Monday, 1 March 2010

Covert art for Brandon Sanderson's THE WAY OF KINGS

(Courtesy of Dribble of Ink) Tor Books have released the American cover for Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, the first volume in his ten-book Stormlight Archive sequence. The artwork is by the much-in-demand Michael Whelan, one of the more respected artists in the business.


Obviously not one of his better works. If the most exciting and cinematic sequence in Sanderson's massive tome (which, at 1,400 pages in manuscript, is almost as long as George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords) is a scene where two Fremen appear to be engaging in a sword-driven semaphore conversation, we might be in trouble.

Having said that, there is something very old-school about this painting that brings to mind finding old 1970s editions of the Dune books in a second-hand bookshop.
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10 comments:

  1. chris1 March 2010 at 18:38:00 GMT

    Sort of reminds me of 80s covers for those Eric Van Lustbader books.

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  2. Anonymous1 March 2010 at 22:23:00 GMT

    Looks like a deliberate attempt at the old-school, with a touch of "young and dynamic" thrown in. It would interest me in the book, at least with the bestselling name on top.

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  3. Aidan Moher2 March 2010 at 00:09:00 GMT

    To be fair, Whelan's style defined the look of Fantasy novels in the 80's and 90's, so that 'old school' look is sort of inherent to any novel with his art on the cover.

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  4. Anonymous2 March 2010 at 14:36:00 GMT

    In terms of vividity and technical quality, I would even say it's one of the artist's better works, if I compare it to random Google results.

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  5. Anonymous2 March 2010 at 14:42:00 GMT

    Shouldn't that claim of "#1 New York Times Bestseller" mention something about Robert Jordan's coattails?

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  6. Unknown3 March 2010 at 03:28:00 GMT

    I think he still got best seller from Mistborn series even without WoT

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  7. Anonymous3 March 2010 at 15:20:00 GMT

    I don't think he was a bestseller until it was announced he would be finishing WoT. He certainly isn't a #1 NYT bestseller until TGS.

    Just sayin! Coattails.

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  8. Adam Whitehead3 March 2010 at 21:12:00 GMT

    MISTBORN #2 I think missed out on the NYT bestseller list by one or two places. He was then announced as the WoT writer and Book 3 did get on the list, although not massively higher. WARBREAKER also got on there, IIRC.

    It is true that calling him a #1 NYT bestselling author in his own right is slightly misleading, although his work on the WoT books has been outstanding so far, so I wouldn't say it's undeserved. I wouldn't say it's any worse than authors who are low-selling in their own right splashing 'NYT BESTSELLING AUTHOR!!!' on their books because they once wrote a STAR WARS novel, and that seems to be accepted practice in the industry.

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  9. The Fantasizer5 March 2010 at 10:04:00 GMT

    I think the covers not bad at all. It has that epic fantasy feel to it.

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  10. Booksnhorses18 March 2010 at 21:45:00 GMT

    Hilarious. It so totally is semaphore with swords. I won't be able to look at this cover again without chortling and look forward to reading the sequence that inspires it (though why they couldn't just shout as they aren't that far away ...?).

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