Feb 28
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!
February 28th, 2011 at 10:05 am
“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?
February 28th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
“WOW! THE ART DEPARTMENT’S DONE IT AGAIN!”
–Me
February 28th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
lemme see, concertina, flute, bagpipe, guitar,…for composition class? yeah, I’d hang myself too…
February 28th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
..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…
February 28th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
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.
February 28th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
“Wow! McAvoy’s done it again!”
But shall we ever find out what “it” was… and do we want to?
February 28th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
I’m so glad the sequel is “remarkably mysterious”, not “notably mysterious” or merely “somewhat mysterious”.
February 28th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
If a cover fails in the forest and nobody’s there to read it…?
February 28th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Nobody slse is disturbed by the SCALE of these instruments, then? It looks like the Celtic quarter of LAND OF THE GIANTS.
February 28th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Everyone with Mac or Mc in there last name must like this book.
March 1st, 2011 at 9:37 am
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.
March 1st, 2011 at 1:11 pm
I oughtn’t to be but I’m constantly amazed at the number of these books I’ve read/owned/seen.
March 3rd, 2011 at 2:00 am
Tea with the Black Dragon had such a classy cover. Why do this to the sequel, why???
March 15th, 2011 at 10:46 pm
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.
May 19th, 2011 at 10:46 pm
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.)
June 7th, 2015 at 10:15 pm
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.
June 8th, 2015 at 1:31 am
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.
June 8th, 2015 at 10:28 am
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.