Kevin's Watch

On the SRD website there is a now a draft cover of Runes. It is, without doubt, the most unattractive cover of any book that I have ever seen. Check it out.

It's not too bad, but not very good.

I did spend a while wondering if the trees spelled anything ...

Surely this isn't Michael Whelan's work???

Whelan's doing the US covers this is some Orion draft thing and may not even become the UK cover...

well it sure is ugly....pass the word

Personally, I don't have any complaint about it. Ok, the vague tree silhouettes are a little uninspiring, but I quite like the dark, minimalist design. I could live with that cover.

It's a cover. Some publishers want artsier covers, others don't.

I contend that the trees are actually runes that spell out "Donaldson". I see some recurring patterns in there that suggest more than random tree placement...




*whispering*
pssst.... Steve likes it, by the way.

I did wonder if the trees were meant to represent runes, but I dismissed that idea

I'll take a pass on that cover, thanks. Although, it WOULD be preferable to having Darrell Sweet do the covers again....

Meh, I think the cover is fine...not breathtaking, but not terribly hideous either...

On the original covers: was Sweet the one who turned Covenant into the Hunchback in WGW? If so, I'd have to agree that just about anything would be preferable to that kind of art-rape.

I could live with the bland cover if there were some illustrations inside.

UrLord wrote:Meh, I think the cover is fine...not breathtaking, but not terribly hideous either...

On the original covers: was Sweet the one who turned Covenant into the Hunchback in WGW? If so, I'd have to agree that just about anything would be preferable to that kind of art-rape.

I believe so, but I'll have to look at my copy of WGW when I get home to be sure. Gibbon is about the only one who actually doesn't look like a complete dope on that cover, although he still bears a suspicious resemblance to a Jawa.

Call me crazy, but that looks more like a design for the cloth front cover than the dust jacket art.

Good point, Caer. I think that too.

I personally, don't care what the cover looks like, or if there are illustrations, on the inside, all I care about, is the story therein. As long as that's intact, they could make the cover plain black, and I wouldn't care.



Actually, come to think of it, I don't like covers that depict a scene or characters from the book, it usually puts a damper on things for me. I'd prefer the covers to look more like this one. Although Whelan, does usually do a great job. I'd prefer just the title, author. And go.


There's two lincoln's for ya.

edit

Just remember everyone...it is only a "draft" cover. I, personally, like the idea of the trees spelling out "Donaldson", way cool!!!

Now that Whelan is done with DT7, I'm sure he can get started on the US cover.

UrLord wrote:Meh, I think the cover is fine...not breathtaking, but not terribly hideous either...

That pretty much sums up my opinion. In the right color shades, and with a 3-D effect on the runes (I can't remember what they call the bubbling of a cover), I think it could be fairly elegant.

Caer Sylvanus wrote:Call me crazy, but that looks more like a design for the cloth front cover than the dust jacket art.

I agree. Look closely at the surface. Can't be the dust jacket. Anybody seen that kind of artwork on the cloth front cover before? I haven't...Still waiting for the Whelan cover though, must be awesome...

kasten