Friday Face-Off: Legend
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“To be a legend, you’ve either got to be dead, or excessively old!”
~ a cover featuring a title with the word “LEGEND”
Mogsy’s Pick:
Legend by David Gemmell
Unfortunately, none of the books I had in mind for this topic panned out due to lack of cover availability, so this week I’m going to bend my rules a bit and use a book I’ve not read before. This one has been on my to-read list for a very long time.
Here’s a selection of some of the covers I found:
From left to right:
Ballantine (1994) – Random House (1984) – Orbit (2012)
Ace (1988) – Del Rey (1998) – Arrow (1987)
Legend (1994) – Orbit (2009) – French Edition (2008)
`
Russian Edition (2017) – German Edition (2016) – French Edition (2010)
Polish Edition (2010) – German Edition (1997) – Russian Edition (2003)
Swedish Edition (2005) – French Edition (2000) – Bulgarian Edition (2011)
Serbian Edition (2012) – Italian Edition (2015) – Spanish Edition (2007)
Finnish Edition (2003) – Chinese Edition (2014) – French Edition (2014)
Winner:
We’re definitely not hurting for choice. Originally published in 1984, the book has been translated into many languages and reissued a bunch of times since. The result is a collection of covers that look like a mix of old-school and modern. And of course, most of them also feature Snaga, the trademark legendary magical weapon that gave the protagonist Druss his fearsome moniker, Captain of the Axe. After much deliberation, I decided to go with the one that felt the most “epic” for my winner.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Yours would be my second choice. I love the Chinese edition best 😉
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Love the detail on the axe blade on that Chinese edition 🙂
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Nice pick! You surely aren’t hurting for choices here, and I like most of these. However, I did go with the French edition, which is similar to yours in layout I think. I was going to pick the German one at first, but the lack of an impressive axe on the cover did make it feel like a cop-out haha. 😛
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There were many French editions, and it was so hard to pick a winner because they’re all very pretty too!
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Third cover I have the physical coppy of. This was my first Gemmel book and I loved it. I am looking out for any more Gemmels i can find.
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I still have yet to read anything by him. I really want to try this one!
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Great place to start as this was the novel he wrote when he found out he had cancer. He planned two seperate endings for the book, depending on the outcome of his checkup would predict the outcome of the novel. Needless to say he lived on a few more years to write some great novels.
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Wow, I never knew that story. That is really something!
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Would love to see what you think of it
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Oh my goodness. You bent the rules? Next thing I know, you’ll be telling us you are becoming a communist!
😉
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I know, first I fudge the topic last week to suit my own needs, and now I’ve gone and featured a book I haven’t read before! It’s anarchy 😀
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I really like the French 2010 version – it’s understated but eye catching – such a lot of covers, not really a surprise I guess. I still haven’t read this author for which I feel quite ashamed!
Lynn 😀
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I’m with ya, I feel a bit ashamed too for never having read Gemmell 🙂
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I like the Orbit, French and Serbian covers best. I can’t decide because they’re all great! I love the themes of ice and fire in them.
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I agree, there’s a lot of choice this week. So many pretty renditions of the axe as the main subject 🙂
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wow there are so many there
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Too many! But they were all so nice and different, I wanted to show almost all of them 🙂
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I like the last one, but all are excellent.
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I like that one too. Simple and elegant 🙂
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Wow, that’s a lot of covers. I think I prefer the Orbit one the best.
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I like the orbit anniversary one too 🙂
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Great minds think a like: I picked Legend as well this week. 🙂
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Yay, we’re Friday Face-off twins 🙂
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I like both the Ballantine and the Arrow editions. I don’t really like covers that have weapons only on them, for some reason.
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I’m with you there. I don’t like the ones with only the weapon as a symbol, or a close up. I chose one with a background for that reason.
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Lots of good covers! I like that Serbian one the best too- that awesome citadel in the background and the snowy setting clinches it for me. The Orbit one is nice too.
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The snowy setting really appealed to me as well. I like that background a lot!
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Oh, I like your choice! It’s a real (pick) axe lol *pun. Anyway, the snow on the rocky mountainside gives it a strong sense of time and I like it a lot. Legend Wow! It sounds exciting.
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Heh heh 🙂 And I love the snowy background too! Definitely huge points from me there!
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This one has been in my tbr pie for years as well. So many great covers! Lie your pick. That dragon one is intriguing as well.
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Yeah I think I added it to my list around the time I started my blog, because someone recommended it to me. Sigh it’s been years and I still haven’t gotten to it 🙂
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I have a lot of books like that….lol.
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What an amazing range of choices for this book! It would be difficult to point out a favorite, although the 1984 Random House cover, with its simplicity and coloring, looks quite appealing…
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Ah, the original! 😀
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God so many horrid ones, lol. But…yes def the German one, I like it
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Yeah I’m not too fond of the really old school ones, tbh lol!
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Oh man this is a tough one! There are a lot of really good covers and there are a lot of really different ones! Best I can do is a 4 way tie 😂😂 Ballantine (1994), French Edition (2000), Bulgarian Edition (2011), and Chinese Edition (2014)
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After I narrowed it down, I had a lot to choose from too, haha!
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I really love the Orbit 2012 – it is my favourite cover. I love the fire playing around the axe. This is a really good choice for this week’s theme:)
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Lovely choice, that one is quite striking 🙂
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Was fun to see both you and Bookwraith use this one for Friday Face Off. I chose the same cover you did – the Axe embedded in the ice. Cheers, Brian
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