When Mainstream Publishers Do SFF

Daniel Polansky's debut novel, Low Town, was released last year by Doubleday. Owned by Random House, Doubleday publishes mostly mainstream fiction, with a smattering of science fiction and fantasy. Some of their more recent genre work includes David Anthony Durham's Acacia Trilogy and Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale. For the most part, they do a reasonably good job of crossing over to the different genres, marking them to the appropriate audience. 

David Anthony Durham's recent covers code perfectly for fans of genre and the George R.R. Martin quotes are fantastic.

With the paperback release of Low Town, not so much.

A quote from the Newark Star-Ledger and cover art that would be more appropriate on a Chuck Palahniuk novel, Doubleday has branded Low Town as literary fiction. If Polansky's novel was a crime thriller, or historical fantasy, or urban fantasy, or magical realism, I'd probably go along with it. Unfortunately, Low Town is second world fantasy with wizards and sword fights. It's as fantasy as something is like to get short of throwing in a dragon and an elf.

Sure, there's a lot of crime fiction noir roots in Polansky's writing, but readers expecting Elmore Leonard are going to be perplexed (although they might enjoy it). I'm not convinced Doubleday did a better job with the hardcover released either.

Comparing it to the UK version, I can only wonder who Doubleday is targeting with Polansky's work.

While I don't much care for the art, it does code fantasy much more clearly. Not to mention better titled.

What do you think of the Doubleday covers, particularly the new paperback one? Would the weird cover turn you off as a fan of genre?

Cover Announced for Joe Abercrombie's Red Country

I'm a little confused. It's a strong cover and it certainly communicates Joe Abercrombie's style. But, it's a real departure from the previous Orbit hardcover releases (as seen below).

Instead, Orbit has opted to continue with the style from the trade paperback releases.

Why? I'm sure the reasons are some combination of: the trade covers sold better, the editorial team prefers them, or it costs too much to do two separate cover designs for hardcover and trade. I'm not sure any of those reasons are particularly persuasive to me. Trades often sell better because they're cheaper. I like having two separate styles for the hardcover and trade releases. More importantly, I like having my Joe Abercrombie hardcovers look consistent on the shelf. I also really don't dig on photo realistic covers. I much prefer the stylized interpretations, something the previous Abercrombie covers have done tremendously.

What do you think?

Oh, and that appears to be Logen Ninefingers on the Red Country cover. I'm still not sure how to feel about getting Logen back. I was just coming to grips with having him gone for good.

Unveiled Art for Courtney Schafer's The Tainted City

The cover illustration for Courtney Schafer's forthcoming novel The Tainted City was released today (above). The new novel is the sequel to her well received first novel, The Whitefire Crossing, which I reviewed and recommended last year. First off, I'm glad to see the artistic style continued from the first novel (i.e. - artist David Palumbo). Night Shade has done some monkeying with covers between books in a series in an effort to jump start sales/interest and that always bugs me. For example:

However, I continue to be interested and concerned about how covers are used to attract certain audiences versus what the books contain. In Beaulieu's series, the The Winds of Khalakovo cover was perfect. It conveys an epic scope, but also understates action and adventure akin to the sweeping epics of the 19th century literature. The second novel, conveys almost the polar opposite. While I haven't read The Straits of Galahesh yet, I can't imagine Beaulieu's style has changed from what is perfectly represented on the cover of Winds. That said, the second cover will certainly sell better than the first, something I touched on in this post from early in the year.

Back to Schafer's newest cover, I can't help but code science fiction from it. Not Peter F. Hamilton science fiction, but something dystopian in the mold of Brave New World (Huxley) or Debris (Anderton). The dress of the characters, the textures of the buildings, and the force-field-like-light-show in the background, all call to mind the future. Without closer inspection of the standing character's hip, and the recognition of a dagger, there's almost nothing that shows swords/sorcery/horses. Don't misunderstand me, I think it's a great cover. I love the composition and having read Whitefire Crossing, I know what's depicted. However, to a new reader looking at the first and second book on the shelf I'm not sure there's a clear concept being conveyed.

I remember Schafer mentioning at some point that, on Whitefire Crossing's cover, the glowing red hands were added after the fact to communicate more clearly its status as a fantasy novel. Glowing hands, believe it or not(!), code magic.

Without that, a quick cover glance shows a couple of dudes climbing a mountain, just as Tainted City shows the same two dudes in non-era-signifying robes on top of multistory modern looking building in awe of a force field. If I were hypothesizing, and I am, I would guess Schafer's cover art has been designed to attract male and female readers equally, and, in the case of the newest cover in particular, a share of the massive urban fantasy market. 

