Iâm not personally a huge fan of the American edition Harry Potter art by Mary GrandPrĂŠ, although Iâll happily agree to its iconic-ness. Iconicism? Anyway, Iâm willing to appreciate it, even if I donât like it, because as far as book covers go, things could be a lot worse.
Yup, thatâs what weâre talking about today. Book covers. Iâve been wanting to do a post on this for a while, because I love nothing more than a good book cover, and nothing more than that than the whackiest, wildest, most unnecessarily upsetting book cover youâve ever seen.
Book covers sometimes ride the trends of the genre as much as their content does, and sometimes way more. Part of this is intentional, because it is a Good Thing to be able to tell Manga from Adult Fiction in a single glance. Part of it is also just, because, if youâre already taking a gamble on a $15 book, why not also ensure itâll look good on your bookshelf, since thatâs where it will spend most of its time. Part of it is because itâs just simpler. âHey, that book hit the bestseller list? Yeah, make this one look like that.â
Sometimes thatâs just a downright bad way of going about things, and sometimes itâs a genuinely racist way of going about them. Weâll get to that â first letâs just have some fun.
These two are from one of the first science fiction/fantasy series I ever picked up, and hoo boy does it have some interesting covers. The first image is the original hardback of Wild Magic (1992) by Tamora Pierce, the first in the The Immortals quartet. The second is the original UK edition of Emperor Mage, the third in the series, published 1994. The flying metal human bird is called a Stormwing, by the way. And yes, sheâs riding a wooly mammoth (itâs a zombie, too). Love the pretty little potted plants and the purple backdrop. Also love the quote: âShe reached deep inside herself ⌠â
For some reason the publisher thought these glories needed modernising.
AAHHHH NO WHo thought this was a good idea? Aping the style of a paranormal romance novel? Donât do that, please.
I should explain, the one on the left, also by Tamora Pierce, is The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (1986, this cover 2011), from the Song of the Lioness quartet. Iâll admit, I havenât read it in a while because it was never my favourite, but although there are two men in love with Alanna, that is not the point of the book at all. Every other version of this cover, and the other three in the series feature Alanna alone, as she should be, because itâs not a paranormal romance novel. On the other side, The Host (2008) is by Stephanie Meyer, the author of the infamous Twilight series. Although, from my not-very-extensive research, it does seem that one of the men (staring at her soulfully) in the background might be the girlâs brother. We can take bets as to which one of the handsome dirty-blond white boys he is (and no, I canât tell whoâs who on the Alanna cover either).
Okay, but as weird as those covers are, theyâre not, like, that bad, are they? Theyâre just awkward and not something I would necessarily give to a young adult. On the other hand, there are some book covers that are really bad, and not just because of the design.
I think we can all see where Octavia Butlerâs Dawn (1987, left) went wrong. The 1997 version is just the more accurate depiction of the main character.
This article on The Book Smugglers does a really good job of explaining the whitewashing problem in book covers, and I donât want to repeat too much of what they said, but I do want to talk about Ursula K. Le Guin, the author of the Earthsea series. She has been dealing with this for a really long time, including when the Sci Fi Channel made a miniseries based on her books, and promptly cast almost all white actors. She actually wrote an article for Slate about it, entitled âA Whitewashed Earthsea: How the Sci Fi Channel Wrecked My Books.â Worth a read.
Letâs have a look at what Le Guinâs books actually look like.
This is the first edition, all the way from 1968, illustrated by Ruth Robbins. The description of Gedâs red-brown skin has obviously been noted. Then we get:
The first is from 1989, the second is a particularly weird UK edition from 1973. The fact that theyâre both black and white is not an excuse for drawing an obviously white person there. And then there is this:
This one is the Icelandic edition from 1977 ⌠and while they did get the red-brown skin ⌠ and the whole abstract look is interesting ⌠Iâm really struggling here to find a way to describe this other than âtruly disturbing.â
The SFF genre is not the only genre to have bad book covers, or even book covers that are less bad and more funny. It just seems to have most of them. Iâm not as familiar with the other genres (apart from history, cough anything medieval cough) but I have seen some truly beautiful covers in the past few years.
A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman. This might be the audiobook, but no matter, a fight with the grim reaper shall never be silenced.
The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry, won several awards last year, which meant this beauty was displayed in literally every bookstore window for months.
Iâm a huge fan of the current flowery trend in book covers! The Strange Case of the Alchemistâs Daughter, by Theodora Goss, is one of the prettiest Iâve seen. Very Rifle Paper Co.. And Hurricane Child, by Kheryn Callender, is not only gorgeous but managed to depict its main character properly as well!
If we talk about pretty book covers, we obviously have to talk about cookbooks, because if the cover of your cookbook doesnât make us drool, youâre doing it wrong. The Arab Table, by May S Bsisu, has been making me drool for years.
I came across this book in the bookstore the other day, and I have to say not only is this one of the cutest book covers Iâve seen in a long time, the story within is cute and funny too. Yeah, I sat down in the bookstore and read it. I like dragons, okay? And Dragons Love Tacos (Adam Rubin).
I think thatâs probably enough book covers for now â oh, wait, I am legally obligated to leave you with the Animorphs series, by K. A. Applegate.
Apparently they were actually good books.
The weirdest and whackiest of book covers. I'm not personally a huge fan of the American edition Harry Potter art by Mary GrandPrĂŠ, although I'll happily agree to its iconic-ness.
