Yikes! It’s been too long since I last drooled over pretty cover art on this blog. We must remedy that at once! Welcome to Cover Art Monday, and today I’ll be looking at some of Dominic Harman’s work.
Confession: A large part of why I picked Harman is because of the awesome illustration he did for my friend Jo Anderton’s debut book, Debris (which you should all, of course, rush out and buy, if you haven’t already /shameless plug).
Behold and admire!
Harman also illustrated the iconic covers of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series:
These covers are perfect for the books. The concept is simple, but the execution is visually striking and captures the premise–dragons in the Napoleonic era–wonderfully.
Some of Harman’s other work also includes science fiction:
… and more traditional sort of fantasy:
Do you have any favorite cover artists and/or illustrators? Let me know in the comments!
Is that a new cover for Modesitt’s work? I became a fan of his stuff by accidentally picking up The Magic of Recluse a couple decades ago 🙂
Sure looks like it!
I haven’t read Modesitt. Which of his books would you recommend starting with?
He takes a very scientific approach to Order/Chaos magic; I don’t think I would follow his published order. As a teenager, at least, I found the historical jumping around hard to keep up with at first. I’d start with the Magic of Recluse (first published book) as it is the introductory piece, then read its sequel, The Death of Chaos.
The next published book was The Towers of the Sunset; you need to know that it is set way before Magic of Recluse, and I found it hard to follow at first. More accessible, however, is the two-part story in The White Order and The Colors of Chaos. Colors is my favorite of Modesitt’s novels; Cerryl is the only Modesitt protagonist who differs from any of his others (names change, personality is always the same). It gives you a good look at the other side of the Order/Chaos divide, too.
Take Modesitt in small doses, though; his style, themes, and characterization change so little book to book that you’ll probably tire of him in a marathon session 🙂 Again, Cerryl is a nice change of pace.
Thanks for the recs! I’m on a hiatus from reading big fat fantasy books (could too much to do) but I will come back to this comment when I’m ready to dive into Modesitt. 🙂
I do like Robin Ludwig’s covers. I’m just working up the nerve to ask how much they cost!
Yes, she is one of the better ebook cover designers I’m seeing out there. And as for price, here you go! http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com/pages/book_cover_design.html