Friday Face Off : ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide’
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout. This week’s theme:
‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide’ – A cover featuring a longboat
Well, I’m kicking myself a little bit this week – a couple of weeks ago, when I was looking high and low for a particular cover for one of the themes, I came across the perfect book for this week’s theme. Could I remember it when I came to this post. No. I could not. Anyway, I’ve still found a great book, which I don’t believe I’ve used before. This week my book is : Assassin’s Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy #1) by Robin Hobb. This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed when I read it a few years ago, and in fact, on the strength of this I think I bought a lot of other RH books. Have I returned to the series yet. No. I have not. Why, for goodness sake. Anyway. one day. For now though, here are my covers:
My favourites are :
My favourite this week :
Which one is your favourite?
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so we can all visit and check out each others covers. Thanks
I’ve updated the list and included themes through to the end of 2019 – I’ve also included events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share that let me know in the comments). I also have a list prepared for 2020 and so will set up a separate page soon for forthcoming themes. As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment.
Next week – A cover featuring a school
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
2019
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
26th April “The sunrise was the colour of bad blood” – A cover featuring a sunrise/sunset
(May is the month of Wyrd and Wonder – details here, Twitter: @wyrdandwonder)
3rd May – “How sweet to be a cloud, floating in the blue” – A cover that is predominantly blue
10th May – “As full of spirit as the month of May” – A cover featuring a festival/party/celebration
17th May – “The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow!” – A cover featuring a fantasy beast
24th May – “bibbity, bobbity, boo” – A cover that features ‘magical things’
31st May – “simples” – A favourite fantasy cover
7th June – “One swallow does not make a summer” – A cover that makes you think of Summer
14th June – “Coraline opened the box of chocolates. The dog looked at them longingly.” – A cover featuring something sweet
21st June – Summer Solstice – the longest day of the year – Pagan rituals/standing stones/blazing suns – a cover with your own interpretation
28th June – “And who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas” – A cover that is striped
5th July – “The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe… has been answered” – a cover featuring something/somebody historic
12th July – A wrap around cover
19th July – “You can’t choose between life and death when we’re dealing with what is in between.” – A cover that is grainy or looks like ‘white noise’
26th July – “Ludo ….. down” – A cover that is Upside Down
2nd August – “There are children here somewhere. I can smell them.” A cover featuring children
9th August – “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” – A cover featuring Pirates
16th August – “The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagles own plumes” – a cover featuring feathers
23rd August – A cover that is a movie tie in
30th August – “I wandered lonely as a cloud” – a cover that is predominantly yellow
6th September “Warm September brings the fruit” – a cover that is seasonal for Autumn/Fall
13th September – Friday the 13th – unlucky for some! A cover with ‘curse’ in the title
20th September – “Your hair is winter fire,January embers.” – A cover featuring hair
27th September – Freebie
4th October – “Feed me Seymour” – A cover that is 60s horror
11th October – ““And, though there should be a world of difference between the smile of a man and the bared fangs of a wolf, with Joss Merlyn they were one and the same.” – a cover featuring an Inn
18th October – “It’s your favorite scary movie, remember? He had on the white mask, he stalked the babysitters.” – A cover featuring a scream
25th October – for Halloween – pick any scary cover you like
(I’m hoping that November will once again bring to us SciFiMonth – Twitter @SciFiMonth)
1st November – A cover that is predominantly grey
8th November – “big badda boom” – a cover that features an explosion
15th November – “No thinking thing should be another thing’s property, to be turned on and off when it is convenient.” – a cover featuring a robot
22nd November – A cover that is Futuristic
29th November – “When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” – a cover that is 60s sci fi
6th December – Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York” – a cover that puts you in mind of winter
13th December – A cover that features a temple/or religious icon
20th December – Longest Night – a dark and foreboding cover
27th December – the festive season – a cover that is glittery or sparkling
(2020 – January is Vintage SciFi month so I’ll be including possible themes to take that on board.)
