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Words of Radiance Cover Reveal


otomo

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There seems to be more complaining about this awesome cover than excitement. I hope this changes because I am a little disappointed by fan reaction here so far and was looking forward to more people as truly excited as I am. I mean it looks to be a fight scene between Kaladin and Szeth. How awesome is that.

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There isn't really that much negativity. I like the cover, at least ;).

 

Even the criticisms are mostly nitpicks, and those are all that's left to be said, given that the "wow it's awesome" comments have already been suitably registered. :D

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Honestly, I just don't like detailed characters on covers of fantasy. The fashion is always ridiculous and feels vaguely like a cheesy romance novel (which I only keep on hand for animating horrible monstrosities). Being self-conscious, I remove or hide the cover of pretty much any fantasy except Wise Man's Fear and Way of Kings.

Spinal Tap hair means this sleeve will probably stay on the bookshelf.

But that's not Whelan's problem (who is quite awesome), it's mine.

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I only wish he wouldn't have done Kaladin's face. But I think I'll most likely grow to like it.

The colors are beautiful, and everything except some minor nitpicks about Kaladin is absolutely awesome. Szeth and the pile of bodies he's on looks awesome. Almost wish that was the front.

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I only wish he wouldn't have done Kaladin's face. But I think I'll most likely grow to like it.

The colors are beautiful, and everything except some minor nitpicks about Kaladin is absolutely awesome. Szeth and the pile of bodies he's on looks awesome. Almost wish that was the front.

Yeah Szeth I think does look better but I have to say that Kaladin  with the Storm looks amazing even with the awkward position he is in to get the storm and Title in.  I do think that without Szeth there I don't like this nearly as much but as a whole I think it is one of the best fantasy covers out there, and one of the best alluded to fight scenes I have ever seen on a book cover ever.

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I love everything about the cover except his face. His face is driving me nuts. The black and white version looks good, but something about the way the colors are hitting his face... it makes it look like he's looking somewhere else than the original drawing. 


But OMG. Cant. Wait.

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Many people have mentioned Kaladin's unusual fighting stance. As a martial artist, I completely agree. However, upon further inspection, I noticed that the rock is cracked where his foot and knee touch the ground. Maybe he had just jumped across the chasm? That would also explain why he's not directly looking at Szeth.

 

I don't typically like critiquing visual representations of books--there's always something wrong and it gets exhausting pointing out all the mistakes. But I wanted to put in my two cents about Kaladin's appearance. He looks way too old--he's supposed to be 19 in The Way of Kings. Perhaps Words of Radiance takes place twenty years after Way of Kings?

 

As to the glowing thing under Kaladin's hand, he's either absorbing Stormlight from it or doing some sort of lashing on it. 

 

Overall, though, I love the cover. Can't wait to read it--even though I'm deeply upset that the release date was pushed back by two months.

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It starts not too long after the last one.

QUESTION
At the end of The Way of Kings, several key characters seem to be converging on the Shattered Plains. The Way of Kings takes place mainly on the Plains and Kharbranth. Do you plan to spend much time in new locations in book 2?
BRANDON SANDERSON
Book 2 will begin with Shallan and Jasnah either very close to or arriving at the Shattered Plains.
Source

But I agree with you about the pose. I personally thought it looked like he'd just taken a hard landing and was struggling not to fall.

 

As for his face, it doesn't look that old to me, but Kaladin's gone through enough stress that I wouldn't be surprised if he was going gray, let alone having a few extra wrinkles.

 

And, I'm just going to say for the art, I'm not real stressed about it being totally canonically accurate. Let's look at TWoK for example. What the heck is Dalinar doing out during a highstorm? In a second here, he's either gonna get blown away by the stormwall or pitch headfirst into that chasm when the vision takes him. For me, it's more about capturing the soul of a book than it is about depicting a certain moment.

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I am completely and entirely in agreement with Windy on this one. We have no idea what plot led up to the position he's in. And as for the face....well. Let me give my own 2 cents.

 

Some people naturally look older than they are, just like some people naturally look younger than they are (I frequently am told I look like I'm 21 or 22. I'm 26. Two years ago, I was told I looked 16). I've seen pictures of girls who are 18 who look like they're 30 or 40. Now, I'm not saying Kaladin is one of those people. But I do believe if I were to meet him in real life, I would never guess him to be 19. I would probably guess him to be in his late 20's at least, based on appearance alone. Going through the kinds of stuff he's been through ages a person. That just naturally happens. So sure, he's 19. But he's not going to look it.

 

 

Anyway. My initial reaction to the cover: Holy Batman, that's awesome! (well...I didn't really say that, but I should've).

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Seeing as a year on Roshar is 1.1 years to us, Kaladin will be around 21 to us  and as Windy and wilson said with everything he's been through he should look older. And it looks like the area around his knee is slightly cracked so I'm preferring to think of it as a hard landing rather than a super Kaladin action pose.

 

Love the cover and Szeth looks awesome

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: minor

Edited by sonNeturo
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Many people have mentioned Kaladin's unusual fighting stance. As a martial artist, I completely agree. However, upon further inspection, I noticed that the rock is cracked where his foot and knee touch the ground. Maybe he had just jumped across the chasm? That would also explain why he's not directly looking at Szeth.

 

Ah, but this begs the question:  If such cracking actually occurs in the book, how is it that Kaladin accomplished such a hard landing without cracking his feet and knee?  With a hard landing even shardplate cracks.  There is nothing in the three lashings which would allow such a feat.  If gravity was affected to soften the landing for Kaladin, then surely there would not have been enough energy transferred to crack the ground.

Edited by Shardlet
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I don't think those cracks are the result of Kaladin landing (for that matter I don't know how a man can fall hard enough to crack stones :)). If you look at it there are plenty of mini cracks all over that plateau.

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The more I think about it the more I think that he was sort of surprised attacked. I think he's been hurt, and he's sort of doggedly getting up from a hard fall, while simultaneously drawing in stormlight to heal himself/fight off szeth.

I think the thing his hand is on is a Kholin blue pouch full of spheres (explaining the lighter color and illumination) and medical equipment (explaining the darker lines).

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I have to agree that it's not my favorite cover for a book, but it's not as bad as my first impression of it.  The pose is strange, but I can see him falling to his knees injured, struggling to get up, or in the process of standing after kneeling.  He's sort of leaning a bit on the spear as well.

 

I would say the object looks more like a gemheart to me than anything.

 

As for nitpicks, I hate the color of Kaladin's uniform.  It screams faded old jeans, doubly so with the green glow from the object on the ground.  It's obviously meant to be an echo of the storm sky on the left side of the painting, but it bothers me.  I actually stuck it in photoshop and changed the shade of blue to a richer, more Kholin blue and it looks so much better.  I also toned down the green glow on his face, and it's amazing how much younger he looks with nothing but a slight hue change.  So it's actually the color and light direction that make Kaladin look so old in the original cover (which is probably why black and white versions look better).  

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I agree, if you look closely at his face, he looks much younger. I found an image of the fully cover that's actually large in size, and when you zoom in on Kaladin's face, it is way easier to see his age. He just looks haggard to me, which could be intentional. I don't think his fall cracked the plateau, but I do think he's struggling to stand or recover from a fall.

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Recall that stormlight also acts to strengthen and heal, even when it's just being held and not used for Lashings.

 

 

Yes, but remember when Szeth fought Gavilar he felt "Pain. So much pain!" (original quote from TWoK). And: "Stormlight healing was far from instantaneous." (a few sentences later) 

 

Stormlight doesn't work like Pewter. 

 

I still see Kaladin ready "to jump", reaching down at this thing on the ground. I don't see, he's off balance. And even more so I can't see Kaladin landing on stone that hard, shattering the stone. I can imagine that he's looking at the persons he is to protect (despite Szeth). 

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Here it is Natans.  I only have access to this smaller version right now, so you can't see Kaladin's face very well (the one I worked on was about 30% bigger).  If someone has a link to an even bigger version I would love to see it! 

 

Edit: Added a side by side of Kaladin's face to show the original, my lightly edited (to my own taste) version, and the original in black and white.  It really is the lighting I think that makes kaladin look so weird.

post-6616-0-51537500-1375401341_thumb.jp

post-6616-0-47483900-1375413532_thumb.jp

Edited by deddinty
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@Shardlet

 

Oh yes, I agree that he probably didn't land so hard he shattered the stone. I was simply reminding you that the effects Kaladin can gain from stormlight are not, as you suggested, limited to the Lashings.

Edited by Kurkistan
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I am disappointed in the cover.  It just looks too cartoonish to me.  That said, if the cover for book 1 hadn't been utterly amazing I might have felt differently about this one.  Still, the cover really doesn't matter in this case, the text is what really matters.

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And, as I think someone on the Tor comments thread said, the cover of the first book--the one used to represent the series as a whole going forward--is pure awesome without even the slightest drawback, so we're already doing pretty well. :)

Edited by Kurkistan
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As to the uniform, I expected Kholin blue to be a darker blue color.  I mean, the elite bodyguard unit is called the Cobalt Guard.  But whatever.  The only thing I really don't like about the uniform is that dang white collar lapel thing.  

 

The blue-green thing could be a pouch of spheres, it might be a gemheart.  I like the pouch idea better.  Why would Kaladin or Szeth be concerned about a gemheart if they were brawling.  The value means nothing if you are dead and both can suck in the stormlight from it without touching it.  Since Szeth is standing on top of a pile of bodies in armor (suggests Kholin heavy infantry), I would expect that Szeth and Kaladin are fighting against each other.  I suppose it could be an Alethi on Alethi fight where Kaladin and Szeth are fighting together.  But, seems less likely.

 

The cracks, though, I doubt they came from a hard landing.  Our boy's stormlight boost is potent; But, that would have to be as potent of an effect as shardplate.  Seems unlikely.  But, it does look an awful lot like there are cracks sourced at his foot and cracks sourced at his knee.  Seems like something funky is happening.

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Looking at deddinty's comparisons, I become more convinced that the shade of Kal's uniform being so light is due to lighting more than it's inherent color. You'll note that even in the original his shoulder is a more "cobaltish" shade, and that's still in "gold" light rather than normal sunlight.

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