I keep reading “Q” where all the capital “O” letters are. And the thetas. That are probably supposed to be “O” also. But they look like thetas to me. And why is the 1 in “Book 1” in superscript?
This book is starting to remind me of math.
Catie
9 years ago
You mean “The Sq£ufiqnisf”?
invader
9 years ago
Do I see a teeny tiny Wolfie making an appearance there?
Oh, shoot, I didn’t even look at the hot mess downstairs, I was too mesmerized by the font. I have no idea what the box shape is, but there’s a snake head, smaller snakes and a horde of rats that seem to stand against the two or more wolf shapes, or maybe polar bears. Don’t know why would snakes and rats stand together since snakes eat rats, but the whole image is pretty well done considering it’s painted solely from the flames. Too bad the font and that head up there are ruining the cover.
That box is the Kaaba – the point in Mecca towards which Muslims pray. The thing is, it’s the wrong Kaaba – the book appears to be set 609 BC but the image is of the current Kaaba (it’s been reconstructed several times) and it wasn’t covered with those black drapes ’til about 100 years ago.
I was afraid of that. Historical book cover artists ought do some research, especially if the book author did their research properly. There are enough readers who expect historical fiction to have the history right (even in alternate history fantasy).
So it’s a book with an Islamic theme? The crosses in the font made me think it’s Christian. Maybe it’s a mix of both. But if it’s not, that makes the font doubly inappropriate.
Well, it’s set 600 odd years before Christianity and a full millennium before Islam was founded – so I’m guessing the author is basing his book on old Middle Eastern mythology.
The Kaaba predates Islam and the cross predates Christianity so, in theory, either could be appropriate – if they were used correctly.
Honestly, the way the Kaaba is depicted on this cover makes it look like a grossly overweight Tardis with a va-jay-jay.
Those vermin seem to be suicidal. Maybe they’re a hybrid…rats crossed with Lemmings. When they get depressed, they look for the giant Snakie with the Tardis-con-vajayjay. I’m pretty sure that the average vermin-ish rat wouldn’t hang out with that snake, to deploy my keen scientific knowledge.
(And don’t get me started about the damned fonts. That’s font abuse of the first order.)
One big snake, lots of headless snakes that might just be the big snake’s body, lots and lots of rats and two whitish wolves or perhaps polar bears. At least that’s what I see.
Catie
9 years ago
Do you find these reviews a bit weird? All four five star reviews are well written, like they’ve been written by professional reviewers. The first three reviewers have reviewed a whole ton of books and they’re all five star reviews except one single four star review each. What are the statistical odds for that? Either those people are very lucky to find only excellent books to read or they have very low standards. Or, there’s something else going on. All three of them have added most of those reviews in a very short period of time, some 3 or 4 books a day. They must be very fast readers. The books they’ve reviewed, again, have only five star reviews, with one four star here and there. The fourth reviewer’s account has only three reviews, but it looks as if it’s on it’s way to become very similar to the other three. This book was published in December last year, but all four reviewers are from 4-9 January. Seriously, what are the chances that a book would find three readers that only give five star reviews in a span of six days, and nothing before or after?
Similar to the Mid Atlantic Review cover blurbs? Rave cliches without detail indicating they had read the books in question? I have had suspicions that supporters/panners for-hire roam the web.
Don’t know about Mid Atlantic, but yeah, all the reviews praise the plot, characters and pacing without actually saying anything about characters and pacing. I’ve read the preview and it’s terribly underwhelming. The scary thing is, there’s so many of these five star books, just look at the “customers also bought” section. All five stars. I took a peak in few of them as well. Some are so laden with exposition that I imagine a real reader would sooner blow his brains out than read it, and some are horribly unedited–just that would knock the stars down considerably. Is there a way to report these reviews?
Looks like someone is making good business. The second one has 225 customers. Unbelievable. Some authors would do better to spend their money on some of those services below like cover design and keyword optimization, they’d probably bring more sales than obviously fake reviews.
red
9 years ago
The SQLUTIQNIST – Specializing in database exorcism.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/cover120.jpg)
I don’t know but the term “Solutionist” sounds a bit too much like Total Quality Management Corpospeak for 609 BC.
