The Book Stacks

Which book cover will win?

I thought I’d try out something a little different today and hopefully start something people will enjoy.

Now, it won’t always be a battle of the same book with two different colours. However, in my searching for a copy of Sabriel, I’ve come across four different covers so far. Some are similar, but I thought I’d take the ones not so similar and weigh in on which cover is better. The you all can comment and tell me I’m completely wrong.

Keep in mind I haven’t actually read Sabriel (I will in the future) in case that would somehow influence what you think about my dissection of the cover art.

VS.

The first cover is the one I have seen advertised on U.K. sites and have seen in the bookstores here in Australia. This cover is filled with brighter colours like whit and orange. A lot of fantasy novels don’t use such colours, which means this one gets a point for standing out.

The cover is somewhat plain, but the symbol in the middle is fire, which gives the impression of struggle and perhaps poverty/starvation/or something lacking in combination with the minimal cover otherwise.

I find this cover interesting and can promise you I would be looking at the back to see what it’s all about.

The second cover is the one I recognize as being the cover on the first copy of Sabriel I ever saw, which was in the US. The evil eyes of the black figure behind the hero…yeah, it makes for a nice cover, but it’s not going to get me to read the book by itself. There are plenty of fantasy heroes who go up against big evil things.

Admittedly, the whole holding the bell thing on this cover makes me quite curious, which scores a point in its favour. This is also a bit of a minimalist cover in its own way in that there is a person, there is a bad guy, and that’s about it. However, I’m on the fence as to whether or not that actually works to the advantage of the book.

It’s an interesting cover, but it’s certainly not the best or most interesting I have seen.

So which one is better?

I have to vote for the first one. It would instantly get me to look at the back cover to see what it’s about, I feel it conveys more emotion (fire, desolation) than the second, and it appeals to me personally.

So what do you think? Does the second work more for you? Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.