vacuouswastrel

Some terrible covers there… but some surprisingly decent ones as well!
[of course, mainstream fantasy novels also sometimes have atrocious covers – I’ve seen some that were far worse than these*]

Ones I found interesting:
High Barrens – bland, but pretty. The font is… i’m not sure. On the one hand, it’s a very cliche, cheesy TSR fantasy font. On the other hand… it’s a nostalgic TSR fantasy font.

Light Dawning – good painting, ruined by that TERRIBLE tag line. Which is in the wrong font, in the wrong place, with the wrong words (just repeating the title but worse). Have I seen that painting before?

A Wizard’s Forge – on the one hand, it looks like a bland, modern commercial cover of a forgettable fantasy novel. On the other hand… it does look like a professional, commercial cover. And as modern commercial covers go, it’s actually not bad – it certainly draws the eye with its vividness, and even introduces an element of intrigue (is her hair being liquid metal just a metaphor, or is this some sort of magical thing?)

Under Ordshaw – not quite right, but a good attempt at an arty, pretty cover. And has an inbuilt hook.

How To (etc) – I don’t like the title, and I don’t really like the cover, but I will say that seeing the cover made me more positive about it than the title alone would have done. It’s… limited and cheap, but has good graphic sense and makes the most of what I assume was a tiny budget.

Shadow of a Slave – it’s not exactly a good cover, but it is a nostalgic one. That font, that cartouche! With the painting, could easily be an early 2000s reissue of a TSR novel. Probably Ravenloft?

Purple Haze – so close. I don’t think it quite works – a bit too cartoony, particularly with the figure? But I like the idea. And that sort of striking but simple ‘poster’ design is probably a good way to go with a limited art budget (c.f. your banner this year!). A lot of collector’s editions of things go that way.

Clockworld – again, almost. All the elements good, but a bit over the top. The giant clock dominating everything sort of pushes it into ‘Dr Who novelisation’ territory for me. But to be fair, a lot of commercial books look like that now. [and provides another tip for prospective authors with small art budgets: you can get mileage out of stock photos! (or your own)]

Kingshold – almost. Good painting, though SLIGHTLY too cartoonish for my tastes (looks digital?). Loses out on fonts and design, though. The font is uninspiring, and with an unstriking colour and no sort of graphical differentiation (old-school fantasy covers had a reason for those cartouches!), the writing fades too much into the painting.

Song of Insurrection – not good, oddly, given that some elements are very good. A few things are wrong, but I think the biggest is just that it’s almost impossible to have a cool-looking, non-ironic cover with quavers on it..

Sworn to the Night – meh. that’s a good meh. Looks professional. But unexciting

Empire of Tears – cliché, but pretty good. Interesting enough, I think, to stand out. Main font too ostentatious, but never mind.

Dark Oak – again I’m not 100% on the fonts (is that a colour gradient!?). But overall… yes, I like that one. Dramatic, without being over-the-top.

Victor Boone – as with the title, this cover makes me think “I shouldn’t like this book, but I might…” – that’s pretty good graphic design, and it really fits the title.

Dark of Winter – OK. But don’t do that with the red letter. And don’t do that with the pretend stamp on the front.

Paragon – that’s an unusually nice sword hilt. Nice fabric wrapping. I’ve no feelings about the cover at all, though. I guess it follows the lead of the title: a bland but adequate “don’t mess up” approach. Which succeeded.

If I had to pick three… I really don’t know. If I could pick six, I’d go with High Barrens, Under Ordshaw, Wizard’s Forge, Victor Boone, one of either Kingshold or Dark Oak, and, just for nostalgia, Shadow of a Slave.

Maybe I’d go different depending on the objective. If we’re going with “best covers”, I might go High Barrens, Under Ordshaw and Wizard’s Forge. Maybe swap in Victor Boone for one of them. If we’re going with “most likely to make me buy”, I’d take out Wizard’s Forge (it’s a good cover, but probably for a book I’m not the target audience of), and swap in Shadow of a Slave just out of curiosity, or Kingshold if I’m feeling less whimsical.

I wonder if it’s a coincidence that many of the better covers, imo, also have the better titles, imo? High Barrens is certainly leading the way after the first two rounds (title and cover, that is… round three being the, you know, actual words in it), although I will say the cover is totally NOT what I was expecting. The title suggests something harsh, brutal – a post-apocalyptic western, perhaps. But the cover suggests something soft and dreamlike and old-school. I’m intrigued.

*possible worst: American editions of Hobb’s Rainwild novels. Ghastly dragons that look like 3D gifs from 1992 photoshopped onto background paintings…