Wednesday 13 August 2008

Crap fantasy book covers #10

Oh dear.

Came across this shocker on the Westeros forums. Apparently, it's the Russian cover for The Lies of Locke Lamora.

If I'm right in thinking that the people that appear on the cover are characters from the books, then Jean Tannen seems to have been turned into a monk, swapped his knives for a pathetic-looking axe and obtained a swish golden mask from somewhere (for no obvious reason). He's also wielding some sort of crap, magic Orb of Doom or something.

The Berangias sister that's standing also appears to have had a sex change.

Now, I know that different markets require different marketing and so on, but that doesn't seem to be justification for putting a crap cover like this. Boo!

Crap-o-meter rating: 8/10

8 comments:

RobB said...

What happens a lot of times with these foreign covers is the publisher will randomly grab pre-existing cover art from another book and re-use it. I've seen art from some of GRRM's books on different author's books in different countries.

Todd Newton said...

Oh my lord, WHY!?

It's so sad that such a great novel can be masked by such a hideous cover.

I need some kind of advance warning system for these posts so I can make sure to have a bucket ready.

Mark Newton said...

Who said communism didn't work? Look at the cultural legacy!

Jeff C said...

Egads, thats rather ugly.

I actually like the 1980s looking fantasy covers (Modessit Jr., for instance). But in this case, the cover has nothing at all redeeming about it.

Carole McDonnell said...

Very Frazetta-ish. Not particularly bad ... maybe just shows that Russian readers have a different sensibility about covers. Am sure some of our covers wouldn't work over there. Art appreciation is cultural, i think. -C

Anonymous said...

I'm not in any way defending the cover, and I don't have my copy to hand, but weren't Tannen's Wicked Sisters actually hatchets after all, and not knives?

James said...

I think they might well have been hatchets.

Todd Newton said...

The Wicked Sisters were indeed hatchets but while their repeated use made them sound pretty fearsome, Jean was repeatedly able to hide them behind his back so there seems to be a disconnect on how long they were.

Frankly, though, I wouldn't use that little thing to cut my steak.