Apologies for actually missing Friday – it’s been a long week. To make up for it, for this week’s Bad Book Cover Friday, I’m covering (har [?]) a series that Kakaner has been begging me to do pretty much since the beginning – L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s The Saga of Recluce.
These covers actually work the best without much commentary, so prepare for some scrolling –
See a running theme here yet?
Oh hello, yet another cover featuring two burly men about to hammer each other with their lances of energy. (This is my favorite of the bunch, for the record.)
Change it up – here’s a female (!) officer with some PIRATES.
Yes, yes, this is another situation where I can’t really judge because I haven’t read the books, and I’m sure the way in which whatever magic they’re using is performed is integral to the series, and having identical consistent posing and imagery helps brand the series, etc. etc., but you do have to wonder if literal illustrators ever step back from what they’re doing and look at it.
Go to:
Bad Book Covers Friday Archive
BBCF: Moonsinger’s Friends
BBCF: The Alphabet Mysteries
BBCF: Diamond Star
BBCF: The God Engines
I think the second to last is the one that baffles me the most. Here we have guy on the left, in medieval tunic, leggings, and thonged boots about to hammer guy on the right, in full eighteenth century dandy get up. Unless there is some sort of time travel, I am…confused.
HAHA thank you so much for posting this one!!! I love the lances of energy, but seriously, some originality would be appreciated. There is simply no excuse for this.
Maureen– there MIGHT be time travel actually! Apparently it’s an epic magically conceived multi-century saga. So whoooooo knows.
But of course, I’m inclined to believe it’s an error.
So many stiff poses that cannot actually be made by a normal human.
This is actually a fun game- grab a book, badly photoshoped magazine ect… with a weird pose on it and see how long you can hold it without falling/dying/hurting yourself ect.
Best played with a crowd of animators, a VHS of a classic animated movie- a pause button and booze.
Embarrassingly Freudian book covers FTW!