All Thirteen Episode Covers From The Human Division
Posted on December 8, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 23 Comments
Just in case you wanted to see them all in sequence. You can find them over here in this Flickr set. As a reminder, the cover art is all by John Harris. Enjoy!
(And if for some reason you’re all “Huh? What?”, here’s the most recent update on The Human Division and its episodic nature.)
So? Have a favorite of the covers? Let me know in the comments.
They look wonderful. I can hardly wait!
Agreed, they all look good!
Also agree that they all look good! I’ve a slight preference for ‘We Only Need the Heads’. The ep titles also remind me a bit of Babylon 5 ep titles – I’m sure there are layers of meaning in them that will become apparent when I read the stories.
‘And so it begins…’
You use ROY G. BIV to remember the seven colors in the spectrum. What is the thirteen letter acronym to remember the highlight colors from the book covers?
They’re all quite shiny. If I had to pick one, either “The Back Channel” or “The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads.”
I love all of them, but the that is because I love the style of John Harris. Along with Jim Burns, Harris is my favorite cover artist for science fiction novels. No one else can match them for awe inspiring epic science fictional and space operatic vistas.
Top 3 Human Division covers:
1) The Observers – I love the sense of isolation this one has. It also feels a bit gritty and remote, reminiscent of a ship like the Nostromo from Alien exploring some desolate rock in the uncharted reaches of space.
2) We Only Need The Heads – not only does the title intrigue me, but the city or colony that the spaceship is heading towards looks like it might be a rough and tumble place to get a drink.
3) The Back Channel – possibly alien structures? Either way, very cool looking. I like the mystique and granduer that this one evokes.
They’re all good, but I prefer The B-Team with it’s hanging implication that someone…*cough* *wil* *wheaton* *caugh*…excuse me, must be coming down with something…crashed the ship.
The Dog King with the background silhouette is cool too.
I love that style of cover art, but never knew the name behind it until now. Looking at Harris’s customer list, you’re in pretty impressive company. Does your publisher give you any say in who illustrates the cover? What about overseas publishers? Looks like Harris is British.
He does like playing with scale. I like it, and I suspect it fits with the stories.
They’re all pretty darn cool, but if I HAD to choose just one it would be The Back Channel. Looking forward to the words!
I like “The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads” as a title. And being in Utah I can’t help but laugh at “This Must Be the Place.” “A Voice in the Wilderness” is intriguing, especially with the picture of someone interviewing an empty chair on TV (or some equivalent thereof).
My favorite cover picture is “Back Channel.”
“We Only Need the Heads.” Best title ever. Best line ever. My new favorite quote.
I love John Harris’s work. I like the one for A Voice in the Wilderness, as the subject is generally different than the rest. Otherwise, I enjoy them all.
Flippin sweet.
Shut and take my money. FASTER! :-)
The Observers and Earth Below, Sky Above are the best. The Back Channel is pretty cool too. Woo!
A Voice in the Wilderness is so… different. It’s obviously outer space, but focused just on the person-scale. Earth Below, Sky Above is perfect for The Big Finale.
I love John Harris’s art. When reading your books, I thought that I recognized the style of the cover art from somewhere, but it took me a while to realize that it was from Jack Mcdevitts books. (I love his work too)!
So, when “The human division” comes out as a book, will all these covers be included? I’m sorry, but I am old fashioned, when I read, I want an actual BOOK in my hands!
But I guess that it would be really expensive to print a book with thirteen art prints in it?
Maybe you could have a special limited “fan edition” printed, with all the art, and both you and Mr Harris could sign it, and big fans such as myself could buy it for a shitload of money?
As a kid I drew a lot of rainbows because I had to use all the colors in the box, so I like ALL of them, all lined up like that, together.
I love all of the covers, but my favorite is A Voice in the Wilderness. I think it’s because it’s different than all of the others.
Is the title Earth Below, Sky Above a reference to Coulton’s “First of May”?
No favorite but love the style of the art and the episode titles grab my interest. Nice.
Bloody Amazon. It’s three times as expensive to order a Kindle version for Holland. (It IS cheaper through Amazon Germany but they can’t help me ’cause my Kindle is registered through the USA. Stupid system!)
It would now cost me around 50 dollars for this series – so, I’ll pass, for now…
Jantar:
An entirely reasonable decision.
But I SOOOO hate to be reasonable…
John, your cover artist is AWESOME!