Dec 09
Jami Comments: Me giant floating head and shoulders of Demolished Man. Me crush tiny stereotypical Hammer film type female vampire and tiny floating head version of me. Then me play with all the pretty animals and the tiny naked women. Tiny clothed men can get moon dust out of my giant ear. Me have glowy thing above knuckle. Me love glowy thing.
Published 1978
Click for back cover here
Click for previous Demolished Man cover here
December 9th, 2011 at 9:20 am
“Soon a major motion picture!” (Along with The Stars My Destination, Ender’s Game, Neuromancer, etc.)
But let’s not be mad at the naive optimism of the copy editor — the movie might have ended up as “major” as Millennium (based on John Varley’s “Air Raid”) or A Sound of Thunder or…
December 9th, 2011 at 10:08 am
Would the people chillin’ on the ground move along please? We’re trying to be dramatic here!
December 9th, 2011 at 10:19 am
All together now:
“Tenser” said the Tensor.
“Tenser” said the Tensor.
“Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.”
Soon to be a top 40 hit.
I’m liking the (un-tagged) TING! which, here, is motivated by fist rather than sword. Makes a change.
December 9th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
“Hey guys, Star Wars just called, they want their cover back.”
December 9th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
“Dude, look at all the naked chicks! C’mon, gimme a fist bump!”
December 9th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
This is getting scary. This is the second one in the past couple of weeks that is actually on my bookshelf.
December 9th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
I see they already had a cast for that movie. Pretty sure that tiny floating head is Charlton Heston.
December 9th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Tim, you’ve rumbled us. We’ve been sneaking in your house and photographing your books while you’re asleep!
December 9th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Hey there’s a monkey climbing the chest of the demolished man….He doesn’t really look all that demolished though does he? Unless maybe from the chest down he has been run over by a steam roller….
Soon to be a major motion picture? Was it Demolition man? Wesley Snipes looks nothing like our demolished man here.
December 9th, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Save us, micro space sheep!
December 9th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
From the cover art I would have guessed Roman epic, probably aimed at a male audience.
Can you just imagine him saying “Render unto Caesar!”
December 10th, 2011 at 12:09 am
From the back: “This terrifically exciting future novel is just about the best ever written.”
What?
“Future novel?” It wasn’t written yet? Is there time travel involved? Did the reviewer travel to the future to read it?
So many questions.
December 10th, 2011 at 2:34 am
So Tim, does that mean you’re the one donating these to the library where I work? Because that’s where I keep finding stuff like this.
It’s honestly too bad this is just a science fiction/fantasy cover blog. There’s some real winners for the romance, western, and even history paperbacks that people donate to us as well.
My goal is to find one of those 80s sci-fi romance novels in the donations to submit to this site.
December 11th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
@Jami – If you have a few really awful ones that aren’t sci-fi etc send them in. I’ve been meaning to do an honourable mentions for sometime! ๐
December 12th, 2011 at 4:35 am
Okay, I’ll keep my eyes peeled. If we discard The War Between The Tates I’ll have to snag it for a scan. Non-scifi story about a man who’s cheating on his wife with his student. But the mistress is just so chock full of 70s fun. Right down to the blue band around her head.
December 16th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I hadn’t heard of the movie… I found this on Wikipedia “Since reading the novel as a young man, director Brian de Palma has considered adapting it for film. Lack of financing has long since kept the film unproduced.”
August 25th, 2015 at 4:06 am
@Alessandra Kelley: It looks like a fitting cover for the Heston “Ben-Hur”. A science fiction cover is not what most people would think on seeing this book.
December 1st, 2023 at 4:10 am
“Welcome to Space Fight Club. The first rule of Space Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Space Fight Club. The second rule is that the guy with the Bling Ring makes the rules.”
December 1st, 2023 at 1:53 pm
I give the publishers credit for keeping all the printage off of the art. I’m looking at you BAEN.
December 1st, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Heroic Blue State Governor Gavin Newsome prepares to debate the evil Florida Man DeSantis and his minions. Sadly, no one in Florida knows this since the book’s been banned in that state.
December 2nd, 2023 at 12:33 am
@B.Chiclitz: GSS! And sadly there is no one left in California who can read, so thereโs no one left to remember the book.
December 2nd, 2023 at 11:22 pm
I agree that it looks much more Roman epic than a future detective story of corporate rivalry and telepathy.
@JJYoyo: Hey! Most Californians can still read, except for “influencers”. Whether Floridians can still read their non-banned books is debatable, with no state or local funding for education, and all the interesting books unavailable. Also, pretty sure Gavin could beat Pudding Fingers in any sort of contest.
December 3rd, 2023 at 10:23 am
Bester claimed to have based the cop’s character on a statue of a Roman emperor: maybe they found any un-used painting with a Roman and some action-scenes and just plonked that on it.
December 3rd, 2023 at 11:21 pm
@Tat:That would explain a lot. The chick is a hot Germanic or Celtic babe, the people sitting around are the plebs, and the animals are all for the arena. Except maybe the monkey is the blonde’s pet.
Good to get that sorted.
Someone could (and might) have written a cheesy sword and sandal epic that this cover would fit.
December 5th, 2023 at 12:03 am
Well, I just did a double take when Tom Scott mentioned this very book in his latest video… ๐
(And one of his last, at that… it’s almost been 10 years…)