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Worst Covers

Losing the Peace's cover is among the most memorably bad.
I quite disagree. It's not a pretty cover, but it's not a pretty story, which makes the cover rather fitting, IMO.

There's nothing wrong with the idea behind the cover concept of Loosing the Peace, but I dont think it was executed that well when put together. The images of both Worf and Picard jar at how awkardly they are fitted on for one thing.
Again, I don't think "jarring" is a bad thing for this book.
 
I have to go with Soul Key and Losing The Peace. Most of the covers over the last few years have been awesome, but these two just didn't come together very well. I liked the designs alot, it was just the final product that didn't come out well IMO.
 
That's the one that jumped to mind right away when I read the OP. If was going to pick one of the more recent ones, IMO, I'm going to go with "Before Dishonor" for the bad Photoshop look.

I'm not upset over any flaw in the Photoshop on that one so much as the fact that Seven of Nine is the sole character on the cover of a NEXT GENERATION novel. I know she's a major character in the novel, but still, I would expect for at least ONE TNG element to appear on that cover besides the name.

Also, I agree with the dislike of 'The Soul Key' cover. It's that hand that bugs the crap out of me more than anything else.
 
Yet another vote for Soul Key. It's horrible. Nothing else comes to mind immediately.

Also, it's not a bad cover, but the Cardassian skull on the cover for Station Rage (DS9 #13) creeped me out when I was a kid.

Ooooh, yeah...me too! :cardie:


Another one that I thought was kinda stupid--I LOVE the book, Betrayal (DS9 #6), but using Macet on the cover?! WRONG uniform, and even worse--WAY incorrect personality to stand in for Marak.

And are we supposed to believe there's a THIRD look-alike cousin running around in the Cardassian Union? I mean, Dukat actually appears in the book! :cardie:
 
While I thought the cover for Soul Key wasn't very impressive I think it is above some of the other covers I've seen. Generally I like all of the covers, but the one that was the most boring....and that is the problem from my perspective.....how someone can make the cover of a book look boring......was The Captain's Blood. While that may not be worst cover.....it was really uninspired.
 
I quite disagree. It's not a pretty cover, but it's not a pretty story, which makes the cover rather fitting, IMO.

There's nothing wrong with the idea behind the cover concept of Loosing the Peace, but I dont think it was executed that well when put together. The images of both Worf and Picard jar at how awkardly they are fitted on for one thing.
Again, I don't think "jarring" is a bad thing for this book.
While I am enjoying the book and my opinions on the cover are better now than my initial reaction when it was first announced, I do understand why others might not be completely in love with it, but it is FAR from the worst cover ever. If there is any problem with the cover, it is with the character appearance just screaming "photoshop!" The heads (Picard's in particular) have that "stuck on" appearance of being inserted on some generic uniformed torso; one of the most commonly mentioned problems with any photoshop work. The uniforms are also backwards. I doubt this was the same type of "jarring" nature as you were trying to provoke by the story itself.

I also agree with the majority that the art for The Soul Key does appear somewhat lazy.

While I don't think the coverart for any of the Vanguard novels is bad (quite the contrary), it is starting to become quite repetative (after looking at what the covers for the next novel is). The coverart for any one of the novels could very easily be substituted for just about any other, making it begin to appear unoriginal (Reap the Whirwind probably being the most notable exception, but also probably my least favourite of the series' covers).

If I had to pick the worst coverart, it would probably have to be with some of the very early S.C.E. ebook stories which just came across as an inconsistent jumbled mess.
 
Some of the worst covers are some that came out in the 70s and 80s. But The Soul Key is by far the worst cover I've seen on a Trek book in several years. I remember seeing it here first and thinking "I hope that looks better in real life." Then I got the book and thought it actually looked worse.
 
I always though that Captain's Peril's cover was a neat idea, executed tremendously poorly. The face of Young Kirk just looks awful.
 
I am currently reading Ex Machina by Christopher Bennett, the cover is just bright silver and fugly. Hurts my eyes.
 
Over A Torrent Sea comes to mind. I had people tell me they were offended by the cover or how it was inappropriate in certain places.
 