I keep reading “Q” where all the capital “O” letters are. And the thetas. That are probably supposed to be “O” also. But they look like thetas to me. And why is the 1 in “Book 1” in superscript?
This book is starting to remind me of math.
You mean “The Sq£ufiqnisf”?
Do I see a teeny tiny Wolfie making an appearance there?
Oh, shoot, I didn’t even look at the hot mess downstairs, I was too mesmerized by the font. I have no idea what the box shape is, but there’s a snake head, smaller snakes and a horde of rats that seem to stand against the two or more wolf shapes, or maybe polar bears. Don’t know why would snakes and rats stand together since snakes eat rats, but the whole image is pretty well done considering it’s painted solely from the flames. Too bad the font and that head up there are ruining the cover.
That box is the Kaaba – the point in Mecca towards which Muslims pray. The thing is, it’s the wrong Kaaba – the book appears to be set 609 BC but the image is of the current Kaaba (it’s been reconstructed several times) and it wasn’t covered with those black drapes ’til about 100 years ago.
I was afraid of that. Historical book cover artists ought do some research, especially if the book author did their research properly. There are enough readers who expect historical fiction to have the history right (even in alternate history fantasy).
So it’s a book with an Islamic theme? The crosses in the font made me think it’s Christian. Maybe it’s a mix of both. But if it’s not, that makes the font doubly inappropriate.
Well, it’s set 600 odd years before Christianity and a full millennium before Islam was founded – so I’m guessing the author is basing his book on old Middle Eastern mythology.
The Kaaba predates Islam and the cross predates Christianity so, in theory, either could be appropriate – if they were used correctly.
Honestly, the way the Kaaba is depicted on this cover makes it look like a grossly overweight Tardis with a va-jay-jay.
Those vermin seem to be suicidal. Maybe they’re a hybrid…rats crossed with Lemmings. When they get depressed, they look for the giant Snakie with the Tardis-con-vajayjay. I’m pretty sure that the average vermin-ish rat wouldn’t hang out with that snake, to deploy my keen scientific knowledge.
(And don’t get me started about the damned fonts. That’s font abuse of the first order.)
No, no Wolfie. That’s Snakey.
One big snake, lots of headless snakes that might just be the big snake’s body, lots and lots of rats and two whitish wolves or perhaps polar bears. At least that’s what I see.
Do you find these reviews a bit weird? All four five star reviews are well written, like they’ve been written by professional reviewers. The first three reviewers have reviewed a whole ton of books and they’re all five star reviews except one single four star review each. What are the statistical odds for that? Either those people are very lucky to find only excellent books to read or they have very low standards. Or, there’s something else going on. All three of them have added most of those reviews in a very short period of time, some 3 or 4 books a day. They must be very fast readers. The books they’ve reviewed, again, have only five star reviews, with one four star here and there. The fourth reviewer’s account has only three reviews, but it looks as if it’s on it’s way to become very similar to the other three. This book was published in December last year, but all four reviewers are from 4-9 January. Seriously, what are the chances that a book would find three readers that only give five star reviews in a span of six days, and nothing before or after?
Similar to the Mid Atlantic Review cover blurbs? Rave cliches without detail indicating they had read the books in question? I have had suspicions that supporters/panners for-hire roam the web.
Don’t know about Mid Atlantic, but yeah, all the reviews praise the plot, characters and pacing without actually saying anything about characters and pacing. I’ve read the preview and it’s terribly underwhelming. The scary thing is, there’s so many of these five star books, just look at the “customers also bought” section. All five stars. I took a peak in few of them as well. Some are so laden with exposition that I imagine a real reader would sooner blow his brains out than read it, and some are horribly unedited–just that would knock the stars down considerably. Is there a way to report these reviews?
Check out some of these “gigs” offered on fiverr.com
Looks like someone is making good business. The second one has 225 customers. Unbelievable. Some authors would do better to spend their money on some of those services below like cover design and keyword optimization, they’d probably bring more sales than obviously fake reviews.
The SQLUTIQNIST – Specializing in database exorcism.