Wheel of Time: Ranking The Book Covers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ค. 2024
- Mike talks about the good, the bad, and the downright laughable of the Wheel of Time book covers.
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#MikesBookReviews #WheelOfTime #RobertJordan - บันเทิง
I love the old covers. Even the cheesy ones. I bought hardcovers just for those covers.
Agreed! They’re what sucked me in.
@@michaelfeeney6108 I think the "good" ones are awesome and the "cheesy ones" are just hilariously awesome.
@@sergiobenitez7568 My thoughts exactly
Same. I wanted to read and have A Song Of Ice And Fire books but the covers were boring! Then I found A Game Of Thrones book with the classic cover like what we have on The Wheel Of Time, the original cover of AGoT. So I ordered it as soon as I saw it on my site.
@@thejourney3649 With Jon, and the castle in the background?
I’m a big fan of WoT, but I’ve always felt these covers embody the 80s at their cheesiest, which would have been more understandable if the books hadn’t come out in the 90s and after. Still, they have an almost endearing nostalgia factor to them.
Me too, I have major nostalgia for the covers, I'm sentimentally attached to them and don't want any new covers.
@@calebmauer1751 I guess the covers are part of the experience for those of us who read that edition of the series.
exactly why I chose to buy all the Hardcovers yesterday instead of the Trade Paperbacks. Those are beautiful but the nice old-school covers in HC is something we'll never get again
@@TrafalgarL4wyer A solid investment, in my opinion!
“One Knife of Dreams, Please”
I have a soft spot for fantasy covers of this type, ESPECIALLY THE CHEESY ONES. Hobbit Perrin is a gem and the first time i saw that cover, the only thing that made me realize it was Perrin was the axe.
When you said "Rand, never missing arm day" I knew exactly which cover you were about to pick
Knife of Dreams... the Perrin figure is actually Sweet drawing himself. He did that a lot (as have a lot of artists). I saw Sweet at 2005 DragonCon, and he was asked in his panel why Perrin was so short. IIRC, he said he was told to make him shorter, that Harriet (Jordan's wide) thought he was too tall. Take that for whatever it's worth.
As indicated in the video, these covers were done by the great classic fantasy artist Daryl K. Sweet. He was an awesome painter, worked a lot in the 80s, and did some work on Tolkien calendars, certain editions of the Lord of the Rings paperbacks published in that decade. He is really a legend, as is the other painter mentioned, Michael Whelan, who did covers for Asimov's Robot series back in the day. He also worked on King's Dark Tower series. They are both incredible. Kinda sad their work is referred to as cheesy these days. Most modern fantasy covers we see today could be done by any amateur with a rudimentary knowledge of Photoshop. The covers done in the 80s that many now make fun of were actual ART, and Sweet and Whelan were masters of their craft. My two cents anyway.... Keep up the entertainment, Mike!
I love those cheesy covers and they're the only ones I own. Some sort of nostalgia I suppose. Except for Lord of Chaos. Absolutely no idea why that one was approved. Funny thing is, the alternate Lord of Chaos cover with the Asha'man is actually my favourite overall.
I am with you and totally agree I like the cheesy old covers much better than the new ones. Just the feel of the older big hardcover books feel better and enjoy the stories more. IMO
I agree, man. The Path of Daggers cover is amazing. My favorite piece of WoT artwork other than the map itself.
I really wonder what inspired Sweet with that one because it really is next level compared to pretty much all the other ones he did for the series. Funny too that it’s one of the weakest and least memorable books in the series.
For me Darrell K. Sweet screams fantasy art. I would never had picked up LotR, Thomas Covenant, WoT, Recluce, Xanth, or Runelords without his artwork. I think it's colorful and today's cover art is too stripped down for my taste.
I just started reading WoT recently in e-book format but I love the cheesy covers so much, I've been hunting down used copies of the mass market paperbacks just because of the covers. The new ones are more sober and consistent, but the classic ones are incredibly compelling to me, cheesiness and all, to me, growing up with games like Magic and D&D, that art style feels like home.
I love the old covers for WoT! They speak of epic fantasy to me. That's also the reason I picked up TEotW. I got so curious about it. And when I started reading I never looked back.
so awesome that your still talking about this series, since im just now reading it!
I’m pretty late to the party here, but I was always fond of the New Spring cover. I get that it is stylistically similar to Eye of the World (one of my other favorites), but the mix of colors is great. The grey castle, ominous dark blue sky, bright blue mist and bright yellow trees, it just works for me.
