Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Inkthinker on April 06, 2011, 02:05:36 AM
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(http://brandonsanderson.com/images/Alloy-of-Law-UKsm.jpg)
I kinda dig it. I think that McGrath's cover is more character-accurate (though not without it's inconsistencies), but I like this. It's pretty consistent with what they did for the trilogy. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mistborn&x=0&y=0&sprefix=mistborn") I do wish they'd been more careful with the typesetting... my first instinct is to read the title as "The A Mistborn Novel Alloy of Law".
I think that's the front end of a train, but I suppose it's open to interpretation?
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Reminds me of the cover of the Night Angel trilogy books.
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Reminds me of the cover of the Night Angel trilogy books.
That's what I thought too. It's also a style that prevalent in a lot of YA books right now. I do prefer the McGrath cover out of the two. It's yummier.
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It's pretty badass. I think I would've liked a little more realism though, and a little less abstraction.
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I already noticed the style on the Way of Kings cover - they always seem to be very minimalistic and mostly black and white.
While I find the covers aesthetically pleasing, I have difficulties accepting them for Brandon's books. The reason is that Brandon is such an excellent world-builder and the covers do not reflect that at all. I even feel that they work against the content. Compare that to the beautiful Wheelan WoK cover, which is basically highlighting the uniqueness of the world-building.
Plus, in the UK covers are all the same for the different worlds. While I like that it is sort of an in-joke for people who know about the Cosmere stuff, it really "blands it down" too much for me.
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I talked with Simon Spanton (editor at Gollancz--Brandon's UK publisher) about this cover a few weeks ago when I was in England.
What he said would essentially confirm your question. He didn't want the cover to scream only steampunk like the McGrath cover does. He told me steampunk is a bit more of a niche market there, so limiting it in the way the McGrath cover potentially does could hurt the sales. This way, it's open to interpretation as the front of a train, or perhaps something else. I personally like this cover (with the exception of the horrid tag-line) much better...though part of that may stem from my growing dislike of the identical feel of all the McGrath covers--to me the US cover is just like the Vampire Empire novel just on a different area of the color wheel. All McGrath's stuff says "I'm Urban Fantasy. Open here for emo vampires."
Again though, it's all subjective. For example, I really dislike the US WoK cover. It isn't even close to the awesomeness that Whelan can achieve, in my opinion. As my favorite saying goes, different strokes for different folks.
Edit: For Brandon's Elantris, The US cover is amazing. The UK cover is SOOO different, but I absolutely freaking LOVE it.
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I haven't seen the UK WoK cover. Where do I find it?
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I haven't seen the UK WoK cover. Where do I find it?
Just go to amazon.co.uk and type in Brandon Sanderson. You can see all his (and everyone else's) UK covers. WoK's is being split into two volumes for the paperback release, so there's another WoK cover in addition to the hardback one.
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Thanks!
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Reminds me of the cover of the Night Angel trilogy books.
From what I understand, they started the trend.
Brandon is like the only author with better US covers than UK covers. =/
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Little off topic... but I liked the night angel covers. Was the soul reason I started reading it. I happen to judge a book by its cover.
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Little off topic... but I liked the night angel covers. Was the soul reason I started reading it. I happen to judge a book by its cover.
I did the same thing, and I'm glad I did. xD
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In my opinion, this cover looks way better than US cover. It has a strange feel to it, like we'll be expecting something new from this mistborn story.
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Hey stormblessed, I saw that you mentioned being an Aussie in another thread (sorry to be off topic). I'm glad to see a fellow Australian. I feel like I've been preaching Sanderson on my own here, but hopefully you're spreading his word also.
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Hey stormblessed, I saw that you mentioned being an Aussie in another thread (sorry to be off topic). I'm glad to see a fellow Australian. I feel like I've been preaching Sanderson on my own here, but hopefully you're spreading his word also.
Of course i have ;D and i work in a bookstore, so it makes it even easier.