Via Cheryl Morgan:

Two very different takes on Blackveil by Kristen Britain. I’ve never read Britain’s Green Rider series, but in my younger days I was always very attracted to the cover for the titular first volume, Green Rider. I mean… who didn’t think a disappearing ghost horse was cool?

The US cover features art from Donato Giancola, one of my favourite Fantasy artists and hits on every note that originally drew me to The Green Rider. It’s a Fantasy cover to the nth degree, but sometimes I like that. Still, my tastes have grown in the past 13 years and, as much as I can appreciate the US cover, the UK cover appeals to me much more and matches just as well with the series’ previous UK covers (Green Rider, First Rider’s Call, The High King’s Tomb); I imagine those four look mighty fine side-by-side on a bookshelf.

Either way, Britain’s not done poorly in either region.

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.