I love Mike's Book Reviews...almost as much as I love Lan with the moon in the back drop 😍
It seemed like, in general, Darrell Sweet was turning in lesser WOT covers as the series progressed - But he had finished a really "sweet" :P color sketch of the final book - unfortunately he died before he could paint it. www.tor.com/2012/04/20/a-darrell-k-sweet-wheel-of-time-tribute-including-a-memory-of-light-sketch/ . So we got Michael Whelan instead - which I think no one's complaining about; he still retained enough of Sweet's style that it felt like a continuation. Still, I think it was far enough along to be ranked with the others, and be nearly the best.
Man, that 'sketch' is indeed first class! Seems to me it's polished enough to be used as-is. I can see it being my pick of the litter had it been.
@@Decrepit_Productions Right? I suppose Tor has standards it didn't meet of what can count as done. Could have been nice if someone else finished the last paint job on it - would kind of mirror the Jordan/Sanderson situation.
Hey Mike great video. Sorry I'm late to the party, I needed a break too. Fun fact! Did you know that there is a mistake in the artwork of my favorite cover (The Eye of the World)? The scene on the cover depicts when Lan, Moirraine and the kids are leaving Emonds Field. Look closely and you will see there are two extra characters in the posse. Robert Jordan confirmed there were supposed to be two extra characters on the journey but at the last minute decided that was too much so he did a re-write and took them out but there was no time to change the cover due to printing dead-lines. He basically said he took the characters out and put them back in Emonds Field. I wonder who they could have been? Keep up the great work with your channel.
Yay for me for more content of WOT! I kind of agree with the rankings you made. The best covers to me, out of all I've seen, are the ones from the ebooks.
Hello Mike. Awesome to be in Ranland for a long time😂 My own favorites are A Memory of Light, The Path of Daggers,The Eye of the World,The Fires of Heaven,A Crown of Swords and The Dragon Reborn.
Is that a Last Kingdom shirt? Awesome if so ;) Love the books and the TV show.
I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred.
loved your Wheel of Time videos!
Most definitely continue with rating the ebook covers for the Wheel of Time series. I have the trade back covers which are very interesting looking. Rand on a boat looking into the middle distance. Corny but cool. Great video.
Hell yeah please do more book cover rankings
Love the Last Kingdom shirt! Just finished season 3 which was amazing
Very nice review. You should see the Czech translation covers, that is a great case for deepdive :D
Rand in A Crown of Swords looks like he's doing karate
I was just reading eye of the world, perfect timing
What's interesting is after path of daggers in UK we had the Aei Sedai sign with cloudy coloured backgrounds.... I haven't seen the US ones after that......
Oh man Gathering Storm looks like the characters accidentally walked in on the Walton's!!!
I was never fond of the Darryl K Sweet covers. I do like the newer covers, especially the Memory of Light cover.
good video! Thanks Mike
Have you seen the eboom covers? They are amazing. Also juniper books has a beautiful cover set for all 15 books. I have them and they look great on my shelf
Yes! Please do more art review fro WoT!
I've been reading the books and i definitely want to buy the original covers. I just love them
Actually the new line of covers are really Really gud, not the best any series has ever had by a long-shot, but they are still really good
Great video
Great idea for a video Mike, I like it!
Lol at hobbit Perrin. For the KoD cover I all him Uncle Perry haha
I loved the covers they came out with a few years ago. These covers are so 80s. I didn't dislike any of them, but they definitely miss some opportunities for greatness.
Mike awesome 40K subs🎉
I got the new trade paperbacks because most of the hardcovers I don't like. But if I find a nice copy of eye of the world I'm gonna get it.
6:32 I always thought it was Cairhien in the background. lol
But that can’t be Gaul because the guy has a sword...
Maybe it is, but that looks like a sword to me, I suppose it could be an Aiel long knife (and people mistook them for short swords sometimes in the books) but still just something minor that confused me, and I see the spears now so yeah I think it must be Gaul (which is sad because he’s one of if not my favorite minor characters in the series and this is not at all how I imagined him).
I really couldn’t remember. Too many names/series since then.
Ohgod, I thought I was the only one who was confused about Moraine being so short on the first cover! I remember picking the book up and expecting her to be like 4 foot tall and surprised when she wasn't~
Yeah, that's Gaul alright. An Aiel with what looks like a big-ass longsword on his hip. :D
Personally, I'd put all the ones with horses on the top half. :D I've been going back and forth on what Big Epic Fantasy Series to start this year, and I'm now leaning toward WoT.
It took me FOREVER to figure out hobbit Perrin was actually Perrin 🤣🤣
Ikt
The past year or so's rereleases (each book a single color, with the title and author text a different color) look way better. Highly aesthetic!
