Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Bookstore Guy on May 14, 2009, 09:48:24 PM
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"Kaaaahhhhhhnnnn!"
(http://www.monkeysloth.net/brandon/graphics/TheGatheringStormCoverArt_CABB/GatheringREV_thumb.jpg)
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Meh... it's ok. Not nearly the best.
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Never been that impressed with the cover artwork for this series so this just sort of fits in.
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It's as crappy as (almost all) the rest of the covers.
Good thing EOTW had a cool cover. If I didn't know anything about WOT and saw that book on shelf, I would laugh inside and think "man, there's some crappy fantasy out there."
I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, but I find myself doing it all the time.
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Actually, THE DRAGON REBORN has a good cover as well. I don't understand where the drop in quality comes from - I personally feel it hurts the series.
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I liked the cover on Path of Daggers.
This one is pretty meh. I can almost hear Rand shouting, "Perducci!! (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail106.html)"
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I personally feel it hurts the series.
I agree with you 100% on that one. I think WOT is one of the best fantasy series out there, but I think it has the worst cover art. It would probably be even more popular if the covers were appealing instead of ... awful.
I like the UK covers much more.
http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Gathering_Storm/Images/tGS_Uk_01.jpg
You'd think Tor would recognize that Sweet's covers are hurting the series and do something simplistic, like the UK version.
I'm assuming Brandon was trying to find something positive to say about it when he said "My thoughts? I like it a lot better than the sketch that was floating around." If that's the best thing he can say about it, then he doesn't care for it either. Oh well. WOT isn't his baby. We're just lucky he's finishing it.
Someone on Dragonmount made up a caption for the art that made me laugh:
“Blood and ashes!! I said no Traveling inside the house!”
Hahahaha! ;D
After reading that, the first caption that popped into my mind was:
"Light blind you, Semirhage! I wanted that hand!"
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I really don't want to be mean, but this can't be considered art - it is just too bad. I know Darryl is able to do better so my question is why didn't he? Major time crunch? I have scene artists create much much better work in handful of hours - did Darryl K. Sour really have less than an hour to complete this. It would be interesting to hear what the explantion for this is.
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The simple answer is DKS just doesn't care, he apparently thinks Cover art is glorified billboards and not art.
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Meh! :( what did they give the artist? 100 bucks? :(
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm a 1/4 into Crossroads of Twilight and have not gotten to the part where Rand loses his hand. Why did I look at this cover. WHY!
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There you go Mr. Sweet is even spoiling those that haven't even read it yet!
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Rand looks constipated and the dragons are crappy looking
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Not to mention the fact that the image is not canonically correct. He needs to go back and touch it up and have them redo the process plates. As I remember it, in the book Rand was looking like Thomas Covenent not a one handed William Shatner.
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This is just awful. I would love to hear what DKS has to say about this.
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I'm glad I'm not alone. Mr. Sweet has much to answer for here. I went to his site not believing that an artist could be making a full time living turning out work that looks like this. I was right. He's capable of much better stuff. It looks like he simply didn't care about this cover at all.
I'm going to guess that he wangled a contract for every book in the series early on, but doesn't care enough now to either do a good job or let Tor out of the contract so they can hire someone who does care.
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I'm not a fan. I like many of the covers, but this one... it just feels way, way off.
And the caption that comes to my mind is from the second Ninja Turtles movie... "And next time I'll use mustard!"
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I like the work he did on the other books, and I think it's best to keep the same artist for the entire run. But I have a friend that thinks his work on EotW is the worst cover she's ever seen and this one will bother her more. The woman is the background, I'm assuming Nyneave is distorted as if painted by someone who never studied figure painting.
It might be nice to have an edition with Miyazaki doing the covers.
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I must be one of the few who actually prefers the US covers to the UK ones.
Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart and Crossroad of Twilights are amazing covers in my opinion, the new one doesn't look as good but it's in no way a bad cover.
