By Its Cover: Moonraker

This is the cover of the copy I read. As you can see from the bottom, it's from the James Bond Classic Library, so it's not exactly first edition. It's one of the more descriptive covers I've seen for this book, though. It shows you the most important thing in the whole book: the rocket, James Bond, and Gala Brand.

I like this cover. It reminds me a little of the Mad Men intro (with the semi-silhouette, faceless people, the suit on the guy - obviously Mr. Bond himself).

I also really like this cover. I don't understand the reasoning behind using the stencil font (it's usually more of an army thing, and while this book is related to military topics, it's not really a direct involvement). I like the abstract flames, though.

This one, I don't love as much. It's part of a series of covers that I like quite a bit (you should see the one for Live and Let Die) but this one just falls short. Sure, it shows you the rocket (which is just the greatest epitome of how the 1950s expected the future to look like) and Gala Brand, and the font is just peachy (also very 1950s-version-of-the-future) but I just think the whole thing falls short somehow.

This is the cover that I had.  In terms of telling you what might go on in the book, it gets the point across, but I'm with Alex.  It doesn't really do much for me.  I think it might have something to do with Gala Brand putting on the fakest "I'm scared" face while standing in the most unnatural "I'm being cautious" pose.
 

Obviously, these are just a sampling of the many covers Moonraker has seen over the past several decades.