In what I trust shall be the first of many such appearances, Best Served Cold has been rated among the ten best sci-fi and fantasy releases of 2009.
In other news, an interesting discussion about fantasy cover art over at A Dribble of Ink kicked off by responses to the latest Mass Market Cover for Mark Charan Newton’s Nights of Villjamur. The comments include some insightful stuff from industry insider-types like Lou Anders (of Pyr, who publish the First Law in the US, and also happens to have a Chesley award for art direction), Lauren Panepinto (who designs the covers for Orbit, including those of Best Served Cold), and the ever insightful Simon of Spanton (Hype-Meister General at Gollancz, my primary publisher, and was largely responsible for the idea behind the parchmenty covers for the First Law – some of the only covers I’ve ever been aware of that get near universal love). Well worth a look, since I know many of you like to tear your hair out/vomit in your mouths/otherwise express outrage about cover treatments.
Discussion runs particularly toward the area of dramatic figures on covers, and the commercial sense of making books look like other books in the genre, or trying to make them look radically different. Particularly interesting since the alternative UK artwork for Before They are Hanged should be along shortly, with its dramatic figure of Superior Glokta. I bet you can’t wait to tear your collective hair out…
6 comments so far
As far as jumpingthe gun is concerned-I declared Last Argument of KIngs the best book I had read in 2009 back in July.
I agree that Last Argument of Kings is the best book David J. West read in 2009.
I'm letting my hair grow so I can tear it out more viciously than in previous hair removal episodes involving book covers.
Pratchett, Adams, King, Hobb, Jordan, two TV series tie-ins, one movie tie-in and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (a cultural phenomenon, soon to be movie).
That is an incredible group to be put in, yours being the only one there on its own merits. Huzzah and congratulations!
It was foretold.
What a strange list, I've read about half of them and wouldn't touch the other half with a barge-pole!
Best Served Cold is the standout book here, although Pratchett's was a return to form.
There were lots of good Fantasy books that I caught up with this year, apart from BSC, I really enjoyed "The Magicians" and "Retribution Falls", "The Name of the Wind" and "The Way of Shadows"…Biggest disappointment possibly was KJ Parker's "The Company"….
SwindonNick