Picture the Novelverse - Characters, Ships and More !

[Jinn]

I was more saying that the Germans put in more of an effort rather than anyone in America is not putting in any effort.

On covers, Cross Cult was originally translating comics, so I prefer the theory that that's why they redo covers.

In Germany there are stores like Lidl or Aldi that sell everything at the lowest possible price and don't put in much quality. One of my favorite things that happened in 2013 when it turned out that some of Aldi's lasagna was made of horses instead of cows but not marketed as horse meat. All the customers were pissed, but I found that hilarious. On the other hand we also put a lot of effort into manipulating our cars, so that they display lower CO2 emissions than they actually have , just to not put the effort into developing cars with lower CO2 emissions.

 

[Emperor Norton]

That's just a semantic difference that's still kind of insulting to Pocket Books' cover artists. I usually like the German covers better too, but come on, you could do a wall in one stroke with a brush that broad.

It isn't really. It's a matter of saying the American covers are good, but the German covers go the extra mile.

 

[Christopher]

It isn't really. It's a matter of saying the American covers are good, but the German covers go the extra mile.

This is still a ludicrous overgeneralization. It's not like Star Trek book covers are the only ones that exist in the United States. There are many different publishers and many different cover artists and art departments. There are plenty of US-published books that have superb, award-winning covers -- and I'm sure there are books in Germany that have cheap, slapdash covers. It's preposterous to talk about a comparison specifically between the two nations' Star Trek book covers and imagine it can be generalized to all book covers, regardless of the publisher or artist.

 

[Jinn]

And of course one might consider a cover beautiful that some one else finds absolutely abysmal.

 

[WebLurker]

I think that modern Trek novels have better American covers than they did in the '90s, but I do have to admit that I think the non-American covers I've seen generally look better.

It is interesting though, when they make artwork of non-movie characters and how it stacks up with the reader's imagination. Case in point, one of the ebooks had TNG novel character Lt. Chen on artwork and she looked nothing like what I picture the character as.

 

[Jinn]

Case in point, one of the ebooks had TNG novel character Lt. Chen on artwork and she looked nothing like what I picture the character as.

Really? Which one?

 

[WebLurker]

Really? Which one?

I'm having trouble finding it now. When I do, I'll post it.

 

[JD]

I don't remember ever seeing Chen on any of the covers.
As far as I know the only new character from the TNG Relaunch to appear on a cover was Choudhury on the German Losing the Peace cover.
EDIT: I just looked through Cross Cult's Trek books on their website, and they use the same version of Choudhury on the cover of The Struggle Within. I wonder if that's the e-book your thinking of Weblurker.

 

[Kilana2]

I'd like to see Chen on a cover. She wasn't my favorite character from the beginning, but I like her better now. And she is an important part of Picard's crew.

 

[JD]

I would too actually. I wish we could get more of the new characters on the covers, instead of just constantly giving us the TV/movie characters we've already been seeing for 20+ years.

 

[Christopher]

I would too actually. I wish we could get more of the new characters on the covers, instead of just constantly giving us the TV/movie characters we've already been seeing for 20+ years.

That would be nice, but covers with TV/movie characters sell better.

 

[Danlav05]

They barely use characters on TNg/DS9 covers anymore (although Prey/The Long Mrage give exceptions to this rule), it's mostly been ships - look at The Fall!!

Also talking of ships I wondfer if they use the Galaxy class (USS Challenger, Excalibur-A Robinson etc) because people recognise it more?

 

[JD]

Probably.

 

[Markonian]

To be honest, everything in my life is somehow related to nationality. It helps classifying people. Generalisation only serves to make jokes, although watching the news can make you think certain cultures are monolithic.

In my job I meet countless strangers, usually spit-images of their dominant culture. Distinct personalities, but predictable behaviour and habits. Like brash Andorians and stoic Vulcans. You catch easily when somebody is the odd one out.

