preload
Feb 28

The noose is for the annoying git who chooses the bagpipes.Click for full image

Scot’s Art Direction: A glowing guy in a suit with a dragon-shadow faces off in a forest against a menacing bunch of… elves? Orcs? No, done to death. How about a bunch of musical instruments?
Published 1986

Many thanks to Scot!

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: 5.51 out of 10)
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18 Responses to “Twisting the Rope”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    “Remarkably mysterious”, like the music you could make with the combination of harp, accordion and bagpipes? Or would that sound like some poor animal falling downstairs?

  2. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    “WOW! THE ART DEPARTMENT’S DONE IT AGAIN!”
    –Me

  3. Frank Says:

    lemme see, concertina, flute, bagpipe, guitar,…for composition class? yeah, I’d hang myself too…

  4. Frank Says:

    ..and, and…cello and harp and some sort of recorder/oboe/flute-a-phone, embedded in a tree, how could I forget?…I know..let’s summon a dragon, they’re good with music!…oh…wait…I AM a….gosh…

  5. Adam Roberts Says:

    What’s clever is the way they’ve chosen a colour and font for the book’s title that blends so perfectly with the busy background that you can’t quite make out what the thing’s called. It’s like a magic eye book cover; let your eyes defocus and suddenly, surprisingly, ‘Twisting the Rope‘ leaps out at you.

  6. A.R.Yngve Says:

    “Wow! McAvoy’s done it again!”

    But shall we ever find out what “it” was… and do we want to?

  7. A.R.Yngve Says:

    I’m so glad the sequel is “remarkably mysterious”, not “notably mysterious” or merely “somewhat mysterious”.

  8. Evad Says:

    If a cover fails in the forest and nobody’s there to read it…?

  9. Phil Says:

    Nobody slse is disturbed by the SCALE of these instruments, then? It looks like the Celtic quarter of LAND OF THE GIANTS.

  10. Dalton H. Says:

    Everyone with Mac or Mc in there last name must like this book.

  11. Neville Says:

    The whole thing would fall apart if the title wasn’t framed in a handsome, orangicious, vague sort of stainey thing that may or may not be part of some trees.

  12. bobby sneakers Says:

    I oughtn’t to be but I’m constantly amazed at the number of these books I’ve read/owned/seen.

  13. Green Says:

    Tea with the Black Dragon had such a classy cover. Why do this to the sequel, why???

  14. Rex Says:

    Ha, I actually have this book. Never read it because I don’t have the original (it was part of a larger gift of hand-me-down books from my uncle), but still.

  15. lucy synk Says:

    R.A. MacAvoy is an excellent, award winning author. The plot of this particular book has a extremely surrealistic quality, which is very well represented by the cover’s Surrealistic style. ( Surrealism is a style of Modern art that attempts to portray the workings of the unconscious mind.)

  16. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Today’s Gardening Tip: instead of grass, why not bathe your lawn in butterscotch? Guaranteed to help your trees grow. [1]

    [1]Note: may lead to depression and body-image problems, and attract unwanted pests.

  17. Tat Wood Says:

    If the trees and anthropomorphic reptile are to scale then that bagpipe-monster has a torso the size of a double-decker and a snout like a lamp-post. This raises the question of why Nessie’s in California. As the first book was about a man-eating dragon who pretends to be played by Keye Luke and plays folk at people, this suggests either a kaiju-style battle of beasts or a caillidh. Either would require the army to make the place safe for humanity.

  18. anon Says:

    You’re not going hear any of the other instruments under the sound of bagpipes – definitely not harp or flute. The alt-text is right – the asshole choosing it will get the noose.

    BTW, that’s not a dragon shadow. That’s a seahorse shadow.

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