Now, I know we don't live in the glory days of Jeff Jones and Frank Frazetta, but there's no excuse for not having good cover art. As that thought percolated in my brain the past few days, I tried to remember modern covers I liked. Here's what came to mind.
The original Desert of Souls cover kicks ass. It belongs on the cover of an old-school TSR module or something. The dreamy blue and indigo skies, the improbably leaping swordsman, it all cries of serious heroic fantasy. Bones of the Old Ones isn't quite as good, but it makes no pretense about being anything other than heroes fighting a magical monster.
The covers for the Shaper series are good examples of bold, graphic designs some publishers are willing to use instead of photo-shopping. I love the colors and almost-silhouette figures. The only problem is the distracting text in the middle of the first and third covers.
Simply beautiful covers. I'd have put the subtitles below Bakker's name, but what do I know?
What contemporary covers do you like?
THE LAST SACRIFICE by James A. Moore
ReplyDeleteThe SEVEN FORGES covers were good, too, though they were character studies. Accurate and un-photoshopped studies, though. Which is good.
THRONE OF THE BASTARDS by Keene & Shrewsbury.
Dynamic action, again, rather than static characters.
Those are indeed terrific covers.
DeleteI like the cover for Enge's The Wolf Age I didn't think it was photo-shopped.
ReplyDeleteI really like the UK cover's for Joe Abercrombie's books, THE HEROES, SHARP ENDS and RED COUNTRY the maps and weapons just bleed cool to me. The US covers suck.
I agree with Paul on the BASTARDS books, good dynamic action.
I thought that Mark Lawrences Broken Empire trilogy had great covers, showing the character and title progression without resorting to tedious photoshoppery that seems to be the norm these days.
Wow, the UK Sharp Ends is really good. I agree about the Mark Lawrence covers. He's been really lucky to have such good art. I think you're right about The Wolf Age, but I don't love it. It's decent enough on it's own, but Morlock's too buff for my tastes.
DeleteI have long been vocal about the lack of cool cover art and how lazy and cheap it is to go the enhanced stock photo route. It does the story an injustice. Someone republished ERB stories and if you think photoshop is bad, this takes it to the next level:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Pellucidar-Edgar-Rice-Burroughs-ebook/dp/B0089MSNXC/ref=pd_ybh_a_14?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4M213DWFVB2XA82PZ57P
WOW! Those are worse than the Sword Clan covers from a few years back.
DeleteDragonfly and sequel by Raphael Ordonez; TC Rypel's Dark Venture; Gateways to abomination is horror but had a nice cover. Both broken empire trilogies had good covers; the Tanith Lee TOFE reprints have nice covers. I don't think there is a lack of good designs nowdays, but there is certainly lack of good art (that's _notN digital
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah, Raphael's amazing and the covers are proof. Dark Venture is perfect. Gateways looks great (how is it, by the way?). I'd never seen the Lee covers and they are good indeed.
DeleteI enjoyed it quite a bit; Bartlett's combination of absurd/gross/comedy horror is pretty good, and the interconnected-vignettes concept I'd never seen before. There are some widows or orphans in the paperback (don't remember what their called) but generally the formatting/proofreading etc. is good. I don't know how strongly I would recommend it, (tastes vary) but I've never read anything quite like it, so, I was happy : )
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