For those not familiar with the series, the titles in order are The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autarch and a fifth book, a coda of sorts but one which ties up the series quite well, The Urth of the New Sun. Below, all covers will be posted in that order. First, Obata's covers. These are growing on me. They are so deliriously flawed, yet they get some things so very right. It's disconcerting...
Next, Yoshitaka Amano's covers. These were surprisingly dull and disappointing. Really rote. They almost seem rushed to me, and while each touches on some crucial element from the narrative, they do not excite.
And finally, the four wraparound covers by Bruce Pennington. Of all of the covers I've seen, these seem closest to what I would like to see. They are far from perfect, but I do think they most closely match the tone of the narrative and the world that Wolfe has built.
Many many thanks to everyone who read the previous post and commented. That was great fun.
6 comments:
I always liked the masked Yoshitaka Amano cover!
I am glad you said tetrology & not pentrology. I think Urth of the New Sun has something to recommend it, but only viewed as a separate entity.
Also, that Easton Press edition makes me drool. & that Dutch is kind of brilliant in its own weird way.
Mordicai, if it's any consolation, the masked Amano cover is my favorite of his four. I am embarrassingly guilty of viciously fixing some artists to an impossibly rigid and narrow standard of art. I've seen a ton of Amano, most of it his Final Fantasy pieces, and I've kind of nailed him to that cross. So when I hear Amano, I expect to see that. These covers don't seem (to me, anyway) to fit either world...FF or the New Sun. All of which is faintly ridiculous because the biggest problem is my own infexibility. I'm working on it.
And absolutely agreed regarding Urth of the New Sun. A fine and challenging text, but most definitely a separate work. In some ways I think that can be a barrier to readers, but I rather appreciate the gauntlet Wolfe has thrown with that one.
That Dutch one is a fine cover indeed. But not for New Sun. I honestly can't quite figure out what's going on there. I dislike covers that are slavishly literal representations of the book, but who is that on the cover? Severian and Thecla? Dorcas and Severian? Thea and Hildegrin (with no beard)? I am so confused by this one.
So Amano actually has done New Sun covers...! Do I secretly have power over time and space? And if so, why didn't I use it for something better?
I hadn't seen the Obata cover for Claw. I'm still distracted by Severian's dumb pretty-man face and will probably never recover from this, but the more I look at his New Sun work, the more I fall in love with the rest of it -- the windy chaos of Claw, the high Shinigami pulp of Sword, and then Citadel, in which Severian is alone, unarmed, broken, and increasingly androgynized/impersonal-looking in an acceptably literal turn. Surprisingly enough for a guy who likes to slap crosses everywhere for no reason, Obata avoids explicit Christ imagery and instead nods to the Virgin Mary in his final pose for Severian.
I agree that Amano's covers are rather rote (looks like my second impulse, that he wouldn't be able to carry it off, was correct). I can appreciate them on one level, though, of course: they are abstract enough that they don't impose themselves too much on the book. That final cover is the only one that moves me. Looks like what Aubrey Beardsley would draw (on an uninspired day) if the only brief they gave him was "Rome."
I have no idea who the woman on Sword is supposed to be -- she's dark-haired and leisured, so I presume she is Thecla -- though in theory, I like the idea of a New Sun cover that looks like a Jane Austen novel.
And, yep, those Pennington covers get more powerful the more I look at them. Citadel is really just stunning, a whole world in its final extremity.
Sure hope I closed all those HTML tags (as Han Solo famously said) or this is gonna be a real short trip.
So Amano actually has done New Sun covers...! Do I secretly have power over time and space? And if so, why didn't I use it for something better?
That made me laugh out loud. Very loudly. Wonderful! Although perhaps this power over time and space is having some effect. Due almost entirely to your articulate and convincing descriptions of Obata's covers, I am coming around to them more and more. Like you, I don't think I will ever be able to accept those impossibly pretty faces, but the symbolism and heraldry seem more and more apt for the books.
I am wondering if perhaps the woman on the cover of Sword is supposed to be Cyracia, the woman he is supposed to kill in Thrax. I remember he spares her, similar in some ways to his show of mercy for Thecla, and this causes the end of his brief tenure in Thrax. I am thinking that Cyracia too was a woman of some means, and Severian was meant to strangle her at a masque of some kind.
Your remark about Jane Austen covers was fantastic as well. I sometimes amuse myself by imagining utterly inappropriate covers for well known novels, like a Boris Vallejo painting on a Henry James book, or a David Shrigley cover for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is great fun.
I am wondering if perhaps the woman on the cover of Sword is supposed to be Cyracia, the woman he is supposed to kill in Thrax.
I thought of that, too! Actually, I thought of it before Thecla. But I assumed that that happened in the second book (since Severian appears to be depicted in a masque outfit on the second Amano cover). Mike later pointed out, though, that Severian went to that party dressed as Severian, so maybe that's just Amano not giving a shit.
I sometimes amuse myself by imagining utterly inappropriate covers for well known novels, like a Boris Vallejo painting on a Henry James book, or a David Shrigley cover for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is great fun.
It is! I've entertained myself this way, too. Somewhere inside of me is a graphic designer trying to get out.
Post a Comment