Unfortunately, I think that screws with reader expectations. Schafer's novels are classically fantasy, featuring two male protagonists, lots of magic, and a fair share of pointy weapons and horses. While the cover for Tainted City may attract more readers, are they the right ones? Are they the readers who will love it? More importantly to the publisher and the author, are they the readers that will recommend the novel to others? 

I don't know, but it interests me. What do you think?

Curious Covers - Prince of Thorns

Last year, Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence was one of the most well received first novels in some time. Debuting to both commercial and critical success, Lawrence has had several reprints, and will be released in paperback in the UK in April.  Any day now the foreign editions are going to start popping up.  Wait, what?  The Spanish edition is out?  Well, let's take a look!

Wait... is that the same illustration from the US and UK editions?  No.  No it's not.  Sure looks like it though, doesn't it?

Oh, wait, maybe they just altered some of the color and shadows like they did on the paperback edition in the UK?

No, that doesn't appear to be the case.  It appears that the Spanish publisher (Minotauro) just copied the illustration and did their own version of it.  The original cover was done by the great Jason Chan, and for all I know so was the Spanish one.  I don't know what I don't know.  Maybe the conflict was between Ace and Minotauro about the cover rights, so Minotauro just asked Chan to do a redux version.

Even if everything is above board (I'm assuming it is), basically copying a cover design is lame.  I can understand reusing a great cover like Chan's on every edition, but recreating it?  I just don't get it.  If you're paying to have a new illustration done, why not do something new, that's customized for your market?  Minotauro should just look across the Pyrenees Mountains and take a lesson from Bragelonne who's doing unquestionably the best cover work in the world right now.

A few awesome covers from Bragelonne while I'm on the subject:

The Juice Boxes - SFF Cover of the Year (2011)

The Winner: The Magician King

Illustration by Kai and Sunny

 

Some people (cough A Dribble of Ink cough) do frequent posts about cover art. It's not really my bag, largely because I never get the news first. However, I too love covers. My short list for Cover of the Year is six books long (see below). There's not really a connective thread between them except that none are photo realism -- a trend I loathe. Additionally, you'll see no hooded men because hooded men are lame and tired. For authors with hooded men on your cover, I apologize. If it's any consolation, hooded men sell books.  There's no accounting for taste.

So what is my criteria? I'm so glad I asked. I have four basic tenets in evaluating cover art. First is relevancy. A cover must relate to the book. Second it has to evoke something -- wonder, mystery, fear, awe, movement, whatever. Third, I like things that are different. I'm sick of the same old covers going for the same old audience. Give me art, not RPG manual doodles. Fourth, turn me on. Physically. This is only partly a joke.

No cover met those four criteria (especially the fourth) better than Kai and Sunny's work on Lev Grossman's UK edition of The Magician King.  Beautiful use of color and imagery, with just enough relevancy to the novel without being literal.  It isn't just the best cover of 2011.  It's one of the best covers I've ever seen.

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Short List:

The Unremembered by Peter Orullian

Illustration by Kekai Kotaki

The Magician King by Lev Grossman 

Illustration by Kai and Sunny

Towers of Midnight (eBook) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Seed by Rob Ziegler 

Illustration by Cody Tilson

Le Prisme Noir (The Black Prism) by Brent Weeks

Illustration by Miguel Coimbra

The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones

Illustration by Charles Keegan

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Comments and Honorable Mentions:

I was surprised that no title from Pyr made my list.  They consistently turn out quality covers.  If I'd gone to ten books, I think a few of their titles would have made it -- especially some of the covers done by Stephan Martiniere and Jon Sullivan.  Blackdog by K.V. Johansen gets an honorable mention as well, although I felt Raymond Swanland's work on Tor's Towers of Midnight was better.  

As it turns out, MacMillian imprints (Tor, St. Martin's) had a pretty great year with three of the titles on my list.  I should make mention of two other Tor books that were my favorite science fiction covers this year: John C. Wright's Count to a Trillion (cover by John Harris) and Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief (cover by Kekai Kotaki).

It should also be noted that artists aren't the only one's who make covers.  For all the type setters, layout specialists, and art directions, cheers -- you're equally important to making these kick ass covers.  I apologize for not adding all of your names beside your work, but my GoogleFu and PublicityPester +14 skill aren't omniscient.

Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright

Illustration by John Harris

 The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

Illustration by Kekai Kotaki

Blackdog by K.V. Johansen

Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Illustration by John Picacio

The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod

Illustration by Stephan Martiniere

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder

Illustration by Jon Sullivan

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Am I wrong? What did I miss?  Set me straight Internets!

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If you missed my Thanksgiving post, I explained that I'm doing a series of awards. I'm going to call them the Juice Boxes. See if you can keep up here... so there are the Hugos. My name is Justin. Put those two words together and you get Jugos. Jugo in Spanish means Juice. The Juice Awards sounds like something O.J. Simpson would bestow on someone, so I added the box. After all, who doesn't like Juice Boxes?

I'll be doing a separate post for each category with a goal of having them all done before Christmas (we'll see). My award categories are as follows:

Best SFF Press for eBooks

SFF Editor of the Year

SFF Cover of the Year

Most Disappointing SFF Book (2011)

Best SFF Book I Read This Year Not Published in 2011

SFF Debut of the Year (2011)

SFF Book of the Year (2011)

More Hilariously Similar Covers

While I'm traveling around California for work, I thought I'd take a look at some covers that seem too similar for mere coincidence!  Check in later this week for reviews of The Traitor's Daughter by Paula Brandon, Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov, and Miserere by Teresa Frohock.  If I have a particularly productive flight home there might also be a review for Robert Holdestock's classic, Mythago Wood.  You never know!

                             

Would you like an apple?  It will attract supernatural creatures and help keep your husband from wandering.  It also keep you from starving last time I checked.  I have absolutely no idea what the apple represents in either of these ridiculous covers.  Given Myers' background I imagine it has something to do with the "forbidden fruit".  Really?  Give me a break. #TooLiteral

                             

So, let me see if I've got this straight.  We've got two guys sort of straddling a rocket.  The title of one is Manseed and the other is The Secret of Saturn's "Rings".  Ok, I added the emphasis quotes around rings, but still... I think I see what's going on here.  Salt Lake City and the FCC do not approve!

                             

This items have wolves on them which makes them intrinsically sweet and worth 5 stars by itself, but once I really look at it, that's when the magic happened.  I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the books in my hands and was immediately approached by women. The women knew from the wolves on my books that I, like a wolf, am a mysterious loner who knows how to 'howl at the moon' from time to time (if you catch my drift!). The women that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called meth. I told them no, because they didn't have enough teeth, and frankly a man with a wolf-book shouldn't settle for the first thing that comes to him.

I arrived at Wal-mart, mounted my courtesy-scooter (walking is such a drag!) sitting side saddle so that my wolves would show. While I was browsing tube socks, I could hear aroused asthmatic breathing behind me. I turned around to see a slightly sweaty dream in sweatpants and flip-flops standing there. She told me she liked the wolves on my books, I told her I wanted to howl at her moon. She offered me a swig from her mountain dew, and I drove my scooter, with her shuffling along side out the door and into the rest of our lives. Thank you wolf covers.  (Credit to B. Govern's brilliant review of the 'Three Wolf' T-Shirt')

Cover Conumdrum: Staffer's Musings and The Qwillery Talk Covers

Sally (The Qwillery) and I were on Twitter the other day - hard to believe I know - when we struck up a conversation on the relative crappiness of U.S. covers to their U.K. counterparts. Admitting there could be some selection bias afoot, we endeavored to discover whether or not the art direction across the pond is truly superior. Over the course a few posts we'll be discussing various groups of covers arbitrarily selected using some nonsense criteria. For this first installment we're looking at some of the more hyped 2011 Science Fiction and Fantasy releases that had covers worth discussing. You will not see A Dance with Dragons (AKA: Most Boring Covers on Earth) here.

THE NIGHT CIRCUS by ERIN MORGENSTERN
UK	US
Justin: This is tough one. The title embellishment on the U.S. cover is beautiful. It’s unfortunate that the tents in the palm look like Shiva the Destroyer was hired as a candy striper at a local hospital with rollers in her hair. In contrast, the UK imagery is much stronger with the red scarf really popping off the page. It much more clearly identifies the themes of the novel. If I were Doubleday I’d have dumped the hand all together and gone with the stark night snowfall. Winner: UK	Sally: I like the UK cover a bit more. While the colors and styles are very similar, I don't really like the hand in the US cover. The tattoo reminds me too much of hair! The hand holding the circus is really not germain to the the story. "The Night Circus" on the US cover shimmers and changes color, which is kind of cool. Both covers convey the circus and the dominant colors of the book, but I think the UK covers captures the theme of the book much better. Winner: UK

