Monday, October 18, 2010

Cover art - "The Book of Transformations" by Mark Charan Newton

A while back, Mark Charan Newton showed us a cover draft for his novel, “The Book of Transformations”. I admitted at the time that I didn’t like that cover, mainly because of the central character featured on that draft, and I wasn’t the only one who had that problem. Following the debate surrounding the initial cover draft and based on the online feedback the publisher, Tor UK, and Mark Charan Newton made an interesting and unexpected decision eliminating the figure from the cover, at least for the hardback edition. The cover looks much better and seeing it in the fullest now I am even more pleased to see the character gone, because she was taking a lot from this perspective.

Mark Charan Newton posted the blurb of his third novel in the “Legends of the Red Sun” series on his blog too, a very catchy one, that makes me very curious and eager to find where the story goes after the first two novels of the series, “Nights of Villjamur” and “City of Ruins”.

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant.
The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace – the Villjamur Knights. But there’s more to Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.
Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unravel the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his order are heading back to Villjamur.
And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered…

2 comments:

Memory said...

I like this a lot better than the figural version; but then, I tend to prefer setting-centric covers as a general rule.

Mihai A. said...

I also prefer setting and scenes centred covers, but sometimes the characters are looking good on a cover. It wasn't the case here in my opinion. The cover looks much better now :)