The Dragon's Path [Cover Art]

I like this one quite a bit. It's more epic than the last draft, and, though it's most certainly not groundbreaking, it's a fun cover that promises an exciting read. It's a bit worrisome that one of the Dagger and Coin's selling points seems to be its (at least comparatively) traditional nature. Still, after The Long Price and Leviathan Wept, I'll give Abraham the benefit of the doubt.

Spellwright [Cover Art]

The French cover is in. And popular opinion has it that it's hideous. Wert even went so far as to experience physical pain upon seeing it. But is it really so bad? Let's take a look:

It is, simply put, hideous. Enough said, and I'll try to remember to post something less ugly tomorrow so you don't have to stare at it directly when you come here next.

The Edinburgh Dead [Cover Art]

One of the few recent covers I've seen where a realistic looking character front and center actually looks awesome...though the lack of a cowl might play into that. The text, though nothing earth shattering, is still sufficiently cool to pique my interest.

I still haven't read Ruckley's epic fantasy trilogy Godless World; I got distracted about forty pages into the first book and, though I meant to pick it up again in a few days, I never went back to it. Perhaps I should get to it sooner rather than later.

Black Halo and Fuzzy Nation [Cover Art]

The cover for the sequel to Tome of the Undergates is a tad over the top. Still, it's, as far as I'm concerned, the way an overly epic cover should be done. If you're going to go over the top, you might as well go absurdly, stupidly, awesomely so. My only real objection is the glow around the figure, as it seems a tad too pronounced for me.


The new cover art for Scalzi's re-imagining of Piper's Little Fuzzy is very different from the original cover art for the project. Overall, I think I liked the first version more, but I don't dislike this one, and I'm intrigued enough by the idea of the project to read both the original and it when it comes out.

The Ritual and The Crippled God [Cover Art]

I don't want The Hat Rack to become a vapid place filled with the newest images and jack shit in the way of commentary, and I'm aware that this double feature will bring the month's cover total up to four, so I've failed at that. I'll try and cut down, I promise, but, until then, we've got two new glimpses to drool at, starting with Nevill's third book. In my interview with him, he said that he thought the cover was: possibly the best cover I have ever seen on a horror novel. The Result?


Holy shit, he wasn't kidding. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say it's the best cover that's been featured so far on the Rack (the limited time frame and generally random choices of what gets featured be damned). If the atmosphere in the book is as chilling as that oozing out of that painting, this'll be a great novel. And, judging by Nevill's past two works, the odds look to be in his favor. There's a teaser of this up here, for those interested. Blurb's as follows:

When four old university friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But Luke – still single and living a precarious existence – cannot identify with his companions any more. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artefacts decorate the walls; bones are scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. Death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees . . .

Finally, there's this short story that just went up. Check it out, it's a very short and quite enjoyable read.

Up next is the concluding novel in the Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Crippled God:


Alright, it's not quite breaking news anymore, but still. It's a very epic cover, albeit perhaps a bit silly in just how epic it is. I think I might be the only one who enjoyed the cheesy as hell US covers (well, with quite a few exceptions - Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice, Midnight Tides, and The Bonehunters were awful. Alright, so that's most of them.), but these seem to be fitting.

And now I promise I'll try and cut back on the cover art.

The Book of Transformations [Cover Art]

Mark Charan Newton's third book has had an interesting history when it comes to cover art. Evidently, we internet folks get a bit more sway than we thought, because we were first presented with two choices to chose from:














Unfortunately for Mr. Newton, the consensus seemed to be: neither of them. And that's where things get surprising. On Westeros, Newton said:

Anyway, just to show the power of the internet, for the hardcover we're looking to have the character removed completely and work on the city. Hardcovers are a totally different market to the mass market reader (the casual reader who shapes careers, and they look for something different to the rest of us in cover design), so maybe we were wrong in choosing a figure for that.

But if it tanks, you all owe me a drink.

The result? Right here:


Somehow, I don't think we're going to have to all chip in for Newton's next pitcher. That thing is freakin' gorgeous.