I would be very unhappy if they changed the cover artist for the remaining books of the series.
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I like the work he did on the other books, and I think it's best to keep the same artist for the entire run. But I have a friend that thinks his work on EotW is the worst cover she's ever seen and this one will bother her more. The woman is the background, I'm assuming Nyneave is distorted as if painted by someone who never studied figure painting.
It might be nice to have an edition with Miyazaki doing the covers.
That can't be Nynaeve, she has very dark hair and braided hence all the braid tugging through out the books.
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Sweet is doing for Jordan what Lockwood does for Erikson - not giving a crap. Its as if Sweet woke up one morning and said, "Crap. I have to do another lame cover. What do I have in my garbage pile that I can recycle?" I especially love how disproportional Rand's legs are compared to his body. Did his legs go anorexic after his pathetic climax in the last novel? And who is that figure behind him? I wasn't aware goblins were part of the WoT mythos.
Rather than my original assumption that he was screaming "KAAAHHHHHNNNN!", I am now under the impression he is screaming, "Light blind you Sweet! SWEEEEEEEEET!" I imagine it is very similar to, yet more vehement than, Brandon's "Scalzi!!!!"
The UK cover may not be dramatic, but it has a simplistic elegance to it that makes it grab the eye. Covers are meant to attract you. They are not supposed to make you want to cover your child's eyes because they will give him nightmares.
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The simple answer is DKS just doesn't care, he apparently thinks Cover art is glorified billboards and not art.
In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what cover art IS. It's designed to grab your eye quickly and encourage you to pick up the book. It serves the same purpose as a billboard, which is to get your attention in a fraction of a second.
Which isn't to say that I think he's doing a good job of it here. But then again, I can only think of a handful of Sweet covers that I did like, and they're all old.
I can't bag on the man, he's doing a job and he's been doing it for decades. But I do feel like he just doing
"a job", and he dropped the ball on this one.
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I say ink makes the cover!!!!
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Or more logically, maybe he could do the covers for a special edition. It's important not to break up the set, unless Sweet does something drastic. I'm thinking mailing random body parts to the one that got away and an overt fascination with sunflowers.
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I can't bag on the man, he's doing a job and he's been doing it for decades. But I do feel like he just doing
"a job", and he dropped the ball on this one.
This is exactly what i mean. He did a "job" with no passion behind it. Todd Lockwood is the same way - on his Drizzt covers, you can tell he has a passion for them, and goes all out. They look incredible. Then you look at the Erikson covers he has done (#s 3+) - it looks like while he was doing it said, "Who gives a &*^%. I haven't actually read this, so I dont give a ^&*(. Yay for paychecks on stuff I wouldn't even hang in my house!"
Covers like these make the marketing dollars spent promoting the novel useless.
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The simple answer is DKS just doesn't care, he apparently thinks Cover art is glorified billboards and not art.
In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what cover art IS. It's designed to grab your eye quickly and encourage you to pick up the book. It serves the same purpose as a billboard, which is to get your attention in a fraction of a second.
Well, it sure draws your eye in, but this is not the kind of attention that you really want...
Now, Brandon gets great cover artists for his books. It was the amazing cover of Elantris (hardback, when it first came out) that drew me in to reading his works in the first place.
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The simple answer is DKS just doesn't care, he apparently thinks Cover art is glorified billboards and not art.
In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what cover art IS. It's designed to grab your eye quickly and encourage you to pick up the book. It serves the same purpose as a billboard, which is to get your attention in a fraction of a second.
Well, it sure draws your eye in, but this is not the kind of attention that you really want...
Now, Brandon gets great cover artists for his books. It was the amazing cover of Elantris (hardback, when it first came out) that drew me in to reading his works in the first place.
That's the exact same thing that drew me into his works.
On the bright side, though, at least Rand isn't breakdancing. You can only really have a cover like the early mock-up if your book is called "Breakdancing in the Wheel of Time: An In-depth Perspective."
