Isaac Stewart pointed this out to me. Wow. And what a change. Farland’s got a whole new look and feel. I don’t know much about cover art/marketing and how well various colors and styles do in the book store (will buyers gloss over this because of its dark color?–I hope not). But however this performs on the shelf, it’s a great illustration.
See more images on Irene Gallo’s blog about it. Compare with the old style.
I really prefer the new art. I actually resisted buying ‘RuneLords’ years ago because, I REALLY dont care for Darrell K Sweet. More than half the time I’m looking at Wheel of Time covers I ask myself what is he trying to say here? The most boring moment in the book? case in point ‘Knife of Dreams’. Yes he paints better than I can by a long shot, but I’m a writer not a painter. And if I can ever get TOR to take one of my books, I would rather have KK than Sweet.
Sorry just a little rant. I would prefer something like KK for
‘Servant of a Dark God’ too
It’s visceral. KK is like, holy crap, that dude is going to kill me!! Sweet is more tame. I don’t know if Disneyesque is the right term, but you don’t get the feeling of danger with Sweet.
Isaac, who brought this to my attention, suggested this feel matched my book. He’s the one who opened my eyes to the feel of my book, saying it reminded him of Braveheart, Patriot, or an early British Isles feel.
One thing is for sure–cover art marketing is an art. There are all sorts of factors to consider in addition to whether the illustration is cool. I’ll be interested to see what they come up with.
I’ve only read what you have posted thus far, but without tooting your horn too much, I really like it. I think the biggest moment of zing to me, the moment that has me wondering the most about was Sugars mother, how she got that strong and daring to stand by her husband. Is more going to be revealed there soon or did I read something into it that wasn’t there?
Not trying to be off topic, I just started wondering about the Braveheart and Patriot feel of things. I personally like the racist feel of things, the conflict between Koramites and the others, not because Im racist but because thats real. I cant recall which series it was,Im sure it was a bigger one; a friend of mine liked it because there were no race issues. To me in a world of many divergent nations for there to be no race issues is unrealistic. I just didn’t buy it. But Fir-Noy hating others, conquered peoples thats real, fantasy world or no.
So for an art cover comment, something dark and dangerous is better than Sweet and low.
Glad to hear it’s working for you. Yes, more will be revealed about her mother. Hopefully, many delicious moments ahead. 🙂