Friday Face-Off: Crown
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:
“Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”
~ a cover featuring a CROWN
Mogsy’s Pick:
King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist
I had never read Raymond E. Feist before King of Ashes, but I found it to be a satisfying read, if a bit old hat at times. The book opens on the aftermath of a bloody battle. The monarch of what was once one of the five great kingdoms of North and South Tembria had just been betrayed by the other four kings, and now every single member of his family is being put to the sword. But in the chaos, a child was overlooked—a baby boy who was spirited away to safety in the confusion of battle.
A fallen kingdom, a lost heir…it all sounds a bit too familiar, doesn’t it? But what about the covers? Are they going to fall victim to “generic-ness”? Let’s take a look at our contenders this week:
From left to right:
Harper Voyager (2018) – HarperCollins UK (2018)
Bulgarian Edition (2018) – French Edition (2018)
Winner:
Since I’m not really big on the “here’s a weapon/piece of armor” motif for epic fantasy covers, there was really no contest this week! My winner happens to be a beauty too.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I have to go with the crown but none really wow me
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I wish there had been more choices, that’s for sure.
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Oh you prefer the French one? I think I prefer the least for this one. My fave is the one with the crown too I think
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Yeah, I’m not really a fan of armor/symbol covers, I think that’s why French is my favorite.
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The cover you picked is certainly the prettiest though I don’t see a crown on it. I do quite like the one with the crown. I like the use of colour on that one.
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Nope, no crown on my favorite, but it’s pretty neat that on the UK cover one is front and center.
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I prefer the one you picked. All the others look like all the other “fantasy” novels that have come out in the last 2 years…
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I’m just not a fan of the generic “symbol” or “armor/weapon piece” cover that’s on the front of so many fantasy books today, as they don’t really tell me anything. Not that the one I chose tells me much either, but at least it’s got pretty scenery and colors to look at 😀
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Love that city on the background! It somehow reminds me of the representation of Minas Tirith in the LOTR… 🙂
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Indeed, I also love how the light from the sun is illuminating it from the side!
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I agree, I usually laugh when I see a “sword” cover (sword taking up the entire space, usual spearing something). You just know a guy designed that cover! I love the last one too.
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Yeah, “sword” covers are just so unimaginative! I have seen so many fantasy covers go this route though, and it’s like, did the cover people not have any other ideas?
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I think my favorite is the Harper Collins UK edition. Loving the black!
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Although I am not a fan of “symbol” covers, I have to say the crown on the black background is quite striking!
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Astonishingly I do prefer the Harper Collins UK cover!
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That one’s popular this week!
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See I do like “here’s a weapon/piece of armor” covers 😂 and I’m not a fan of “I’m obviously an epic fantasy” covers so I like the crown cover way better than the one you picked 😂😂 but I get why you like it!
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Haha yeah I’m the opposite because I like having something more to look at, but if you do love weapon/armor covers, I can see the appeal of the crown cover!
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I really like your pick- it’s so pretty and gives me old school fantasy nostalgia 🙂
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I like that about it too, reminds me of those old painted covers!
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Yes!
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It’s a toss up for me between the French one and the HarperCollins one. I’m not always a fan of swords or crowns on covers either, I usually like an illustration, but I do like that crown on black with the HC one.
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I know what you mean, even though I’m not a fan of “weapon/armor” or “symbol” covers, there’s something about the color combination in that one that really draws the eye.
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I really like the cover you went with here, it has such a classic feel to it. Quite lovely.
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Yes, it does give it that retro vibe. It also reminds me a lot of the cover for Bradley P. Beaulieu’s Twelve Kings for some reason, even thought that book is a newer one 😀
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I would have picked the same! I love the background and it has an ‘old-school’-vibe & I like that
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Yeah, the classic feel of that one really wins out, in my opinion!
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Yeah, I love that French cover. It’s beautiful.
Lynn 😀
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