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You, too, can be breakdancing through the Ages.
In bookstores today!
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I cried when I saw the cover.
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If his upper body was in any way proportionate to his legs I wouldn't totally hate this as the worst cover in the WoT series and maybe any fantasy series. But, alas, look at that barrel chest atop twigs.
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The simple answer is DKS just doesn't care, he apparently thinks Cover art is glorified billboards and not art.
In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what cover art IS. It's designed to grab your eye quickly and encourage you to pick up the book. It serves the same purpose as a billboard, which is to get your attention in a fraction of a second.
Which isn't to say that I think he's doing a good job of it here. But then again, I can only think of a handful of Sweet covers that I did like, and they're all old.
I can't bag on the man, he's doing a job and he's been doing it for decades. But I do feel like he just doing
"a job", and he dropped the ball on this one.
You got a good point, Billboards can be good art as well. As Bookstore guy pointed out DKS should take pride in his work if he wants to GRAB people's attention then why give such sub-standard work? Does he figure since this is book 12 and if your this far your going to buy it no matter what the cover is? Well he's right which is when you start having to call DKS some not very nice words.
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More likely he's just got too much on his plate at once, because he had to do other things while he was waiting for someone to call and tell him what they needed. Probably can't get his head into the game. It's been a long time since KoD.
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This is just laughably bad. It looks as though Sweet was heavily inebriated when he painted this, because he's capable of such greater work. Either he was drunk, or he didn't give two shits about how it looked. It seems like he couldn't decide how to make Rand's arm look without the hand so he hid it in the folds of the coat sleeve. Sweet's depiction of Rand isn't even consistent with the other covers, what with the incredibly buff Rand in aCoS, or the kingly Joaquin Pheonix-esque Rand of tPoD, or the cheesy romance-novel Rand on Lord of Chaos. I think he should take an art class to learn what proportion is.
Sweet must be on a binding contract, because everyone at Tor would have to be on crack for them to approve this cover art otherwise. There's no reason why a volume of a best-selling book series should be presented this shoddily. That being said, while I was initially really displeased, I'm sure eventually I'll come to love the cover art in its inexplicably cheap glory.
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You guys are too worried about the cover. Don't worry, it'll fall off soon after you open the book. (Seriously, though, Tor should develop a better glue.)
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ew books bound with the dust jacket art non-removable? That would seriously reduce the value of the book.
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I am glad I remove the cover while I am reading the book. I would be depressed picking up this book everyday with that cover on it. It should be much better. I know they say not to judge a book by its cover but that is what most people do, myself included. I go to the book store to pick out a new series or book. The first thing I do is look at the covers and title. If they catch my eye I will read the overview on the back. If that sounds good I will go back and find the first book of the series. Looking at this cover, I would not read the overview and just put it back on the shelf. If not for the pre existing fan base this cover could ruin the book. Taking that into account it is still going to hurt by keeping some readers from picking up the series.
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Judging a book by it's cover is a mixed art. After all, a publisher is going to work hard to advertise a new book or series that he believes has commercial potential. That means he puts the money into illustrations for the "good" books. But Tor knows these books are going to sell even if they end up poorly done, they have an established fan base who need to know what happens next.
That and the fact that momentum was lost, means neither Sweets nor TOR are terribly motivated to reach for the best illustrations. But come on that painting isn't as bad as some of the comments in this thread suggest.
Not everyone is a Vajello or Hildebrandt and the type and logos stand out better with a less dramatic painting. If they used the very best art, they'd stand the risk of having the cover art be far too good for the book, case in point Elfstones of Shanarra.
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That and the fact that momentum was lost, means neither Sweets nor TOR are terribly motivated to reach for the best illustrations. But come on that painting isn't as bad as some of the comments in this thread suggest.
Yes. It is.
