This week the theme is Vague. We have a lot of books with some, generally very nice looking covers - but none of them really give me a sense of what’s inside the covers. In fact, they don’t really give me a good sense of the genre they belong to either
Blood and Gold (Vampire Chronicles #8) by Anne Rice
This cover is beautiful, there’s absolutely no denying it. It’s a glorious picture of a glorious scene. And it tells me not one thing about the inside. At least it’s prettier than most Vampire Chronicles covers, but like the rest it relies on name and author recognition rather than cover to actually tell us what is inside.
Shaman Rises (The Walker Papers #9) by C. E. Murphy
Again, it’s pretty, definitely a pretty cover, definitely something that’s nice to look at… but this is a book where Seattle is devastated in an apocalyptic magical battle, where buildings fall and dread magical forces ravage the good guys - gods! Monsters! Magic! What is this rather peaceful and beatific cover? I wonder if this book is resting more on being the 9th and concluding book in a series
Also, while we have the belt and tassels and, yes, Joanne does have strong Irish ancestry this cover doesn’t seem to touch much on her being Native American
The Unmaking (Rayne Whitmore Series #1) by Alanna J Faison
This reminds me of a cover from last week - that was an arse with a sword, this is a back with a sword. The sword does suggest there is fighting there but like the previous two there’s not a huge suggestion of the contents of this book by the cover alone. It’s a woman, with a sword which leaves me somewhat unable to comment
Except… Rayne is Black. This woman? I’m not sure? The light makes it hard to say, to say the least. It’s one of those where, if you know Rayne is black, then you can sorta convince yourself that yes maybe, but if you don’t then not so much
Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels Series #8) by Ilona Andrews
I’m cheating, I’m using the UK cover. And it is gorgeous and we have both the sword and the lion which is a nice big nod to Curran as well. Kate looks amazing and more clearly a WOC than I’ve seen in previous books (though, if you didn’t want to see it you could say otherwise). The grey wash background excellently sets it all off with just a hint of a ruined city in the mist. I’m not even sure why Kate is wearing fur but it looks epic on her. I love this cover
As opposed to this one. My gods she must be freaking freezing! Snow and a tank top? Really? I’m sticking with the UK cover.
