From: wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Yet Another Misleading Cover
Date: 18 Aug 92 05:27:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Aug18.052714.16046
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Aug8.183546.11966@mikejag.wimsey.bc.ca> pally@mikejag.wimsey.bc.ca (Pally Hoffstein) writes:
>In article <BsIy8E.EIu@news.cso.uiuc.edu> levine@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (Lenore Levine) writes:
>>Just bought Starseed (by Spider and Jeanne Robinson) at my local 
>>bookstore (from leafing through the book, doesn't look like I 
>>wasted my $5...).
>>
>>And, from leafing through the first chapter, we learn that the
>>main character, at the time the story begins, is 46 years old?
>>
>>So what is a Christie Brinkley clone doing on the front cover?
>
>Since the topic of misrepresentational covers has come up so often, I have a
>question for the net.
>Can anyone think of a book that had a promising, well-done cover where the
>contents of the book lived up to promise of the cover and the cover proved
>accurate?

  A walk past my shelves, pulling off books that caught my memory,
gives me this list (I'm sure I've left many out):

_Antares Dawn_ (Michael McCollum). The ships and the nova on the
cover actually match the descriptions in the books (!).
_The Wizardry Compiled_. _Bane_ and _Cursed_ weren't quite as accurate.
_Jinx on a Terran Inheritance_. In fact, both the cover art and the
stories are *very* good (at being what they are, which I like). 
_The Flying Warlord_ and others in the sequence. 
_SiaSL_. I'm not sure if the scene on the cover of mine actually
occurred, but it's still representative of the story (Berkeley Medallion
Ed., 1968, 50th printing). 
_And All Between_ (Zilpha Keatley Snyder). It's been a while since I read this,
so again the cover might not be of an actual scene; but it's accurate to
the story.
_The Stress of Her Regard_. Actual Scene, as far as I know.
_A Stone in Heaven_ (Anderson). Actual scene. I *love* the flyer on the
cover. As good as some of McCafferey's dragons' covers. (McC. was on 
a shelf I didn't walk past.)
_Convergent Series_. _Ringworld_. In fact, *all* of my Niven seems to have
grabbing-yet-accurate covers, excepting possibly _The Shape of Space_,
but it's also the only one not published by Del Rey. (Hmmm.)

Borderline: _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_, _The Big Lifters_.

Of these, 4 are del Rey (more if you count series), 2 are Ace, 
1 Tor, 1 Baen, 1 Berkeley Medallion, going by the symbols on the
spines. 

Cover artists ("+" indicates a book that's a member of a series with
similar covers) :
1 James Gurney,
1 Whelan,
1 James C. Christensen,
1 Carl Lundgren,
1+ by Barclay Shaw,
1+ by Darrell K. Sweet,
1 Larry Schwinger, 
1+ Don Dixon.

My Niven (all published by Del Rey with similar covers, with "Larry Niven"
in large, swoopingly Ringworldesque letters) has cover art by a whole
host of people, though the covers are unerringly accurate. Artists
include: H.R. Van Dongen, Rick Sternbach, George Bush, and someone
who put the word "LADD" in the cover design. (I'm surprised. I'd
assumed they were all the same artist...)

So, statistically, Del Rey is best, cover-accuracy-wise, possibly
followed by Ace or maybe random fluctuation. Artists are
distributed evenly. As for Niven, perhaps for these printings he
was famous enough to have some influence? 


---

BTW, the question that started this thread was "How come this book, X,
has a middle aged protagonist, presumed clothed, but the cover shows
a naked teenage sex idol?". So, I take *another* walk past my shelves.
Books with flesh on the cover that has some actual relation to the
story:

_Friday_, _Daughter of Regals_, _Mercedes Nights_. If you're really
searching, _The Wizardry Compiled_ and just possibly _Earthgrip_
(though I'm not going to reread it tonight to make sure the scene's
as it's drawn).

Far fewer of these, interestingly. Then again, I tend to be put off by
Gor-like covers, much as some people drop a book upon spying
"Bane", "Quest" or "Dark" in the title... Now, an interesting thread
might be books that have scenes in them that COULD have been put on the 
cover for Adolescent Appeal, but weren't. But I'm running out of
time and bandwidth, so, not this post...



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