In which she investigates bookcovers

[zeborah]

I got some bookvouchers for Christmas (which, to jump to the end of the story, the bookshop hesitated over accepting because the issuing bookshop had neglected to write the date of issue on them. I think they eventually decided to write the date of Christmas on them themselves) so I went to the local bookstore to browse their sf.

Having in mind the controversy over the latest whitewashed Bloomsbury cover (I guess it's progress that they seem to have responded more quickly this time than last? Also it's nice that that's an actual apology. Maybe next time they'll have the sense to think before they publish.) I thought I'd pay attention to the covers.

So, the fantasy and science-fiction section of Scorpio books is about 6 bays of 6 shelves each, plus special displays. Call it about 500 titles give or take? (I didn't include franchise, horror, or manga.) Around about half the covers (give or take) showed people or parts of people. As far as I could tell, these people were:

white;
a silhouette;
white;
slightly tanned;
white;
a skeleton;
honest-to-goodness alabaster;
a shadow in a hood;
white;
a white guy surrounded by black-skinned aliens with guns;
white;
a white mask;
seriously #ffffff white;
a dark-skinned elf attacking two white humans;
white;
a few books with crowd scenes of white people, about half of which scenes thought to include one or two black guys;
white;
white;
and oh yes: white.

No surprises there, then.

But! In those 36 shelves of books - call it about 500 books - I did find 6 whose covers featured a PoC! These were:

• Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell [Tor]
• Oathbound and Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey [Daw]
• Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint [Tor]
• Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt [Eos]
• The Demon and the City by Liz Williams [Nightshade]

By this time I was fairly tired so I didn't really look at the YA.

(I ended up buying Ragamuffin as well as The Sharing Knife: Passage (which I like to pretend isn't set in the USA, because when I read the first two books I never had a clue it was meant to be anything other than generic pseudo-Euro-fantasyland) and a volume including Lady Susan and the beginnings of The Watsons and Sanditon.)

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

You've missed a treat if you've not read 'Demon and the City' and the book that comes before it 'The Snake Agent' - both by Liz Williams (mevennen here on LJ). Set in the franchise city of Singapore 3 the main character is Det. Insp. Chen who is a snake agent - one of the few who can move between earth heaven and hell to solve crimes. In the first book he's teamed with his counterpart in Hell, demon seneschal Zhu Irjh (I've spelled that wrong I think...) to solve a crime that spans both realms, and then Zhu is the demon of the second book. They are a mixture of police procedural, buddy-movie scenario and delicious fantasy which incorporates eastern myth. The third one 'Precious Dragon' is on my to read list.