The Friday Face-Off is a meme originally created by Books by Proxy and now hosted over at Lynn’s Books. The idea is to compare the different covers of a book with each week being a certain theme.

This week’s theme is a book with a cover featuring a tower: “Stalked by wolves, eaten by witches, and trapped in a tower for over a decade. No one’s life is a fairytale, or at least I would hope not!” This week’s book is The Fall of the Towers by Samuel R. Delany.

And the winner is… IT’S A DRAW!

In all fairness, I like most if not all of these covers. I have a real soft spot for classic sci-fi covers, they really speak to the wonders of the unknown, of exploration and space travel. But there were two that really caught my eye: F and I. Cover F caught my attention for its nods to poverty and wealth. The shacks and shantytown vibe down in the foreground while the vast towers stretching to the sky in the background gleam with wealth and power. Cover I is a stark contrast. Bleak, monochrome with a ruined landscape and a bedraggled wanderer walking the desolate land.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my winner, or does one of the others work better for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s theme is a cover featuring a strong father figure: “A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”