6.17.2007

An Odd Career Choice:

FANTASY VETERINARIAN!

I wonder what the entrance exam for this profession looks like.*

Do you:

Like animals?
Have empathy?
Enjoy helping those less fortunate?
Believe in fairies?


Maybe I'm just in a pick-on-covers-with-griffins kind of mood, but I just find something so odd about seeing a veterinarian administering vaccinations to a half-eagle, half-lion. It can't be too sanitary out there in the wild. I like that she did, however, take the time to put on a lab coat. It's that kind of attention to detail that I admire. And shouldn't there be, oh, I don't know, roads crossing in the picture? I mean, going by the title and all...
I do wonder, however, about the amateurish, out of place crestesque device that's surrounding the title. Give me five minutes with MS Paint, I think I could come up with something better. It's like the artist just got bored when it came time to adding the title to the design. "Screw fancy fonts and raised text, I'm just gonna block out a big white splotch and put the title in that." It looks almost like a bad cartoon word bubble.
*So when I had total writer's block in grad school, and couldn't finish my thesis for love nor money (not that anyone was offering me either for finishing, but it wouldn't have helped!), I took a career-aptitude-type test with a psychologist. Veterinarian and Librarian were both in my top-five job vocations. I think I picked the right choice, but if Fantasy Veterinarian had been in there it might have gone differently!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. That title space isn't even symmetrical.

Anonymous said...

i should think that the "crest" is used to cover something, probably another flying griffin, or the actual title, done in fancy fonts and raised text, but ultimately judged unsuitable:
The Healing of Crossbreeds



by the way, one might also enjoy some of the author's other books, for instance "under the healing sign" (cover similar, with the doctor tending to a baby-dragon; moreover: same pseudo-crest) and "the magic and the healing" (sporting an electric-blue-glowing unicorn x-ray)

DocTurtle said...

"If the swelling in that beak doesn't go down by next week, I'm going to go ahead and refer you to a specialist."

Anonymous said...

A lucky day for us librarians when you decided not to become a veterinarian. You do us proud.

Snow said...

I agree with syro0; The Healing of Crossbreeds sounds much more interesting. What's wrong with the Crossroads, anyway? Rampant garbage infections?

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to point out that the cover artist is not the same person as the jacket designer. The designer is the one who puts on the title and author's name in a font and color they think looks good (and may crop the original art as well).

So while I agree that the bland, plain crest is snark-worthy, don't blame the artist -- who had nothing to do with it -- blame the designer!

Snarking on jacket designers opens a whole new kettle of fish. I love it when a book series gets a new desginer for the final book, one who feels compelled to add their own mark to the series by completely changing the desgin so that it doesn't match all the previous books.

zillahgirl said...

Aw, that's actually a really good book! It does have a pretty shoddy cover, though.