Sunday 16 November 2008

Crap fantasy book covers #14

I stumbled across this rather horrific cover courtesy of Graeme's review

Graeme clearly found himself unable to review the book without first mentioning the cover: 

"Cover art is a funny thing isn’t it? It’s such an important part of the book as it’s the first thing you notice in the bookstore and could potentially put someone off buying the book itself. Everyone has different tastes though and this must make it difficult for a publisher to come up with cover art that will appeal to plenty of people... On this occasion, the cover art for ‘The Queen of Stone’ really didn’t work for me..."

It doesn't work for me either. No wonder people look down of fantasy when you have this sort of appalling cover on display. Those unfamiliar with the genre, after seeing this cover, could be forgiven for thinking that all fantasy fans are sexually-frustrated, pimple-faced loners. 

This is dumbed-down fantasy art at its best. Sure, maybe it represents the actual book accurately (Graeme's review seems to confirm this) but it's still a totally crap cover.

Crap-o-meter rating: 9/10

3 comments:

Todd Newton said...

Augh. Awful. Hideous. Looks like a high school kid painted it.

Or, in the words of the Word Verif, that cover can be described as "humbrop."

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the bow and arrow look like crap. Sheesh, whoever did that cover needs to get with the program.

Mage-

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with the bow and especially the arrows that form a bushy tail of sorts, but the clothes, position, chaotic elements and overall style is very American Adult Comic bookish.

That's not such a bad thing. I admire those forms, they're flexible.