2009 Fall Book Preview With Covers

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Man of Steel, Jul 1, 2009.

  1. Stephen!

    Stephen! Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Although the fact that it says "Star Trek" in big letters on the cover kinda gives it away that it's a Star Trek book :)
     
  2. William Leisner

    William Leisner Scribbler Rear Admiral

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    I'm not certain about paperbacks, but Lt. Commander Tev has previously appeared in the cover art of several SCE ebooks.
     
  3. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    Ah, I forgot those (I don't buy e-books, I wait for the print collections, so I overlooked them). Thanks.
     
  4. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Some of John Ordover's later books -- like Gemini and Do Comets Dream? -- really downplayed the "Star Trek" labeling on the cover, by putting it down at the bottom in small type. None of this batch of covers are running away from the Star Trek label to that degree. Thankfully. :)
     
  5. Man of Steel

    Man of Steel Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    How come Vanguard books all have ships on the cover?

    Why can't we get a face of a character on it?
     
  6. flemm

    flemm Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That's odd, seeing as none of these covers are very subtle about their association with Star Trek.

    Also, what is there to be embarrassed about?...

    ... especially on the New York subway, where I think I would have to read aloud in my most horrendous French accent while doing a jig for anyone to so much as bat an eyelash.
     
  7. Kirks_Flying_Wig

    Kirks_Flying_Wig Commander Red Shirt

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    Unworthy doesn't look bad to me. It just looks a little unfinished, like the "corners" of the Voyager render need smoothing out. And I liked the Full Circle cover -- it was serene and quiet.
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    And none of the novels prior to Chain of Attack (aside from novelizations) used the Star Trek logo at all -- they just had the book title prominent and the words "The (optional flattering adjective) new STAR TREK novel" in a smaller, more standard font somewhere on the cover.
     
  9. captcalhoun

    captcalhoun Admiral Admiral

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    who ares about covers? it's what's inside that counts.
     
  10. Brendan Moody

    Brendan Moody Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Quite a few people, apparently.
    Sure, but an ugly cover on a great book is still an ugly cover.
     
  11. Karnbeln

    Karnbeln Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Unworthy- I liked the simple shot of Voyager in space for Full Circle. It really projected the tone of the book, feeling contemplative, hopeful, sad, majestic, and simple all at once. This time around, it feels uninspired, though. The Voyager render also doesn't hide that it's CGI all to well. I wonder what happened to the design-in-progress with Seven and Chakotay on the front.

    Enterprise- It's not as awful as all the posters on TrekMovie are saying (not that anything seems to please that crowd), just... plain. It says "Enterprise", but not "Romulan War". I like T'Pol finally in uniform, though.

    Titan- Um... when did Jonathan Frakes start posing for the covers of romance novels? The flying open collar of the undershirt is a little extreme. Minuet seems awkward, too. Not bad besides that, though. It would be plain, but it's not an event novel like the previous two.

    Vangaurd- Awesome shot, but ever since his blog opened I've been a Drexler fanboy, so that opinion is expected. :)

    I'm looking forward to these books, although I need to catch up on Titan and Vangaurd before I get to them.
     
  12. J47

    J47 Commander Red Shirt

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    I didn't mind the shot of Voyager on the Full Circle cover, but to repeat the idea on the next book feels uninspired. This is made worse by the feeling that the artwork is unfinished and could use some polishing.

    My issue with these is that, with the notable exception of The Never-Ending Sacrifice, the covers for the upcoming novels feel like a return to the era of a lack of inspiration for Trek covers dominated by floating heads in space. Granted the Titan and Vanguard covers stay true to established motifs (and are well executed, just like their predecessors), but does this mean that from here on out we'll be seeing uninspired ship shots for Voyager's relaunch? The cover for The Romulan War does not, in any way, convey a 'war' to me, not even a cold war; instead it makes me think we're going to be getting a lot of cerebral diplomatic conversations. The Sorrows of Empire's cover is bland, bland, bland - are we on Vulcan? And the cover for The Soul Key just looks cheap.

    I guess this just goes to show how spoiled we've been over the last couple of years when it came to gorgeous artwork for our Trek covers.
     
  13. Cap'n Crunch

    Cap'n Crunch Captain Captain

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    The cover for Unworthy is the same image from this month of the 2009 Ships of the Line Calendar. So it's not an original image, but in my opinion it does look better on the book than in the calendar.
     
  14. historypeats

    historypeats Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    My feelings exactly. "Floating heads again...dammit" was the first thing that came to mind.

    And as for Margaret's comment about what amount to "Trek-lite" covers...look, I understand to a certain extent where she's coming from. I feel less awkward about reading Trek books on the Kindle in public than if I'm holding a paperback.

    But here's the thing: that attitude's left over from being friends with a whole bunch of people who couldn't give a damn about Trek.

    That's also left over from a time before a new Star Trek film could pull in $250 million domestically.

    I can't imagine that shame over being seen with a Trek novel in public has any appreciable impact on Pocket's bottom line.

    And if it does, that still doesn't excuse these lazy designs. As someone else alluded to earlier, "Star Trek" is still on the cover; people are still wearing Starfleet uniforms on them. Those designs are plenty recognizable. They're just amateurish. Frankly, I'd be more embarrassed to be seen in public reading something with The Soul Key's cover than with The Never Ending Sacrifice's art. Even if you do have to go the floating-heads route, Titan's done a great job with theirs - Orion's Hounds color scheme works particularly well.

    I'm still excited to read these, but there's no valid reason that I shouldn't demand what amounts to a nice garnish with the main course.
     
  15. Man of Steel

    Man of Steel Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    If you have a book about a war, then why would u put a picture of a crew on the cover instead of something resembling a war?
     
  16. Rat Boy

    Rat Boy Vice Admiral Admiral

    You can almost see the bruise on Riker from where Troi slapped him silly. :D
     
  17. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    Well, my guess: It shows us Archer, representing Earth, and his extraterrestrial allies, making a stand- united- against the Romulan's xenophobia-driven war machine? :)
     
  18. BrotherBenny

    BrotherBenny Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I have no job, but I'm looking, and I need to shell out loads of moolah for all these books and more besides...Grrrr
     
  19. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    All of the books sound great, but I do have to agree about the Romulan War and Unworthy covers. IMO they're both boring and rather poor quality. Especially The Romulan War, IMO the picture is just weird looking. My only complaint about Unworthy is that it's another shot of Voyager, which we already got for FC. As for the others, I actually don't mind them so much, except I don't care for the way Riker's vest uniform looks with the shirt open like that. I do love the Precipice cover though, it's just as awsome as the other Vanguard ones, and I'm rather indifferent to Sorrows. It's not horrible in anyway, but there's nothing particularly awsome about it.

    Now as for the descriptions, those I love. I think this is probably the most excited I've been for an entire group of Trek books in a while.
     
  20. Marie1

    Marie1 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm curious about Precipice since I'm reading Summon the Thunder at the moment, after reading what the linked site said about it... it's like..."what happened...?"

    *puzzled*

    Soon I'll get to find out! :)