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Is This Fantasy Cover an Abomination?
What Do You Think of This Jim Butcher Cover?
Can the cover of a long-awaited fantasy novel be too shiny? Does that send the wrong message to potential readers? Could it attract the “wrong” fans?
Because of the cover controversy, I kept an eye out for the book in question (The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher) the last time I was in my local bookstore. They set it out on a full-table display right near the Science Fiction and Fantasy section.
I thought it was eye-catching myself. I don’t remember noticing the first book in the series (The Aeronaut’s Windlass). But I noticed this cover when I first saw it a couple of weeks back — even before I learned that the cover was controversial with fans.
What do you think of this cover? Is it pretty? Or too shiny? Gorgeous? Or over the top? Is it ugly to your eyes? Is it a … travesty … as some fans have declared?
Believe it or not, that is the controversy that broke out in a fantasy book group on Facebook. This Facebook group often debates things like “Can you enjoy a book if you know the author was a terrible person?” This time, many reader complaints centered on the cover of a hotly awaited new book (The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher).
What was wrong with it? It varies. Some thought it was an abomination! It was…
