11/30/2004

The gay/not gay dilemma concerning the proposed cover(s) for Against Gravity continues. Curiously, everyone who's seen a print version of the newer design still prefers the old design: everyone who's seen only the online version of the newer design (posted in a private message group for Glasgow sf writers) prefers the newer design.

I know this is hard without actually being able to see the damn things, but bear with me. I can't really post them up willy-nilly, unfortunately, since the designs are somebody else's property.

Basically, both designs feature a naked male figure, half-glimpsed through a forest of superimposed details, all to great effect (look at any of Steve Rawlings' other covers for Neal Asher or Sherri Tepper and you'll see what I mean): however, the newer design's figure looks, frankly, like he just walked out of a Jean-Paul Gaultier advert. But again, the background's got this really nice, kind of gritty effect I like, so maybe ...

Ech - I should probably hurry up and make my mind up.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Authorial choice in cover design has always been for me, "This is nice ISN'T IT!" To which the weak reply, "Yes, master." You have choices????
Neal

Gary Gibson, science fiction writer said...

Well - they did ask if I liked the cover, I said yes, then they changed their minds! Go figure. Maybe you haven't had any really horrendous designs shown to you yet, as I ... er, moving swiftly on ...

Anonymous said...

There was some tweaking in The Line of Polity. All the covers depict a figure when opened out. In the original version the head was protruding in from the side onto the front cover -- looked rather silly.
Neal