Excluding the covers from Ender's Game... I have the boxed set of the Ender series, including Speaker for the Dead, Xenovide, and Children of the Mind. I've been puzzling over this for a while, and thought that maybe I could finally put this to rest once and for all.
What, exactly, is each cover representing? Here's my description of each of them:
Speaker for the Dead A ridiculously high skyscraper in the foreground, with bulges every few stories or so. I see at least four starships around it, so maybe it's a starport? It has a flashing red light at the top, and there are some bright red lines in the ground that leads up to it. There seems to be a city far, far off in the distance, which is just a closely grouped together jumble of white lights. My guess: Either a Lusitania or Trondheim starport, but I can't be sure.
Xenocide Looks sort of like a zooming-in of Speaker for the Dead. You see what looks like a manmade cliff on the right, made of a sort of black metal. Has green indentations in it, and I see a red light on a few parts of it. Next to it is a golden starship, which seemst to be flying off into the darkness.
Children of the Mind In the background, I see a very big planet/moon, the same blue-ish color of the background sky. In this, you see a large yellow white and red structure, asymmetrical, which a few devices on it. might be a starship, though if it is, it seemst o be facing upwards. It's in a bowl in the ground, which steam coming out of about three areas in it. There seems to be a tower of some sort (a control tower?) standing right next to the bowl. There is also a starship flying towards it. There is a red groove in the ground that leads toward the tower. Also, in the backgorund, there may be a city, based on the numerous white dots in the distance. This could be a starport, but overall, I have no idea.
So, any ideas?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I don't think they're representing anything exactly. They are generic science fiction covers.
Posted by TheDisgruntledPostman (Member # 7200) on :
yea, im going to agree with mr_porteiro, im sure they have some semblance to the story in some way, but they're more of a scienc fiction fishing line, trying to catch an eager readers eye
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I thought we were going to get a link to Fiona Apple's version of "Xenocide".
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
Orson Scott Card put a lot of time, energy, and artistic meaning behind those covers. Don't knock them just because you can't comprehend his brilliance in allegory and metaphor.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Mr. Card had nothing to do with the covers. He didn't pick them, design them, or ok them. The publishers decided what they would be and that is what they are.
They don't have anything to do with the books, they are just meant to life science-fiction-ish and catch the eye.
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
That's right. OSC has explained before, the publisher just took some generic sci-fi images that they had on file and used them for the covers since they are sci-fi books.
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :