Oct 19
Tim Comments:This cover had me simultaneously going, “I don’t ever want to be spotted with that book,” and, “Awesome, I need to know what’s going on here!”
Published 2008
Tim Comments:This cover had me simultaneously going, “I don’t ever want to be spotted with that book,” and, “Awesome, I need to know what’s going on here!”
Published 2008
October 19th, 2011 at 10:45 am
It’s still far less embarrassing than any book cover with the cast of TWILIGHT on it.
October 19th, 2011 at 10:46 am
And on another note: Black lady kissing white dude. Cool.
October 19th, 2011 at 11:08 am
“Set a course… for romance!”
October 19th, 2011 at 11:13 am
Now, what better way to sell a book than with the blurb “Introduction by Piers Anthony”?
October 19th, 2011 at 11:36 am
By the author of ‘The Last Mimzy’? Is it just my mind boggling?
October 19th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Kermit [singing]: halfway up the stairs is the place I crouch down to try and kiss a disgusted-looking woman with dribbly blue magic fumes coming out of her wand.
October 19th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
I actually like this one quite a bit! Let me get serious for a moment and explain why:
1) First of all, the art is well executed. There’s a very good use of light and shadow, the perspective is solid and nobody is in an anatomically improbable position. This alone puts it ahead of 98% of the covers on this site.
2) Secondly, it’s unexpected. It’s got the usual fantasy cliches of spellcasting witch and buff blonde warrior, but… they’re kissing! And she’s not into it! It makes you want to know more.
3) Third, it clearly illustrates an actual event in the story.Okay, I haven’t read the book, but this scene is so specific it’s hard to imagine that the artist just made it up out of his or her own head. I can feel pretty sure that if I pick this one up I will, at some point, learn why Sword Dude and Magic Lady are necking awkwardly on a staircase.
4) It’s not too over-the-top. We see a lot of ‘covers from the story’ that select what is probably the zaniest bit of the book to illustrate. Or they try and pack every oddball character or element into the scene. This is fairly minimalist: there’s just two characters and the scene is intriguing without being a complete WTF moment.
In summary, if I was a fantasy author this is the kind of cover I would want.
Alright, I’ll get off my soapbox. We now return you to your regularly scheduled cover snark, already in progress!
October 19th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Is it just me, or does the dude look a bit like Nicholas Cage?
October 19th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
He was (noted dark fantasist) CL Moore’s husband. This book was originally from 1946, and I gather is actually pretty darn good (Piers Anthony? When you could have gotten Marion Zimmer Bradley’s endorsement?).
I’m in agreement with Tom Noir here. This cover ain’t bad.
That said, it did suggest the idle thought,
“You must remember this,
That’s one sick wizard kiss …”
October 19th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Actually, this cover art is hideous. The title should be further down the length of the book and the Bradbury blurb moved to the ascending staircase.
“The Last Mimzy”? Oh, my.
Underneath this travesty is a fairly good adventure in the vein of A. Merritt. Glad I picked it up for $1.00 in a used bookstore in Morristown, TN.
Nearly all of the “Planet Stories” books from Paizo are atrocious-looking. Look at the cover again — the image looks to be a digital sketch, not a finished piece.
It’s all less than “meh.”
October 19th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
The expression on her face looks anything but amorous.
October 19th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Strictly speaking, the co-author (pseudonymously as Lewis Padgett) of “Mimsy Were The Borogoves”.
THE LAST MIMZY was a dull film written by four people who aren’t fit to clean Henry Kuttner’s shoes.
October 19th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
But it was “based on” the famous Lewis Padgett story.
If I had to guess, the swordsman has been enthralled by the blue witch who is not impressed by his intentions, which were probably more to do with sticking his sword somewhere. No, the shiny metal one. No, not – – – oh, suit yourself.
October 19th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Read “Mimsy were the Borogoves” online here
http://mimsyweretheborogoves.webs.com/
October 20th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
The scene had probably started out with two lost lovers finally meeting. But it quickly degraded as the witch noticed the warrior stepping on her best red cape. Women and their clothes….
October 20th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Anti-Sceptic: given that this story was probably half written by C. L. Moore (like everything published under both her and name and his after they got married), I think we can safely say that it does not contain pointless sexism. 🙂
October 21st, 2011 at 7:45 pm
@Nix I kid, I kid… 🙂
I suppose I could have added a “Bud-dum-bum” at the end.
