Nethermore

Well, most of this post has been done for months, but I just haven’t gotten around to updating the blog. What a slacker I am! I’m not going to promise any regular updates, but I am going to say that I finished Nethermore finally and have moved onto the next novel on my list. Next time I post I’ll talk about the things I learned from Nethermore and how those affect how I’m approaching my next book.

Now back to the Wheel of Time cover countdown!

#3. Crossroads of Twilight

I’m putting this at #3, but at the same time I’m not sure if it accurately reflects how I feel about the cover. At this point, I’m having a hard time separating the covers from the contents of the books. This very well may be a pity award since this book is the one that catches the most flack from readers.

However, I love the design on this one. It makes it very pick-up-able. There are more identifiable characters on this cover than any of the res t of them. I can actually tell which one is Mat, Thom, and Tuon. And the purple foil letters are snazzy and magical like a big dose of Harry Potter. So this is #3 because it’s fun to look at, has identifiable characters, and has horses who are excited to be part of the story.

#2. The Dragon Reborn

This portrays one of the great moments of the series, when the sword that is not a sword is pulled from the heart of the stone in Tear. Rand, Perrin (looking more like a member of the Goonies than a blacksmith’s apprentice), and Mat are readily identifiable, as is the creepy visage of Baalzamon that peered out from the spine of this book. My biggest complaint about this cover was that it was during the time that Tor’s book binders whipped up a batch of bad glue, which had the covers falling off most of the paperback’s I bought during this era. The Dragon Reborn paperback was the poster child for this era, falling off more quickly than most. But that was nothing a little Elmer’s glue and blue food coloring couldn’t fix. (I was fifteen at the time…I don’t know why I added blue coloring to the glue.)

#1. The Eye of the World

This could have been in the generic-people-riding-horses post, but these are pretty identifiable characters. We know which ones are Lan and Moiraine and Rand. This cover holds a place in my life because of the sense of wonder that it portrays. I remember seeing The Eye of the World sitting on the end table at my best friend’s house back when I was fourteen or fifteen. I picked the book up, borrowed it from my friend’s father, read it, and then lost it in my locker at school. Moiraine and Lan still look like these characters in my imagination. Everything is right about this cover; not because the design and art are perfect, but because of the memories associated with it. Thanks, DKS, for a nice cover. And thanks, RJ, for a wonderful series full of memories.

Well, that’s it folks. I’ll definitely review the cover for A Memory of Light when it’s released. Until that time, I’m not sure how much cover reviewing I’ll do, but I will get back on track about the book writing updates. And maybe I’ll find a bit of time to update the website and add a better portfolio section. Thanks for reading, folks.

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!

Continuing on to the next set, I’ll review #s 10, 9, and 8, the “Generic Scenes of People Riding Horses.”

#10. Winter’s Heart

I think that’s supposed to be Perrin on the cover. However, it looks like it’s Perrin’s mini-me. I mean, isn’t he supposed to be big and threatening and wolf-like? In the book Perrin’s out to get his wife Faile from the renegade Aiel. This cover has Ricky Schroeder gone woodsman out to check his beaver traps and maybe smoke some jerky.

#9. The Path of Daggers

Starring on this cover, in the ugly thigh-boots, it’s Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, marching his armies into Ilian. There was a battle in this book. Why isn’t that on the cover instead of Rand riding with his sword drawn so awkwardly? I’ll be he runs with scissors too (which is a perk only channelers of the One Power are allowed).

#8. New Spring: the Novel

The cover of this book tells me that a group of people will ride horses a lot. One rider will wear green, one will wear red, and two will wear blue. The yellow bushes are used very nicely to offset the characters from the city in the background. It’s interesting that this one and the cover of The Great Hunt are the two covers whose color schemes are a little more complex, yet the artist is still able to create great contrast and vibrancy to draw the buyer’s eye. I love that I can identify Moiraine on this one, and especially like how it echoes the direction and posture of the characters and horses on The Eye of the World. Very fitting, since this was touted as the “new beginning” to the Wheel of Time series.

Tomorrow we’ll look at #s 4 through 7!

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!

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.

Well, after spending an evening writing the post about Ace, and seeing as I would have to do that about 15 more times in order to cover every book cover that’s coming out this month, I’ve decided that I’m only going to cover the fliers and the stinkers as far as covers go. I’m shooting for explaining the Goodness and the Badness, and will only review about ten specifically-chosen covers each month. That’s a lot more manageable for me, especially with the strict deadlines at work and me also trying to find time to work on my novel.

So, check back Thursday for some more SF/F Cover Goodness and Badness.

Goodness and Badness in Science Fiction and Fantasy Cover Art

People are often accused of being shallow when they judge a person by their looks alone instead of their personality. So, am I being shallow for judging books by their covers when I usually haven’t even read the books?

Probably. But who cares? We all like pretty pictures, and I’m no exception. A lot of the time, it’s the pretty pictures and nice design on a book that’s going to catch your interest and get you to read something by an author you’ve never tried before.

Sound a little like dating? In a lot of aspects it is. Attraction to the book must come first—whether it’s a referral from a friend (blind book date) or initial attraction to the book’s cover (lust). You can fall in love with ugly books and with beautiful books. But you’re a lot more likely to try to beautiful books first.

So, if that makes me shallow, then yes, I’m shallow when it comes to books and their covers. In other words, I’m a book jerk because I’m not judging the books by their personalities.

