Friday Face-Off: Vintage Sci-Fi
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:
“Live long and prosper.”
~ a cover that is VINTAGE SCI-FI
Mogsy’s Pick:
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
This month we’re honoring vintage sci-fi with a Friday Face-Off theme dedicated to it. Admittedly I’ve not read a lot of classic science fiction so there weren’t too many my choices on my shelf to choose from, but lucky for me there was Foundation and as you would expect there were a lot of editions for this book. Let’s take a look at some of them now:
From left to right:
Doubleday & Company (1951) – Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1953) – Bantam (2004)
Spectra (2004) – Panther Books Limited (1960) – Harper Voyager (2018)
Avon Books (1966) – Voyager (1994) – French Edition (2015)
Spanish Edition (2012) – Lithuanian Edition (2016) – Greek Edition (2012)
Thai Edition (2018) – German Edition (1978) – Korean Edition (2013)
Winner:
I enjoyed how even a lot of the “modern” covers adopt throwback styles this week. Most of the ones I like all fall into this category, and the two that really stuck out for me were the 2018 Harper Voyager and the Lithuanian Edition. Since I can’t choose between them, I’m calling it a tie.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I love the colours of the Lithuanian edition! Would be my choice as well.
All the others are kinda meh 😀
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Yep, great colors, great layout…that’s why I love the Lithuanian edition too!
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The 2018 Harper Voyager 😀
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A fantastic cover!
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Oh, this was total nostalgia. I grew up with Foundation and have seen so many covers of it over the years. Of course, most of the time I see the omnibus of the trilogy since they’re all so short.
Personally, the Doubleday Edition does it for me, but that is pure nostalgia, as that is the cover our library had when I first discovered Foundation in the 7th or 8th grade 😀 😀 😀
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I think that might be the first edition cover! They may have reused that for later editions, but I believe that was the cover which first graced the book 🙂
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Ooh I like the second one a lot! And the Lithuanian is nice too. Those two are my faves. I had the Avon ’66 version from a used bookstore and was not a fan of that cover, didn’t do much for me. 🙂
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The copy I got was the Bantam edition, and can’t say I was a fan of that one either 🙂
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The two that jump out at me are the Spectra and the Spanish edition. This one has a surprising amount of good covers!
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Haha, I did do some curating and chose the best ones to feature. There were a LOT of covers!
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That Korean Edition (2013) reminds me most of the edition I had back in high school, but there’s something about the Lithuanian Edition (2016) that really appeals to me.
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The retro style – gets me every time!
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Probably the Lithuanian one, then the French one I think.
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The French one is pretty cool too! Very modern.
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Lots of cool covers but I have to agree with the two you picked. They are my favorites.
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Yeah, those were the ones that jumped out at me!
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I love the 1951 Doubleday: the vortex/galaxy where the ships seem headed – or maybe drawn irresistibly in – says “space opera” like no other 🙂
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I think that one’s the original first edition too!
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OMG that’s when you see how the cover art has evolved!!!!! And yes I’d go with your pick too!
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Yes, it’s so cool! And I love how even modern artists have vintage style interpretations!
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I like the Greek cover a lot, and also the Spectra cover whose patterns seems to fit well with thoughts of predicting the future. This is one of many books I have on my shelves but have yet to get to. It seems to mock me each time I walk by, taunting me to finally pull it from the shelf. One of these days I do hope to cave to that pressure. 🙂
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Oh you’re right about that! It’s been a while since I read the book, my memories of its themes are a bit spotty, it didn’t even occur to me to consider how well the covers matched the story 🙂
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I like the French, but it needs a better title design
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Agreed, I love the art, but the text kinda ruins it.
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I’ve got the purple and yellow cover that you picked! I think my favourites on here is the red and black Spectra one, and the French edition one!
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Ooh, lucky! I really like that Harper Voyager one, and I agree the French one is nice too (minus the text) 😀
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I love the Harper Voyager 2018 cover – it’s just so bright and I love the colours. It stands out against the darker versions.
Lynn 😀
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Yup, and the color combo definitely helps it stand out too!
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I think I like the purple and yellow one just because of the contrast between the two colors. 🙂
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I agree, it’s very effective! The yellow makes it leap off the shelf.
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i love the variety of all the covers! I think the Spectra 2004 one is my favorite.
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That one is probably my third choice! I love line work and symmetry!
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i’m a sucker for line work and anything remotely stippled.
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I really like the 1966 Avon Books edition. There’s something about that green cover…
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It looks very “classic”…and the green definitely stands out 🙂
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I do like that Lithuanian one; also the Avon and Spectra covers.
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I love the retro look of the 2018 Harper Voyager cover. I’m also fond of the Avon Books cover from 1966 as that’s the one I grew up with. 🙂
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I love the background of the Harper one that you picked but I’m not sure about the rocket on it. I love the other one though and quite like Spectra (2004) too (:
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