Fight for the Title

While we’re on the topic of covers (Were we? Well, we always are here), even though it’s not strictly speaking crime fiction, the cover of David Gunn’s latest work of science fiction is confusing enough that it deserves to be mentioned.

The cover is itself fairly innocuous, but the typography is bloody confusing. What is the title of this book? The way it’s set up, it should read Death’s Maximum Offense Head, even if that makes no sense at all. But since there’s no clue as to what to read first on the cover, we don’t know if it’s Maximum Offense: Death’s Head or vice versa. I guess since Gunn “rocketed on the scene” with a book called Death’s Head last year, everyone on the planet (or off of it, since this novel is set on “the hard-boiled planet of Hekati”) is just supposed to be able to figure this out.

On a brighter, lighter note, Gunn wins the prize for most whimsical author bio: “Smartly dressed, resourceful, and discreet, David Gunn has undertaken assignments in Central America, the Middle East, and Russia (among numerous other places),” we’re told in this new novel. Since there’s no photo of the author, we don’t get to judge the “smartly dressed” part. Too bad.