A Dribble of Ink

Oh my. Celine Kiernan‘s US/UK covers are nice enough in a pedestrian kinda way, but this set of covers from Australia blows them clear out of the water. It’s great to see a publisher take an idea and execute it so surely. Seriously, click on the image above to see them int their hi-res glory. The seamless black and white artwork from Elise Hurst is beautiful, and the touch of colour in the title is just enough. The only thing I don’t completely love are the Roman numerals cluttering up the titles. I haven’t been so enamoured with a set of covers since I first saw the UK covers for Joe Abercrombie’s novels.

Unfortunately, any excitement and motivation to read the series stirred up by the covers is stamped down again by the fact that the protagonist of the series is named ‘Wynter’. So close, Kiernan. So close.

Over on Tor.com, Weber talks about the cover:

At one point she is named “beautiful destroyer,” and I think in many ways that is exactly what I was trying to convey when I painted her. I rolled that phrase around in my head a lot while working on this. Although I’ll never be able to make one picture capable of encompassing everything I love about this series, I’m pleased that I was given the opportunity to express a mood and atmosphere that does my vision of the story justice.

Lovely. Captures all the mood of the trilogy and, in a rare instance, Weber actually seems to have depicted a version of a main character that’s close to the one in my head. It’s simple, but manages to evoke all the best aspects of the series (read: not the ballroom scenes). Very reminiscent of Weber’s equally accomplished cover for the eBook edition of The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan.

Holy guacamole. Raymond Swanland‘s work on Cook’s The Black Company series has always astounded me, even if it often looks samey and retreads familiar ground too often. This cover for Towers of Midnight might be my favourite piece of art by him, and, perhaps, my favourite of all the Wheel of Time eBook covers. Just the look in Perrin’s eyes is enough to make me feel a little giddy… and I’ve not even read the book!

Irene Gallo, art director for Tor.com, has similar thoughts:

Raymond Swanland was on the top of my wish-list from the begining of this project. With so few books left, I couldn’t help but to look around carefully. Still, I never realy wavered from my first impression. I knew that Raymond could handle the dramatic lighting in play and be able to invoke tremendous power in the figure work. Even assuming the best, I was still blown away by the depth of emotion he captured in Perrin. Those eyes, lost in a trance, unminding of the natural world but absolutely focused on the chaos and activity around him…. You don’t have to know the story beforehand to get shivers looking at it.

Sure beats the tepid cover for the Hardcover release.