Among the people I choose to be with, my nationalities and theirs is the source of humour and attraction.

So, I like both German and US-American covers. But I am keenly aware of reading complaints about American ones in the respective threads. Remember Prey Book 3, or the recent TOS eBooks? A few voices on the Internet don't make a trend, but the tenor in these forums has been clear (if, fortunately, not unanimous). So, yes, we can talk about German and US-American covers.

 

[Christopher]

So, I like both German and US-American covers. But I am keenly aware of reading complaints about American ones in the respective threads. Remember Prey Book 3, or the recent TOS eBooks? A few voices on the Internet don't make a trend, but the tenor in these forums has been clear (if, fortunately, not unanimous). So, yes, we can talk about German and US-American covers.

No, you can talk about the current crop of German and American Star Trek covers. It's not about a fundamental difference in national character, it's about a difference in the art departments and editorial tastes of Pocket and Cross Cult at the current time. In recent years, Pocket has turned more toward photo or CGI covers for its Star Trek books, while Cross Cult still does painted covers. But there are still plenty of American book publishers that use painted covers. It's not a nationwide phenomenon.

I always felt that Marco Palmieri's tenure as a Trek editor was a high point for Trek-novel cover design. He had a good design sense and high standards for cover quality. Now he works over at Tor Books, and there have been a number of impressive covers among the books he's edited, notably the covers for Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence books.

 

[Idran]

To be honest, everything in my life is somehow related to nationality. It helps classifying people. Generalisation only serves to make jokes, although watching the news can make you think certain cultures are monolithic.

In my job I meet countless strangers, usually spit-images of their dominant culture. Distinct personalities, but predictable behaviour and habits. Like brash Andorians and stoic Vulcans. You catch easily when somebody is the odd one out.

Honestly, without some means of blinding, that's probably just a variation of the Barnum effect. People are really bad about inventing patterns where none exist or confabulating explanations or whatnot, and there's basically no way to trust judgement like that without some sort of outside objective confirmation and long-term tracking. You can't even trust your own memory half the time when it comes to something like that, really, since a person's brain naturally edits out the times a believed pattern didn't apply.

 

[Christopher]

You can't even trust your own memory half the time when it comes to something like that, really, since a person's brain naturally edits out the times a believed pattern didn't apply.

Right. It's confirmation bias -- we pay more attention to the examples that fit our preferred views. That's why stereotypes persist -- because people convince themselves they're real.

 

[ryan123450]

Say, I know alot of the Starfleet designs introduced in the books have had illustrations, but what about alien ships. I'm thinking specificalky of the Even Odds, or the Tzenkethi ship.

As an aside, while looking for pics of the Even Odds, I wondered if Cross Cult had put it on their cover of Rising Son. Then I stumbled across these comics I wasn't familiar with.

http://www.cross-cult.de/titel/comic-star-trek-comics-spiegelbilder-softcover.html

http://www.cross-cult.de/titel/comic-star-trek-comics-tor-zur-apokalypse-softcover.html

Are these original or translations? Csn one of our German posters give me some help?

 

[Avro Arrow]

As an aside, while looking for pics of the Even Odds, I wondered if Cross Cult had put it on their cover of Rising Son. Then I stumbled across these comics I wasn't familiar with.

http://www.cross-cult.de/titel/comic-star-trek-comics-spiegelbilder-softcover.html

http://www.cross-cult.de/titel/comic-star-trek-comics-tor-zur-apokalypse-softcover.html

Are these original or translations? Csn one of our German posters give me some help?

Well, they were both written by the Tiptons, so I'm assuming translations.

Spiegelbilder appears to be Mirror Images, and Tor Zur Apokalypse appears to be Intelligence Gathering.

 

[Defcon]

Well, they were both written by the Tiptons, so I'm assuming translations.

Spiegelbilder appears to be Mirror Images, and Tor Zur Apokalypse appears to be Intelligence Gathering.

Correct.