December 26th, 2015 at 9:24 pm
I WANNA CAST MAGIC MISSILE!
July 31st, 2020 at 5:41 am
As soon as he stabs that gargoyle (only visible in embiggened view), this cover’s gonna get even weirder.
July 31st, 2020 at 5:44 am
Great, yet more ‘shocking revelations’ about Harry and Meghan.
July 31st, 2020 at 10:13 am
Fantastic Story – Winter 1954, fully scanned. Several good illustrations by Virgil Finlay. Plus an interesting proto global warming article on p.6. Supposedly Dark World was the inspiration for Zelazny’s Amber.
https://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Story_v06n03_1954-Winter/page/n1/mode/2up
July 31st, 2020 at 8:35 pm
He really should have spat out the mouthwash before kissing her.
July 31st, 2020 at 11:47 pm
I wonder if the typesetter woke up in cold sweats convinced he’d made a terrible error?
July 31st, 2020 at 11:52 pm
“Wingardium levigrossa!”
August 1st, 2020 at 12:29 am
In 2020 Magick Lady is thinking #MeToo.
I’m betting on her blue spell winning over his big sword.
@fred: Thanks for the link. Will read after the Hugos.
August 1st, 2020 at 2:08 am
@fred—Ditto thanks on that link. I love the ads. Been a long time since I’ve seen an ad for the Rosicrucians. And I was unfamiliar with the work of Virgil Finlay (just shows my ignorance). Good illustrations for this story.
August 1st, 2020 at 5:22 am
I haven’t seen an ad for the Rosicrucians in decades either, but I have been to their Egyptian Museum, which is all factual and nothing mystic at all. (the mystic stuff is off to the side) The replica tomb is cool. Has one of the few Cleopatra statues.
August 1st, 2020 at 8:00 am
Well, that was a swell story. Way better than anything Piers Anthony ever wrote. It deserved a better (or at least different, or no) intro.
Cover does show a scene in the book although she has the hots for him.
Definitely a *major* inspiration for Amber.
(The proto-global-warming thing is spot on. Planet heating up due to excess carbon dioxide. Known back in 1954!)
August 2nd, 2020 at 4:06 am
First calculated in the 1890s!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_science#First_calculations_of_greenhouse_effect,_1896
(At the time they thought this might be a _good_ thing, with typical turn of the 20th century We’ll-grow-giant-mangoes-in-Michigan optimism.)
August 2nd, 2020 at 2:01 pm
@GSS ex-noob – Your Hugos mention = SYFY article on winners = retro 1944 awards = Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon = Maybe the 1974 made for tv movie which I haven’t seen since it first aired but still remembered? = GOOGLE = Amazon = on sale for under $10 = order = eagerly awaiting Clint Walker and co. vs a space alien possessed piece of heavy equipment.
I see Moore/Kuttner got nominated but didn’t win.
There’s an EMSH on p.110 of my original link. That’s some non Pulpish cleavage there EMSH.
August 4th, 2020 at 4:21 am
@Bruce: Arrhenius was a smart guy. As a former chemistry major, I heard a lot about him.
@fred: Mr. x-n is also very fond of the “Killdozer” movie too. Let us know how it holds up nowadays. I probably haven’t seen it since then, or at least since the early 80s, though we have the story in a Sturgeon collection. He worked as a bulldozer operator so knew his stuff.
I wouldn’t have guessed Emsh on that p. 110 art. The alien, yes, but not the people.
August 4th, 2020 at 11:42 pm
@fred:
As mentioned, I looked at this volume last night. Original art by William Timmons.
http://imgur.com/a/tPkvoVe
August 5th, 2020 at 4:02 am
@GSS ex-noob: ties into science fiction in that he also came up with the theory of life travelling through space in spore form: “Arrhenius spores”cropped up a number of times over the years in early science fiction (including a short story I’d love to find online just from the title: P Schuyler Miller’s “The Arrhenius Horror.”)
August 6th, 2020 at 12:50 am
@Bruce: I think he gets name-checked in a Pern book for that.
August 6th, 2020 at 2:20 am
BTW: I believe Killdozer is available on YouTube. At least I have it in my “watch later” queue. Haven’t watched it, so I can’t vouch for quality of the print.
I’ve wanted to see it ever since I learned that Marvel comic did an adaptation.