Friday, November 11, 2011
"Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh" cover art
Wikipedia says, "Although drawn by different artists, the cover art for the series maintains a fairly consistent look and feel."
I guess there's no accounting for taste, but I beg to differ. There is a great deal of variability in the cover art to my taste. Four cycles (1000+ pages each) into this saga, readers have built up mind-pictures of these vivid characters, shaped by the cover images. The reader develops a visual canon along with the story, so subsequent covers will either build on or clash with the readers' images.
Michael Whalen (1,2); establishes forever the mind-picture of Jago and Bren in the Invader cover (my favorite cover of the series by far, until recently, maybe)
artistry 4/5; portrayal of Atevi: 4/5; portrayal of Bren: 4/5 (Invader much better portrayals)
Todd Lockwood: a return to the Whelan style, but with an individualistic sense I really like - I don't think he's really got Bren down yet, but the Conspirator and Deceiver scenes are magnificent
artistry: 5/5; portrayal of Atevi: 4/5; portrayal of Bren: 3/5
I guess there's no accounting for taste, but I beg to differ. There is a great deal of variability in the cover art to my taste. Four cycles (1000+ pages each) into this saga, readers have built up mind-pictures of these vivid characters, shaped by the cover images. The reader develops a visual canon along with the story, so subsequent covers will either build on or clash with the readers' images.
Michael Whalen (1,2); establishes forever the mind-picture of Jago and Bren in the Invader cover (my favorite cover of the series by far, until recently, maybe)
artistry 4/5; portrayal of Atevi: 4/5; portrayal of Bren: 4/5 (Invader much better portrayals)
Michael Whalen again (6,7,8): below the standard of Invader, but hey, he's Michael Whalen. Still gorgeous.
artistry 4/5; portrayal of Atevi:3/5; portrayal of Bren: 4/5 - "Pretender" Bren looks like Will Porter (in 10 yrs!)
Dorian Vallejo (3): Whelan is a tough act to follow - but this gives us a wonderful Ur-image of Mechieti
artistry 4/5; portrayal of Atevi: 3/5; portrayal of Bren: 4/5
Stephen Youll (4,5):
sorry, really don't like the hard sci-fi style
artistry: 1/5; portrayal of Atevi: 3/5; portrayal of Bren: 3/5
Donato: after Whelan again, a vague but evocative cover... lots of promise
artistry: 4/5; portrayal of Atevi: 2/5; portrayal of Bren: 2/5
artistry: 5/5; portrayal of Atevi: 4/5; portrayal of Bren: 3/5
# posted by Steve : 7:01 PM
