Posts Categorized: Cover Art

Modern covers for classic Science Fiction

The design of this series is meant to relate to the readers of Sci Fi but at the same time move away from its “geeky” reputation. All the covers have a specific illustration on the front page relating to the topic of the novel.

By restricting to 45 and 90 degree angles, the illustrations underline the fact that these novels are parts of a series and also give them that retro Sci-Fi feel.

Simple and clean, these covers manage to feel appropriately SFish while embracing solid design and not relying on tropes of the genre (spaceships, alien figures, laser guns) to sell the idea. From a marketing perspective they might be a bit of a hard sell (the title and author are often hard to make out, unlike these similar re-coverings from Gollancz), but they’d sure look purty on a bookshelf.

More of artist Martin Dellin’s re-imagined covers can be viewed here.

PERFECT SHADOW by Brent Weeks

It’s Raymond Swanland. Need I say more? Unlike other artists who really stick to their wheelhouse (*coughchrismcgrathcough*), I fall in love with Swanland every time he puts out a new piece of art. Sure, they’re all the same. But I can’t help but drool.

Perfect Shadow is currently available as an eBook. This cover is for the Subterranean Press limited edition coming later this fall.

KING OF THORNS by Mark Lawrence

Another Fantasy cover, another hooded figure.

So, why do I like this one when so many others have frustrated and left me feeling hollow? There’s panache, it’s got chutzpah, character, personality. Seemingly influenced by Michael Komarck’s famous portrait of Jaime Lannister, the main character of Lawrence’s trilogy just oozes charisma. He looks like an absolute jackass, but somehow you want to know more about him and the situation that led to him lounging confidently on a throne atop a pile of dead bodies. What’s he holding. Who is he?

It also helps that the cover is entirely illustrated, instead of a photo manipulation featuring Mark Charan Newton in a hood with a photoshopped sword of fireball super-imposed over his white knuckles.

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin

Since the release of her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin’s been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, Nebula and World Fantasy awards. It’s a tremendous novel (see my REVIEW), but I also think a lot of its success can be attributed to some of the early excitement and speculation created by the release of the gorgeous cover. Of course, cover art is never used as a metric when nominating for or judging these awards, but the novel gained some significant buzz among the blogosphere that likely wouldn’t have existed (especially for a debut novelist without much in the way of published short fiction) if not for the striking work of designer Lauren Panepinto and artist Cliff Nielsen.

I like these covers for much the same reason as Jemisin’s previous colour: impactful use of colour. As they stand (and this could very well change between now and the final polished versions), I feel that the typeface seems a little out of place, though I like that it’s been kept simple (instead of something like this, for instance). It could also be solved by using a foil-technique (as Orbit used on the paperback of Brent Weeks’ The Black Prism, also seen on the recent paperback release of Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan), which generally looks sharp. In all, it’s a niggling complaint and I can’t wait to see the final copies in hand. Just as with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, I’m bloody excited for these novels based on the covers alone without even knowing what they’re about. I can’t think of higher praise for the designer/artist.