The Friday Face-Off was created by Books by Proxy, where each week bloggers can showcase books with covers centered around a weekly theme. You can visit Lynn’s Books for a list of upcoming themes. Join in the fun each Friday by finding a book whose cover is based on the theme!
This week’s theme: A classic sci-fi cover
Oh so many choices this week! I decided to select The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, a true classic that was originally published in 1898. As you can imagine, there were plenty of cover choices to compare, over 4,000 editions on Goodreads, in fact! Here is a small selection of those. My focus was on vintage-looking covers, take a look:
1993 Tor Classics | 2012 Atria Books | 1986 Signet Classics
2017 Turkish edition | 2017 Gollancz | 2018 Polish edition
2005 French edition | 2005 Spanish edition | Arabic edition
2014 AD Classic | 2016 Portuguese edition | 2014 Classics to Go
I think these two are my favorite, although this is tough because I love a lot of these. Purely for the artwork, I’m loving the AD Classic, although the title is ridiculously small. And overall I think the Tor Classics edition is very strong.
The copy I own is the 1986 Signet Classic so that one is a sentimental favorite, but I really love the artwork on that 1993 Tor.
I have so many books that I love just because of the sentimental associations:-)
The Tor Classic is a good one: the Martian machines with the spindly legs are always my favorite, and for this reason I also like the Atria Books edition, with that dark coloring that intensifies the dramatic effect
I love the aliens/machines! So creepy but effective.
LOVE this. I just taught about WOTW in my Imagining Human Rights class, looking at human rights through the lens of speculative fiction. I shared this post with the students. Duke also has a marvelous French edition with superior illustrations. Here’s a glimpse: https://sites.duke.edu/europeanfiction/2019/12/20/h-g-wells-the-war-of-the-worlds-technology-and-its-role-in-our-world-by-preethi-k/
Thanks Robin! There were so many covers out there to choose from! I didn’t even have time to see them all. I love that French edition, though, thanks for the link!
If I were browsing the used bookstore and knew nothing about the book, that 1993 Tor Classics cover would be an instant must-read.
Me too! It’s so “classic” and so well done.
It’s super hard to pick a favorite cover this week! But I think I would go for the last cover, the 2014 Classics to Go one. I really like how it looks!
This is a really strong collection of covers, Tammy – but my favourite is the top right-hand cover. I love the fact that it features the red weed…
Some really great covers. I really like the Atria and Spanish ones.
The Green Turkish version . . .
I’m really leaning towards that Tor Classics cover with the great text and that energy beam. It’s interesting to see all the different interpretations, many of which still retain a lot of similarity.
Yes, there are a lot! I was about to go with this one too, but then there were too many covers to comb though. I think you picked the two best though!
One of your favourites – the Tor Classic. Brilliant cover.
Lynn
These face-off posts are so fun! I like the Polish edition because the title is easy to read and because the artwork is retro-looking that suits the vintage of the story.
I really like the Turkish cover!
Oooh, War of the Worlds is a great choice as far as classic sci-fi covers go! I’ve definitely never seen all of these. I think the Classics to Go cover is my favorite! It’s so colorful and yet also oddly threatening.
It would be so hard for me to pick from these because I love all of them (although generally, the pulpier the better haha).
I think this was a great pick for FFO, so many wonderful country-wise covers to choose from. My own favorite is the 2018 Polish edition, but I guess that gives a folktale-effect to the book. Not quite what the story is going for, eh?