preload
Aug 08

Girls always turn out to have complex chemical structures for chests!Click for full image

Joachim Comments: I love most of Richard Powers’ surrealist covers — but, this one… Surrealism exponentially cheapened with a gigantic looming OUTRAGEOUSLY pink girl with strategically placed element models and a pistolled cowboy with a space suit and matching pink gloves and boots… And throw in some little men with spears, a spaceship and scattered cacti for good effect.
Published 1955

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: 6.75 out of 10)
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23 Responses to “The Girls from Planet 5”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    I don’t believe it!

  2. Smith Says:

    Madonna called. She’d like her bra back.

  3. Adam Roberts Says:

    THX 1138 stole my gag.

  4. Adam Roberts Says:

    “The invaders of Earth were beautiful … a different science-fiction novel!”

    Judging by this cover, a different kind of “beautiful” too.

  5. Jami Says:

    A very phallic spaceship that, despite obviously flying away, still has the pointiest part pointed straight between her legs.

  6. Scott B Says:

    “Toy Story 8: The Final Frontier”

  7. SI Says:

    Jami’s right! That space ship is trying to see up her skirt! Well if you could call it a skirt… more like a belt to my eyes!

  8. fred Says:

    http://io9.com/5223300/could-the-girls-from-planet-5-be-the-best-novel-ever
    http://crookedtimber.org/2009/04/20/the-girls-from-planet-5/

    Un-frikken-believable.

  9. NGpm Says:

    This reminds me of the Tom and Jerry cartoons from the sixties. Maybe that cowboy is Tex Avery.

  10. Ian Says:

    I like the term “femaliens” used on the io9 web site.

  11. jerk of all trades Says:

    I think those element symbols are supposed to growing out of her breasts. It would explain why her girls are at 90 degrees from the torso without so much as a bra.

  12. Tim Says:

    I dunno about you guys, but as a male, I like the other cover MUCH better

  13. Tom Noir Says:

    Are these titular (um) ‘girls’ too lazy to name their own planet? “We’ll just call it Planet… 5.”

  14. Jami Says:

    @SI – I also just realized that the phallic ship is – um – well – ejaculating another phallic looking ship, though judging from the vapor trail line it’s cu – coming from a rather odd place.

    So we’ve got a pink girl sprouting what in the 60s will be the typical wall decorations. (Actually I know a go-kart racing place that has something similar on lamp posts in their parking lot that flash different colors.) Wearing a metal lampshade and carrying a smoking spike covered thingie. A Tex Avery style space cowboy. A phallic ship coming out of a phallic ship. (Phaliception?) Tiny orange people looking up giant pink space girl’s skirt. And a whole lotta orange.

    You sure this is a book from the 50s and not someone’s visions while dropping acid?

  15. Anti-Sceptic Says:

    It looks like Tex there was trying to use his psyonic powers on her, but 50 foot tall woman had a machine that could capturer it and redirect the power…..to the moon?

    He’s gonna have a whole world of hurt when she decides to use her spear on him!

  16. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Come on… GINGER aliens? That’s just unbelievable.
    (What’s that? Me, prejudiced against red-haired people? Nooo! Many of my best friends have red hair!)

  17. fred Says:

    I imagine this as an Ed Wood movie but with transvestites.

  18. B. Chiclitz Says:

    Tiny men with spears have always been awestruck by what looms above their heads, and often end up worshipping it.

  19. Tor Mented Says:

    @BC: Heaven’s above.

  20. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @fred (8): Sometimes books get the covers they deserve.

    @jami (14) (and no longer here): LSD was still legal in 1955.

    Planet 5? She doesn’t look Jupiterian.

    Either the cowboy is electricity-powered, or he’s got a very big antenna for broadcasting, I dunno, excerpts from MRA’s? Maybe shooting electricity to zap the giant girl from Planet 5? Not sure why he’s wearing a space helmet in Texas, though. And WTF is she holding?

    Also, besides having odd breast coverings, she doesn’t know where to apply blush.

    Really not sure why the “girls” spaceships are rainbow surfboards with joysticks installed, but maybe that’s the “different” part.

    @BC: GSS!

  21. Bruce A Munro Says:

    At last, the boob molecule revealed!

    @Anti-Sceptic: perhaps the energy is actually going in the opposite direction and she’s using Moon energy to hit him with a wussification ray or some such. Gotta be careful what you pick up with your antenna.

    @GSS ex-noob: Perhaps it’s a Hidden Planet. Or maybe it’s the planet SF writers liked to think had blown up and made the asteroid belt.

  22. The Blue Are Coming Says:

    Don’t they have sunscreen on Planet 5 ?

  23. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @The Blue: good question. That skirt also will reflect more rays upward.

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