Cover art by Some Nameless Typesetter - - who has also done covers for far too many books. Cover art doesn't have to be complicated to be good, but dark textured metal alone does not a quality cover make.
Here's the cover:
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I realize that this is a Ludlum series (he does the Jason Bourne stuff, among others), but is it really necessary to have his name on the cover twice? It takes up a huge amount of real estate on the cover, and when you think about it, this book was probably written completely by Philip Shelby, with Ludlum doing maybe an outline, if that.
Clearly, the publisher has the impression that espionage covers can't have any style, art, or oomph to them at all. How about a sexy spy on the cover, at least? An explosion? A sexy exploding spy? But no. The sad part is, some poor slob went to art school for 12 years and probably was told "Hey, take Tuesday and churn out 40 covers for next year's espionage line." Sad sad.
Awful cover, an example of everything that shouldn't be done.
1 out of 10
1 comment:
I have to say, I really like the concept of a book cover review. I'll have to poke around your blog and read the others!
I just read the Bourne Identity for the first time. My copy has a movie image on it. I hate it when they do that! I usually go out of my way to find original cover art, but this was a library book, so I let it slide.
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