I don't usually comment on covers, but every time I look at the one for Malcolm Pryce's The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still the same thought runs through my head - this looks like a children's book. The cover imitates the 1940s and 50s hardboiled PI pulps, but seems a watered down version and its five elements (Louie, Miaow, the Buick, the UFO and the pier) just seemed randomly dropped on the page. I know this is a matter of taste, but I think something more like Megan Abbott's covers or those produced by Hard Case Crime, which are similar in style but with more coherent scenes and a bit more realism in the art work would work better. The material between the covers draws a rich, vivid picture, with some real philosophical depth in the narrative which is a long way beyond a childish pastiche. My posts this week
Kinky philosophy
October reviews
If you're going to make an error, might as well make it a big one
One book, two book, three book, four ... and five ...
Review of Greenwich Killing Time by Kinky Friedman
In harm's way
3 comments:
I agree about the cover. Just too much going on instead of one strong image.
Avid readers often discuss covers, and I know many people choose books based on tempting covers. But as I know that unless you are a self-publisher, you may not have much say, I don´t bother too much. Besides I often buy English fiction second-hand so what if I fell for one cover and they sent me another one ;)
The original versions had similar artwork but somehow more sophisticated than this edition. Perhaps they are cashing in on the current craze for Young Adult fiction and going for the teen market, or trying to. (As so many crime fiction authors now seem to be doing, eg Harlan Coben, Lee Child and even, nascently, Michael Connelly -- in his latest, The Drop, there are hints of this).
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