Kevin's Watch

I've had White Gold Weilder on my shelf so I see it every day and I must say that the cover illustration is my favorite of all the TC books. As we all know it has Thomas Covenant, Linden, Gibbon-Raver and Honnisgrave<sp?> on it. What I like about it is that it is so static! There's Linden cowering because of Gibbon's evil. TC is looking defiant. Honnisgrave looks like he's pissed. Best of all, Gibbon-Raver has the master rukh and looks like he's read to fry everything. Also, he's so evil that he doesn't really have a face. Awesome.

Second runner-up would probably be The Power That Preserves.

What is your favorites?

B

Illearth War. Natch.

I'm not a big fan of any of them, but if I had to pick one it'd be The Wounded Land. But that's probably just because it's such a great scene in the book. I'm even willing to forgive Brinn being drawn with a sword on his back.

LFB, original hardcover edition. (poll doesn't mention: original covers, old paperback, new paperback?)

I know the original TCTC hardcovers were quite naive, un-realistic, almost child-like.
But the LFB one always left a strong impression in me, some mystery, and some nostalgia.
It has the texture of dream, of faraway, of legend.

A photorealistic painting never gives me that feeling; not even the Hildebrandts move me (eg their Tolkien paintings), although they have great talent.

I don't know, it's hard to convey such internal hard-to-seize feelings. Can't put my finger on it. And maybe wouldn't want to... wouldn't want to lose feeling for an intellectual understanding!

Is anyone going to pick the version of The One Tree where the Elohim look like wacky messed up elves? Heh.

I always thought the TPTP cover looked pretty good, even though Covenant (or whoever, heh) has armor on, heh. And a sword for some reason.-jay

The Illearth War.

BraulioB seems to be talking about the Darrell Sweet covers. I'm very fond of them myself, though they tend to get more boos than applause (even from SRD).

I love all the Sweet covers, but I think the one for TPTP dazzled me the most. It, of course, depicts the great scene at the Colossus of the Fall, with Covenant on his knees grappling with Dead Elena over the Staff of Law. Behind them, Foamfollower and Bannor stand frozen in stasis, and in the background looms the tremendous stone of the Colossus. The "illearth" green glow around Elena, Bannor and Foamfollower is a wonderful touch. And to those who say Sweet never got anything right, I have to say that Foamfollower at least, as drawn by Sweet here, was exactly how I imagined a Giant to be.

kevinswatch wrote:Is anyone going to pick the version of The One Tree where the Elohim look like wacky messed up elves? Heh.

But, oooh, all the pretty colors! Since the Elohim can take whatever form they wish, I'll just pretend that they decided on a whim to look like wacky, messed up elves. I think it's a nice, evocative image, but if I recall correctly from the Gradual Interview, this cover for TOT was one that really had SRD shaking his head...or maybe grinding his teeth.

The One Tree, UK Fontanna/HarperCollins editions.. depitcing Starfares Gem in rough seas in a centre circle surrounded by images of the dying land [currently my msn avatar:)]. All these covers are by far the best on any editions afaic .. Peter Goodfellow was the artist. Not just saying it cos i', British either

Yes, the UK editions are beautiful. I believe SRD said they're his favorite covers, too. But I've gotten my hands on only 3 of the books with the Goodfellow design.

kaseryn wrote:The One Tree, UK Fontanna/HarperCollins editions.. depitcing Starfares Gem in rough seas in a centre circle surrounded by images of the dying land [currently my msn avatar:)]. All these covers are by far the best on any editions afaic .. Peter Goodfellow was the artist. Not just saying it cos i', British either

I love that cover kaseryn, although I prefer Lord Foul's Bane with lightning striking the summit of Kevin's Watch.

Sum sui generis
Vs

Love that one too mate.. made a t shirt with that on it

I picked Lord Fouls Bane, the one with the Rahnyn on the front cover..I like it, because it doesn't depict an acctuall scene...I guess the same goes for the Wounded Land with the carcass on the cover. Since Most of the scenes shown on the other covers didn't happen, I like the idea of just a general picture

I didnt really like any of them, but If I had to choose, I suppose I would go with the Sweet cover of "The Wounded Land", which at least manages to portray a powerful moment with some intensity. The slack-jawed-in amazement-Brinn on the shore is totally hopeless though.

Least favorite: White Gold Wielder, by Sweet. Linden appears to need some serious Bayer for a upcoming migrane, and Honniscrave just looks odd. Covenant could pass for a wax mannequin.

Others that I recall:

The Sweet Covers:

Lord Foul's Bane: I never have figured who exactly the cover is depicting, although the when of it is obvious.
The Illearth War: Weird, but ok. I like Mhoram well enough, Im not sure thats quite how I picture a Forestal.
The Power That Preserves: Very green. The figures are in the wrong place (Foamfollower and Bannor should be behind Covenant and the Colossus), but I guess that is covered under artistic license. The cover doesnt really bother me, but it doesnt really work for me either. It seems too stagy and melodramtic, plus it gives away a rather important plot twist -when I first read the book just from the cover alone I knew Elena was coming back.
The One Tree: Ugh. My big problem is that it is really bland. It tells us nothing whatsoever concerning what the book is about.

The "Connected" covers:

All ok, except for the stiff "looking over the vista" figures of Covenant and Linden in WGW. They look like they just auditioned for a remake of "The Ten Commandments".

King Elessar 8 wrote:All ok, except for the stiff "looking over the vista" figures of Covenant and Linden in WGW. They look like they just auditioned for a remake of "The Ten Commandments".

