I love this line of covers for a UK publisher's re-issue of sci-fi classics: their simplicity underscores the stark, anxious, fractured psychological underpinnings of futuristic fiction.
As author Stephen Baxter told New Scientist, "Science fiction has rarely been about the prediction of a definite future, more about the anxieties and dreams of the present." That's why covers that cater to indulgences (lush technicolored paintings of muscular space barbarians defending busty astronaut ladies from tentacled aliens, etc.) are fun, yet leave me feeling too often that the author's vision has been betrayed.
To make artist Sanda Zahirovic's cover designs doubly good, they're made the old-fashioned way, of cut paper. I'm left with the impression that the story I'm about to read is hiding an ominous, explosive subtext, and if I rip the page just a little, it'll all burst out.
Thanks to Rhett for this find!
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Truly inspired work. It is a breath of fresh air for sci-fi book covers too. The only drawback is that I almost want to see more of her work rather than read the books!
Those are very striking... I particularly like the one for Ringworld(even if it actually depicts Great Stellated Dodecahedronworld).