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the thing that makes the art so bad here is the knowledge that Sweet actually does good work. as both Ink and I have mentioned, you can go to his website and see some very good work. you can look at the first books of the series and see art that is well done. What makes this art so bad is us knowing that he CAN DO and HAS DONE much better.
If this wasn't a Robert Jordan novel book stores wouldn't even face it out due to the terrible quality of the art. At bookstores you face-out the novels that have beautiful covers so people are drawn in. Cover art and Cover quotes sell a high percentage of novels. This cover is terribad, and may make new readers not want to pick up the series.
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Even so, the painting could be recropped and new plates shot. Some airbrushing could fix the worst issues digitally. Worse come to worse, Sweets could rework the original some. But isn't this just a mockup? Maybe what hits the street will be better.
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Not everyone is a Vajello or Hildebrandt and the type and logos stand out better with a less dramatic painting. If they used the very best art, they'd stand the risk of having the cover art be far too good for the book, case in point Elfstones of Shanarra.
I understand this in fact I would say that Marie Gran Pre who did the HP art is no where near as good as these artists. HOWEVER you can tell she puts care into the art by consistantly creating a "living" character that grows up with the books.
In Sweets we get a different looking Rand each and every time. We have to play a guessing game of "Who is that supposed to be?" Just look at the tGH cover, does that look like Loial, Lanfear/Selene and Rand? How about those trollocs? It's the accuracy that's horrible.
Then add in that apparently DKS really doesn't care about the art he does for the books where at the very least Marie DOES care. Now I think her last three covers were the best but even her worst is still better to look at and see then DKS's. She actually took the time to read the book and find something appropriate, Darrly just slapped something on that is barly passible as art.
For the tGS cover I have no idea who that woman is supposed to be, it's certainly doesn't match any characters I've read but it probably will be Avi even though I know she doesn't dress like that.
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I believe it is far too late to rework the art - this needs to be sent to the printers to make sure it is ready for distribution in the fall. And I don't think that it is a mock-up. It's the official cover as far as I know.
Like Shard said, I dont ask that every artist be a Boris Vallejo, Swanland, Martiniere, or Dos Santos. I just ask that they put real effort and passion into it. The cover is sub-par. There are hundreds of amateur artists who could have done better and who would have killed to do the cover for this novel. Now, to switch artists would have been a serious error, but that is no excuse to let this kind of sub-standard art go though.
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This is awful. I have actually liked some of the cover art for WoT (please don't shoot :)), but this is just god-awful. (As was said on Dragonmount), the girl's shirt looks like it's about to fall off, which is really bugging me for some reason. [Who is that girl supposed to be, anyway? It's pretty hard to tell.]
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covers for books 1 and 3 are good, which makes this one even worse (if possible). Sweet hasn't done stuff this crappy for Modesitt or Farland either.
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Are you sure it isn't just that modsett's work is so bad he makes Sweets look better? :P
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So the hole in the building....
I don't know the story behind it but it appears there was a door there before because there are stairs leading up to the hole.
Is there a reason why there's no debris and it's cleanly circular? So it wasn't an explosion outward or inward with jagged logs or that upset the balance of the house, etc? Someone decided to burn a hole out of the door and wall instead of opening the door?
I haven't read the series for quite some time so maybe there is a story behind the background that makes sense.
Maybe someone who knows the story could elaborate.
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perhaps it is just filler for a painting that looks like it was done in 20 minutes by an intoxicated man.
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Maybe it's that scene toward the end of KoD where Rand loses the hand, and we can only see, Nyneave and Rand. The hole could be the result of a gate, if the artist forgot that gates are rectilinear.
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I kinda thought it was supposed to be balefire, but it doesn't look like a very clean cut.
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Now that you mention it it looks charred so neither balefire nor a gate is reasonable.
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Has anyone else noticed that you can't see Rand's eyes? I think this may lend into the Fisher King theory about him losing his vision.
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I have yet to like any of the cover art, honestly. It doesn't bother me though. I like to use my imagination, and I think now the artwork is for recognition more than anything else. I can spot a WoT book from a mile away, now.
