Friday Face-Off: Moon
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”
~ a cover featuring the MOON
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Dark Side by Anthony O’Neill
The Dark Side is a gritty, dark, and violent futuristic sci-fi mystery thriller that takes place on the moon. Our protagonist Lieutenant Damien Justus is the patently incorruptible good cop from Earth who has just arrived in the lunar territory known as Purgatory, a place where the shadier your record is the better the chance you’ll flourish and thrive. Its capital, appropriately named Sin, is a haven for criminals and lowlifes who have come to the moon to escape their old lives, but now with a new sheriff in town, their days are numbered. Justus is here to clean up Purgatory, and to him, no one is above the law. Almost immediately, he’s tasked to investigate a string of assassinations targeting the movers and shakers of lunar society.
Meanwhile though, far from Purgatory in the Seidel Crater, a black-haired, black-eyed, black-tied, black-suited homicidal android takes his first steps towards self-discovery and a two-thousand kilometer journey of death and destruction. What does a psycho-killer robot murdering his way across the lunar landscape have to with Justus’ investigation? Ah, wouldn’t you like to know…but now, it’s cover time:
From left to right, top to bottom: English (2016) – Hungarian (2017) – German (2017) – Spanish (2017) – Chinese(2017)
Winner:
My winner is the Hungarian edition, because how can you look at that and not wonder what the hell is going on in that picture? It’s also a very good depiction of the creepy, crazy, completely homicidal Mr. Black as he stalks his way silently across the desolate lunar surface.
What do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Wow that’s an interesting synopsis! And I love that cover with him leaving a blood trail behind! That one is definitely awesome, I wouldn’t mind having that on my shelf. The english cover is okay and I like the Chinese cover also.
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The premise is pretty insane! I haven’t even scratched the surface of how psychotic and creepy Mr. Black is! 😀
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I agree with you, my fave is the Hungarian one as well!
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It’s the most eye catching, I think 🙂
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The bloody one for me too
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Definitely a popular one this week!
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I must admit I’m not a great fan of any of the options! If I had to pick I’d go with the bloody one.
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I like that it makes people do a double take and go “Just what the hell is going on there!?” 🙂
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I liked the chinese cover.
And hurray for psychopathic killer androids! Just what the world needs in this day and age, when heroes are few and far between 🙂
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Mr. Black kind of reminded me of some of Ridley Scott’s androids from the Alien franchise. Like David from Prometheus, except 100x more bloodthirsty and psychotic.
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Sounds like the Brass Man in Neal Asher’s Polity universe…
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I haven’t read this but I love the Hungarian cover as well. Very creepy!
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Yes, kudos to the designer of that cover, it’s very striking and unsettling!
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Agree with the Hungarian cover hands down. Also, love the Sin pun for the name of the capital city.
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Yeah, the moon is not a very pleasant place to be in that book 🙂
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Even before scrolling down to see your choice, my attention was grabbed by that same cover. Arresting, indeed….
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Seems like it’s the unanimous choice this week!
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Pingback: The Friday Face-Off: Shoot For The Moon – Books by Proxy
This is cool meme ☺️
That synopsis grabs my attention and your pick with the bloody trail on the moon is chilling. I like it and the Chinese cover. Both would catch my attention. The English cover is just ok. Thanks for sharing 😊
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Yeah, compared to some of the other ones, the English one just seems a tad…mundane, you know? Definitely some of the international covers are more interesting and eye catching.
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This sounds like a good read 😀 I LOVE the Hungarian cover – it immediately draws the eye… and that creepy blood trail… awesome! I love those vivid blues in the Chinese cover too. Great picks! 😀
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I agree, I love the Hungarian cover but some of the other covers also do some amazing things with their color schemes!
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I love the Hungarian cover – it really makes you take a good look doesn’t it!
Lynn 😀
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It does! That blood trail just immediately draws the eye and makes you think, “WTF is going on?!”
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I LOVE that blood streak! Has me thinking of sci-fi murder! As because it’s a guy in a suit walking on the moon, I’m feeling a pinch of a horrish theme too 😉
However, I actually like the Chinese cover more XD
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There is a strong horror vibe to this book, but it’s also as you say, a sci-fi noir murder mystery 🙂
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The only one I’m not really into is the German one. It’s so rare to get so many really good looking covers for one book! It’s probably a sign that I should read the book, right? 😉
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Yeah, it’s nice that they’re all very strong covers this week. Usually I have trouble picking my favorite for these Friday Face-Offs because the choices are all so blah! 😀
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Ooo what a creepy pick! I like it, definitely intriguing. I think if I had to choose a personal favourite though I’d probably go with the Chinese edition (just because I like the composition and the font, and the faint grid pattern)… though the flare/light in the German one is nice too.
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That Hungarian cover is wicked cool.
Def prefer that one.
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