Black Holes Are Strange Little Robots, by Xaviera P. Gomez

February 15, 2022 12:53 PM

Title ideas for my science fiction novel. Something more mysterious or something less obvious. Lewis Hackett (Twitter) uses several applications to help him create new paperback covers of 1970s science fiction.

Other notable titles include The Great Spacious, One Telling Ten Thousand, The Moon is Just Sunlight, and Green Glass is the Color of the Wind.

posted by doctornemo (6 comments total)

New art new art! I’ve seen only a handful of GAN stuff, but it seems like a pathway to some really, really interesting things, aesthetically*, and I’m excited as an art-enjoyer to see where it goes!

*e.g. the music-plus-audio in seeming endless loop by Hackmans in the top link, of “cyberpunk bedroom at night” - I find that clip SO interesting to look at and think about.)
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 2:33 PM on February 15, 2022

These covers looks like things recovered from dreams. Like, if you had a dream where you went to a dusty old book store and you took home a bunch of 1970s sci-fi books with weird melty covers and titles that don't quite make sense, and then you woke up and those dream books were really there on your nightstand, these would be those books. (Warning: Reading these books will inevitably break down the boundaries between our worlds so the Dream People will escape and make our reality a melty sci-fi nightmare too. Note that there are some who insist this process is already well underway.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:34 PM on February 15, 2022 [6 favorites]

"The Moon Is Just Sunlight" is a pretty great title. I mean, I get it.
posted by glonous keming at 2:55 PM on February 15, 2022 [8 favorites]

Ursula Hitler, that's nearly a plot device in an early James Blaylock novel. Characters figure out a kind of teleportation via concentrating on sf paperback covers.
posted by doctornemo at 3:24 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

These covers are kind of interesting, because they capture the general tone of 1970s cover artists. But, while they have composition, they lack intelligent composition. While they have color, they lack a cohesive palette. While they have elements (big head, red sun, distant city), they lack any story.

The best artists of that era, you can recognize their work at a glance, despite a certain general design language they share. Richard M. Powers, Paul Lehr, John Schoenherr, Ed Emshwiller, John Harris, Jack Gaughan.
posted by jabah at 4:05 PM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

I am afraid there are way too many womens’ names on these to be SF from the 70s…. Maybe they are from a happier past?
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:20 AM on February 16, 2022