Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where a new top ten list hits the web every week!
This week’s topic just wasn’t for me, so I decided to make my own. And it is . . .
FUNNY-DISTURBING SPEC FIC BOOK TITLES
I am just going to list book titles which caught my eye. Some are funny. Others are weird. A few are head-scratching. But each and every one of them stuck in my mind. Plus, most also have some damn eye-popping covers. And we all know how much I love to highlight good or bad covers, right? Today is bad cover day!
10. Cathouse – Dean Ing
Science fiction fun from the early 1990s. Some people have labeled it furry scifi porn.
9. Galactic Pot-Healer – Philip K Dick
Phil liked to make his protagonists ordinary men or women. Here a ceramicist is the hero. Yeah, a pot head who fixes broken ceramic pots. Bet you thought it was talking about something else, didn’t you?
8. Naked Came the Robot – Barry B Longyear
Very strange book where coin operated sex with robots is the most normal idea in the whole story.
7. Virgin Planet – Poul Anderson
A planet of only women. Men are a myth. When a man actually shows up, the women realize this can’t be one of the wonderful men their myths talk about. Sounds like this old school Y: The Last Man is yet another tale of how love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. I just punned you, Bookstooge. Did you see that? There will be more.
6. Heaven Cent – Piers Anthony
Anthony is a prolific writer whose humor in Xanth took the form of loads and loads of really complicated puns. You know, Puns. Things like “Thanks for explaining the word “many” to me, it means a lot.” That kind of pun. Got you again, Bookstooge.
5. Mixed Doubles – Daniel da Cruz
Time travel and music. It went something like this: The future, the present and the past got together in this story. Things got a little tense. Yeah, another pun. Caught you napping, didn’t I, Bookstooge?
4. The Paths of the Perambulator – Alan Dean Foster
A freak called a Perambulator enters the world, causing weird shifts in the fabric of existence including talking creatures causing trouble. Sounds like Gremlins to me.
3. The Saga of Cuckoo – Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson
An artificial habitat in space with colorful aliens and some strange, naked, robot-like entities. It might suck to be on Cuckoo, but at least, you get a free trip around the sun every year! Pun to you, Bookstooge!
2. The Fully Automated Love Life of Henry Keanridge
Who knew Playboy published science fiction. Some big name authors in this collection too. People like Ray Bradbury and Frederik Pohl. As expected though, women are portrayed horribly with their legs and chests being the focus. Best part of the book was when a woman phoned a guy and said, “Come on over, there’s nobody home.” When he went, nobody was home. The blog overrunneth with puns, Bookstooge!
1. Crabs: The Human Sacrifice – Guy N Smith
The Sharknado of its time the Crabs series (Yeah, there were like eight books.) was filled with steamy sex scenes, grisly crustacean gore and ridiculously corny characters. Plus, you have to admit there are just so many inappropriate puns which come to mind seeing that title/cover combo. Too easy though. I’m gonna pass on this one.
Well, that concludes our very strange and somewhat disturbing look at some memorable title/cover combos in spec fic history. Keep it going by adding one of your own in the comments! Or, you can add a pun. I’m looking at you Bookstooge. 🙂
bookwraiths.com 
Nothing can be worse that Galactic Pot-Healer . . . Okay, Crabs wins.
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Not many things are worse than Crabs. : /
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Especially when they’ve learned dark rituals.
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OMG, the blood sacrifice makes it so much more potent and irritating. : (
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Not sure why they need the knife since they have the pincers. Though, I’m guessing they’re going to end up summoning Zoidberg from Futurama.
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“Makes me horney in the Gonads.” — Zoidberg
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I really shouldn’t have been drinking soda when I read that. 🙂
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I officially hate you right now! However, Mrs Bookstooge is super happy with all the puns. So I guess in the end it evens out.
Now, on to those covers…
WHERE IN THE WORLD DID YOU COME ACROSS THESE?
I mean, really?
Cathouse. I’m guessing they deliberately went for the furry porn look? That just can’t be an accident, can it?
Naked Came the Robot. Do I even want to know why you were reading it? Fie, fie, fie…
That spellsinger book by Foster. I read the first one. That was furry to the max! That was enough for me.
Henry Keanridge. Does he cut off women’s breasts and cook them in the oven or something?
This post made me laugh, cringe a LOT and be disturbed. All at the same time. Bravo to you!
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Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
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These are hilarious. I don’t even know what to say😁
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These sound so funny… and the covers…! Brilliant! I particularly like the man riding the lizard thing! Such a fun topic 😀
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Reblogged this on Archer's Aim and commented:
I got quite a laugh from these old titles. I even remembered several of them from my time spent working in a bookstore. Excellent list compiled by Bookwraiths this week.
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Oh. My. Goodness!!!! I didn’t know it would be possible to laugh and cringe at the same time!
😀 😀
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I found some good/bad ones, didn’t I? 🙂
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What’s with this ‘Spellsinger’ cover?? I have a look and think I found the weirdest thing in there, have another look and another weirder thing pops up! This is surreal! The guitarist looks like a super angry David Bowie. And is that a koala in bondage gear??
Let’s not even talk about Cuckoo!
The Piers Anthony cover makes me feel uncomfortable. But that fits with my impression of his writing, I guess…
You freaked me out with this.
More please?
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Already working on it!
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Had no idea that Crabs series existed. Went to see what the author has done and he has an absurd number of books out that all look delightfully awful. There’s one literally called Deathbell that’s about… a giant church bell that causes death.
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He is prolific. 🙂
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