from his hands. At least this is merely depicting a scene that never took place rather than directly screwing with the protagonist (to wit, making him seem like your typical Weber protagonist, only male).
August 5th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
On the photo flipping, I think I actually prefer it with the lead lizardman’s gapping maw turned to face the spine of the book rather than the other way around. Isn’t there some design principle about where your subjects should face on a book cover? Or in this case where to put the monster’s fang-filled mouth?
August 9th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
What is that crossbow wielding Lizard-person wearing? An apron? A tank top? A short summer dress? Do lizard people dress year around, or just special occassions like raiding and pillaging? The mind boggles.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:28 am
Wow, I read that very book a decade or two ago. Seeing the cover I had the “hum. crossbows-wielding-dinosaur perplexed look” but the book itself was surprisingly good. In spite of its cover.
December 19th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
“AA-AND IIII-EEE-IIIIII… WILL AALL-WAYS LOVE YOUUU-UUU-UUUU…”
June 27th, 2015 at 7:08 pm
@Richard Palmer. Interviewer addressing rampaging lizard man: “So, Mr. Bokrug. Can you tell me why you bothered to learn how to wield that crossbow? It seems pointless to learn how to do so and confer little evolutionary advantage.” Bokrug: “Hey. dude. Quit harshing my buzz. Haven’t you ever done something just ’cause it was, like, fun? Look at my mad crossbow skillz”. [TWANG] “Oops. Sorry about that, man.”
July 28th, 2015 at 11:45 pm
“Hey! The sign says NO flash photography!”
August 25th, 2015 at 12:31 am
I really don’t remember the chapter where Ged (or maybe one of the other wizards) (forget that – it was probably Ged) magically created a crossbow-wielding dinosaur-iguana army. I’ll have to reread it and check, because that just screams “Crazy Awesome”.
September 2nd, 2022 at 3:04 pm
This edgy My Little Pony adjacent never really caught on.
September 2nd, 2022 at 4:28 pm
I have to wonder if they misread ‘wizard’ as ‘lizard’.
September 2nd, 2022 at 7:08 pm
Teenage mutant crusader dinosaurs!
September 2nd, 2022 at 8:00 pm
@drlemaster: It’s the only explanation.
Or they just had a random cover left over and slapped it on this, despite there not being any crossbow-wielding giant iguanas in the series. Or, AFAIK, in anything LeGuin wrote.
Somewhere, there’s a French book that has all kinds of ripping yarns about dinosaurs that wield mighty weapons, but it has a cover of a kid in a sailboat.
Also, I say “font problems” since the R looks like an A. TEAAEMEA.
Maybe Teaamea is a lost Pacific island full of giant lizards, like Komodo dragons, only more so. With smelting technology and textiles.