A bit belated, but here is part 3 of 4.

#7. Fires of Heaven

At least this cover shows that there’s something lurking in the shadows, a phantom menace that may or not be a man in a Trolloc-head helmet or a Trolloc in a Trolloc-head helmet. Rand, Aviendha, and Mat stumble from the bar in Rhuidean only to find that the whole city has been cleared out. Rand (at a whopping 5’6”) contemplates going down the stairs in while wearing Chinese-silk pajamas; does he think better of it? What if he were to be ambushed in such a silly get-up? Aviendha hides her face from the camera so that we don’t know that it’s her doing the interpretive dance. Unfortunately, we do know what she’s doing. Mat looks cool. But he’s Mat, after all! It’s pretty hard to make him look stupid.

#6. Knife of Dreams

Perrin certainly doesn’t look as large as he’s described in the books. Here he’s doing the important task of pointing out the exact point where the series will end. The Aiel warrior is ready to defend Perrin’s declaration. A gray-haired general looks on skeptically, and an unidentifiable Aes Sedai is surprised that she’s thinking a lot about pudding. Regardless, the color scheme on this cover is very appealing; I love the heron-branded drapes and how Perrin is elbowing the guy behind him in the gut.

#5. The Great Hunt

This is the one that breaks the pattern of these four. Mat (or is that Rand?) has the horn of Valere. That’s a pretty important thing going on. It’s what the book’s actually about, never mind that Trollocs are portrayed as men in Trolloc-shaped armor. This cover gets brownie points for actually portraying an exciting event that actually happened in the book. I think this marks Loial’s only appearance on a cover in the series. He’s looking a little small for being such a giant. My favorite part about this cover is how well it portrays the feeling of autumn.

#4. A Crown of Swords

Rand is looking big and bad for his first ever music video, framed by a really nice/ominous color scheme. I’m a fan of blue, red, and yellow, as you can see by the colors I chose for my website, so the banal subject matter is really all that’s keeping this one from being in the top 3. All this cover is missing are the Trolloc back-up dancers.

Stay tuned for part 4 of 4, where we look at the Top 3 Wheel of Time covers ever!