The Positivity Cover Art Thread

**Kazz Wylde** · June 12th, 2009, 03:25 PM

Yeah, I can't wait to get my hands on that Retribution Falls, June 18, I believe. It reminds me alot of this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Escapement-Jay...p_edpp_img_in#

Really like that cool Hundred Thousand Kingdom one too.

Also dig The Transitions/Dragon/Phoenix pic too!

**beniowa** · June 12th, 2009, 04:37 PM

I don't have a lot of time right now but I like the new Lake and Wooding covers. Also, I absolutely love the one for The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, which will be released in November.

**Draxinusom** · June 12th, 2009, 05:48 PM

Well there's an odd cover story with me. Browsing randomly through the internet about 10 years ago I stumbled upon a picture that I liked so much, I instantly made it my desktop background. I had no idea what it really was but I liked it very much. I tried to find out what it was or who did it but had no success.

About two years later, in some message board there was an offtopic thread about showing one's desktop, so I screenshotted mine and remarked that I had no clue where the background picture came from. And then someone answered that it was a book cover and from Weis and Hickman's Deathgate cycel, which would be great books.

So then I tracked it down, found out it is from book 5 of 7 of the Deathgate cycle and out of a whim ordered the first book of the series. Liked it very much and read the entire series and still hold it quite high in regard, mostly due to the very interesting and imaginative world-building in it.

This was the picture of the desktop back then:

The book's (and picture's) name is "Hand of Chaos". And it embodies a lot of what I like in a cover.

First of all the cover of course must look good right from the first glance, it either pleases me immediately or not at all. And then it is all the better if it contains an important scene from the book in question, so once you read it you go "aah that's why the background is all in this orange, now it makes sense!" kind of thing, just like here. It doesn't need to be an actual scene but if it is, all the better for me.

Bottom message for authors: Get your cover pics out, it may make you a sale

**Kazz Wylde** · June 12th, 2009, 06:15 PM

Haha, Thanks for sharing the cool story, Draxinusom.

**Cranky Hamster** · June 12th, 2009, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by Draxinusom

Bottom message for authors: Get your cover pics out, it may make you a sale

If only authors had any kind of say in the matter. As I understand it, the process is usually "hey here's your cover! enjoy!!" unless it's a J.K. Rowling novel. Didn't Steven Erikson famously find out about the cover of The Bonehunters when it popped up on somebody's blog?

Oh well. We can always hope publishers refine their aim.

**Winter** · June 12th, 2009, 09:19 PM

I am a big fan of the Raymond Swanland covers. Doesn't matter what they are for, I like them all. He is the guy who does the new Glen Cook covers. I'd post them, but there are so many. I have come to the conclusion that this is the guy who should be doing the Erikson covers.

That being said, this is one of my favorite covers:

I'd buy that one, but I already have two copies...

----

I like the Scholes covers as well. I saw the Canticle cover some time back in an article over at TOR that showed how the cover art came to be. I found it very interesting, my friends found it considerably less so, so your mileage may vary.

**Rob B** · June 13th, 2009, 07:47 AM

This book won't be out until October, but I love Swanland's cover:

http://johndbrown.com/wp-content/upl...rkgod_comp.jpg

The book is Servant of a Dark God by John D. Brown. Granted the title is a little less than original, but damn look at that cover!

I didn't place it directly in the thread since it is WAAY too big.

**Keeper** · June 13th, 2009, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by beniowa

Also, I absolutely love the one for The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, which will be released in November.

This is easily the best fantasy cover art I've seen in many, many years. Here`s a bigger picture.

**Rulkez** · June 13th, 2009, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by Keeper

This is easily the best fantasy cover art I've seen in many, many years. Here`s a bigger picture.

Upon first glance I missed what makes this image really very clever. I like that a lot.

**Cranky Hamster** · June 13th, 2009, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by Rob B

The book is Servant of a Dark God by John D. Brown. Granted the title is a little less than original, but damn look at that cover!

That is a nice cover. Not sure about the monstrous compost pile in the background, but the foreground figures are definitely eye-catching.

Weird that I haven't heard anything about this one. I guess it's still a few months to the release date, though, so there's time yet for word to get out.

**Cranky Hamster** · June 13th, 2009, 09:28 AM

Also I just realized my whole response to Drax up-thread was misguided. Woe for me and my lousy reading comprehension.

Yes, it's a good point that authors should do what they can to get their cover images out, at least if they're lucky enough to be blessed with nice ones.

**KatG** · June 13th, 2009, 10:05 AM

Here you go for the Donato Giancola Name of the Wind cover, Aurian:

http://www.donatoart.com/gallery/nameofwind.html

I'd forgotten about the The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms one, which had come up in another thread. It is a very cool cover. It reminds me of Gary Wassner's GemQuest covers which are done by Robert Sammelin:

http://www.amazon.com/Twins-Gemquest...4905310&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Elves-...4905310&sr=8-2

I've now added several books to my reading list. Drat, this may be a dangerous thread.

**Apathy** · June 13th, 2009, 03:48 PM

Dark Lord by Ed Greenwood has a very nice cover. Unfortunetely the content of the book does not match the quality of the cover.

Instead of just posting the urls, you can show the image by surrounding the link with [IMG]x[/IMG], where x is the url/link. For those that do not know.