Fantasy book covers: darker, more serious than before?

[theducks]

I got called 'Mr. Butthead' by Jim Baen when I complained about a cover having the main character shown with a big honkn' blaster when the character could not use said weapon.

Grates! Sort of like it would to see Harry Dresden driving a Lexus .

Covers had to have big guns (no tiny cricket allowed) or a space ship OR BOTH

[hrosvit]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Pretty suemergencere Terry's title of "Master" is honorary. There's lots of authors I think are better too, but he, Donaldson, and Lester Del Rey, do deserve a little credit for the birth of "modern" commercial fantasy (meaning displayed on actual shelves in actual book stores where customers could see them) in the late '70s.

I agree entirely about his role in the emergence of modern commercial fantasy. It's not the word "Master" I have a problem with; it's the word "The".

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by hrosvit

I think it's somewhat more noteworthy that the last cover for Sword declares Terry Brooks The Master of Modern Fantasy.

Don't get me wrong; I've read a lot of the Shannara books and enjoyed most of them. But if I could only take one fantasy author's works into my fallout shelter, it wouldn't be his.

He still seems to be the best selling living fantasy author, behind only J.K. Rowling. (But yes, he should have gotten off the Ohmsford Kool-Aid some time ago. Let's say... After the third book.)

That doesn't say anything about how good he is, but people like his books enough to keep buying them. And, for many, he was the first fantasy writer after Tolkien.

[DrNefario]

Another thought about those covers. I'm pretty sure the newer Robin Hobb and possibly Steven Erikson are the ones I would get in the UK, where the originals are not, I guess they are US-only. It could be a move towards more international covers.

I think the Brooks ones have always been transatlantic. I know my old copy of Sword had the original cover, which I also think is more representative of the contents. But then I kind of hated it, and the cover says "this is derivative and dated".

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by theducks

I got called 'Mr. Butthead' by Jim Baen

You have to get that put on a t-shirt, go on, you know your inner geek wants to

[owly]

Lots of dark, hooded figures nowadays.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by hrosvit

I agree entirely about his role in the emergence of modern commercial fantasy. It's not the word "Master" I have a problem with; it's the word "The".

Ah. Gotcha. Fair enough, then.

[gmw]

Besides being darker, there are also less people. U.S. covers in particular have usually tended to have someone vaguely humanoid on the cover - regardless of how ghastly the artwork. It was in the specs: if you want to sell in the U.S. then put a person on the front. (They've even done it to Stephen Donaldson's latest books - making me very careful to hunt down the U.K. editions.) Maybe some are slowly learning that the U.S. audience can be a bit more discriminating than that.

Of course there is another factor. More books are being published with purchased clipart rather than dedicated artwork, so that makes it harder to find people to put on the cover that look like they have anything to do with the story.

[Katsunami]

I'm kicking this thread with the only reason of saying: "I think I'm right."

This can't be a coincidence. I've bought 15 books in the last few weeks, most of them fantasy and some science fiction, and they were all written in the 80's. While going through them to set the metadata and split omnibuses, I obviously also found the old covers.

1980's: Tacky, nerdy, cheesy
Current: Either dark and gritty, or modern and serious.

Every... single... one.

For example, Barbara Hambly's covers.

80's style
Current style

Patricia C. Wrede:

Shadow Magic: 80's (OMG, this one is tacky) vs. Current
The Raven Ring: 80's vs. Current

This change goes for ALL of her books, as well as the ones by Patricia C. Wrede. I've seen that even the Dungeons and Dragons e-books and new editions are getting new, non-nerdy covers.

There are some books that, going by the 80's cover, I wouldn't even have bought...

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I'm kicking this thread with the only reason of saying: "I think I'm right."

This can't be a coincidence. I've bought 15 books in the last few weeks, most of them fantasy and some science fiction, and they were all written in the 80's. While going through them to set the metadata and split omnibuses, I obviously also found the old covers.

1980's: Tacky, nerdy, cheesy
Current: Either dark and gritty, or modern and serious.

Every... single... one.

For example, Barbara Hambly's covers.

80's style
Current style

Patricia C. Wrede:

Shadow Magic: 80's (OMG, this one is tacky) vs. Current
The Raven Ring: 80's vs. Current

This change goes for ALL of her books, as well as the ones by Patricia C. Wrede. I've seen that even the Dungeons and Dragons e-books and new editions are getting new, non-nerdy covers.

There are some books that, going by the 80's cover, I wouldn't even have bought...

What's so tacky about the 80's Shadow Magic cover, I rather liked it

For most of your examples, I don't think that it's so much that they are darker, but rather they are simpler and less costly.

[dickloraine]

Covers seem to be complicated. If I remember right, Random House released "A Game of Thrones" first with a cover similar to normal bestsellers. They thought the book to be above most other fantasy and saw the possibility that it would attract people from outside the genre. A try to make the book look more "serious". It was not successful at that time: fantasy fans didn't easily recognized it as fantasy and other readers were not interested in a fantasy book.

Now they are more abstract again, because it is now mainstream and it is not just read by fantasy readers. And like you I have the feeling more and more fantasy books are getting more serious covers and the genre gets more accepted.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

What's so tacky about the 80's Shadow Magic cover, I rather liked it

Heh I wouldn't have bought it, probably. And if I had, I wouldn't read it in public... probably.

For most of your examples, I don't think that it's so much that they are darker, but rather they are simpler and less costly.

Maybe so, but you can't deny that the new covers DON'T look like covers designed to attract the interest of a 16 year old AD&D-playing nerd (who is scared of real females).

The new P. C. Wrede Lyra book covers do look somewhat feminine though; because of that, and some of the reviews, I can't shake the impression that the series is targeted at teenage girls. That's alright; it might be refreshing to read a "coming of age"-type fantasy story of a girl instead of a boy. Thinking about that, I must confess i never have.

It's just an impression, but I'll find out when I read the books.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Heh I wouldn't have bought it, probably. And if I had, I wouldn't read it in public... probably.



Maybe so, but you can't deny that the new covers DON'T look like covers designed to attract the interest of a 16 year old AD&D-playing nerd (who is scared of real females).

The new P. C. Wrede Lyra book covers do look somewhat feminine though; I can't shake the impression that the series is targeted at teenage girls. That's alright though; it might be refreshing to read a "coming of age"-type fantasy story of a girl instead of a boy. Thinking about that, I must confess i never have.

It's just an impression though; but I'll find out when I read the books.

I did buy it and they didn't even have to put it in a plain paper bag!

I have both sets of books in paper and ebook. I don't think the Lyra books were targeted at teenage girls. If I recall, the primary character in at least one of them was a young adult male. They did have female characters though, so perhaps you are right. I liked them just fine as a teenage male though.

[Katsunami]

I've been stumbling on a lot of early 80's fantasy lately. I thought Terry Brooks and David Eddings were the only famous/significant ones at that time, but it seems I was wrong. Also, there seem to be more women writing fantasy, even back then, than I thought.

[BenG]

I wonder if the designs are becoming simpler and with less detail because the books are likely to be read on an e-reader or tablet where usually you just see the thumbnail of the cover.