From Mihai, at Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews:

French publisher Bragelonne is gaining a reputation for producing some of the best Fantasy covers, even above the heavy-weight American publishers. This cover, with artwork from Marc Simonetti, for Ken Scholes’ Lamentation is another great example of why. Rather than focusing on a hodge-podge, or generic photo montage, Bragalonne commissioned a very distinct piece of art featuring Rudolfo, one of Lamentation‘s many lead characters, watching over the Desolation of Windwir, a central piece of imagery from the the novel. Very nice, and much preferable to the recently released covers for the North American editions of Canticle and Antiphon.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Simonetti’s art, you can read and interview between him and Mihai HERE.

Another winner from Baen Books:

‘Why hello there! Is that a sword in your hands, or are you just happy to see me?’

Another month, another gorgeous ebook cover from Tor for Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. For A Crown of Swords, Irene Gallo teamed up with artist Mélanie Delon and produced a lovely rendition of Nynaeve and Lan.

Gallo on the cover:

Though nothing’s been announced, I expect we’ll see the novels re-issued with the new artwork sometime after the final volume, A Memory of Light, is published. If it happens, I’ll certainly be buying new copies.

Hrm. It’s kinda like that old Brent Weeks’ cover (which I didn’t like), had a bastard love child with the UK Mistborn covers (which I loved). I’m not so sure it works so well as Sanderson’s previous Gollancz covers. The ghostly, ethereal feel worked well with Vin (who’s rather lithe, and pretty), but feels awkward with a knight-in-shining-author.

Presumably, this is an early draft of the cover, taken from the Gollancz catalog, so, like the Weeks’ cover, it could change, but, given its similarities to the Mistborn covers and the looming release date, I expect that’s a good idea of what the final version will look like. I’m rather more fond of the US Edition.

The cover for N.K. Jemisin‘s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is one of my favourite examples of proving an argument against the dreaded hooded-figure. I knew I’d love the the cover for The Broken Kingdoms, but I didn’t expect to like it even more than The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms! I’m a huge sucker for blues, greens and anything to do with the forest. Plus, it’s also a nice, portentous play on the previous cover.

Cheers to Lauren Panepinto, designer, and Cliff Nielsen, artist, for setting the bar once again.