Friday Face-Off: Unicorn
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:
“I thought unicorns were more . . . fluffy.”
~ a cover featuring a UNICORN
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Time of Contempt is the second full-length novel and the fourth installment of The Witcher Saga featuring Geralt of Rivia, a traveling mercenary who uses his warrior training as well as his mutant powers to hunt and kill deadly monsters. Originally published in Polish, the series has since gone on to inspire dozens of movies, TV shows, comics, and even a hit video game. The books and short stories have also been translated into numerous languages, which is why there are so many different covers to compare today. Here is a selection of the best and most notable ones:
From left to right, top to bottom:
Polish Edition A (1995) – Polish Edition B (1999) – Polish Edition C (2015)
Orbit (2013) – Gollancz (2013) – German Edition (2009)
Ukrainian Edition (2016) – Bulgarian Edition (2017) – Serbian Edition (2012)
Italian Edition (2013) – Czech Edition A (2007) – Czech Edition B (2011)
Spanish Edition A (2004) – Spanish Edition B (2008) – Spanish Edition C (2016)
Finnish Edition (2013) – Dutch Edition (2015) – Hungarian Edition (2013)
French Edition (2009) – Russian Edition (2018) – Chinese Edition (2016)
Winner:
This week, I think my favorite cover is the 1999 Polish Edition. Not only does it feature a unicorn, I love how the stark white background and the monochromatic tones bring out the dramatic interplay between the lights and the darks. At first glance, you could almost even miss the fallen figure at the unicorn’s feet, camouflaged in its shadow. I can’t remember the story well enough to know what’s going on in this picture, but there might even be some meaning hidden in there.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I really like the Ukrainian and Chinese cover!
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I hemmed and hawed over the Chinese cover too, because I do love the art style!
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That is a LOT of covers for only one book. I bet the “rights” were a nightmare to deal with for him.
Personally, I liked the Serbian cover. However, since the glowing eyed equine isn’t a unicorn, I’m not sure I’d have chosen it either…
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I think so – sometimes I’m still amazed they were able to make several hit video games based on his series. Considering the developers kind of went their own way with the story.
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I like the Serbian and Finnish covers but they don’t really reflect unicorns!
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That’s okay! I usually don’t pick the cover with the theme either, but this time, I thought the unicorn cover was so pretty 🙂
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Ooh I love the one you chose, and I also love the 2015 Polish edition. So many covers!
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I love that Polish edition too! Reminds me of the game version of the series 🙂
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This week there’s an embarrassment of choices! 🙂
I like the one you picked very much: the simple color tones make the cover image quite dramatic. The German edition from 2009 is a good one as well.
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Yes, there are some gorgeous choices this week, but my penchant for the elegant and simple ultimately led me to that pick 😀
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Great choice this week! There are a lot of good covers! I like all of these haha
Bulgarian Edition (2017)
Spanish Edition A (2004)
Spanish Edition B (2008)
Dutch Edition (2015)
French Edition (2009)
Chinese Edition (2016)
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Nice, that’s a lot! Usually I’m hard pressed to even pick one that I liked lol! This was a good week 😀
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It doesn’t have a unicorn, but I really like the 2016 Spanish edition.
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Love that action cover!
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One would think he would get some cool covers, but now most are meh. So Polish c
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I think there’s a good mix. Some of the really cool covers though, I’m not really fond of the art style. Shame!
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Mmm, I love your choice of cover and also I have to say I like the Serbian cover. But, the detail with the person lying in the shadow from the cover you chose is just brilliant. I just didn’t spoit it until you pointed it out.
Lynn 😀
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I honestly didn’t see the person lying there at first glance either, especially since I was looking at a smaller version of the cover. Only when it was blown up did I see all the details and I thought that was very unique!
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I think I like the German 2009 edition the best, although there are some awesome choices here!
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Haha, yep, gotta love the metal looking unicorn!
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I’m actually partial to the original, 1995 😉 Apart from it, I like the Chinese one 😀
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Can’t go wrong with a classic! And I too like the Chinese one, almost considered it for my winner because of the gritty art style, which I love!
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I had no idea there were unicorns in this!
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Honestly, I can’t remember either!
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