Mar 29
Click for full imageRex’s Art Direction: Okay, gaudy covers are out, minimalism is in! So let’s see, what shall we put on this cover… a fish! Yes, a fish, that’s right, I’m sure they live in forests, right?
Thanks to Albertosaurus Rex!
(Average: 6.18 out of 10)
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(9.25 out of 10)
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March 29th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Lost for words.
Interesting thing though is that they (kind of) got away with having a deer on an earlier book in the series. The fish though really doesn’t cut it.
Deer more fantasy than fish.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:38 am
For the record, I would like to state that I am a big fan of Robin Hobb (although I haven’t gotten around to reading this particular book yet). I wholeheartedly recommend any book by her.
However, recent cover art has been very bland. It’s one thing to have a deer or a wolf or dragon or even a horse on a bland background, but a fish? I don’t care WHAT the link with the story is, its just boring. I really miss the days of John Howe covers, now those kicked ass!
Also, my bookself is very dusty.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Strange, didn’t CSA post something about a fish hat on Friday? It looks strangely similar.
I think I could take this one on a train no problem but people might suspect I’m catching up on fishing skills.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Certainly Ms Hobb would have had plenty of reason to carp about that cover.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:50 am
If, however the alternative is this:
http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/serbian-cover-art-for-two-of-scott.html
I shall take the fish every time.
March 29th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
wow, i want to go to Croatia.
The Hobb cover isn’t bad as such, it’s just seems very surreal give the title.
This cover just has no sole.
I like most of Hobbs covers, both the Howe and the newer ones. The early editions not so much…. http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2009/10/assassins-quest/
March 29th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Space Carp!
I think we’ve found a potential site mascot.
March 29th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
‘You must cut down the tallest tree in the forest wi-i-i-ith … a herring!’
March 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Cut the carp you guys. There’s a time and a plaice. I mean holy mackerel guys, seriously. Maybe your not herring me right, too much bass in my voice? I’ll tuna it down. Any more and ill stab you with a pike.
oh god i eel ill
March 29th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
You think there’s a copy of “Trout Fishing in America” by Brautigan with a pointy-hatted wizard shooting lightning bolts from his beclenched fists into a foresty glade?
March 29th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
@CSA Please god stop before its too late
@Ron LOL
March 29th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
It’s bad enough that the other covers in this series are so bad. This one is incomprehensible. (The mottled pattern on the fish’s scales *would* actually have something to do with the book, but in that case they might as well have picked a leopard… or a Dalmatian, if we’re going to continue the Croatia theme…)
Although the centrepiece of the previous cover *was* a giant pestle and mortar type thing ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/70694939@N00/202721769 ), so it’s never had the most straightforward covers in the world…
March 29th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
The other cover looks, well, um … Freudian.
March 29th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
That was a giant mortar and pestle type thing? I assumed a giant had lost its hand rolled cig, or that it was the pupa of something I wouldn’t want to be around when it emerged.
March 30th, 2010 at 3:40 am
@hampshireflyer: the thing on that alternate cover is obviously the biggest joint the world has ever seen.
March 31st, 2010 at 1:50 pm
You know, most covers of Forest Mage are bit iffy. For a short while, before the new minimalist covers, this was the paperback cover of FM: http://www.fantasybok.se/images/forest-mage-new-pock.jpg
I guess it conveys a message of deforestation or something, and it matches up with the sword in the ground on the first book of the trilogy, but it’s a little bland. Still better than that fish, though.
I really need to read this trilogy…
April 1st, 2010 at 12:29 am
@Rex i think that last version is way better than newer version. To be fair none of them are that bad, even the USA edition is miles better than the average Baen cover. The fish is just… odd.
Loved farseer trilogy. And will probably pick up these ones at some point aswell.
P.S. dust off that book shelf, or atleast have the respect to write ‘wash me’ in the dust.
April 30th, 2010 at 2:42 am
Has anyone actually read the book and can ttest that there is no connection between the cover and the story?
Some motive perhaps?
As far as esthetics, it actually seems not bad at all. I like minimalism.
April 30th, 2010 at 4:18 am
“ttest” is actualy “atest”
May 2nd, 2010 at 1:55 pm
The giant pestle and mortar (the spindle) and the axe and treestump are both scenes from the book. The fish, erm, is not. Perhaps it’s meant to be symbolic foreshadowing.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Adam +1. However, I can’t even see what the fish could possibly be foreshadowing. None of the books in the trilogy has any part of it taking place either in the water, near the coast, or even near the water.
Oh, hold on – they sail down a river at one point. And a character drinks some water in a fever.
Yes, that must be it.
May 15th, 2010 at 4:26 am
Well, actually a fish like that does symbolize river. It is the first image that came to my mind.
Does this river plays an important part in the book?
Or maybe just a motive symbolizing this sort of landscape? (Forest, river, green, europian nature, etc…)
May 15th, 2010 at 9:53 am
Wait, not only can that fish survive out in the forest, but it DOES MAGIC TOO? This is the BEST FISH EVER. I must eat it immediately to gain its power.
January 1st, 2012 at 1:48 pm
The fish references a metaphor used in the book (reaching for magic being like reaching to catch a trout in the river with your hands).
Jackie Morris likes her animal themed covers, so she must have struggled a bit to pick an animal that could symbolise this book. I think the metaphorical trout works, all things considering! Though, I really like her covers.
June 21st, 2015 at 1:25 am
/me slaps the art department around a bit with a large cover of Robin Hobb’s Forest Mage.
June 21st, 2015 at 11:16 pm
The easiest game of Find The Fish ever.
June 21st, 2015 at 11:17 pm
People, please scale down the fish puns. We cod all do without them.
June 22nd, 2015 at 10:04 am
Yes, the whiting is on the wall for fish puns. They’re starting to flounder.
June 22nd, 2015 at 8:18 pm
I was hoping you had given up on the puns by now, but that meagre hope turned out to be just a bream.
June 23rd, 2015 at 9:24 am
The problem is, we’re hooked!
June 23rd, 2015 at 7:00 pm
I guess some people like making puns just for the halibut.
June 24th, 2015 at 12:56 am
Fish puns? I don’t think we’ll elver give them up.
June 24th, 2015 at 10:10 am
I am terrible at puns. Takes me too long to mullet over them.
I’ll get my coat…
June 24th, 2015 at 4:23 pm
Moray’s the pity…
June 24th, 2015 at 4:46 pm
You can get scrod, the lot of you!