Daniel Abraham [Cover Art]

I love this cover.

That's probably a weird announcement coming from someone who panned Morgan's recent covers, which follow almost exactly the same design, but it's true. I guess the difference is between something serviceable and plain and something garnished and polished to a state of blinding brilliance. The sword conveys some nice epic, adventuring fun, while the background displays the background conveys both further epicness and, also somewhat important, depth. At least to me.

The Dragon's Path is something I've been looking forward to ever since I heard about it, after loving The Long Price Quartet, which, we need to all remember, has quite possibly the best set of covers in fantasy (or, at least, did until the omnibus editions came about). On the subject of the Long Price, I'm planning to reread and review it at some point, though likely not for some time.

In addition to The Dragon's Path, one of Abraham's psuedonyms [though this psuedonym's done some inbreeding with Ty Franck] has something coming out, too:


It is, I hear, a rather kickass space opera. It's got a great cover too. Do I see a trend? Wait, nevermind. Still, Abraham's still got quite a few covers, and books, under his belt to be quite proud of.

White Luck Warrior [Cover Art]

It's a very ornate cover, and, while I'm wondering if it might be overly colorful for what's likely going to be a dark text, I still like it a hell of a lot more than the cover that was leaked a while ago:


Though there's no real new information in it, reading the blurb on the back got me pumped for reading this.

City of Ruin [Cover Art]

I'm...not a fan. The paperback cover of Nights of Villjamur, at least, still had dignity and, to some extent, grace. This, on the other hand, feels coarse and wholly lacking in subtlty or atmosphere. Thankfully, the hardback cover is far superior. And, speaking of Newton, I really do need to read some of his work...

The Cold Commands [Cover Art]

It's not horrible, and that's really about all I can praise it for. As anyone who's been reading this blog for a while knows, I started out in love with the Original US cover for The Dark Cold Commands. Then, when I saw the final product, I was a bit less enthused, to put it mildly. Someone had, it seemed, sprayed strobe-lighted mist all over my precious atmosphere. I was told in the comments of that very post, by James, that the UK cover art would not be an improvement. All the same, I had this tiny hope that I couldn't quite extinguish. Now that's quite crushed. I wonder what's the better buy: the failed or the generic?

Ah well, at least we get the better title back.

Dreadnought and Surface Detail [Cover Art]

Absolutely excellent cover, which serves to remind me that I really need to get to Boneshaker. Or, really, any steampunk at all.

And, on a wholly different note, we've got Iain M. Banks's new Culture novel:


I'm still not sure if I really like, or really dislike, that cover, but it's eye catching and interesting either way, so I guess it succeeded. I've heard so many good things about Banks, but still haven't really gotten into him. I read Use of Weapons last year, and while I found parts of it to be exceptional, other parts soured the experience quite a bit. And then, of course, I got the ending twist of Player of Games revealed to me by someone who assumed I'd read it. Still, I suppose I can't count that against the man, and I guess I'll give him another chance at some point.

The Half Made World [Cover Art]

I really enjoyed Thunderer, despite its flaws, so it's no surprise that I'm eager to be there as Gilman evolves as a writer. He gave a bit of information on this in an interview with Locus a while back:

In September, I have something coming out from Tor which is very different. I didn't want to write another city book, didn't feel like creating another gigantic setting. And I wanted to try my hand at something which had a more straightforward plot. I've been accused of overplotting and underplotting, but this one has a clearer plot. It's called A History of the Half-Made World (first of what will be either two or three books), and up to a point it's like a fantastic western. It's a purely invented world, though the fantastical elements are mostly limited to two weird and inhuman factions which sort of divide the world between them. They're archetypes of something or other, probably. The book has the frontier theme, the theme of the founding and various falls from grace, but I don't want to describe it as purely an American history thing, because that sounds like it's more closely tied to American history than it is. It plays with certain tropes, let's say.

Looking forward to it (and City of Gears, as well) quite a bit.

The Dark Commands...Again [Cover Art]

God damn it.

