Thursday, October 15, 2009

"Shadow of the Wind" Cover Battle

Okay I have seen this from Graeme, where he has paired the cover art based upon country, but so far we have all seen the UK and US pairing everywhere. How about adding a third variable? As you might know I am a bit off the speculative fiction book map and not many books come through, but sometimes bestsellers get translated and sometimes we decide to add our own spin on the cover art. I want to present you people with a sample of how covers can change from culture to culture. But first, let's start with the original Spanish cover:

US Cover:

UK Cover:

Bulgarian Cover:


So what's the conclusion. The Spanish cover is good, bujt looking at it I would have mixed it up with something mainstream. The US cover and the UK cover share similarities and both carry the mystical feeling that this is not an ordinary story and might be speculative fiction. Also they carry class and elegance, which stands out in my opinion. The Bulgarian cover is a bit of a train wreck, okay a huge train wreck. It has the lamp post as a central image that can be traced in all covers, but it certainly has done nothing else to make this one stand out. The letters are very bland and it all reeks of very bad photo shop work. I think that the technique of just translating the title and slapping it on either these cover version would have been a better strategy and one we usually apply.

Anyway, you should see what we did to "The Time Traveler's Wife" cover... *shudder*

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are a couple more covers out there for it as well. This one is the US paperback cover, and the first edition that I read (though I have since bought the hardcover featuring the second cover listed), but it is the worst cover of the lot, I feel. The other I rather like, but I am not sure to which edition it belongs to.

Of the ones printed, the second and third are definitely preferred. The first is uninteresting, bland, and not something I would expect to see on a book such as this. However, the second and third one's muted tones and degraded quality convey and almost ominous feeling and do much to add a bit of class. Yeah, the last is pretty dull.

Would also be interesting to see a comparison amongst the various editions of The Angel's Game.

Damn, now I want to reread these books...

~ James

Harry Markov said...

Ah, I am not sure whether Angel's Game has been printed in Bulgarian yet, so I can't say for sure, but your assessment is quite accurate. I didn't want to be snappy about it though.

Mark David said...

I agree with your thoughts about the different covers. And the UK cover would be my favorite :) What's the story by the way? Do you have a review?

Larry Nolen said...

I prefer the second edition of the US-Spanish Language release (the cover is similar to the earlier paperback edition that Planeta put out several years ago, which I own). It conveys the "fog" of the story well, plus it happens to represent the father/son dynamic more than the other covers.

I also happen to like the North American Spanish-language cover for El juego del Ángel the best as well, for other reasons.

Harry Markov said...

@ Larry: There are quite a few covers and I have been able to find one that is truly spectacular, but have no idea what nationality it is. I still have to read the novel, though.

@ MD: No I don't have a review, but you can google for a review and it will pop pretty easily. It's a horror story.

Bookfool said...

Oh, no. Don't DO that! Now, I am freaking dying to see the Bulgarian cover of The Time Traveler's Wife. I agree, that the Bulgarian cover -- well, the problem is that it doesn't say a thing. The other covers hint of something mysterious.

Harry Markov said...

@ Bookfool: You seriously don't want to know what it looks like. But I will eventually get around to posting it.

YES! I agree. It's like people have no vision. I mean *I* can do so much better with Photoshop. Even with MS Paint. *grrr*

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