The "Judge A Book By Its Cover" blog has so much to teach us about science fiction. Like the condom-headed cover that got sanitized online... only to misspell the word "Arcturus."

Apparently the cover to Slow Train To Arcturus, by Eric Flint and Dave Freer, really does feature a guy whose space helmet sports a big condom. But the version that got posted online sanitizes out that little detail. In the process, though, they changed Arcturus to "Acturus." Oops. (Does anybody have a hardcover of this novel and a scanner? No high-res version of the actual cover is available online!)

And then there's this gem, which elicits the following description from the "Judge A Book" crew:

Giant robot chipmunks battle it out on Endor surrounded by, yes, lasers. Whosoever is shooting these lasers is a REALLY BAD SHOT! Of course, you probably can't kill your main character on your cover, where will you go from there?

Needless to say, we have a new favorite blog, especially now that we've bookmarked the "science fiction" tag.

Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.