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.

It’s, uhh… catastic? I dunno. I wasn’t a fan of the style when there were Dragons involved, and I’m not really any more keen on it now. Just seems like a strange marketing decision. I do appreciate the consistency in style, though. Long gone are the days of wonderful John Howe art gracing the covers of Hobb’s work.

That said, though it’s an odd fit for this book cover, artist Jackie Morris does have a wonderful portfolio of art, and it’s absolutely worth visiting.

Yummy art? Over-the-top typography? It must be another great Subterranean Press cover! I’ve been waiting for this for a while, and it’s certainly no let down. Sure, it doesn’t have share the stylistic approach of Abercrombie’s general releases (which I still prefer), but it’s a great, moody piece of art that shows a different side of Abercrombie’s series. I’m particularly fond of the deep red font contrasting the cool blue hues of the art.

It’s interesting to see Alex Preuss‘ style veer more towards Fantasy in this piece, given that some people (myself included) felt that the recently released interior artwork felt too much like an image you’d find in a Science Fiction novel. It speaks to a nice diversity, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the artwork.

Opinions? Any guess what the scene of the cover conveys?