SFF Cover Art Love: More Favorites
A few weeks back I posted on some of my favourite SFF covers and shared some reflections on why they drew me in as a reader.
Then I realized I had missed some really important “covers of all-time awesome.” Oh no!
For example, like this cover, created by Michael Whelan, for Joan Vinge’s The Snow Queen:
And it’s companion jacket for The Summer Queen sequel:
Speaking of Summer themes, I have always really liked artist Martin Springett’s Celtic style covers to Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar trilogy: The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road:
.
And then there’s the latest cover (by artist Adam S Doyle) in Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys series, which also generated an “Oooh, yes please!” moment when I first saw the book—because it is awesome!
I love the richness of all these covers, but also the way they create a sense of myth, and magic, and mystery—which makes me want to know so much more about the story!
Which is exactly what jacket art is meant to do.
That Snow Queen cover drew me to picking up the book, years and years ago.
Same—and I was not disappointed. I had seen the older versions but ‘cover resistance’ had not been overcome!
In the case of the Kay, someone had “diss-ed” the series to me, but the covers kept drawing me back until I decided that I “was” going to make up my own mind. And so-o glad I did.
Love those, Helen – especially Kay’s ones, that myth feeling is so strong there and it fits the ‘tapestry’ idea so nicely too
I agree, they really do ‘speak’ to the books–and the tribute to Pauline Baynes on the artist’s site made for nice reading, too.
Great tribute! I recognise her illustrations but I think my editions were different ones from memory.
I think I feel the same about Prydain and Brian Froud.
She did several versions of the covers, although obviously there are very many editions. But I think the interior illustrations have always remained those done by Bayne, which I have always totally loved.