The Friday Face-Off: Purple Cover

    

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Purple Cover

After looking for books for this week's topic, I realized that purple does not seem to be the most popular book cover out there. That being said, I did still manage to find a good array of purple covers to choose from and ultimately decided to feature Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (US edition), even though only a couple are actually purple! I adore the Strange the Dreamer duopoly and consider it a favorite. Let's have a look at all the different beautiful covers it has!

2018 US Hardcover | 2018 UK Hardcover | 2020 Turkish

2019 Spanish | 2019 Croatian | 2019 Polish

2020 Indonesian | 2019 Italian | 2022 German

2020 Serbian | 2021 LitJoy Edition | 2019 Hungarian

2019 French | 2019 Paperback

My choice(s):

There are so many beautiful editions for this book, I don't know if I can just pick one! The German is probably my least favorite (sorry, German edition!), but otherwise I really like most of them. I think the colors are so beautiful, the orange in the UK edition, and I love that the French one uses the UK design but with a more blue cover. 

The Friday Face-Off: Grimdark

    

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Grimdark

I'm pretty excited about this week's theme because I really enjoy grimdark as a subgenre. As such, I've opted to share some covers from R. Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing series, starting with the first book, The Darkness that Comes Before. I've read the first two books in this series so far and I find them incredibly fascinating. They aren't necessarily something I'd say are particularly fun reads, but I certainly find them entertaining and am curious to dive into the third book. But all that aside–let's check out some covers!

2005 US Paperback | 2008 German | 2007 Croatian

2008 US Paperback | 2005 Polish | 2009 Russian

2006 German | 2017 Russian | 2005 French

2009 French | 2020 Spanish | 2007 Romanian

My choice(s):

I really like a lot of these! My favorite is probably the 2008 US paperback version that I read. I also really like the 2006 German, 2009 Russian, and 2009 French editions! These are also all pretty creative this week and I think all have strengths going for them, although I can't say I like much about that Romanian edition, and it makes this book seem far more medieval than it is. The Spanish edition is really interesting with that eye illustration, too, haha. I'm intrigued! What do you think of these covers?

The Friday Face-Off: Dark Lord

   

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Dark Lord Lady

For this week's theme of dark lord, I've chosen a dark lady, named The Lady from Glen Cook's The Chronicles of the Black Company series. I've opted to compare some covers from the first book, The Black Company, and I was excited to see how many different editions there are to check out. 

1984 US Paperback | 2019 Spanish | 2008 French

2007 US Paperback | 2012 Portuguese | 1993 Polish

2001 Spanish | 2014 Persian | 1998 French

1997 Lithuanian | 2008 Russian | 2005 Serbian

2012 Russian | 2000 Czech | 1997 Russian

My choice(s):

These are all so different and so creative. And there are a lot of Russian editions of this book, I noticed (I didn't even include them all!). I am very amused by the 2012 Russian edition, in particular, but if we're picking favorites, I'd probably have to say 2019 Spanish and 2012 Portuguese editions appeal to me the most right off the bat. However, I also find the 2005 Serbian edition really fun, and I love the red of the Persian edition. These might not all be my taste, but I really think they are all pretty fun. What do you think?

The Friday Face-Off: Swords & Sorcery

  

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Sword & Sorcery

This week I did something a little different and chose a book that I actually haven't read yet: Legend (The Drenai Saga #1) by David Gemmell! I see this book recommended quite a lot in relation to being a very classic sword and sorcery fantasy, so I figured it'd be a great fit for this week (and it might encourage me to finally get around to reading it!), and there are a ton of editions to look through.  Let's have a look at some of the covers. 

  

1994 Ballantine | 2000 French | 1986 Century

  

2001 Swedish | 2007 Bulgarian | 2014 Chinese

  

2010 French | 1996 Polish | 2003 Finnish 

  

2010 Polish | 1997 German | 2003 Russian

My choice(s):

I think a lot of these are really fun and have a very 'classic fantasy' feel to them–which could be good or bad, depending on your preferences, haha. I'm always drawn to designs like the Bulgarian one, and I appreciate the more simplistic styles of the French and Finnish editions. That being said, it think all of these have a lot of really fun elements!

Which covers do you like most?