Posts Categorized: Art

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Far over the Misty Mountains cold,

Today marks the worldwide release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. To celebrate, I’ve gathered together some of my favourite art, professional and amateur, together to celebrate the wonderful legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s best (yep, best) work.

To dungeons deep and caverns old,

We must away, ere break of day,

To seek our pale enchanted gold.

I will fully admit to nicking most of these images from a post at Tor.com, also celebrating some of the wonderful art created in celebration of The Hobbit. So, have you seen the film? What did you think? And, what are some of your favourite pieces of art from The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings?

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

You guys/gals criticized me for saying that the cover for Peter V. Brett’s The Daylight War wasn’t over-sexualized. Maybe you were right, maybe I was right. Maybe we both were. I think there’s a line between positive sexual energy and being over-sexualized, but it’s a thin one and often hard to discern. But, to follow up, I thought I’d post this absolute gem from Baen Books for Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold. You know, the author with 10+ Hugo nominations, and various other lauded awards, to her name. Doesn’t she, and don’t we, deserve better? Sadly, this is hardly new territory for Baen.

In somewhat related news, it worth following the recent discussion titled #1reasonwhy about the struggle that women face while trying to find equality and fair representation in the videogame industry. The coverage on Giant Bomb is a good starting point for following the discussion.

Well, I applaud Tor for putting an old(ish) guy on the cover, and leaving his face unobscured by a silly cloak/hood. Otherwise, it looks a lot like a Dresden Files novel, and not a whole lot like the awesome covers that the series originally debuted with. I don’t mind Chris McGrath’s art, but I think it’s a poor fit for Scholes’ series.

And, to meet my ‘obscure videogame culture reference of the day’ quota, the man’s a dead-ringer for Jeff Green (not this Jeff Green), formerly of Computer Gaming World Magazine, then Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, then Electronic Arts, then PopCap Games, then, by virtue of the universe’s perverse sense of irony, Electronic Arts, again, thanks to their acquisition of PopCap Games. *Phew*