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Dragonmount.com has an exclusive first look at the cover art for 'The Gathering Storm".
Follow this link for their news article and the picture.
What to say... classic Sweet...
Those who know me know I'm really, really, not a fan of Sweet's work for the Wheel of Time. :)
Art aside, some very interesting changes in the background. It's always dangerous to speculate with Sweet's work (unless you want to end up with a theory that either Loial would get shrunk by Lanfear or Rand would meet a Leprechaun in The Great Hunt... or that Rand would suddenly take steroids, or Egwene and the boys would join the tinkers and she would do the cooking...), but I guess it's safe to say that with the primitive log cabin/polynesian long house and dragon carvings gone, there's not much left that supported Linda's idea of what the rough draft of this cover represented, an Amayar longhouse on one of the Sea Folk Islands (and given that's D.K. Sweet, the same is likely to happen to my 'theories' on the cover as I read the book...).
The building on the finished cover is a lot more elaborate and seems isolated, enough to be an 'hunting lodge', though there are no tree. The door has obviously been destroyed.
The first thought that came to me was that it could be a representation of 'Lady Basene' (Graendal) hunting lodge/palace, though personally I imagined it grander and in stone. If Rand destroyed the door, he may have been held prisoner.
A second thought is that the house looks isolated, and it may have been where Semirhage was held before she escaped, with Rand cursing the heavens... did she kill someone? This has always been a very popular theory on various WOT MB, that Semirhage could escape by killing people close to Rand... Nynaeve, Cadsuane, Min.. obviously not Aviendha who is on the cover.
A third idea is that this manor/lodge could actually be the Pendaloan estate in Tear that was Rand's headquarters since after the Cleansing. At the end of KOD, we learned that Rand was traveling a lot between the northwest and the far south-east. Of course, this may double up as the place they decide to hold Semirhage.
*Sigh* I really can't wait for this book (though I suspect this dust jacket will somehow get lost between the book store and my home. This always seem to happen with my WOT dust jackets for some reason...)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
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7 comments:
I'm not a vehement Sweet basher by any means (I really like the U.S. New Spring cover, for instance, and the Eye of the World "quest" cover will always be a nostalgic favorite), but to me this is definitely one of the worst WoT covers. I was planning on waiting for the mass market paperback, but after seeing the finished cover I may have to go with the hardback and follow your lead of "misplacing" the dust jacket.
- Zach
What I noticed is that where all the dragon carvings were on the mock up is now covered by writing...I don't think this building is in Tear. With its steep roofs it looks designed to shed snow. Of course, maybe it's just artistic license!
In TDR, Perrin noticed the very pointy roofs in Tear.
That's way too much details for D.K.S., though.
I'm leaning a bit more toward Arad Doman, mostly because I'm guessing he was told 'hunting lodge', came up with a shabby wood cabin, and was told ... eeesh, not that sort of hunting lodge.
We should have a caption contest.
Graendal screams at Rand from inside the lodge : "I refuse to fight you until you've learned some fashion sense!"
or perhaps
Aviendha exclaims: "OMG Rand, Semirhage shrunk you!"
or even,
Aviendha exclaims: "OMG Rand, what have you done to Min, you have her legs!!!"
Yes, I'm going to go with the Semirhage-escape for this cover. If I had to guess what happened, Semirhage escaped and killed a few of Rand's friends. She destroyed the place while trying to escape. Rand is vowing revenge against her and the Dark One for the loss of his friends.
I think it's the most probable explanation for the cover - if there is an explanation. Previous covers have been close to unreadable, and usually have Rand in some abnormal posture trying to tell us something.
Good captions, Dom! LOL!
Some more ...
Avi: Rand, give me back my panties!
Rand: I bet you can't reach them WAY UP HERE!!!
***********
Rand: Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.
Avi: You blew a hole in the wall just for that?!? *Sigh* I need a new boyfriend.
***********
Rand: The Creator help me, I CAN'T SEE!!!
Avi: That's obvious from the purple cumberbund.
Rand: It's purple? I thought it was the gold one. Oh well, at least it still goes with this green tunic.
Avi: *Snorts*
***********
Rand: THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY!!!
Avi: So, come back in and and get a drink, dragon-boy!
***********
Avi: Rand wait! I didn't really mean that about your stump!
Rand: What stump? My hand is perfectly fine. SEE!!!
***********
“And if you think that was rough, Avon lady, you should see what the Gorillagram guy got when he knocked while the ‘do not disturb’ was up!”
And because I’m writing the Mat essay:
"Damn you Cauthon! You should be able to aim a cannon better than that!”
I think it may be rand fighting off Taim in the Black Tower.
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