I’m starting to feel my role, here, is to provide balance: Lou lays before you excellent cover after excellent cover. It’s going to get cloying unless every now and again I toss in a cover that’s, well, not quite so excellent.
Today’s example comes via the estimable John Holbo, who calls it ‘a fun take on the Aldous Huxley classic’ and ‘a tarted-up middlebrow style of cover design.’ That’s philosophers for you. ‘Fun’? That lady’s dress is clearly on fire. Where’s the fun in that? You’d need to have a cruel sense of humour indeed to find any fun at all in such a scenario. Of course, every cloud, even a cloud of smoke, has a silver lining: and in this case the blaze has at least resulted in a blush-sparing smoke loincloth for the nude geezer. But this doesn’t address the key questions, viz: what’s up with the lady’s left armpit? Why are they stepping through the gateway from The City On The Edge Of Forever? What’s with the giant crystal wurlitzer in the background? What has any of this to do with the novel, at all?