Survival Arts

Koman's book still pretty hard to come by in London

I have to agree with Russell's earlier posting about the Koman book cover and the lackluster marketing of the book itself. I tried to get the book on Amazon.co.uk, and it wasn't even listed. So I ended up going to a Barnes and Noble site instead, and to be fair they shipped it over pretty fast.

Book covers do make a big difference, to state the obvious. I quite like the cover on Kings of the High Frontier but I agree that the cover could be a lot better. The covers on books by folk like Vernor Vinge, Peter Hamilton or David Brin are in a different class, and draw the readers in. Also, SF art is still a much under-appreciated art form in its own right.

Perhaps, in the light of the current flurry of interest in what we do next about space travel and commercial development up there, there may be more interest in Koman getting a decent publisher with more flair and drive. It bugs me that his magnificent book was so hard to find while there is so much garbage on our bookshelves here in Britain and elsewhere.

I once went into a huge Waterstones bookshop here in Chelsea and there was not a single work by Heinlein, Anderson (Poul) or Larry Niven on the shelves. It's a bit like going to a classics section and seeing nothing by Hugo or Tolstoy. How the hell are young people going to get inspired by science and technology if there isn't the fiction out there to whet their appetites? After all, I am pretty sure many of the astronauts in the 1960s and subsequent decades first got their taste for their activities by reading a book by Heinlein or a Buck Rogers comic strip.

However, we Londoners can seek solace in The Forbidden Planet bookstore in New Oxford Street and Babylon 5!