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12 More Great Recent Genre Covers

Once we opened the floodgates, we starting spotting great cover design everywhere. We're keeping to the same dress code as before: no corsets, no hoods, no chainmail bikinis.

These go back a little while (we seem to have a thing for the 90's), but isn't it nice to have genre fiction that you can read on the tube?

17 Great Recent Genre Covers

Not all genre covers must feature ladies in brass corsets or hooded men. 

We've updated our photo album to include seventeen examples of recent genre covers featuring design sensibilities we'd really, really like to encourage.  Unfortunately, there's not a single paranormal romance cover among them.  We'll keep our eyes peeled.

After the jump, our thoughts about each book.

Classic Covers: Happy Birthday, Gollancz!

Fifty years of science fiction, fantasy and horror. (84 years of politics, mystery and literature!)

Like everyone else, our shelves are stacked with recent Gollancz successes - thanks to the likes of Richard Morgan, Joe Abercrombie, Steph Swainston and Scott Lynch. But a quick pass around the living room shows that the kind people at Gollancz have been giving us ground-breaking fantastic fiction for all fifty years.

Lift a pint to Victor this evening.

A dozen hasty snaps of Gollancz titles around the house.

Classic Covers: The Wrath of Kerberos by Jonathan Oliver

Just leaked - the stunning cover design for the next-but-one Twilight of Kerberos volume.

Jonathan Oliver's The Wrath of Kerberos is, according to Abaddon's sinister plan, the "beginning of the end". As much as I've been impressed by the squishy Lovecraftian deities and Dwarven war-machines, my inner fanboy is very, very excited to see dragons on the horizon.

The cover is by the talented Adam Tredowski. First I've seen from him, but color me impressed.

Classic Covers: Drum Beat - Dominique by Stephen Marlowe

Chester Drum, international private eye, is one of my favorites. 

Stephen Marlowe (born Milton S. Lesser) not only plotted a series of lively (if improbable) jet-setting adventures, but also there was an overarching story to the entire series. Drum actually has a beginning and an ending - the character grows, the supporting cast changes and things happen for a purpose. 

Also, the covers are fantastic.

Classic Covers: Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming

There are ten thousand beautiful Bond covers. This one is a 1964 printing of Diamonds are Forever, from Jonathan Cape. 

 

Classic Covers: The Mid-Century Gothic

A few weeks ago I wrote an bit about Gothic novels, wherein I joked that their covers tend to feature imperiled ladies in filmy nightgowns. Today, just for fun, I pulled a few mid-century Gothics off the shelves to illustrate my point.  Imperiled ladies?  Check!  Filmy nightgowns?  Double check!  Crumbling towers?  Check and mate!

Tangentially, I think there's an interesting argument to be made that Ian Fleming's The Spy who Loved Me is a kind of Gothic novel.  But that'll have to wait for another day.

 Please to enjoy the fruits of my labors after the jump.

Classic Covers: The Places Between by Terry Grimwood

A hauntingly nice cover on The Places Between, the new novella from Pendragon Press. Book by Terry Grimwood, with the cover by newcomer Ben Baldwin (who is placing a solid bid to be the next Vincent Chong). 

You can preview & pre-order the book at the Pendragon site.

"Today, a lot of books are sold in large chain stores that make their money primarily by selling packaged goods--bologna, potting soil, diapers--and these stores take great pains to ensure they won’t offend any of their customers.... any cover image that might be “too sexy” or sensitive in some other way is likely to get nixed [by the publisher] before it’s even seen by the buyers for these stores--and if it’s not, it’s likely to get nixed by those buyers when they do see it." - Charles Ardai

Classic Covers: Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer

 Well, that's probably not what the author meant.