Friday Face-Off: Game or Puzzle
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:
“Oh, we loves games! Doesn’t we, precious?”
~ a cover featuring a GAME OR PUZZLE
Mogsy’s Pick:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Did someone say “Game”? I have just the book! Ready Player One is a sci-fi dystopian set in the year 2044, and the world has become a very grim place. However, a man by the name of James Halliday has created a virtual world known as the OASIS which people can plug into and escape their daily troubles. Upon his death, Halliday revealed that he has hidden the key to his vast fortune somewhere inside the OASIS, and our protagonist Wade Watts is determined to find it first. He has devoted the last five years studying all facets of Halliday’s life, hoping to glean something from the man’s obsession with 1980’s pop culture which would help Wade navigate the puzzles inside the virtual world.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of every available cover for this book (there are just way too many), but I’ve rounded up some of the more popular ones and those that are more puzzle-y or game-y.
From left to right, top to bottom:
Crown (2011) –Broadway Books (2012) – Cornerstone Digital (2011)
Czech Edition (2012) –Estonian Edition (2017) – Finnish Edition (2012)
French Edition (2013) –French Edition (2015) – German Edition (2012)
Spanish Edition (2011) –Norwegian Edition (2011) – Portuguese Edition (2016)
Serbian Edition (2011) – Romanian Edition (2016) – Turkish Edition (2016)
Winner:
Truth is, there was ever only one possible winner for me this week. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Broadway Books edition, which captures the gritty reality of Wade’s world. Sure, it’s not as awe-inspiring or glamorous as anything you can find inside the OASIS, but that’s part of why I like it so much.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Portugese edition!
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I have to say that one’s damn cool! 😀
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Same, all other ones are boring and that head is just scary
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LOL, the maze brain 😛
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Holy smokes, I felt like I was looking at an old arcade 😀
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I think that’s what the publishers wanted 😀
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Have they NO shame?! *strikes dramatic pose*
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Again I didn’t know that this one was translated in French. I think my fave is Cornerstone Digital (2011)
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This one was translated into more languages than I expected!
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I like the one with Pac Man and the ghosts…I was addicted to playing that!
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Ah, classic Pac Man! 😀
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I actually like the French Pac Man edition but I think it’s because it reminds me of the 80’s.
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I agree, the 80s arcade nostalgia covers are super effective.
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The covers featuring elements from older arcade games are intriguing: they somehow suggest that the story might not be a fun game for the characters… 🙂
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Haha imagine playing the “real life” version of the classic game Joust! 😀
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Lots of good covers. I like the Broadway edition, but the video gamey ones get my attention too. I especially like the PAc Man one (awesome) and the Space Invader- themed ones too. And I actually really like the Romanian edition!
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The classic video game covers are definitely better than the “maze” or “puzzle” covers. I think they better reflect the book too.
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The broadway edition was the one I opened in a Loot Crate
a few years ago. I would rather receive a good novel over a
lot of the plastic junk they put in those boxes these days.
If you want to see people staring into the Oasis, look no
farther than your nearest “smart” phone… very scary.
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I agree, the best things to come out of my loot crates these days are the shirts. All the plastic toys go to my kids to play with 😀
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Ooh yes, I have a soft spot for that cover too!
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It’s so atmospheric!
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Yeah, that’s the cover for me! I own the red and yellow hardback, and was super upset when I first saw a paperback with the trailer-park cover – it’s just so … evocative of the world everyone is escaping via OASIS. Book cover design at it’s best! 🙂
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Agreed! And I geeked out when I saw the stacked trailers in the movie trailer too!
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