Iain M Banks UK Backlist Makeover

DaveH <david_haddock.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:

> See the new covers at
> http://www.banksoniain.netfirms.com/imb_new_covers.html
>
Interesting...

'Consider Phlebas' has a very, well... /convex/ looking ocean:
<http://www.banksoniain.netfirms.com/CP_NEW.jpg>

--
Andrew.
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> Personally I think the all time best Banks covers were the first
> paperback editions of Consider Phlebas and The Player Of Games (CP
> pipping TPOG to the post if pressed to choose between them).

Are these the covers with the black bands at top and bottom and a narrow
painting across the middle (e.g. CP's showing a man on a beach reflected
in the surface of a shuttlecraft)? If so, I'd agree with you.
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>> Personally I think the all time best Banks covers were the first
>> paperback editions of Consider Phlebas and The Player Of Games (CP
>> pipping TPOG to the post if pressed to choose between them).
>
>
> Are these the covers with the black bands at top and bottom and a narrow
> painting across the middle (e.g. CP's showing a man on a beach reflected
> in the surface of a shuttlecraft)? If so, I'd agree with you.

That's it -- the one with the highly reflective surface of the culture
craft -- presumably the craft evacuating the beach on which Horza's washed
up. I'm amazed by how bad a FEW of the Culture cover designs have been
over the years; one of TPOG designs shows Gurgeu as a white man (when the
book describes him as dark skinned) standing on a very poorly designed
Azad board.
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MS wrote:
> That's it -- the one with the highly reflective surface of the culture
> craft -- presumably the craft evacuating the beach on which Horza's
> washed up.

I'm sure, if you look carefully, you can see a gun in the reflected
Horza's hand. Clearly whoever did the painting had taken efforts to
match the details in the book, which is nice to see.

> I'm amazed by how bad a FEW of the Culture cover designs have
> been over the years; one of TPOG designs shows Gurgeu as a white man
> (when the book describes him as dark skinned) standing on a very poorly
> designed Azad board.

I've seen that one, and didn't like it either. My TPOG has the red
aircraft (?) flying towards a pair of houses perched on a waterfall; I'm
not sure what exactly it's meant to represent (Ikroh?), but it's still
nicely done.

My personal least-favorite cover painting is on my Excession hardback,
which shows a poorly painted spacecraft made up of lots of dark spheres.
It looks very shoddy, and fails to capture the size, scale or design
of Culture starships. (Mind you, has anyone ever managed to do a
convincing painting or render of a GCU or GSV?).
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>> I'm amazed by how bad a FEW of the Culture cover designs have been
>> over the years; one of TPOG designs shows Gurgeu as a white man (when
>> the book describes him as dark skinned) standing on a very poorly
>> designed Azad board.
>
>
> I've seen that one, and didn't like it either. My TPOG has the red
> aircraft (?) flying towards a pair of houses perched on a waterfall; I'm
> not sure what exactly it's meant to represent (Ikroh?), but it's still
> nicely done.

I'm pretty sure I used to have this one too until I loaned it to someone
who loaned it to someone else and I never saw it again. If it was the same
then the artist was definitely the same artist who did the CP design we've
just discussed -- and it was great too.


> My personal least-favorite cover painting is on my Excession hardback,
> which shows a poorly painted spacecraft made up of lots of dark spheres.
> It looks very shoddy, and fails to capture the size, scale or design of
> Culture starships. (Mind you, has anyone ever managed to do a convincing
> painting or render of a GCU or GSV?).

I wish there was more Culture fan art. I've always quite liked this pic of
the Sleeper Service arriving at the Excession. But what I like about it is
the actual GSV SS and not particularly the other ships or the Excession
itself.

http://www.fastness.co.uk/content/pics/wallp/ss1280.jpg
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