Book Cover Smackdown! ‘Blackveil’ vs. ‘Ravensoul’ vs. ‘The Sacred Band’
By AidanMoher |
Sunday, February 13th, 2011 at
12:28 am
Saddle your pterippus, folks! It’s time for another Book Cover Smackdown!
Here are the contenders…
Your Mission (should you choose to accept it): Tell us which cover you like best and why.
Books shown here:
- Blackveil by Kristen Britain (Artist: Unknown)
- Ravensoul by James Barclay (Artist: Raymond Swanland)
- The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham (Artist: Unknown)
NOTE: Bigger, better cover art images are available by clicking the images or title links.
Related posts:
- Book Cover Smackdown! ‘Leviathan Wakes’ vs. ‘Fuzzy Nation’ vs. ‘Out of the Dark’
- Book Cover Smackdown! ‘Spellbound’ vs. ‘The Heir of Night’ vs. ‘Wild Cards I’
- Book Cover Smackdown! ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’ Edition
- Book Cover Smackdown! ‘The Blackness Within’ vs. ‘By Light Alone’ vs. ‘Behemoth’
- Book Cover Smackdown! ‘Surface Detail’ vs. ‘Dark Space’ vs. ‘Ivory’ (French Reprint)
Tagged with: Blackveil • Book Cover Smackdown • Cover Art • David Anthony Durham • fantasy • James Barclay • Kristen Britain • Ravensoul • The Sacred Band
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Blackveil. It’s instantly intruguing. Is it fantasy, sci-fi, myth-punk, romance? Want to know more!
Sacred Band is the best of the 3. Ravensoul looks like a Warhammer book and Blackveil looks like its geared to readers who have only recently outgrown My Little Pony-wouldn’t pick up Blackveil on a dare.
I think all of this are great, but I like Ravensoul the most, it has the strongest feeling of all, a really appealing illustration, with great use of light and shadows. Blackveil’s illustration is really nice, but it looks plain in comparison with the other two. And I didn’t like that much the typography and overall composition of Sacred Band.
Ravensoul.
Ravensoul. Blackveil’s cover seems understated and uninteresting to me (not being a slavering fan of pegasi for the sake of pegasi) and while Sacred Band’s picture is interesting, it is too far away to have the impact it might. Also the font on Sacred Band is not easy to read.
I’m not familiar with Warhammer, so I don’t have the same issue Steve Oerkfitz did with it. I like it because we have an awesomely bada** looking dude who hopefully is as fun to read about as I think he would be.
I’ll go with Blackveil. I know nothing of any of the books, so judging solely on cover imagery, that one seems the most enticing.
I’m with Steve: <strong>Sacred Band</strong> is by far the best, in terms of typography, layout, image quality, story-telling. It’s even got the hidden faces in the rocks going for it. Really fine work. Makes me want to learn more about the trilogy, with which I am unfamiliar
I love the cover art on Sacred Band, but I’m not keen on the text.
Blackveil’s art gives it a “New Age” feel to me, which is an unlikely sale.
Ravensoul is probably the best of the three as cover art. Looks a very war-oriented story.
Still, the book I’m most likely to buy of those three is Sacred Band.
Blackveil… classier work for me.
I think all 3 covers are super strong this time out. All capture their books in a compelling and unique way. I think the strongest if Sacred Brand, and that’s due mostly to the layout. The artwork is nice, but nothing new, but overall the cover is bold and arresting.
Blackveil is unique in its own way. Seems like it would be attractive to its audience, which I assume is young women. If that’s not who it is specifically being marketed to, then its a fail. But come on, I’m sure that’s who is supposed to pick it up.
Ravensoul is fantastic. I love the art so much. But, its the fourth book in a series that’s used that motif the entire time. So there’s nothing new about it. I see it and recognize it for what it is. But that’s not to put it down, its does its job perfectly, and if there were to be a Smackdown devoted to series of books, then I would think Barclays Legends should be one of the contenders. All the covers are cool, and all of them work together nicely. I’d love to know who the artist is.
I’ll take #2 1/2 … the US cover of Blackveil by Donato.
@Frag — The artist of the Barclay covers is Raymond Swanland, who also does a lot of covers for Glen Cook. You can find a link to his website in the BCS post.
@Christopher — Don’t worry, that one’s coming to a future edition of BCS!