Over A Torrent Sea comes to mind. I had people tell me they were offended by the cover or how it was inappropriate in certain places.

But any offense is largely the individual's own fault, surely? :) The cover isn't screaming "Look! Breasts!" or drawing attention to them, it's simply a (in my opinion, very beautiful) picture of an alien being in her element, which just happens to include mammaries. If someone's first instinct is to zoom in on those mammaries and make a big deal out of them, that's their fault, surely, not the cover's? :) I mean, when I first saw it I was too busy appreciating the art to even register at first that she was naked.

I mean, what did people say to you? "Look, I'm sorry, but I was peeking at your book's cover as you read and there's a green-blue thing on it with four breasts. Kindly remove it from my life at once"?
 
Ex Machina has a terrible cover in terms of composition and content. Too bad, for a great novel.

The cover of Sarek always bugged me. Sarek looks fine, but Kirk looks like an elderly woman in running eyeliner.
 
Another vote for The Soul Key. Lazy, lazy job. I'd be curious to see what other possible cover ideas were considered before they settled on this.

Losing the Peace has one of the worst, most awkward photoshop blends for Picard and Worf. It looks like amateur work. The overall concept and design for the cover is fine. I just can't wrap my head around why anyone would approve the characters' composition and poses. The heads and the bodies don't match up AT ALL.

The photoshop job on Before Dishonor was fairly lazy, too, in the sense that it was just a photo of Seven layered over an image of a Borg cube. I could do that in two minutes with photoshop. It didn't look bad, per se. Just wasn't very original. The real offense is the presence of a VOY character on the cover of a TNG novel.

I don't care much for novels that just re-use publicity photos without adding anything interesting to the covers. I also don't like covers that don't really tell you anything about the story. VOY's Homecoming and The Farther Shore come to mind.

I've always hated the design for the A Time To... novels. They weren't labeled as TNG. The only visual images were the small banner at the top and the little square with a character's head in it. It just looked all wrong to me. It didn't make the novels seem interesting.
 
Over A Torrent Sea comes to mind. I had people tell me they were offended by the cover or how it was inappropriate in certain places.

But any offense is largely the individual's own fault, surely? :) The cover isn't screaming "Look! Breasts!" or drawing attention to them, it's simply a (in my opinion, very beautiful) picture of an alien being in her element, which just happens to include mammaries. If someone's first instinct is to zoom in on those mammaries and make a big deal out of them, that's their fault, surely, not the cover's? :) I mean, when I first saw it I was too busy appreciating the art to even register at first that she was naked.



I mean, what did people say to you? "Look, I'm sorry, but I was peeking at your book's cover as you read and there's a green-blue thing on it with four breasts. Kindly remove it from my life at once"?

Well, at the time, I was in Israel and I was away for the weekend in a very religious house (ultra) and well, they didn't think it was something a orthodox person should be reading let alone out in the open.


Also, you'd be surprised what people find offensive these days.
 
Over A Torrent Sea comes to mind. I had people tell me they were offended by the cover or how it was inappropriate in certain places.

But any offense is largely the individual's own fault, surely? :) The cover isn't screaming "Look! Breasts!" or drawing attention to them, it's simply a (in my opinion, very beautiful) picture of an alien being in her element, which just happens to include mammaries. If someone's first instinct is to zoom in on those mammaries and make a big deal out of them, that's their fault, surely, not the cover's? :) I mean, when I first saw it I was too busy appreciating the art to even register at first that she was naked.



I mean, what did people say to you? "Look, I'm sorry, but I was peeking at your book's cover as you read and there's a green-blue thing on it with four breasts. Kindly remove it from my life at once"?

Well, at the time, I was in Israel and I was away for the weekend in a very religious house (ultra) and well, they didn't think it was something a orthodox person should be reading let alone out in the open.

Oh, well in that case, I suppose if it was in their own house they had every right to openly object if it offended their sensibilities. :)
 
Exactly...if you're in someone's house and not in public, it's that household that has every right to enforce the rules they see fit, whether or not you like them.
 
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