A nice piece of cover art here from Julie Dillon, one of my favourite new artists. What’s worth noting, however, and the real reason I chose to post this cover, is that this is the first of Anthony’s Xanth series to be published since the death of Darrell K. Sweet, who had been with the series since the publication of its third volume, Castle Roogna, in 1979. This, of course, is of note to Wheel of Time fans who are eager to see the cover of the final volume, A Memory of Light, the first Wheel of Time novel to be released without a cover from Sweet. Dillon’s art captures Sweet’s style admirably while still having an identity of its own, which is great news for Xanth fans.
I’ve always been a fan of fantasy cover art, because unlike a lot of other genres I like and read in (especially *cough* romance *cough*), the covers actually do try to evoke some elements in the story – they don’t just slap a wizard with a pointy hat on the cover and say ‘THIS IS HOW YOU KNOW THERE’S MAGIC IN IT!’ (Unlike romance, which is content to put a contextless shirtless man on the cover, so all us silly ladies don’t have to read them big words to know there’s sexytimes in the book).
This could be a good artist to finish WOT.
I disagree that Dillon’s art captures Sweet’s style at all, but I wouldn’t expect a new artist to this series to necessarily be like Sweet. I’m not impressed with Dillon’s human figures, but the rest of the cover is very good!
She is definitely a great artist and is probably now a favorite of mine as well. I’ll definitely look her up. This is great!
Am I the only just completely floored that Xanth is still being published?