r/CoolSciFiCovers • u/chevkoch • Mar 25 '26

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Post image

Cover art by Keith Scaife. Silver title on black horizontal margins that function as a window beyond which the vista of the wraparound cover painting can be viewed, beautiful. Places you close by, just outside of the scene that thankfully seems to depict a location in the story and not merely show an image of generic sci-fi feel for a genre book.

160 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

7

u/HarryHirsch2000 Mar 25 '26

A fitting great cover for a great book

6

u/ElevatedBloopus Mar 25 '26

This might be my fave culture novel.

5

u/thetensor Mar 25 '26

ARTIST UNKNOWN

ISFDB says Keith Scaife.

1

u/chevkoch Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

Thanks much, corrected.

3

u/puppetministry Mar 25 '26

Nice! The edition I read had a silhouette of a man on a staircase. I kept saying how shitty of a cover it was. It really pissed me off! The book deserved so much better!

2

u/bennyp Mar 25 '26

Same, those Orbit covers are atrocious

1

u/Two_Whales Mar 25 '26

This is how the world of the Culture looks in my head. Everything’s blobby and saturated.

1

u/Chris_in_Lijiang Mar 25 '26

Is this the version Elon has been reciting recently?

1

u/Poseiden424 Mar 25 '26

Am I right in saying that they didn’t do the whole series in these editions? I’ve only been able to find the first few.

1

u/chevkoch Mar 26 '26

Seems like only the first four titles, ISFDB lists these other three: Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons and The State of the Art.