Now I’m sure publishers like all the attention their covers get (it’s all publicity etc...) but you can’t help but wonder if they’re secretly thinking, ‘just read the damn book people!’... Especially if a cover art post isn’t followed by a review of the book (and I’m as guilty of that as the next blogger). What to do then? Well, it looks like the good cover art people at Orbit are working on covers that (while striking) are guaranteed to have bloggers opening the book just to get away from having their eyes pulled in all manner of crazy directions. Check this out...
Doesn’t that make your eyes go all funny? It did with me and you know what? About three seconds after I picked ‘Equations of Life’ up I was reading it just so I could get away from what that cover was doing to my eyes! It’s not bad either, hopefully there’ll be a review next week but here’s the blurb in the meantime...
Samuil Petrovitch is a survivor. He survived the nuclear fallout in St. Petersburg and hid in the London Metrozone - the last city in England. He's lived this long because he's a man of rules and logic. For example: GETTING INVOLVED = A BAD IDEA. But when he stumbles into a kidnapping in progress, he acts without even thinking. Before he can stop himself, he's saved the daughter of the most dangerous man in London. And clearly: SAVING THE GIRL = GETTING INVOLVED. Now, the equation of Petrovitch's life is looking increasingly complex: RUSSIAN MOBSTERS + YAKUZA + SOMETHING CALLED THE NEW MACHINE JIHAD = ONE DEAD PETROVITCH. But Petrovitch has a plan - he always has a plan - he's just not sure it's a good one.
When you can drag your eyes away from the cover for a second, tell me what you think of it :o)
Does that cover art strike anyone else as really, really creepy?
ReplyDeleteDealing with it! :)
ReplyDeleteAs to Equations of Life, I might just have beaten you to the punch for once, Graeme - the review should be up on TSS Tuesday. It's well worth your time, too. Wall to wall fun; something like Charles Stross' Laundry novels meets Crank, the Jason Statham film... with added ninja nuns. Which you frankly can't go wrong with.
And the cover art - agreed. It's an interesting idea, but totally too much. I think there was some debacle over the original cover art, and Orbit pulled in these optical illusions as a last-minute substitution. There seems to be more tradition cover art obscured on the back cover; presumably the aborted first go-around?
Haven't seen these covers in real life, but I like them. At least it's not another pseudo-photographic illustration.
ReplyDeleteIt's making my head hurt every time I look at the cover but I've finally started reading and it's looking good so far...
ReplyDelete