Thursday 7 January 2010

Some cool book covers from the continent...

With all the debate surrounding UK and US book covers, it's easy to forget there's some excellent artwork to be found on European releases.

Here's some of the best European book covers I've come across recently.



Portuguese cover for Peter Brett's The Painted Man




German cover for Peter Brett's The Desert Spear (title changed to The Whisper of Night)





French cover for George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (I think):




French cover for Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind




French cover for Brent Weeks' The Way of Shadows




French cover for Brent Weeks' Shadow's Edge





French cover for Brent Weeks' Beyond the Shadows




French cover for one of Gemmell's Jon Shannow novels (think it might be Bloodstone)

15 comments:

Aidan Moher said...

France is blowing me away these days. Nice collection of covers.

Kristopher A. Denby said...

Those are great covers!

Anonymous said...

Bit John Howe.I like originality myself ..rather than copying someone elses style.

Marduk said...

I really like the Martin and Weeks covers - far superior to the UK or US ones IMO.

hwm said...

Have you seen the German covers for the Tide Lord series by Jennifer Fallon? They are awesome.

Albertosaurus Rex said...

Yeah, "Pierre de Sang" does translate to Bloodstone.

By the way, ever seen the Dutch editions of The Godless World novels? I think they look pretty sweet.

Mihai A. said...

The French editions have great cover artworks indeed. And they have also great artists. I wish for all the covers to look as good, but I know that's not quite possible. As for the Romanian market, well, it leaves much to be desired...

James said...

Aidan - yep, Bragelonne definitely have some wicked covers.

Marduk - Agreed.

hwm and Albertosaurus - any chance you could provide the links? Interested to have a look!

Mihai - I've seen a few covers from eastern Europe and I'm afraid they weren't pretty... :(

Albertosaurus Rex said...

Winterbirth (The Dutch title Zwaarden van eer actually means Swords of Honor. I have no idea if this fits the novel, as I have not read it yet): http://www.standaarduitgeverij.be/img/covers500H/9789022547472.jpg

Bloodheir (This time, the title has been translated literally): http://www.standaarduitgeverij.be/img/covers500H/9789089680051.jpg

Fall of Thanes: http://www.standaarduitgeverij.be/img/covers500H/9789089680266.jpg

I have no idea if these covers fit the books as I have not read them yet - they are on my to-read lists. But as I've said before, I think they're pretty sweet.

RobB said...

Wow, those Brent Weeks covers are absolutely stunning!

Mihai A. said...

I've seen a lot amazing covers across Europe last year and I fetaured them too, as I enjoy in the fullest an excellent cover. I know that I can't show much of them from my country, but indeed Eastern Europe suffers a bit here. However, I've seen quite a few great covers on the Russian market :)

Mihai A. said...

Oh, and the Czech cover for their edition of Brian Ruckley's "Winterbirth" is an excellent one. After all it is the work of Kekai Kotaki :)

James said...

Albertosaurus - many thanks for the links, they're pretty nice covers!

Rob - agreed, especially the second one.

Desk Jockey said...

The Martin cover is interesting. An english transliteration would be: The Throne of Fire.

Anonymous said...

No, the translation is "Throne of Iron" ("fer" = "iron", from Latin "ferrum")...