New to Judging Books by Their Covers, Goodness and Badness in SF/F Covers? Please read the Introduction. You’ll find awesome stuff about why it’s called The Book Jerk and why I use the Clocks of Goodness and Badness.

March 2007 Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Covers

I’ve been a bit absent here lately because of tight deadlines on the video game we’re developing for the Wii. There’s been some good buzz about the game, recently announced as Space Station Tycoon (a name we tried to get marketing to change, but our battle was in vain). As a result of working long hours, a few things have slipped into the background. One of these things is the blog.

In addition to that, I discovered that 75 book covers was way too much reviewing for me to chew each month. So, instead, I’m going to pick my favorites (and least favorites). Just a note, but due to constricted time, I can’t look up each of the artists whose covers these are. Apologies; apologies. I try to note them when I can. Without further delay, onward now to the Goodness, the Badness, and the Mediocre-ness of science fiction and fantasy book covers for the March 2007.

The Goodness

Antagonist by Gordon R. Dickson, David W. Wixon, and Volkan Baga (Hardcover - Mar 20)

I love this cover for the artwork alone. I’m pretty sure this one’s by Donato Giancola, who won a much-deserved Hugo award last year.

**UPDATE: This cover painting is actually by Volkan Baga. An interesting aside is that Baga served as Donato’s studio assistant.**

The design itself reminds me a lot of the Baen covers, which tells me that this is either military science fiction or space opera. I’m not really fond of the little lightning bolt extending from the first letter of the title, maybe because it reminds me of Harry Potter . . . or maybe about that time I was struck by lightning. Either way, it’s a little campy.

I’m not sure what’s going on with the whole “Sci Fi Essential Book” logo in the corner. I know that this is an honor for a book to get, and maybe it sells copies, but it sure does a nice job of marring up a cover.

Belladonna by Anne Bishop (Hardcover - Mar 6)

If you remember the first post about cover post goodness and badness, then you’ll recall that beautiful girls can be a good way to make a cover better, and Belladonna is no exception to this rule. But more specifically, I love the contrast in this cover, specifically the velvet red with the soft blue and the dark hair with the clouds.

I don’t like the word “ephemera” being integrated into the ironwork. The way it’s written and placed on the cover makes me think that this book is part of a series of sappy romances where each book is written by a different author.

The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier (Mass Market Paperback - Mar 6)

I probably shouldn’t be reviewing the hardcover versions of books coming out in paperback in March, but I couldn’t help myself on a few books this month.

This cover is just lovely. It’s got everything that catches my eye on a book cover: embossed type, foiled type, large open spaces with no type in order to show off the beautiful artwork.

Add to that a beautiful woman in the most-contrasting of colors–dark hair against a white dress–and you’ve got yourself a twelve o’clock winner.

Gradisil by Adam Roberts (Paperback - Mar 14)

This may very well be my favorite cover of March. Pyr rarely skimps when it comes to cover art and design. Everything about this cover says that it’s action-packed science fiction. With or without embossing or foil, this one is going to look great on the shelf. Here’s a tip of the hat to the designer on this one.

As for the artist . . . can you go wrong with a Stephan Martiniere?

Just for kicks, I’m adding the British version of Gradisil, which has a wonderfully designed cover with a beautiful tree motif as a centerpiece.

I hope you’ll also enjoy a look at the whole cover flat of the American version.

In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck (Mass Market Paperback - Mar 6)

Here’s another twelver for you. Talk about a design complementing the artwork and vice-versa, this cover has gone to great lengths to say, “Beautiful, Mysterious, Medieval, and possibly Arthurian.”

One look at this cover makes me hope that the book behind it is as beautiful and riveting.

Trail of Time by Jeff Mariotte (Mass Market Paperback - Mar 1)

I absolutely love the art on this cover! The style is perfect to put on a novel about superheroes without copying too much the cliched style of most comic art. The coloring suggests something vintage, and the angles and proportions of the characters tell me modern. Love this to bits.

However, the design ain’t much to crow about. It fits in nice. But it’s too bad that in order to sell the book, the brand has to sit on top of everything else. Ah, such is life. I know it has to be there. If I’m that picky about it, I should just find a print of the artwork.

The Badness

Regeneration: Species Imperative #3 by Julie E. Czerneda (Paperback - Mar 6)

On a world where the climate is too cold for the Hibachi, one woman and one man discover the perils of starting their stellar grill on the frozen crust of an ancient ocean.

The tagline for this one must be: In space, no one can hear you grill.

Now, I know that Julie Czerneda was thrilled with this cover, but to me it still looks like something that could have come out of the nineties. The book is probably really good. The cover, however, doesn’t reflect that.

If I Were An Evil Overlord by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davis (Paperback - Mar 6)

This one win the award for worst cover of March 2007. The badness on this one is so bad that it’s evil. The art looks like it’s unfinished (apologies to the artist), the text is hard to read (apologies to the designer).

Everything about this one bespeaks the publisher’s thought that it’s not going to make much money, so why pay for a known artist, and why pay for a designer?

The Mediocre-ness—Striving for Goodness

Shadowplay by Tad Williams (Hardcover - Mar 6)

This is actually a pretty good cover. Love the type and its placement, and the art’s pretty good, too.

My problem is that this is the first of Tad William’s fantasy series covers that didn’t get a painting from Michael Whelan. And why the building instead of characters? This one’s starting to look too mainstream for the genre.

It is classy however. If it were any other book, I wouldn’t be so hard, but I have fond memories from my youth reading Williams’ other books, and this one just isn’t awaking my sense of wonder like his earlier covers did.

Interesting-ness

Psion by Joan D. Vinge (Paperback - Mar 6)

I include the next few books because it’s interesting to me to see how a book can be repackaged to portray a different feel and appeal to a broader and more modern audience.

I think the new cover for Psion looks great. I’d take it over the previous covers of this book any day.

Doesn’t the guy on this one look like a mullet-wearing Christian Bale? It’s possibly from the poster of the first Batman, if Bale had replaced Keaton.

Holy cow! If I ever get abducted by aliens, I’m absolutely sure that this would be the most-terrifying alien to send my way. I’m gonna have nightmares about this one (and its pyscho title font) for months.

Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind (Paperback - Mar 31)

Can’t we just leave good things alone? The first hard cover of Terry Goodkind’s Stone of Tears was beautiful in everyway, from the type, to the foil, to the awe-inspiring painting by the late Keith Parkinson.

But, it is the latest in a line of redesigns that I’m sure was engineered to placate the demanding author of these books, who would prefer that his covers look less like fantasy books and more like free bank calendars.

I imagine that Parkinson’s art was allowed to stay on this one only because of his unfortunate passing, otherwise I know something less suited to a fantasy novel (no doubt good art, but certainly not as majestic as this painting) would’ve been slapped on the cover.

Included is the original. And please excuse the rant. I just hate to see one of my all-time favorite covers changed to suit silly demands, although I do not fault the publisher on this one. They’ve done marvelously with the parameters they’ve been given.

**UPDATE: Just saw the reissue in hardcover and paperback at the book store. Though I don’t like them as much as the originals, these covers are really good looking and match the rest of the series.**

Whatever-ness

Well, there’s a look at the Goodness, Badness, and Whatever-ness of book covers for March. Maybe I’ll get around to blogging about April sometime soon.

Thanks again go to Lou at Pyr for providing cover flats for Gradisil and Keeping it Real. Thanks also to Irene and Vanessa at Tor for getting me the cover for the Stone of Tears reissue. And thanks to Anne at Ace for directing me to the new Penguin Books science fiction and fantasy website.