Last year, Orbit Books had a bit of fun by rounding up a huge swathe of 2008’s Fantasy novels and compiling a graph of the cliches used in the art. Now, they’re back at it, taking a look at the covers for 2009’s novels and comparing them against the novels in 2008.

It’s interesting to see that nearly all the categories dropped off (Maps, Hobbits/Dwarves/Trolls/Ogres, and Guns are the only categories to see an increase in 2009), suggesting, perhaps, that we actually saw a bit more variance in the cover art released in 2009. I think we’re all shocked by how low Hooded Figures ranked; though, if they took out the ‘hooded’ part and added in ‘hired college student wearing a cloak, labelled with a tramp stamp and/or looking menacing‘ to the list, I’m sure it’d rank near the top. I do like those ‘dark covers of meaningless’, though. We could use more of them, and maybe even add in a ‘light cover of meaningless’ or a ‘colourful cover of meaningless’ while we’re at it.

It’s an interesting, humourous look at the trends in the industry. It certainly shows that cliches are alive and well in the hearts of readers and the minds of graphic designers and marketers everywhere. Also of note is that Orbit Books will be compiling a similar graph based on the titles of novels released in 2009, which should be of equal interest.

From Roberts’ blog:

You know how I like to complain about cover art being boring, derivative and blandly figure-centric? Well, you won’t be hearing any of those complaints today. Lovingly kitschy and spot on for the tone and setting of the novel.

From Tor.com:

Since his work on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Michael Komarck has become one of my favourite Fantasy Illustrators working in the industry. If put in Irene Gallo’s shoes, of choosing the artists involved in the Wheel of Time eBook re-issue, he would have been one of my first choices. I mean, just look at this Lord of the Rings painting.

I’m a big fan of the Knife of Dreams cover. Great physicality, emotion, colours, contrast. Just awesome. Plus, Rand actually looks like a man in the painting, as opposed to a teenager or a boy, as befits his transformation through the series. Great stuff from Gallo, Komarck and the rest of the Tor Books art team.

RARGHRGH. Angry Giant Kahlan is angry. RARAGRHG! This is the cover that Terry Goodkind, apparently, helped design. Looks like an ordinary, generic cover. I expected more moral objectivity, beards, Ayn Rands and Goodkind’s name to be even larger and foiled in 22k gold. It is appropriate that Angry Giant Kahlan appears to be worshiping Goodkind’s name, though.

I love that it’s ‘a Richard and Kahlan Novel‘. I guess the ship has sailed on the Sword of Truth Series, though how this is anything but the 14th volume is a mystery to me. I mean it’s got Kahlan, Richard, Zeddicus, Prophecies, Omens (and Machines!), Valour, Heroism, (likely) jaw kicking and sadomasochism, and it picks up directly after the end of Confessor. Totally sounds like a new series to me.

Glibness aside, with all the Imperial Order junk out of the way, it does sound like it might recapture some of the fun and adventurousness that made the early novels in the series readable and, *gasp*, enjoyable. At least he’s not trying to hide it as a literary thirller this time around.

A few months ago I posted a cover for Gauntlgrym by R.A. Salvatore, the 7,345th volume in the Drizzt Do’Urden Saga. Turns out that was just placeholder art (likely for a catalog) and Wizards of the Coast was still working on the real cover.

It’s not my favourite artwork from Todd Lockwood, but it’ll surely appeal to its audience. For some reason, I get no sense of inertia or energy from the painting, it all just seems so static and lifeless to me, like a piece of sports photography shot at too high a shutter speed.

On the plus side, that title still makes me laugh, and I liked Neverwinter Nights when I played it years ago, so the setting might be cool. Still, I left Drizzt and co. behind many, many volumes ago.