Title: Alien Planet
Author: Fletcher Pratt
Cover artist: Ed Emshwiller
Yours for: $11
Best things about this cover:
- In many ways, a rather generic scifi title / cover (I mean, come on, Alien Planet? That's the best you can do?). But all of this intricate techno-organic Rube Goldberg-esque machinery is gorgeous. There's man, there's monster, and then there's the in-between—which I'm gonna call the "Psychotic Fish Rollercoaster."
- Also love the design on the dude's spacesuit. It's ornate, clean, and confectionary. I wanna lick him real bad.
- That monster thingie is super-creepy if you really look at it. Looks like generic "alien" until you notice the humanoid features; that's what makes it really nightmarish. The face. The opposable thumbs. All floating in their own haze of stink. Good stuff.
Best things about this back cover:
- Humanish hands harder to see here. Also, this thing's a lot less scary out of context.
- Apparently this is a "classic novel." I checked the original publication date. 1932.
- I would've sworn "Murashema" had to be based on "Hiroshima," but the original publication date suggests not. Too early for that name to be very evocative in the west.
Page 123~
The big man gave a heave that threw me on my side. I clutched him desperately, but at that moment the prisoner won free, snatched up the javelin and calmly and accurately plunged it into the throat of the man who was now trying to down me.
If unintended sexual subtext is your thing (you know, plunging "javelins" into throats and what not), this is your book. "I shifted position to bring the big man under me," etc. etc.
~RP
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