I have to return to this series one day and finish it up as well. Though with the number of books she has in her Elderlings realm, I think this will be a long-term project, lol. A lot of these covers feel too plain for me, but I do like the one with the ship.
Yeah, I’ve only read this one – so that really is a lot of catching up and even though they enjoy such a lot of love from other readers it just feels like a major project. I really don’t enjoy being so far behind!
Lynn 😀
This is a great choice, I love the cover with the red cape😁
Yeah, that was a difficult choice to make because I really like that one too.
Lynn 😀
This is a series I need to return to as well: after book 1 I have not moved forward, and every time I see it mentioned I promise myself that I will, one of these days… And I like your cover choice: it possesses a definite medieval feel that I find very appropriate 🙂
That’s a promise I keep making myself too. I need to stop talking and get reading.
Lynn 😀
I like your second favorite best!! The one with the red cape 🙂
Yes, I do really like that one too – in fact it was different to choose between them.
Lynn 😀
[…] UK and US book covers and decide which is we prefer. This meme is currently being nurtured by Lynn’s Book Blog and the subject this week featuring on any of our covers is a LONGBOAT, so I’ve selected Half the […]
What a great choice – and an amazing series:)). It is was of my alltime favourites! And yes… I agree with your favourite – I love the idea behind this series of designs:)
Yeah, they seem like the covers I’m familiar with for this series and I really like them.
Lynn 😀
Out of all the characters for that book I love that one you settled on the most. It’s just so appealing to me. Have a great weekend, Lynn!
You too 😀
FWIW, Assassin’s Apprentice is definitely the worst of her Realm of Elderlings books. I mean, it’s good, but some of her later ones are sublime. Arguably the best fantasy novels.
Personally, I think you’ve gone with the least-good of the six UK covers for this. My favourite is Howe’s longboat – here’s the full cover, with sides and back. There’s also Morris’ earlier edition, here – it’s better in person, because that background is a sort of shiny, silver-leaf effect. Then there’s the original ARC, which is a little dull but nicely nostalgic.
More recently, a number of new covers have come out. this is a nice clothbound hardback, while is the Subpress edition (it’ll only cost you $1000 or so…). There’s another version of Morris’s buck cover, but with a gold-leaf background, for the 15th anniversary, and then there’s this slipcased edition for the 20th – unlike the 15th (and the howling wolf hardback) this is available in a set for the whole trilogy. Finally, a new illustrated US edition is coming out later this year, violating the rule that Robin Hobb novels must always have horrible covers in the US – like this CGI monstrosity.
As usual, the French have some great covers – like the modern, symbolic this one, or this gloomy, Tolkienesque one (at least, I think that’s what that is – the French organise her series differently).
Sorry I missed your comment, it appears that lots of comments have been going into a ‘pending’ folder that I’ve only just discovered. I need to do some serious catching up!
Lynn 😀
Ooh nice. I liked this book! The first cover and the fifth and sixth ones are my favorites. In fact, the more I look at it the more I think your favorite might be mine too. Something about the blue, and the parchment look… but I like the stark, elemental feeling of the ship at sea too.
Yes, I think the ship cover is quite popular too – and the red cape! Difficult to choose.
Lynn 😀
Yes, that’s my favorite too, though in keeping with the theme I’ll pick the cover with the sailboat too. 🙂
Yep, the sailboat is popular.
Lynn 😀
Lynn, I agree with your choice 🙂 I still haven’t read this but I do have a copy languishing on my Kindle, with this cover as well 😉
It’s such a huge series that it feels daunting to even think about – I absolutely must pick up all the other books at some point though, perhaps I need to make a project out of it.
Lynn 😀
My favourite series!! ❤ And I have a soft spot for the NA mass paperback cover, but I love love love the new harper voyager ones.
Eek, a series I do need to read – it just feels so immense!
Lynn 😀