Friday Face-Off: Shapeshifter
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:
“Beware the moon, lads.”
~ a cover featuring a SHAPESHIFTER
Mogsy’s Pick:
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Yay, a chance to feature my favorite coyote shapeshifter this week! Mercedes Thompson, aka Mercy, is a Volkswagen mechanic and a magical being known a walker, able to shift into a coyote at will. She also hangs around with werewolves, vampires, and faeries. I love this world, and I was pleased to find a number of different covers for the first book of the series.
From left to right, top to bottom:
Ace Books (2006) – Orbit (2008) – Orbit (2011)
German Edition (2007) – Italian Edition (2010) – Spanish Edition (2008)
Polish Edition (2008) – Chinese Edition (2009) – Danish Edition (2012)
Indonesian Edition (2010) – Dutch Edition (2015) – Japanese Edition (2008)
Winner:
Even if I wasn’t such a huge fan of the artwork of Dan Dos Santos, I would have chosen the Ace Books edition as my favorite this week. There’s just no contest, not to mention how his stunning Mercy Thompson covers have become quintessential to the series. Over the years, they’ve only gotten better as later books have featured a more fearsome, determined looking Mercy in more practical outfits and less suggestive poses, but I still like the covers for the early books very much.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Think I gotta agree. I have the Orbit 2008 cover myself but the Ace cover art is so so gorgeous.
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I do love the painted covers!
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I love these covers – the artwork has become something that you recognise immediately.
Lynn 😀
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Yup, and they also set the bar for UF covers!
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Yep, hands down the Ace is my favorite as well. I love that artist’s style and I’m so glad they’ve never done a cover change for this series. The covers are truly works of art.
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Yeah, it is always fortunate when they keep the same artist for a series’ entire run. Impressive too, since there are so many of these books now!
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I love the Ace edition as well! And for some reason the Danish cover is grabbing my attention too😁
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I agree, that is a nice one!
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My objection to that series of covers is Mercy bursting out of her top or very low riding jeans etc when it does not fit the character described in the books! The actual designs apart from that are pretty. I used to own that dreadful silver cover and the rest of the set and switched to the blue one shown. The designs aren’t exactly great on that set but I like the colours. Love that Danish set!
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I’ve definitely seen a trend of the later covers featuring Mercy more covered up. I agree the skimpy clothing really doesn’t fit her character in the books.
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The Ace cover is the most familiar to me, but I do like that German one that focuses on the gate design!
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I agree, that is a nice one!
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Your choice is a beautiful, evocative cover, but I prefer the Orbit 2008 one, if nothing else because it showcases the contents and the genre without need for skimpy clothes and provocative poses, which are far too frequent in UF covers… 😛 😀
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Too true, which is why I’m glad the later book covers have featured Mercy in less skimpy outfits!
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Oooh this book sounds great! I will have to check it out 🙂 And I agree with your cover choice!
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It’s a great series, one of my favorites! 😀
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The one you picked, I do love it, even if, come on, lol
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I know, it’s like the real Mercy in the books would never be caught dead looking like that, lol!
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Ooh I love shapeshifters. 🙂 I’ll go with dos Santos here as well, I’m a big fan of his covers on this series (and yes they get better as they go?), although I kinda like the Spanish version as well. I don’t know, I keep changing my mind as I look at it lol.
Also, I love how the Dutch edition zooms in on her abs *snort* Too funny. And the Italian edition has a somewhat spooky vibe, I kinda like that too.
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My eye is drawn to the Spanish edition too, I think it’s because of the cool colors, even though I don’t really care for the actual design.
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It’s a great choice for this week’s theme, Mogsy – and I prefer the Orbit 2008 version as I don’t visualise Mercy as being so skimpily dressed, either.
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She is definitely not like this in the books, and I think the later covers have changed to reflect that – the last few have featured her in more clothes and in less suggestive poses, thankfully! 😀
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Yes – it’s a shame… I’ve steered away from the books due to those covers just in case she had morphed into some sexual nymphette and I’m not interested in reading those types of adventures…:))
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Nice one! I didn’t realize this had so many covers! I admit being partial to the original. 🙂
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Like you, I gotta go with the classic 🙂
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