skygiants | (no subject)

genarti asked me for my top five favorite book covers! She gave me full reign to be ironic in my love, which is a privilege I will try not to abuse. At least 50% of these will also be rooted in fond nostalgia rather than any artistic merit, so . . . you are warned? I also stretch the definition of 'top five' a little, you are also warned.

1. You knew I was going to put some classic Diana Wynne Jones here, right? The new covers are pretty and all, but I really love a couple of the old covers I grew up with:

I always liked this Black Maria cover, despite the random floaty green box and so on, because of how it tied in to how I could picture Mig in my head - I can believe that she looks like this. (Although Mig never used a quill pen to write her pretty princess Mary Sue stories, alas.) And the random floaty green box is pretty, okay!

Honorable mention:

Yes, the dragon on this cover is hideous. BUT. The dragon on this cover is also covered in the SPARKLY DIAMONDS OF MANPAIN that are one of the most lolarious things about the book. Sorry, Edward Cullen, but Mordion was there first. THIS IS THE LEATHERY DRAGONHIDE OF A KILLER. (. . . I love Hexwood! I do! But seriously.)

2. Megan Whalen Turner really lucked out in the cover draw. But, while all the covers of her books are gorgeous, in my opinion this one is the prettiest hands-down:

(Secretly part of me wishes it was the cover of the third book, which is my favorite. It would work even better! But oh well, I will accept it for the second too.)

3. So remember a while back when Penguin started doing lulzy comic-style covers of classics? You have NO IDEA the stars I had in my eyes the first time I saw them. They almost convinced me to read Lady Chatterly's Lover, that's how much I loved them. But here are my favorites:

This is the cover that got me to read Cold Comfort Farm. One of the best decisions of my life! Fabulous as the cover is, it only captures about 30% of the actual hilarity of the book.

I love this one just for poor sad D'Artagnan. MAYBE HIS DUELLING OPPONENT MISTOOK THE TIME. He just wants to go have lunch, guys. ;_;

4. Occasionally I am slow, so it took me a while to actually appreciate this cover of Farthing. I was just like, "oh, a pretty red and blue pattern!"

Then, you know, I actually looked at it. And it completely blew my mind that I had totally missed the main design element. Hence it gets a place in the top five!

5. I know nothing of L.J. Smith's vampire books. But I have an enormous love in my heart for her cracktastic Arthuriana, the only books of hers my library carried when I was a kid. And I also have a enormous love in my heart for the terrible, terrible cover of the first one.

Poor Alys just kind of looks like she is valiantly attempting to cast spells through a horrible cold, while accidentally smacking her brother in the face. For some reason that endeared her to me even before I'd read the book!

As an honorable mention, the cover to the sequel is actually really pretty:

So much sistertastic awesome! Alys with a sword, Alys and Jane bonding, Claudia being adorable and Charles looking vaguely hunted: that is the essence of these books to me.

And while I'm on the topic of covers, I am going to throw out a few more. These are not favorites. These are covers that almost kept me from reading books that I later adored, and that I therefore passionately resented.

I actually checked the first Alanna book out of the library and returned it unread twice before I could actually bring myself to brave the cover. Not only is the art ridiculous, it has Sweet Valley High font! TERROR. (Which is not to say that I did not read Sweet Valley High, but the combo of the font and Barbarian Princess Alanna was an extremely unnerving one.)

The infamously terrible The Game of Kings cover that presumably almost turned a whole generation off Lymond. Never before have I been so appreciative of a nice, classy trade paperback reprint cover.

And then there is this Riddlemaster of Hed cover:

The purple spandex trousers will NEVER NOT BE HILARIOUS.

What about you guys? Favorite covers? Notoriously terrible covers that you have braved to find the gold within? Or, alternately, covers that should justly have been a warning to you?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

THEY ARE MY FAVORITE. I wish to declaim my eternal love for whoever over at Penguin decided to commission them.

Hahahaha well as you can see by my experience with Farthing that . . . is not something unknown to me! I did notice the hook on Queen of Attolia, though.

Now I feel crushed that I never saw them because how tempted would I have been to buy all of them? SO TEMPTED. Penguin, you should get back on this boat because it is an AWESOME BOAT /hint

For some reason my mind was convinced that she was holding a flask and that was just a peculiarly gravity defying stream of water. Genius, self, just genius. XD;;;

...In my defense, I haven't read the books yet (I know! I know!), but it took me until this comment to realize that that was not, in fact, a gravity-defying stream of green water/poison/liquid/whatever. It's very pretty! But that's WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.

. . . or, in fact, like a hook.

WHICH IT IS.

*cracking up*

IT'S VERY GREEN AND LIQUID-Y FOR A HOOK, OKAY.