Yeah, you can practically hear the music swelling up...."Climb every mountain, ford every stream..."

ugh

I like the French covers. Abstract, absolutely nothing to do with the books, and scantily clad women.

In praise of Darrell K. Sweet.

Sweet is often reviled by fans of books he illustrates. I’m thinking particularly of The Wheel of Time. In general, much of the criticism artists get from fans is undeserved.

The fact is that the two most successful post-Tolkien fantasy series (Covenant and Wheel) have had this in common: DKS as the cover artist. You could throw in the wildly popular Xanth series and that’s at least three huge hits. Plus so many others like Lawrence Watt-Evans’s books.

Successful cover artists are almost automatically going to incur the wrath of dedicated fans. Why? Because they’re not commissioned to make authors and die-hard fans happy. Their job is to attract new readers. If a bookstore browser picks the book off the shelf after it catches his eye, the artist has done his job.

Similarly, the often-misleading cover jacket blurb writers aren’t trying to synopsize the book as accurately as possible, they’re trying to draw new readers in. It helps if you think of both the blurbs and the artwork as advertisements, which they are. You don’t come down hard on the Frosted Flakes people because there is no real Tony the Tiger and because tigers have nothing to do with cereal, anyway.

Artists work for publishers, not for authors. It’s nothing new for an author to be unhappy about the cover art. But a good author is not necessarily a good judge of art. He knows what suits his mental picture of the characters and scenery, of course, but that doesn’t pay the bills.

Supposedly, SRD had enough clout during the run of the 2nd Chronicles to get cover approval rights for Daughter of Regals. And what was the result? An extremely blah cover for a book that had disappointingly low sales.

That having been said, Sweet is far from a perfect artist. Many of his poses look forced, and his characters’ heads are often too big for their bodies (that may be deliberate). His covers look best as seen from afar or in thumbnails. But again, that’s not necessarily a weakness, given his job.

Wheel fans are merciless regarding Sweet, and I can see why. Basic details such as the number of characters in a scene and their hair color are just wrong. But Sweet’s two covers for The Eye of the World have helped make Robert Jordan fantastically successful. The artwork’s flaws, grave as they seem to the book’s readers, are not even a factor with potential new readers, who are the only ones who matter.

To be fair to all artists, including Sweet, it’s exceedingly rare for them to be given an advance copy of the work they are told to illustrate. Most artists wouldn’t want that much information for one scene anyway, and most publishers have a reflexive distrust of confusing people with too much information. The published tells the artist what to paint.

From best to worst:

The Illearth War: Very otherwordly. Caerroil Wildwood is one of Sweet’s best depictions.

Lord Foul’s Bane: The most important cover, one that helped make SRD so successful. Sweet does fire and heat pretty well.

The Power That Preserves: Really conveys the urgency of the scene. Also, an excellent scene selection. It’s an important event that is not the climax of the novel.

The One Tree: Yes, they seem more like the faerie Elohim that Foamfollower tells TC about in the first chronicles than the ones we see in the novel. But it is eye-catching.

The Wounded Land: Another good scene selection, but Covenant and Brinn look very awkward.

White Gold Wielder: Perspective and size and proportion are very awkward. Honninscrave and Covenant have major jaw problems, and TC stands like Mr. Burns. Honninscrave’s limbs and body and head look like they all came from different-sized beings. He seems Frankensteinian. Gibbon is okay, because he’s essentially hidden by his clothes and hood.

Now personally, I think Don Maitz and particularly Michael Whelan are overrated. Whelan is technically excellent but seems hopelessly formulaic, like Vallejo. Too many pretty boy surfer heroes, and any older character looks like Ben Kenobi (see the stylish Chade on Assassin’s Apprentice, a far cry from the Pocked Man of the book).

I liked Janny Wurts’s cover for Daughter of the Empire, but for the reprint and for subsequent volumes in the series, the publisher went with her husband, Maitz. I still don’t get that.

I'd go with Darrell K. Sweet's WHITE GOLD WIELDER cover design. Gibbon na-Mhoram looks menacing as hell and about what I pictured him looking like.

My second favorite is THE WOUNDED LAND - although I'll agree with a previous poster that the sword on Brinn's back is laughable.

There are of course different covers for different countries and then different covers again for reprints etc etc etc ........ i wonder how many different covers there actually are?
As a poll maybe all the covers should have had an oppotunity to be voted for, as although there are a few voting for LFB we could actually be voting for completely different works of art!!! This is NOT a criticism by the way . . i hasten to add . . i would not in any way wish to annoy the powers that be on my very first post here ....... ?!?!?!??!

I have always like LFB .... i still remember the front cover catching my eye all those years ago ...... which was probably in the early 80's?!?!?!?
YIKES that was a long time ago. I think the Chronicles were the very first books of SF/Fantasy that i bought and subsequently have read many many times of the last twenty odd years. Too many times to count in fact.

I've always liked the Power That Preserves cover, although Foamfollower doesn't look quite as imposing as you would expect him to be. He just looks like a really tall guy rather than a Giant.

MrKABC wrote:I'd go with Darrell K. Sweet's WHITE GOLD WIELDER cover design. Gibbon na-Mhoram looks menacing as hell and about what I pictured him looking like.

My second favorite is THE WOUNDED LAND - although I'll agree with a previous poster that the sword on Brinn's back is laughable.

I also like the TWL cover, and you're right, the sword is just awful - and so is the fact that Brinn looks like a scared teenager.

But the krill rising from Glimmermere - that rocks!