The worst cover art theme in recent memory

[elfs]

The Lost Fleet: Victorious

I'll have a book review for the actual book in a little bit, but I have a gripe about the cover art that I really want to get off my chest.

Take a look at this cover. It shows a man in powered armor holding a big gun. The name tag engraved on the breastplate reads "Geary," and that would serve to indicate that the illustration in meant to be Captain Jack Geary, the hero of the series. Every cover of the series shows Captain Geary armed and usually armored, and at least one shows him on a planet without a helmet on.

The premise of the series is that Jack Geary is rescued from a century-long cryogenic suspension just hours before the fleet that finds him has its entire admirality team killed. A quirk in circumstances makes Captain Geary fleet commander, and worse, he really is the best commander-- a century of warfare has reduced battle competency to near nil. It's his job to get them out of enemy space, and over the course of five books he does that job.

He's fleet commander. Never once does he leave his flagship. Never once does he don armor. Never once does he hold a pistol, much less an assault rifle! In fact, that's a major point of the sixth book-- Geary makes a big deal about how his meeting with the Alliance forces requires him to leave his ship for the first time. Author Jack "No really, it's not Mary Sueism" Campbell is ex-Navy himself and did a fine job of showing the stresses of command-- and the responsibilities, which include not leaving the ship and getting killed.

I mean, who greenlighted the idea that we should pump up the volume on the covers by making the hero a "man of action," dressed as a Marine?

Comments

[kengr]

Well, there's always Steve Barnes first book (Streetlethal?) where the cover clearly shows this white guy who is supposed to be the protagonist... Got him nicely as tough guy who fought his way up on the street.

Only problem is, the protagonist is *black*.

Barnes explains that the publisher insisted saying that with an unknown author having this big, tough *black* guy on the cover would turn away readers.

At least when it was reprinted years later, they did the cover with a black man.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

The thing is, by the third we book the readers understand the premise: it's about the pressures of command, not the act of fighting. By the fourth book, the whole cover art theme is starting to look really, really sad.

Weber & Bujold novels don't show Honor or Miles in powered armor, and they wear it more often that Geary ever does!

[kengr]

Well part of it is marketing idiots. And part of it is the minimal (often *too* minimal) info given to the artist to create the cover.

[l33tminion]

Authors have basically no control over the cover of their books, so the answer to your question is "the marketing department".

Marketing

[(Anonymous)]

Book covers are not there to illustrate the story. They're there to sell the book. If they do that, the authors will be happy.

[spiralsong.livejournal.com]

This has always been one of my pet peeves - how the cover art has a tendency to fail to actually illustrate the character/setting/whatever. Usually it's some small detail that drives me utterly nuts.

[jaqfrog.livejournal.com]

Anyone read Bimbos of the Death Sun? a fun book from the late 80s in which a serious sf author was given a dodgy cover to his book and had to explain it over again whilst on tour at a roleplaying con promoting it (and iirc there was a murder that he got dragged into solving).
Here's the pic of the cover of my copy, but weirdly, the later version has a different one! http://tinyurl.com/39msb34