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Has anyone else noticed that you can't see Rand's eyes? I think this may lend into the Fisher King theory about him losing his vision.
that sounds a bit too subtle for Sweet.
considering he can't even get perrin's age right on the cover of one of the books (path of daggers, was it?), I don't put much stock in anything 'foreshadowed' on the cover. See also: trolloc helmets. eg: great hunt
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Perrin was on Knife of Dreams, Path of Daggers just had Rand. I think PoD was one of the better covers.
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Does anyone else think Sweet's name is inappopriate for the quality work he turns out?
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Wow I thought this thread would have died by now. Kaz, don't you think that's an unfair snipe?
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Don't you think that is an unfair cover?
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Know i thought the snipe was completely fair as it was honest...
*sends cyber-five to inquisitor* go Texans!!!
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*intercepts Kaz's cyber-five and turns it into mutant cow that eats him* :P
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There is a site that just trashes the covers to the series and lets the readers know whats wrong with them all, as in how they make the characters look different than what the text says they look. It's all different.
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Haven't the Dabel Brothers proven that the artwork can match the writer's vision? My biggest problem with the cover art is that 1) it makes no attempt whatsoever to resemble the characters as they are described in the books - Why is Lan wearing a helmet and his sword strapped to his back on the cover for The Eye of the World; 2) There is no consistency in the characters from cover to cover - why does Perrin look COMPLETELY different on the Winters Heart cover than he does on the cover for The Dragon Reborn? and 3) why did I spend 30 minutes staring at the cover of Knife of Dreams trying to figure out who the people were? Shouldn't we be able to pick up the twelfth book of a series and know without a moment's pause who the cover characters are?
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Agree that the cover art for this is just awful. I haven't paid all that much attention to the other covers, the only one that stands out is Path of Daggers, the rest I would categorize as either mediocre or not good. I remember thinking that on the Crown of Swords cover Rand looked different than on the other covers ... kind of like a skinny version of Stephen Baldwin (ugh). In general the other covers seem very passive (i.e., Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos).
Thinking back to the cover art of the fantasy series I read as a kid, I remember really enjoying the original Shannara cover art from the first couple books. I was not a fan of the original Belgariad artwork. The Dragonlance artwork was pretty good, even if the books were just okay. I think that the Xanth artwork was more hit than miss.
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Absolutely Terrible. Just like all the other WoT books. This makes the series look bad- Worse even than previous covers.
Terrible. T-R-B-L Terrible.
I'm pretty sure that cover deserves an Attack of the Show Style EPIC FAIL!
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what do you mean all the cover are bad EotW has a good cover and so does SR and PoD
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Commented elsewhere about the art, but meh, well... it's the same style as the others, I guess.
Except with mystery tavern wench behind him.
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Maybe Mystery Tavern Wench is Elminedra (as opposed to Min).
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Not a fan, though I've never been a huge WoT follower in the first place. The art for the books has always looked to be generic high fantasy, so I guess it fits in with the ho-hum theme of the rest of the series. =\
Would have liked to see a better cover for what are surely to be the best books in the run, though. xD
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It's just plain awful.
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Not a fan, though I've never been a huge WoT follower in the first place. The art for the books has always looked to be generic high fantasy, so I guess it fits in with the ho-hum theme of the rest of the series. =\
Would have liked to see a better cover for what are surely to be the best books in the run, though. xD
Comments like that deserve a back hand... and for multiiple reasons first off the author nor the content of a work should be judged by the marketing tool used to sell i,t and secondly though i think that over all Brandon is probably the better writer no-one can take up a masterpeice and complete it in the likliness envisioned by the original artisan...it always come out for the worst no matter how skilled the predecessor... WoT deserves to be finished by Mr. Rigney and it's a darn shame that is no longer possible
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If they had just hired Michael Whelan to do the cover art, we would all be suitably impressed.