[alison]

I'm fond of them too - the ruins in the picture on the front of The Gift are actually from Tintagel in Cornwall, and my family is from Cornwall, so it's kind of nice. But I suspect the cover is how The Gift ended up being shortlisted in the "horror" category in the Aurealis Awards - it got shortlisted twice, in the fantasy, which made sense; but I must say my jaw hit the floor when I was told about the horror shortlisting!

[Akdor 1154]

i don't know what it is about the Australian one, it just gets to me, it doesn't seem very....melded,
Yeah... I like the concept of the Aussie ones better, but I think it's a bit too contrasting (literally, not with the book or anything). A light-coloured cloud just happened to be behind the cloaked figure - almost gives it a bit of a glow... And that font down the bottom, Mason, IIRC (the Artemis Fowl font) is too bright.
And I'm too picky :p

Same sort of thing with the Riddle - all the edges seem just a bit too sharp. And the lightning bolt is exactly the same image in exactly the same place on the front and back covers... looks a bit disconcerting.

Those ruins look pretty damn cool though.

Who is the mysterious cloaked figure, anyway? :confused: Cadvan? a Hull?

[Merenwen]

Yeah am not so sure bout the whole lines painted on the road and the metal crash barrier on the cover the riddle it looks far too modern but i like the way "The Riddle" is written on the cover. :rolleyes: :D

[Akdor 1154]

I didn't even notice the metal at first... but even now it doesn't seem too out-of-place. I imagined a sort of gothic/medieval torture chamber theme for Arkan's palace, though, and other's ideas on this are probably different...?

[alison]

Who is the mysterious cloaked figure, anyway? Cadvan? a Hull?

I've never been sure - but I thought it was Maerad! :D

[alison]

For Akdor - who asked

ooooh, what do the UK spines look like?

A couple of very bad jpgs

http://www.masthead.net.au/alison/Theatre/gspine.jpg and http://www.masthead.net.au/alison/Theatre/rspine.jpg

but you can sort of see the effect...

[Akdor 1154]

Ooh, they're awesome!

I wanna live in the UK! ;)

Actually, that's not just being dumb - it's too hot here in Australia, even in N-E Victoria where I live.

[a mere shadow]

hmmm... i wonder what "The Crow" is going to look like?

is it:

a) a picture of hem and a white crow on his shoulder
b) golden brooch of turbansk, a many rayed sun
c) plenty of trees with big juicy mangoes hanging off them
d) a big inflated painting of cadvan
e) a scene overlooking the war between the light and the dark
f) much better possiblities than my own with a golden glow and misty hands beckoning to the book staring pointedly at us

i really must stop with these multiple choices and silly tones suggesting we win a prize if we pick the correct one?

any ideas and imaginations on how the crow is going to look like?
i'm sure there are other people with better imaginations than me.

[Gemini]

hmmm right now i'm thinking, Hem and Saliman, both in cloaks(they have to be in cloaks, the covers always have cloaks on them :D) on horses maybe, staring out over a open space/ field (whatever :D) towards a city or something....

[alison]

a) a picture of hem and a white crow on his shoulder
b) golden brooch of turbansk, a many rayed sun
c) plenty of trees with big juicy mangoes hanging off them
d) a big inflated painting of cadvan
e) a scene overlooking the war between the light and the dark
f) much better possiblities than my own with a golden glow and misty hands beckoning to the book staring pointedly at us

I've been trying to guess.

For the Australian edition, a cloak is a good guess. Maybe they might go for a panoramic war picture, say from the walls of Turbansk.

For the UK edition - I'm dying to see what colour it's going to be (green? orange?) My guess is that Patrick will design a Turbansk brooch for that one.

And the US edition would have to be Hem with Irc on his shoulder!

OK, the bets are in!