Friday Face-Off: Snake
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:
“Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.”
~ a cover featuring a SNAKE
Mogsy’s Pick:
Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton
I really wish I could erase these books from my mind, but this one came in handy today. Circus of the Damned is the third book of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series which was shortly before they turned into wall-to-wall bad porn. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting covers I’ve found for this book:
From left to right, top to bottom:
Ace (1995) – Berkley Books (2009) – Headline (2009)
Jove (2002) – Berkley Paperback (2007) – French Edition (2009)
Czech Edition (2007) – Czech Edition (2007) – Italian Edition (2006)
Turkish Edition (2009) – Portuguese Edition (2011) – Spanish Edition (2008)
German Edition (2005) – Greek Edition (2008) – Russian Edition (2010)
Winner:
My winner was chosen today because I have a weakness for circus motifs – anything to do with carnival marquee posters, flashy flyers and big top tents…you’ve got my attention.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Mogsyyyy! I so agree with erasing the books and them becoming bad porn around that time! That’s the only time in all my reader’s where I scolded an author very hard. I hate bashing but I was not far from that as I was furious how she mocked her readers
LikeLike
Wow, I did not know she mocked her readers! That’s so wrong!
LikeLike
I say French, but none would make me pick one up
LikeLike
The French is quite elegant at least, in its seductiveness.
LikeLike
Your choice and the French version – but then given your comments about this series turning into bad porn that cover seems a bit more erotic – and was maybe an indication o how the series was going to develop.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
The series has always been romance-y/erotic from the start, but at least the first few books had a story, lol. The later books though, they went full on sex and no plot
LikeLike
I don’t really like any of these covers! I liked the early books but stopped when it turned porn. It got really bad!
LikeLike
I agree! I think I stopped at around book 6, when it started getting really bad. No more!
LikeLike
Seriously, that was the one that caught my attention too. I kind of turned against this series around book 9. It became too much for me. And I really liked it which was sad. Now what about that first Czech edition? How utterly disturbing is that????
LikeLike
Haha, I almost chose the Czech edition. Yes, it’s disturbing, but it was also very eye-catching 😀
LikeLike
The French edition is catching my eye, I love the snake curled around her leg. I’m not sure I ever got this far in the series!
LikeLike
Hahaha, I didn’t make it much further.
LikeLike
I have that cover on my copy – it was a gift, honest! And yes, series started okay but turned pretty dreadful. I don’t even mind the not-so-soft-porn, but the way the story starts vaguely interesting, descends into… whatever… then “… oh, and the mystery turned out to be x, case solved!” – argh!
LikeLike
Yes, you’re totally right about the plot! I always hated that about the series, even when the books were halfway decent. The story always started well and then it would devolve into a chaotic mess that didn’t make any sense at all! And then somehow the mystery would be solved, just because! After the series became all about sex and threw all plot out the window, I just gave up!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like your choice: it does have a sort of twisted feel, like a circus image seen through the eyes of Stephen King, if I’m making any sense… 😀 And the French cover is another great one.
LikeLike
The French cover seems popular this week! I suppose it’s quite tantalizing 🙂
LikeLike
So many to pick from, but I loved the one you picked the best. The colors/layout are very striking
LikeLike
And I liked that it was one of the few that went with more simplistic symbolism!
LikeLike
Ooh some of these are freaky. I like the circus one too, and I kind of like the Ace edition too- it has a throwback look almost. The Turkish edition scares me lol, and I like the French edition too.
LikeLike
Yeah the Ace was the original first edition. It does look quite retro, even though it came out in the mid-90s!
LikeLike
I have a love hate relationship with this series. It started off so good! And I didn’t even mind when the relationship stuff started. And even some of the kink stuff later on. But at a certain point Anita stopped being Anita. She even ruined Edward! And then it just became erotica without any other plot. Some part of me still wants to catch up with this series just because I’m a bit of a completionist (and a glutton for punishment apparently lol).
Anywho. Out of the covers, I really love the originals. I had all the originals too from back in the day but lent someone my copy of Guilty Pleasures and never got it back and am still salty about that.
LikeLike
Gah, people who borrow books and never return them drive me crazy. I imagine that 1st original edition of Guilty Pleasures would be tough to get these days too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, it’s super annoying.
LikeLike