                        

THE WISE MAN'S FEAR by PATRICK ROTHFUSS
UK	US
Justin: The U.S. cover says: 1) This book is the next installment in the Highland television series. That’s Duncan MacLeod back there in his trench coat. 2) This will be made into a movie starring Tom Hanks where he finds ancient relics to uncover a conspiracy. The U.K. cover says: 1) This book has ninjas with glowing swords who are also gingers. 2) There is lightning coming out of the trees. Ya, lightning. Buy me. Winner: Nobody.	Sally: I prefer the US cover. The style of the UK cover makes me think this is a YA novel - vines, cartoony character, glowing sword. While the US cover is somewhat formulaic, it still appeals to me much more than the UK cover. The US cover says moody and dangerous to me. Perhaps a real winner would have been the UK cover in the style of the US cover. Winner: US, but barely.

                        

REAMDE by NEAL STEPHENSON
UK	US
Justin: My choices… Black with what looks like an Apple icon of a document. Or, a city skyline with choppy seas that gives meIndependence Day meets thePoseidon Adventure vibrations. I want to like the U.K. version, I really do, but it’s so generic. It also strikes me as a publisher trying to look like anything but a science fiction novel. Ultimately, the stark black with the document icon works for me with Reamde which looks a lot like Read Me. Winner: U.S.	Sally: Neither of these covers tells me much about this book. There is more to see on the UK cover of course, but even those images really don't give you much to go on. It's hard to tell what that mess of images is beneath Readmeon the UK Cover. The US cover is simply stark and boring. Neither of these covers spark any interest in this book for me. I don't like either of them. No Winner.

                        

THE POSTMORTAL/THE END SPECIALIST by DREW MAGARY
UK	US
Justin: I can’t decide if the skeleton puked on the cover or whether it’s a cleverly constructed ruse to distract me from the fact that stabbing something with a scythe is really freaking hard. Either way, I guess if the goal is to be eye catching I have to give Penguin a thumbs up. I suspect the point though is to make this look as little like a science fiction novel as possible. As for the U.K version, under a different title, I guess it’s cool. It’s also exceedingly boring. Winner: U.S.	Sally: I'm having a really hard time with the color of the US cover. I know it's green but what color is that exactly? The Grim Reaper being stabbed in the back by his scythe is ok. The yellow face screams cartoon to me. While there are moments of levity in The Postmortal, I don't think this cover really does the book justice. The UK cover is better in my opinion. It reminds me of the plague that swept Europe in the Dark Ages. I think that makes sense in the context of this book. Winner: UK

                        

READY PLAYER ONE by ERNEST CLINE
UK	US
Justin: Here’s the thing… I thought the U.S. cover was pretty weak until I looked closer and saw the little man inside the O reaching for the key. That’s pretty sweet. He looks like thePitfall guy from Intellivision (look it up people under 30). Throw in the cool C’s that look like Pacman and my nostalgia is adequately piqued. On the other hand, the U.K. cover has pixels. Lots of pixels. But it all feels like 80’s video game generic. I don’t get nostalgic, just sad about how crappy video games were back then. Winner: U.S.	Sally: The UK cover looks pixelated, it also looks like a needlepoint to me. Pixelation makes sense in the context of the book, but it's just a really boring cover. I like the eye catching colors of the US cover. The "O" also has a couple of little embellishments (a little man and a key) that I like a lot. In addition the C looks like Pacman. I think the US cover clearly conveys more about the book. Winner: U.S.

                        

THE MAGICIAN KING by LEV GROSSMAN
UK	US
Justin: Is it just me or does the U.S. cover look like some homemade crap you’d find in the Kindle book listings. That thing screams self-published or at best small press (read: my fax machine). In contrast the UK cover is full of color and energy. It plays a bit on the cover of the preceding volume’s U.S. cover (The Magician), but really ups the volume. Sure it looks like a tree that fashions itself a new Doc Brown from Back to the Future, but I’m not going to be overly critical. Winner: UK and it’s not close.	Sally: The US cover is so frighteningly generic I don't know where to start in my criticism. It also strikes me as more of a science fiction cover. You're in a cave and on another planet. Or you're in the middle of a solar eclipse. It doesn't work for me at all. I prefer the UK cover. I like the clock on the tree and the keys. The UK cover says 'fantasy" to me in lovely autumnal colors. Winner: UK