{"id":9957,"date":"2012-12-11T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/?p=9957"},"modified":"2020-06-08T15:09:59","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T19:09:59","slug":"the-year-in-books-good-covers-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/archives\/9957","title":{"rendered":"The Year in Books: Good Covers (Fantasy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was YA, Romance, and Mystery covers<\/a>. Today is fantasy covers.<\/p>\n

Romance gets some horrible, lurid covers, but I think fantasy in general, is worse. Especially the kinds of books I love, which have strong, independent, female lead characters.<\/p>\n

If they aren\u2019t in completely ridiculous outfits for what they are supposed to be doing, they\u2019re in poses that are humanly impossible or simply in some rendition of what the artist thinks is \u201csexy.\u201d Which means there are a lot of horrible\u2014and even downright offensive\u2014covers with female characters.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m delighted when I find a series with covers that not only don’t suck, but are actually awesome.<\/p>\n

First up is Faith Hunter<\/a>\u2019s Jane Yellowrock series: Death\u2019s Rival<\/em><\/a>, Raven Cursed<\/em><\/a>, and Have Stakes Will Travel<\/em><\/a> (2012) <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Raven<\/a> \"Deaths<\/a> \"Have<\/a><\/p>\n

I generally love the covers in this series, and there ended up being three different Jane Yellowrock books this year (two novels and an anthology).<\/p>\n

First, the cover model looks like Jane (who is Native American). <\/p>\n

Second, Jane actually looks like she could kick your ass, and (aside from the ridiculously tight pants and excess of boob) is dressed for combat. <\/p>\n

I think my biggest complaint about the covers is that in the series is that it explicitly states (multiple times) that Jane wears her hair up in a style that cannot be grabbed when she\u2019s fighting. So I find the depiction with long, unbound hair ridiculous, but in the grand scheme of book covers, that\u2019s a minor quibble. <\/p>\n

My reviews of Death\u2019s Rival<\/em><\/a>, Raven Cursed<\/em><\/a>, and Have Stakes Will Travel<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Doubletake<\/em><\/a> (2012) Rob Thurman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Doubletake\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the only series\/book with a male protagonist that made the list; I can\u2019t help myself, I just adore these covers.<\/p>\n

I love they managed to capture the essential pissy bastard nature of Cal.<\/p>\n

My review of Doubletake<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Gunmetal Magic<\/em><\/a> (2012) Ilona Andrews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Gunmetal<\/a><\/p>\n

As much as I love Ilona Andrews\u2019 books, I generally tend to dislike the covers to the Kate Daniels series. Although Kate is typically competent looking, the depiction of Curran (always as a lion) just bugs me. So I was delighted by the cover of this book.<\/p>\n

Andrea looks like she\u2019s ready to kick your ass. The model looks pretty much like Andrea is described. And we have Atlanta burning in the background.<\/p>\n

I also like that although part of the focus of the story was her working things out with Raphael, he doesn\u2019t make an appearance on the cover. Which is good, because this story is about Andrea, not him. <\/p>\n

Only quibble I have is (again), why is her hair down? How can you fight\u2014or do much of anything\u2014with your hair in your face?<\/p>\n

My review of Gunmetal Magic<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n <\/code><\/p>\n

Ashes of Honor<\/em><\/a> (2012) Seanan McGuire<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ashes<\/a><\/p>\n

Seanan McGuire has also gotten some great covers for her Toby Daye series. They\u2019re dark (possibly a little darker than the series itself, but that\u2019s ok) and Toby isn\u2019t shown doing anything ridiculous, nor is she in a submissive pose.<\/p>\n

She is portrayed here is active and independent–who knows what she’s actually doing, but she is doing it–things are NOT being done to her.<\/p>\n

Additionally, is it strange that I love the font they use? Because I do.<\/p>\n

My review of Ashes of Honor<\/em><\/p>\n

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Permeable Borders<\/em><\/a> (2012) Nina Kiriki Hoffman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Permeable<\/a><\/p>\n

I love this cover. I love the font, I love the water, I love the sky, I love everything. <\/p>\n

No, it doesn\u2019t tell you anything specific about the contents, but that\u2019s good, because this is an anthology of her writing, and the stories don\u2019t necessarily fit any one theme, besides being fantasy. So I just love that it\u2019s so beautiful.<\/p>\n

My review of Permeable Borders<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was YA, Romance, and Mystery covers. Today is fantasy covers. Romance gets some horrible, lurid covers, but I think fantasy in general, is worse. Especially the kinds of books I love, which have strong, independent, female lead characters. If they aren\u2019t in completely ridiculous outfits for what they are supposed to be doing, they\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,1092,1090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reading","category-covers","category-years-favorites"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pefxA-2AB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/notreally\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}