Eye Candy Covers: The Islanders by Christopher Priest

Eye candy covers! There was no post about covers here on RoSF in two years or so, because - actually, I have no idea why. (Probably because Thrinidir did those, and Thrinidir does not contribute to this blog as much as he used to.)
Anyway, I think it's about time to resurrect this column, because everyone loves a nice cover.


The Islanders by Christopher Priest is probably my most-awaited book of 2011. (Yes, I'm anticipating it even more than ADwD, simply because I won't believe that ADwD is finished until I hold it in my hands.*) Here's the working image for its cover:


Damn. This is hardly an eye candy. As Adam noted, it's very retro; my problem is that I don't like retro at all. I like the Gollancz paperback covers of Priest's books; they are elegant and pretty:

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This one, however ... I really hope they change it. If I saw The Islanders in a bookshop, I'd walk straight past it with a cover like that - to me, it seems to scream 'BORING'. It also looks a bit like the books my mother read when I was a kid, which is in fact probably one of the reasons why I think 'boring' when I see it.


Source: The Wertzone


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* Not that this has prevented me from pre-ordering it

Snippy Snippets: "The Separation" by Christoper Priest

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"The Separation" by CHRISTOPER PRIEST is a prime example of great and mind-boggling alternative history fiction. You get caught up in a story narrated by two identical twins through their journals and a few external publications on the lives of the two. The story is about the lives of Jack (the bomber pilot) and Joe L. Sawyer (the pacifist ambulance driver) during the WWII England. They have a love-hate relationship and they are both in love with the same woman. The war and their personal differences separate them, but as we follow their journal entries and external ("objective") facts are introduced along the way via newspaper articles and other official publications, we realize that a lot of the information we picked up along the way really contradicts itself. Priest does not spoon-feed the reader with the right answers, but leaves you to juggle with your thoughts and come up with a reasonable explanation for what was really going on. The writing is superb as well. A great page-turner even though the book offers limited action. If you want a breezy read full of adventure this probably isn't it, but what it offers is high quality drama, a well-written and highly enjoyable prose (the red herrings and the conflicting facts are masterfully woven into the fable so they don't disrupt the flow of the novel at all), and a sharp mind to connect the dots at the end to come up with an answer for the factual discrepancies. A great, heartily recommended read! Somewhere in between 4/5 and 4.5/5.

- Thrinidir -