I’m going to catch flack for reviewing these; I just know I am. But I really wanted to do some posts in honor of the Wheel of Time series and have some fun talking about some of the best and some of the not-so-best covers of the series. Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. When it’s all done, I’d love to hear some of your Top 12 Wheel of Time covers.

# 12. Lord of Chaos

This is one of my favorite titles ever, bold and red over the top of a brilliant color scheme, beautiful-enough to engage the eye and draw a reader to the book. As always, I love the graphic design on these books, mostly because they remind me of my youth. When I was younger, I wanted my books to be typeset just like these.

However, the cover belongs on a romance novel. Rand al’Fabio stands in the wind, shirt rippling to make him appear larger than he is as a random Aes Sedai gasps at his beauty. Strange things: the man in the rubber-bat suit and Rand’s tiny-looking right hand (not to mention his weirdly proportioned body and extra-tight Civil War pants).

# 11. The Shadow Rising

This might be my favorite book in the series, when the world opens up even more and Rand begins fulfilling more prophecies. I absolutely loved the trip to Rhuidean. So many interesting things happen in this book. Why couldn’t they be on the cover instead of . . . camping.

Rand and Mat (I assume) eat s’mores and discuss March Madness while weirdly-proportioned Egwene (?—she is wearing blue) stirs the chili.

Again, the typeface is nice (although the “Robert Jordan” looks a little crowded so that we can see that the fire is actually a cook fire and not something more insidious). The color scheme is beautiful and eye-catching, and I love the use of value as Rand and Mat’s shadows are thrown up against their Winnebago.

Most exciting subject matter of this cover: a Trolloc(?) shadow appear between the rock formations, hinting that this cover was a snapshot too late to show the attack on camp.

Return tomorrow for numbers 10, 9, and 8!