The Left Hand of Darkness: A Comparative Book Cover Analysis

 It’s time for another book cover analysis! I’ve already done two, but I like talking about book covers, ok? If I keep up with this blog this may be the only thing I blog about in the future. I may even transfer my blogs over to a different site and only keep these ones and leave the rest behind.

Today’s choice is The Left Hand of Darkness, which I read last year at the start of the pandemic. It was a birthday gift from my friend. They had to read it in their gender studies class, and she was like “Oh, you know who would enjoy hot takes on gender with an extra helping of sci-fi worldbuilding? Bridgette!” And she was right. Can I tell you anything about the plot? No, but I came for the worldbuilding and I stayed for the worldbuilding. Doesn’t mean the plot wasn’t interesting!

Let’s get on with it, shall we? This is the first cover we’re going to look at. 

            I’ve seen a couple variations of this where the text is pink and the Hugo award sticker was bigger or transparent. I really really love old sci-fi book cover art. This isn’t necessarily because I think they make for good covers, but the art style always feels like a certain amount of effort was put in, and in general they’re usually dynamic and expressive and have a lot of interesting color choices. Mostly they invoke giggles or a sense of “wow this book has to be ridiculous but is trying its utmost to be serious” and sometimes I just really love a book like that.

              This cover in particular I both like and dislike. The art is fantastic to me. The artist at least knows a little bit about the story (that it takes place on a planet called Winter which is made mostly of ice, and the dominant species that lives there, shares a common ancestor with humans, but instead of being messily separated into male and female physiology they are “neutral” for most of the year, but a few days out of the month their bodies change into one or the other). It makes sense that the feminine and masculine faces coming out of the same spike of ice represent that. There doesn’t have to be a literal two-faced statue in the ice. (I will not get into how the features are stereotypical, and my thoughts on “biological” sex and the gender binary because that’s not what we’re here for today).

              I think the author name and title placement leave something to be desired. It’s interesting because it’s not typical placement (ie., either the top or bottom of the cover), but the alignment of angles is kind of messy and weak. The title and ice faces should either be at the same angle or the title should be horizontal across the top so it and the ice faces frame the moon.

Onto the next cover.

Boring. Next.

I’m kidding, I’ll say more. In truth I don’t like this cover very much. It’s solid. We can tell that it’s advertising itself on Ursula K. Le Guin’s name rather than the book title itself, because they are separated and her name is much bigger. The text pulls its color from the image. It’s consistent.

But like I said, it’s boring. It’s a white background with a single image of an iceberg. And if it didn’t tell me twice on the cover in exact words that this was a science fiction novel? I could not have guessed. Without the context of her name or the book title, I would not have judged this book to be the genre that it is. They say don’t judge a book by a cover, but we all do it. Judging a book by it’s cover doesn’t even necessarily mean “oh this cover is bad therefore the book is bad”. Our brains can make split second decisions and assumptions based on what they see and you may want to read this book but your brain has already decided it looks like a war book, or a book about mother/daughter relationship feelings without you making a conscious judgment and then you’ll never pick it up.

This is why book cover design is so important.

I feel like I’ve already made my big point, but there was a third cover I wanted to share so I’ll try to stay brief.

            Now we seem to be back on track. This cover seems to take more inspiration from the title, with it being divided into two halves and one side being dark and the other light. I do have to say the dark side is on the right and that’s a missed opportunity. The background seems to be flecked with stars or snow, and either one works. A couple of the letters on the right side are backwards and I think that’s a fun design choice. This has the energy of a flashy new cover for modern audiences, while still somehow saying “I’m an old sci-fi book” even though it looks nothing like an old sci-fi book.

              Conclusion: Genre matters in cover design! I won’t pick up a science fiction book that has Chicken Soup for the Soul energy because I won’t know it’s a science fiction book!

 

“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” J. R. R. Tolkien