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Cover art © Ed Soyka

This is the cover to the October 1977 Pocket Books edition of Mission to the Stars. The art is uncredited but Gerry Daly recently informed that it's the work of Ed Soyka. Interestingly, this is the edition Daly read when he was commissioned to do the cover of Pocket's 1980 edition a few years later.
This is not a very nice cover, but it is notable for being the famous "tin foil" edition. The cover is literally tin foil — there is a second layer over the foil that consists of the inks that create the outlines of silver figures and the colorful rays coming out of their eyes. Although I don't care much for the imagery involved, Soyka did an excellent job of contrasting the textures of the rainbow beams, the flesh tones, and the metallic sheen. This is the only book where I've seen this technique used to such an all-encompassing extent — it is common to have part of the cover shiny like metal, but usually it is just the title or any spaceships in the picture, parts which are often elevated to give it a more three-dimensional and realistic effect. To have the entire cover made of foil is exceedingly rare, and there are no elevated elements here.
What is even more rare is for a book of this nature to survive 25 years of belonging to various owners and passing through second-hand bookstores intact, or even more surprising, in this instance in mint condition — this copy has never even been opened. I have another copy of this which is worn and peeling — most of the top (ink) layer has come off leaving behind bent and curling sections of exposed tin foil. The mint condition copy was therefore a fabulous find, and has just one large scratch across the right half of the main figure's chest — but interestingly enough this helps to show that the cover is made of no ordinary substance, but rather is metallic in nature.
I've decided to show the back cover as well, to give you a better idea of how much of the foil shows. The entire spine is also mainly foil, with very little ink overlay. The only problem is that such a highly reflective material doesn't scan too well, particularly with the back cover.

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