Hi, Bear. Yet again we seem to have very similar tastes. Also, while I have reservations about the cover for Greenwood's Dark Lord, the coloring really appeals to me. There's something about the placement of the blue-ish light in contrast to the dark figures and the tan (?) behind them that really draws my eye. Randy M.
My first post here, I've been around for a while, but never posted anything, but a book cover is something that interests me a lot. Before finding this place (due to a lack of searching) I never really knew what to read and the cover of the book was many times something that pulled me over to read it (I found WoT like this). If a book didn't had a cover that I liked, I wouldn't bye it. Now that I'm reading here and have a rather to-read list this is not that important any more, but I still wouldn't be compelled to bye a book with an ugly cover Here is one of my favorite covers: Licia Troisi (http://www.liciatroisi.it/homepage-en/) I don't think this book is translated to english yet though, but I've read in dutch and I liked it (Too bad it is the only book translate to dutch so far)! There is some nice artwork of her other books on the site too.
Indeed. Bear hit my wishlist with that Swanwick cover. Cranky H also hopped on with Jemisin's cover for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
The Gardens of the Moon cover is stunning , i wish i had the money to buy one of the limited edition copies /sad panda
I feel really lame right now...I am CERTAIN I know of some good covers. I mean i have read hundreds of books...but none come to mind. I would have to go through my boxes of books to find a good cover. Well, I suppose it makes sense. The amount of time spent looking at a cover is probably only a minute at most, while you spend hours on the writing.
This was my favourite cover of 2008, by Edward Miller. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n27/n136022.jpg It's interesting that Miller is a pseud for Les Edwards, who felt that the name would be more attractive to people interested in his canvas work and did not want to feel influenced by his predominately horror work under his own name.
A bizarre cover that I kind of like. It's terribly funky, for the charity flash fiction anthology edited by Jeff Vandermeer and his wife Ann. Done by Scott Eagle. http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2009/06/10/last-drink-bird-head-an-october-surprise/ (Sorry I can't just pop the image in there, but my computer and SFFWorld refuse to cooperate in this manner, so I'm reduced to links.)
Might aswell throw in the covers for The Chronicles of the Black Company ( Books of the North ) And the Books of the South
The Fade cover is awesome as are the hardcovers of the Mistborn trilogy. I gotta say I've really like the covers for Joe Abercrombie's books.
Just a general comment, I think borne out by many of the covers people have posted. I'm always a big fan of paintings with constrained colour palettes as covers for books. When you look at a lot of the books posted here, they are very tilted towards a particular colour that makes up the primary impression you get when looking at the cover.
True and that's deliberate. One thing publishers look at is what color can contrast, draw attention to the book among others face out on the shelves. So the emphasis on one color is to draw the eye to that palette.
One of my favourite covers is Jody Lee's artwork for The Broken Crown by Michelle West. There is a lot of detail but it doesn't overpower you (if that makes sense).
I always thought Michael Crichton had great, minimalist covers. His covers also made his books easily recognizable.
