Book Cover Smackdown! The Price of Spring vs. Best American Fantasy 3 vs. Winds of Dune
By John DeNardo |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at
11:29 am
Here’s a trio of cool covers for upcoming books.
Your Mission (should you choose to accept it): Tell us which cover you like best and why. Go!
Books shown here:
- The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham (Artist: Stephan Martiniere)
- Best American Fantasy 3 edited by Kevin Brockmeier and Matthew Cheney (Artist: John Coulthart)
- Winds of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson (Artist: Stephen Youll)
NOTE: Bigger, better cover art images are available by clicking the images or title links…
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- Book Cover Smackdown! Project ULF: Acquisition vs. Last Drink Bird Head vs. WWW: Watch
- TOC: Best American Fantasy
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Tagged with: Book Cover Smackdown
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The Winds of Dune. Then Price of Spring.
Definitely THE PRICE OF SPRING. I’m a sucker for the city in ruins look.
The Winds of Dune cover is awesome. The other two, zhey do nothings.
Price of Spring, far and away. The whole quartet is absolutely beautiful.
Definitely The Winds of Dune. Best American Fantasy 3 has far too much text, most of it small, and the font for The Price of Spring makes it look cheap and cheesy.
The Winds of Dune. The other two, while very lovely, have a lot going on; the eye can’t focus on just one thing easily. The Prince of Spring would be my second favorite, but I have to agree that the font (not to mention the size and placement of the title) makes it look a little cheesy.
Winds of Dune did a nice job of not letting the text interfere with the art work,and the art work is quite beautiful.
Winds of Dune beacuse the text and image work together and I’m a sucker for simplicity.
Winds of Dune – striking artwork and I like the type style (compliments the context of the title) and positioning.
Second would be Price of Spring – style and placement of text fights too much with the artwork
It was a close call, but I finally settled on The Price of Spring. Something very evocative about the characters and forest setting. It was the one I wanted to pick up and read, purely because of the cover. Winds of Dune is striking, though.
I’m in the minority here, but I think Best American Fantasy 3 is the best one — as it is the most interesting visually, and invites inquiry. Of the three this is the book I’d pick up off the shelf first. (The design could be improved however by working with the title text – and improving the contrast between it and the background.
I vote Best American Fantasy 3. The picture tells more of a story to me, and I like the color scheme. If I saw these three on a shelf, it’s the one I would buy. When I look at the other two, my eye sees people traveling, and that’s a fantasy theme that I get tired of sometimes. The city in the dome on the cover of Best American says to me that some of these stories will have cool and original premises, which attracts me to a story much more. (Note that I don’t know anything about these books really–the other two could well have cool and original premises, that’s just not the impression I get from their covers).
Oh, that’s a city in ruins? I couldn’t see through all the writing. I agree, it’s looks cheesy. Like those 1950s scifi movies. Sensational! Never-before-seen! The Price of Spring!
Best Fantasy is most intriguing. Makes me want to take a closer look, but in the end rather ugly.
Dune is just wind and sand. Nice, but, well…
It’s the Best Fantasy for me. I love the city in the egg thing.
ANd may I say, for the record…Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson must be stopped…
No contest.
The Price of Spring.
I’d pick The Price of Spring if the art weren’t completely blotted out by the text blaring across it. Like other people said, it just overwhelms and obliterates what appears to be a perfectly lovely painting underneath.
The other two are pretty meh to me. I normally love Stephen Youll’s work but that particular piece doesn’t do a lot for me. I do like its strong colors and simple layout, though.
I’m too busy looking at the “bookending” covers of Retribution Falls and Flood. Now, THOSE, are some nice looking covers.