I mean, it's not AWFUL, but it has almost none of the atmosphere I initially loved. I guess the bluish glow is supposed to make it feel ethereal, but all it does is make me feel like someone should turn the lights down and think that everyone looks slightly transparent. Seeing as this is the US cover art, I suppose that one can hope the UK is not similarly afflicted.

The Prince of Nothing [Cover Art]

Everyone says not to judge a book by its cover, but I'm not sure how you're supposed to avoid doing that. I can think of quite a few books for which cover art made a large part of the experience for me, and I'm not just talking about ultra-deluxe Subterranean editions. One example of absolutely excellent cover art is, for me, the original Prince of Nothing covers, especially The Darkness That Comes Before:


I love the combination of history (the buildings on the bottom), character (notice the lack of a hood), and, most of all, an incredibly exotic feel. Now, I can't really rationalize most of those, but the cover art was a big part of why I first picked up The Darkness That Comes Before. All artwork obviously doesn't have to do that much for me, but I prefer it when it doesn't do the opposite. Unfortunately, that seems to be precisely Bakker's new (Croatian) angle. Stealing ever so gracefully from the Blog of the Fallen, I present to you what is quite possibly the worst set of covers that I've ever seen:


Or, perhaps even worse, this:


I especially like how Esmi is evidently so bored by the fight that she's busy falling asleep. Or how, in the first one, the barbarians are being battered back by the dust cloud caused by the dragon Kelhus is flying on. Well, okay, he's not actually flying on the dragon, but I'll be damned if it doesn't look like he is. Oh, and I like his glowing eyes and nose.

I don't think I can imagine two images that less convey the feeling of the text inside. Prince of Nothing is somber, dark and complex. This is none of those. I've got to say, I don't think I would've been all that motivated towards a purchase based on those.

The Dark Commands [Cover Art]

I’m generally staying away from cover art on here. It’s an interesting subject – at times – of course, but there seems to be little point when all I’d be doing for the most part is regurgitating what I learn at A Dribble of Ink. This is going to have to be a bit of an exception, though, because it’s just that foreboding. The Steel Remains had a great cover (or, at least, the UK/Subterranean editions did), but this one blows even that out of the water.

Or, on second thought, perhaps not. The cover’s as amazing as it was when I first saw it, but now there’s reasons to doubt its continued survival. On Westeros, Pat said: Got word from the folks at Del Rey not to pay attention to the Morgan cover, as it's only an early sketch. Now I’m torn between awe at the thought of that thing getting even better and terror at it being ruined. I suppose only time will tell…

UPDATE

New, ruined, cover art can be found here.

Brandon Sanderson - Way of Kings [Cover Art]

My first thought upon seeing the cover was that it was pretty uninteresting. I don’t mean bad, of course. It’s fine cover; it’s just not exciting. The BRANDON SANDERSON is huge, which is, I suppose, a necessary step to try and convince fans that they’re getting stuff of the same quality. The problem comes from it being so big that it dominates the whole cover and prevents any thought from entering my head besides BRANDON SANDERSON. Which is quite possibly what the publishers want, I’ll admit.

The art itself doesn’t really do all that much for me either. I’ve seen it compared to Dune in both positive and negative ways, but my issue doesn’t really come from any one comparison. It’s just that everything on the cover seems so familiar. We’ve got a guy with a really, really big sword. Standing far away is another guy with (presumably) another big sword. Are they talking in some form of weapon-based sign language? Are they preparing to fight at an immense distance, using the extreme length of their blades to their best advantage? Whatever it is, it doesn’t exactly make me want to go running to find out.

And then I saw this:


God damn. Suddenly it all fits into place. That thing is beautiful. That gigantic storm is terrifying, and the two guys standing up to it no longer look pedestrian but rather defiant and downright awesome. I suppose that they’d have to spoil it by adding at least some text, so I guess I should just be happy that I have the liberty of spreading flat my dust jacket, when it comes, and admiring the picture as a whole.

Of course, neither cover can really capture the intrigue displayed by the original: