Tag Archives: book covers

[Small Chirp] Harry Dresden around the world

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Left to right: Turkish, Hungarian, German, Polish, Dutch


November 27 marks the upcoming release of Jim Butcher’s latest book from his Harry Dresden series, so in preparation of getting my hands on Cold Days, I found myself comparing translations of the novel title with theothercanary – Russian, Spanish, French… Before long, we were hooked. For me, though, it wasn’t just about the translations. It was the translation of cover art between one country and the other. Last week’s post talked about four English-language publishers and the covers they brought to the table. In this post, I’m gonna do some speculative globetrotting.

What does a cover and title say about the reader? Most foreign publishers end up doing some variation on the original or branded cover (whether for legal reasons or otherwise). Above, I pulled together five covers from five different translations of Storm Front (above), all of which did their own tweak on McGrath’s U.S. cover.

But publishers don’t always stick with the original – or even stay within the style of the original (examples right). I love speculating about what cover decisions say about the publisher, its target demographic, and the reader.

Below, I’ve pulled out some covers published in three (very dissimilar)  countries. Continue reading →

[Small Chirp] Cover Art in the World of Harry Dresden

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Cold Days by Jim Butcher comes out November 27, and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty stoked. It’s the 14th book in Jim Butcher’s urban fantasy series following wizard Harry Dresden, the only openly practicing wizard in Chicago (and probably the U.S.). Of course, over the course of the last 13 books, Harry’s done a whole lot more than that – he’s pissed off a whole lot of powerful people (and non-people), faced off against the wizard council, squared off against demons, dodged death, and lodged himself quite firmly on my to-read list forever.

Book 14When we last saw him in Ghost Story – but, no, this post isn’t about that.

This post is about my own favorite thing to do outside of reading and blogging. It’s about browsing through covers and seeing how they change between editions.

Here is what I’ve found:

Roc:

I see these covers in most every bookstore. They’re from Roc, a Penguin Group imprint and Butcher’s main publisher. Christian McGrath’s art creates a moody atmosphere that becomes more and more ingrained in Harry Dresden’s story as the poor guy continues to get mauled in increasingly creative physical and emotional ways over the course of the 13-book plot-line. Continue reading →