About Those Book Covers, Then…
Last Monday, I crossed to my latest post on Supernatural Underground, but also put a question out there, to see if anyone else spotted what I did about the first three covers featured.
In the absence of takers for that ‘challenge’ (so to speak), I thought I would share m’terribly important thoughts on the matter. 😀
To get the ball rolling, here are the covers again, in the order posted:
Gardens of the Moon, #1 in the the epic fantasy series titled The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson.
The Way of Kings, book #1 in The Stormlight Archive series (ongoing), also epic fantasy, by Brandon Sanderson.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, which I also consider epic fantasy, although in a more YA literature format.
It was complete chance that I addressed the books in sequence, but I was very much struck by the way all three covers feature a sword raised skyward by a warrior figure with a flaring cloak. Two of the three swords also feature lightning about the blade.
The books were published between 1982 (The Blue Sword), 1999 (Gardens of the Moon), and 2010 (The Way of Kings.) What intrigues me is how over that thirty year period, certain ideas about the visual depictions that “speak” to epic fantasy stories and their readers have clearly remained constant.
It was kind of fun, too, seeing them put together like that and noting the theme. 😀