Dec 15
Click for full imageJust have some muscled dudes on horses, pretty much looking exactly the same. Where we will shine, my good apprentice, is in the title and border. Our colour scheme will be brown and the links will be many. And we’ll have a horse or two leaping over the border giving the viewer a 3D experience! Uhhh well, some sort of experience.
(Average: 4.69 out of 10)
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December 15th, 2009 at 5:17 am
I don’t get it. There are no Nazi’s on the cover.
Ah this probably isn’t that bad. Maybe I just need more coffee again.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:20 am
I really don’t know if I could sit on a train with this book cover. Has that horse got a fake leg? And is that supposed to be a wood effect on the title bit? I’ve been staring at it but I just can’t work it out.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Guilty as charged.
Can I enter a plea of ‘borders on fantasy covers were all the rage back then’ in mitigation?
I’ve now had two covers which I briefed on books that I published paraded for ridicule on this site. You need to be careful, editors’ egos will feed on ANYTHING . . .
December 15th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Golly, that man looks cross! All those men look very cross indeed! Even the horses look cross! I wonder what’s got them all so narkled?
December 15th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Poor Simon! Don’t worry, just tell everyone you were young and needed the cash.
Adam: I think he’s about to hack down that border. It’s been sitting in the middle of that field tripping over horses and really getting on his nerves for ages now and enough is enough.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Gah, Sorry Simon. It’s not like we’re looking for your books…. or are we…..
Something to put on your CV eh!
If you re-release this one feel free to take from my original comment:
“..get it.. I just need more…”
– GoodShowSir
December 15th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I think the front horse and dude is about to jump off the cover. Was he trying to decapitate Simon? I like to think so 😉
Its really not that bad, its the kind book i might have picked up 10 years ago. But now its exactly the cover i’d think, “do i really want to been seen reading this?”, fantasy books are always fun to read, no matter what age you are… but there comes a point that an adult weilding a epic fantasy book cover just looks… odd.
It is pretty interesting how quickly the UK has started to go for the more modest covers while the US is still pumping out the sweet awesomeness that feeds this site. Nearly all our UK covers on the site are a bit older.
Simon: you get brownie points for not pasting the cover with meaningless quotes ” “… awesome…” says Paul Ross “
December 15th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Bless you all for the tone of faint politeness that has entered the conversation. May I vote for the return of outright outrage though? It’s much more fun.
@CSA You don’t seriously think if I’d had a quote to paste on it that I wouldn’t’ve?
December 15th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
lol touche
It wouldnt take much to get it modernised, i mean remove the border, resize the authors name/font, lose the horses, and the guys and the purple backdrop and youve got a pretty nifty cover. I particularly like the sticker in the top left.
Its by no means the worst cover we’ve had, but i think i might be more tempted by the Aladdin VHS i see in the background…
but in all seriousness though, i did have to look at it twice to realise the book wasn’t called Valery Leith, isnt it unusual to have the authors name so far above and alot larger than the book title?
December 15th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Alright back to outrage! What the hell were you thinking man? You know what I am, shocked. More shocked than that Nazi book. Shame on you.. shame…
The top does look like someones desk and Valery has carved her name in it. Maybe thats why everyone is so angry. ‘You ruined my desk!!!’
December 16th, 2009 at 4:09 am
I’ve just noticed that one of the guys on the horses is riding with a bow in one hand and some kind of stick/spear(?) in the other which is some pretty impressive horse riding skills. Even more impressive if he can shoot the bow at the same time.
I think this cover would be ok if you lost the border and only had the one angry horseman on it. Its the group that makes it a bit much.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:54 am
As another of Simon’s authors (cf. Prof Roberts and Sir James of Barclay) I feel moved to point out that he has briefed and okayed a great many excellent covers, and the ratio of winners to duffers must stand at several hundred to one. And frankly — fantasy readers. Most of them don’t seem to care what sort of rubbish appears on the front of (and often, indeed, inside) the books they buy, so why should anyone else? Bring on the angry horsemen!
December 16th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Hmmm, sounds like you have something to hide James. Almost like you don’t want Simon to point out something, possibly, a bad cover for one of your books! Mu hahaha!
December 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I agree James, but at the same time you can still laugh the the covers for been cheesey!
You can look at 80’s mullets and shoulder-padded suits and athough popular in their day, you’d think twice (or more) before going about like that today. Your right that readers don’t care all THAT much but if you have two identical books:
UK: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416ZJJGYVNL._SS500_.jpg
US and original UK: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RYKYWGQ4L._SS500_.jpg
although i DO own the original UK version, if i was buying it now i’d get the slightly less offensive new UK version.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I have nothing in my closet that I’m ashamed of.
No, wait, that didn’t come out right.
Ah bugger! Not that kind of “come out”.
Or that kind of bugger.
I’ll just shut up now.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:34 am
This one belongs to me and is pretty cheesy, actually (not to mention completely unrepresentative of the content): http://www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it/imgeventi/la-guerra-degli-alati.jpg. But Simon definitely had nothing to do with it.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:27 am
It’s pretty cheesy… but it’s not too bad. You do get bonus points for not only having a mysterious cloaked figure but an albino warrior on there! 😉
December 18th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Yeah … AND THERE ISN’T A SINGLE ALBINO WARRIOR IN THE BOOK! At least, not in the English version. Who knows what the Italian translator might have put in.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:30 am
James, a confession:
I was in Italy that week, I got a little drunk, I was walking past the Italian publisher’s offices, I went in, they were having a briefing meeting . . .
December 19th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Maybe instead of hiring a translator they put it through one of those online translators. They always get everything right….
January 5th, 2015 at 8:25 am
Why does the song “Warriors Of Ghengis Khan” by Bad News play in my mind when I see this cover…?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwKFGEu7MgI
December 12th, 2016 at 11:12 pm
‘I’m in the Company of Glass’ sounds like a posh way of saying ‘I’m getting pissed at a classy pub for once.’
December 14th, 2016 at 3:23 am
Hmmn. Not quite what I’d have expected, judging from their website.