"Ship of the Line" covers

[seigezunt]

Is this the Mandela Effect or something?
I was shopping online for a copy of "Ship of the Line," and noticed two different cover illustrations, one that is a really poor representation of Picard.

The latter image comes up in a lot of searches for the HC edition and Ebay listings, and Amazon's listing, but I can't find a picture of a physical copy of the book with that cover. Is this an earlier draft that has ended up in all these listings, or have I become unmoored from reality?

 

[XCV330]

the latter one looks like it was lovingly spray lacquered onto the hood of a lowered and air-bagged 76 El Camino belonging to somebody who SERIOUSLY liked that book and had a friend that was good with the airbrush, man.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I have seen that German versions of several old numbered Voyager books have different faces for Janeway than the regular versions. Perhaps this is something similar.

 

[seigezunt]

the latter one looks like it was lovingly spray lacquered onto the hood of a lowered and air-bagged 76 El Camino belonging to somebody who SERIOUSLY liked that book and had a friend that was good with the airbrush, man.

You're not far off. I did a little digging and it's apparently the original concept art:

I still think it's odd that it's the cover that comes up when you look for it on Amazon even. I guess this is a thing. Wonder if this happened to other books.

 

[Stevil2001]

It can happen. The publisher sends the draft cover out and it's put on various web sites; the final cover never makes it to everywhere the draft did. There was recently a Reddit thread making fun of the Losing the Peace cover that was not actually about the final cover.

 

[tgiokdi]

From what I understand the "looking off to the side" version is the paperback and the "looking right at you" is the hardcover. I have the hardcover somewhere around here in a box...

 

[tgiokdi]

Amazingly, I found it in my first try, my hardcover is not the head-on one.

 

[seigezunt]

I've seen the head-on one used in listings for the HC, but in no actual pictures of the physical book

 

[Allyn Gibson]

You're not far off. I did a little digging and it's apparently the original concept art:

That cover suggests a book very different than the one we got, since a major element of the cover -- the Nexus -- doesn't even appear in the novel

Something went very wrong with that book.

 

[Saul]

When I saw the cover I was expecting the Nexus to be involved in the story too. I was disappointed that it wasn't but I still liked the book.

 

[Stevil2001]

Is it clear that the energy stuff is the Nexus on the published hardcover art? I never realized it until I saw the original artwork online, but I have the paperback, which is cropped such that you can't really tell.

I know Carey wrote some of her books very quickly (Voyages doesn't say that this is one of those, though). One wonders if the cover was commissioned before the outline was approved!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Is it clear that the energy stuff is the Nexus on the published hardcover art? I never realized it until I saw the original artwork online, but I have the paperback, which is cropped such that you can't really tell.

Ship of the LIne was Pocket's first Star Trek hardcover with a wraparound cover. The funny thing for me about that, though, is that it took years for me to look at the "back" of the cover. If you look at the front alone, it's the usual Birdsong heads-in-space, and the Nexus is obscured by the title. It you look at the whole thing, because IIRC the back has no text at all, then it's much more apparent that it's the Nexus.

 

[Saul]

So why is the Nexus on the cover? I just assumed it was because the book took place after Generations. Or did the artist confuse the Nexus with the Badlands?

 

[David cgc]

So why is the Nexus on the cover? I just assumed it was because the book took place after Generations.

It's probably just that. It represents Picard's insecurity since that's where he met a real captain.[/Carey]

 

[Christopher]

Could it be that the cover artist used the Nexus as a stand-in for the temporal anomaly that trapped the Bozeman? Like, they assumed all temporal anomalies look alike?