Kitty update - The State Within - ebook cover yuk

[erastes]

I let The Snucius out today. Then I sat there worrying - but they came back! They've been charging in and out of the cat flap like loonies. They love the garden but they love coming back in for a cuddle too! I am so relieved.

More on "The State Within"

It's incredibly topical. A British Muslim man blows up an American flight to London and the plane explodes over Washington. The "shoulder-to-shoulder" attitude between the Americans and the English cracks and accusations are thrown out on both sides. Jason plays a very good part, he seems affable, caring and clever but you get an undercurrent that he's damned intelligent and knows exactly how the game is played. (which of course he does - you don't get to be Ambassador in the USA by kissing babies.)

Sharon Gless plays the secretary of state and she's overtly scary. She takes no bullshit, and she knows exactly what Isaacs' game is.

The Govenor of Virginia starts arresting all British Muslims (there are, according to Isaacs about 4000 of them - travelling, studying, working... ) and soon there are more than 200 in custody, with no right of arrest, no right of counsel - it's Guantanomo all over again. Isaacs is furious but impotent.

Then two young Muslims are killed "resisting arrest" when all they were trying to do (I think) was just trying to get out of the State. I'd be doing the same if I had been them.

I expect fireworks.

Add in to the mix a Brit and an American diplomat who are having a homosexual affair, some sort of conspiracy stuff going on with a British soldier killed on American soil(?) and then dumped into a river, and someone is following Isaacs and taking pictures. There's obviously a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Bloody hell, I hope it continues to be as good as the first episode promised. And WHY didn't I tape it????

*shoots self*

Also Jason is the hotness, proving (as he has been doing for years for those who have been following him) that he can play just about any part you give him. He was phoning a list of the bereaved and (I kid you not) he asked to speak to a "Mr Standish" I nearly died of the squee.

And I've been meaning to ask this for a while but.

WHY do so many e-book publishers have such revolting covers?

Comments

[aunty_marion]

Is The State Within going to be repeated at all - did they say at the end of the episode? I was out last night, and forgot to set the video.

Yay for the Snucius catflapping! More pics?

[kenazfiction.livejournal.com]

Yeesh! Those are *awful*! They're like Sims gone horribly wrong. And even if they were Sims gone horribly *right*, why would I want my book to look like the box of a video game?!

Erotica covers are pretty universally awful, and the gay ones are the worst of the lot. I'm glad Standish hasn't fallen prey to that. I picked up M.J. Pearson's Price of Temptation a while back, which was a fun little diversion, but I couldn't take it out in public with me because I was so horrified by the hilariously grotesque bulges on the Tom of Finland-meets-Fabio cover! I'd rather have my smut between a discreet and unassuming cover, thank you.

State Within

[dubaiyan.livejournal.com]

Bugrit - missed it.

[julesjones]

They have revolting covers because ebooks typically sell a few tens or hundreds of copies, and occasionally a few thousand, in comparison to the tens of thousands of copies the typical romance or sf mass market paperback will sell. That means there isn't the money to pay for an artist's time to do the sort of cover you see on the mass market paperbacks -- see alg's post on profit and loss worksheets for an idea of how much money is spent on those at Tor:
http://alg.livejournal.com/84032.html

Not that the covers on the Big Publishers' books arer always wonderful, as the Smart Bitches like to point out.

[shenya.livejournal.com]

Next year I'm probably going to be tempted to have a go at doing some covers... if I'm not too busy writing :).

I'm getting a scanner from a friend and am currently intending to go back to school next year to do art :P :)

[bloodrebel333.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds interesting. The episode must be at least somewhere on the internet.