Science Fiction-y Goodness and Badness Every Month

Each month I review the covers from books coming out in that month. Follow this link to a list of books I’ve gleaned from contacts and/or research of SF/F books coming out from now to the end of the year. If you have information about books I don’t have listed, please email me at:

Disclaimer: Or, please don’t hate me for being subjective

We all have our own opinions. All my blabbering about book covers is just that: my opinion. Don’t be offended, don’t take it to heart—for Pete’s sake, don’t take it seriously if you don’t want to. Leave a comment if you disagree, but do it respectfully—and I promise to respect your opinion as well. After all, it’s not politics. It’s book covers.

Designing for a hardcover and designing for a paperback are two different animals. Because of the drastic reduction of real estate between the two, the book’s title and the author’s name have to appear larger to be visible to potential buyers. Zooming in on the major focii in the art is sometimes a good idea, too.

In my opinion, the artist and designer have a lot more leeway with hardcovers and trade paperbacks in creating something that is truly beautiful. When reviewing covers, I try to take into account whether the edition is hardcover, trade, or mass market.

In most instances, I have not seen the physical book. There is a big difference between an image on screen and the actual printed art and design. Paper choice, embossing, foil, gloss and matte UV, and die-cutting all add to the printed book experience. Sometimes these factors can make a difference in the Goodness or Badness of the design. However, I don’t have the money or time to buy all the books each month, so I do the best with the images I find.

How to Read the Clocks of Goodness and Badness

Movies and books often get starred reviews, or numbered reviews, or tomatoed reviews (fresh of rotten), or even a thumbed review (up or down). But since I’m judging books by their covers, I don’t see any reason why there should be a numbered scale or a starred scale. I’m shallow, remember? The scale I’m going to use is visual.

In my first post about Goodness and Badness in Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Covers, I introduced the Wheel of Whatever-ness to show how design and art go hand in hand to make the complete package of a cover which may or may not intrigue you.

Keeping with the spirit of the first Wheel of Whatever-ness, I introduce the Wheel Reloaded and her little brothers and sisters, the Clocks of Goodness and Badness.

Each cover I judge will receive a little clock ranging from Goodness . . .

. . . to Badness.

How much GOODNESS (arrow pointing up), MEDIOCRE-NESS (horizontal arrow), or BADNESS (arrow pointing down) of the book cover ART and DESIGN is measured by the corresponding arrows.

The LEFT HALF of the clock judges the ART of the book.

The RIGHT HALF of the clock judges the book’s DESIGN.

Thus a clock pointing 12:00 represents a cover full of Goodness. A 6:00, however, is a cover empty of Goodness and full of Badness.

For convenience, here’s a handy chart of the Clocks of Goodness and Badness. Art is read horizontally. Design is read vertically. G = Goodness; kG = kinda Good; M = Mediocre-ness; kB = kinda Bad; B = Bad.

Let’s face it. Some sub-genres typically have ugly covers, but we still love them because of what the covers represent. For example, how can I fairly judge the cover of a Robert Jordan book or the latest Terry Goodkind when their audiences expect a certain cover? The covers may be mediocre, or even ugly, but years of associating the content of the books with their covers has trained us to view them fondly, like that mangy family dog that we nevertheless still love. These covers may have bad art or bad design but be totally appropriate for their intended audiences. In these cases, I may still rate the books with clocks, but will also give them each an AA for Audience Appropriateness.

Onward to Goodness and Badness

Are you ready? To read monthly reviews of the Goodest and Baddest science fiction and fantasy book covers, click here for an archive of the posts, newest listed first.

Chris Roberson has posted on his blog the cover for the upcoming Splinter by Adam Roberts.

I’m not sure what to call the style of this homage to a first edition cover of Jules Verne’s Hector Servadac. In the automotive world, it’s called retro-futurism, the use of prior styles as a springboard to something new. (Prime examples of this are cars like the PT Cruiser, the new Ford Thunderbird that was recently discontinued, and the Chevy SSR.)

But never mind the design style! This is one of the most-beautiful covers I’ve seen lately. I couldn’t wait until September when it comes out in order to blog about it—I had to do it now. I can only hope that the US edition of the book sports the same slacks. Here’s the folks at Solaris for creating a winner.

And what’s more, Splinter looks great with the new design of my blog!

Thanks to Lou Anders at Pyr for bringing this to my attention.

Pyr has done it again, proving that they are the up and coming publisher of science fiction and fantasy. Not only does Pyr publish some great stories, they also don’t skimp when it comes to dressing the tale up in a form that catches the eye.

I’ll talk more about this cover come March, but for now, enjoy a look into the process behind designing a cover that not only oozes art goodness, but design goodness as well.

Thanks to all of you who linked and/or read my post about goodness and badness in sf/f book covers. The success of that post has led me to add a new monthly feature to Nethermore. Right now I’ll be calling it “Judging Books By Their Covers,” but if any of you have a better, less-generic title, by all means, drop me an email or a comment.

In connection with that, I’m working with a few publishers to get complete lists of their upcoming books, along with pictures of the cover flats. If anyone has contacts at publishers where I can get this information, please let me know.

The words of the day is: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which is the fear of long words. Check out phobialist.com for some more hilarious and irrational fears. One of my favorites is Lutraphobia—the fear of otters.

In other news, I was linked over at Brandon Sanderson’s website, but not for anything art or science fiction related. I said a few things last night that are being taken completely out of context. They’re kind of funny. So go on over and take a look at the weird things I say but don’t necessarily mean.