Comments on: Cover & Interview: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2010/07/cover-interview-behemoth-by-scott-westerfeld.html Suvudu - Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, and Games Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:25:54 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5.2 hourly 1 By: Totalblamblam http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2010/07/cover-interview-behemoth-by-scott-westerfeld.html/comment-page-1#comment-21261 Totalblamblam Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:17:30 +0000 http://suvudu.com/2010/07/cover-interview-behemoth-by-scott-westerfeld.html#comment-21261 The cover for Behemoth, and the retrograde cover for Leviathan, are abysmal. The original Leviathan cover was the reason I picked it up and then recommended it to all my sci-fi reading friends. It's a steampunk book, and the cover fit perfectly with the story and with Keith Thompson's illustrations. I was really looking forward to Behemoth giving us another brilliant covering featuring a more organic setting. Instead we get a shiny teen face slopped on the cover as so many other YA books have and that makes it look as if it's some teen romance book. Not only that but from even a slight distance the face looks eerily disembodied as the rest of the cover is so dark and the face is so bright. I honestly think the cover was a major miscalculation. I think it has alienated a lot of fans and will not draw any new readers in. This is actually the first time I have seen anyone at all praise the new cover, with the concensus being that the UK cover, while not ideal, is a massive improvement. It is just really disheartening that what could have been a brilliantly produced series that would stand out on a bookshelf and hold it's head high in the company of such classics as Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights, has instead been relegated to the annals of another failed commitment by a publisher to have the conviction to produce something more than just a story. At least the story, by all accounts, is still the top-notch storytelling we have all come to expect from Westerfeld. I have not read it myself. I have to wait for my library to get a copy as I sahn't be purchasing it. My hope now is that when the series is finished an omnibus edition will be released (mega-hardback that will be) and it will be more in keeping with the artistic style with which the series began. The cover for Behemoth, and the retrograde cover for Leviathan, are abysmal. The original Leviathan cover was the reason I picked it up and then recommended it to all my sci-fi reading friends. It’s a steampunk book, and the cover fit perfectly with the story and with Keith Thompson’s illustrations.

I was really looking forward to Behemoth giving us another brilliant covering featuring a more organic setting. Instead we get a shiny teen face slopped on the cover as so many other YA books have and that makes it look as if it’s some teen romance book. Not only that but from even a slight distance the face looks eerily disembodied as the rest of the cover is so dark and the face is so bright.

I honestly think the cover was a major miscalculation. I think it has alienated a lot of fans and will not draw any new readers in. This is actually the first time I have seen anyone at all praise the new cover, with the concensus being that the UK cover, while not ideal, is a massive improvement.

It is just really disheartening that what could have been a brilliantly produced series that would stand out on a bookshelf and hold it’s head high in the company of such classics as Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights, has instead been relegated to the annals of another failed commitment by a publisher to have the conviction to produce something more than just a story.

At least the story, by all accounts, is still the top-notch storytelling we have all come to expect from Westerfeld. I have not read it myself. I have to wait for my library to get a copy as I sahn’t be purchasing it. My hope now is that when the series is finished an omnibus edition will be released (mega-hardback that will be) and it will be more in keeping with the artistic style with which the series began.

]]> By: E. http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2010/07/cover-interview-behemoth-by-scott-westerfeld.html/comment-page-1#comment-20244 E. Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:20:26 +0000 http://suvudu.com/2010/07/cover-interview-behemoth-by-scott-westerfeld.html#comment-20244 I thought that was the case - publishers taking over the cover design specs. I'm rather disappointed - They really ought to have continued the original; the new designs look tacky and clashes with the illustrations. If it's inviting to some - fair enough- but I personally found the original more enthralling [and just knowing Keith Thompson was responsible was enough to pick it up]. I shouldn't judge a book by its cover but I am very big on covers... Sadly I'm hesitant to buy it. Even the UK version is... weird. Is there NO cover that continues from the original publication? I thought that was the case – publishers taking over the cover design specs. I’m rather disappointed – They really ought to have continued the original; the new designs look tacky and clashes with the illustrations. If it’s inviting to some – fair enough- but I personally found the original more enthralling [and just knowing Keith Thompson was responsible was enough to pick it up].

I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I am very big on covers…

Sadly I’m hesitant to buy it. Even the UK version is… weird. Is there NO cover that continues from the original publication?

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