Do the spines match? Has Tor updated hardcovers so they're all lined up the same way or is it a mess? Thinking of starting the series but I hate when some spines have horizontal and others vertical writing. From what I can see on Google and TH-cam it's a mess.
Tor fixed Stormlight Archive, thank god, but I'm not sure about WoT.
The landscapes/ backgrounds on every cover is quite brilliant in my opinion, but yeah the character portrayals could have been much better. I've read this series only upto book 4 so far. Enjoying the journey.
Actually 'Winters Heart' and 'Knife of Dreams' rank very high on my list regardless of the terrible looking Perrins'.
They both have great use of colors. Plus WH is a nature pick which is a huge plus for me, and more importantly, it's a mood cover which fits perfectly at this point in time in the series.
Also a Fun-Fact regarding _The Dragon Reborn_ cover, Jordan had an actual painting of it hanging up in his home, however his wife made him take it down because she could see _Ba’alzamon's_ face from their bed which bothered her greatly.
I read WoT back in the 90's when I was working in the Kitchen of German steakhouse, read the first 6 while working there and would read on break..I would catch so much shit for these covers! Everyone thought I was reading romance novels.
I haven't read these books yet, but I love the cheesy covers!
The books definitely aren't as cheesy. Still kinda cheesy lol. Worth a read.
@@kylecook7187 Yeah, I've heard great things about them. I'm definitely going to read them one of these days. The covers are just a product of the time. That old 90's art is nostalgic to me.
I'd like to hear you talk about better covers. Could do one video on the in every way superior ebook covers and maybe another highlighting the ones you like on discord.
the new trade-paperback covers are really solid, the worst one is still better than the best of the classics
Hard agree. I normally prefer hardcovers but the cover art and format on the paperbacks looked much better to me.
do a review for the paperback/eBook covers
You started with the best ones, true. But why did you put the Eye of the World cover between those decent ones?
Can anyone recommend (US) online sellers that package books carefully? Amazon routinely delivers damaged books to me and I am done with them.
Hey Mike, coincidentally MY big brother - who is about 15 years older than me - bought me a MMP box set when I was younger for Christmas! And after all this time he still hasn't gotten through the 3rd book 😂
Also honestly if I reread the series, could I skip Crossroads of Twilight like I wished I did the first time?
Ok so I read The Eye of the World and loved it. I read The Great Hunt and hated it. I got about halfway through The Dragon Reborn and gave up out of boredom. Does it get better? Should I try again (I think I'll listen to the audiobooks If I do) or just call it quits and watch spoiler videos?
Dragon reborn has a pretty great ending.
The great hunt is my favorite, but If you gave up in the dragon reborn out of boredom you'll never get past the slog.
@@basverhoeven7983 There's a slog? 😟😟 I hate DNFing series but....I don't know...it took me 2 months and 3 times starting over to get through the Great Hunt
@@ThisIsJaysWorld if you hated great hunt and didn’t like TDR , then probably call it quits in that case. Series Might not be for you. Those are far from the worst in the series. Personally I love WoT, The great hunt was one of my faves
@@ThisIsJaysWorld Books 7 till 10/11 is generally considered as the slog. I didn't experience it that much but most people do.
The shirt 👍👍
The Stone of Tear should've been on the cover of Knife of Dreams, opportunity missed. There's some good concept art of it but it should have made a cover.
I honestly don’t get the hate for these covers. They’re definitely retro but I like the old style behind them.
It's all in good fun.
@@mikesbookreviews Makes sense. And for the record, you're much nicer to them than others I've heard online. I think I'm reacting more to the general fan response.
I love these covers. I don’t think they’re incredible or anything, but they ARE The Wheel of Time to me. But Towers of Midnight that low is a big ole disagree from me.
They did perrin dirty.
No disrespect to those who are nostalgically connected to these covers, but It would have been amazing if Micheal Whelan had done them all.
The covers always made me think of romance novels.
MEMORY of LIGHT is supreme cover art.
Michael Whelan has probably sold more books than any artist. I never get tired of his artwork.
Agreed. Path of Daggers takes the win.
I have no idea why, but I have a soft spot for Lord of Chaos’s cover, and seeing people crap on it kinda makes me sad lol
I'm finally about to start reading this series, but I must admit that these covers has kept me from starting for years. Every time I've considered putting in the enormous amount of effort that is WoT, I've come over these bad romance looking covers and the feeling has passed. My initial thought when seeing them is that this series is not for me. Probably a good choice to go for e-books on this :) sorry for the harsh words, you hardcore fans. Maybe I'll change my mind once I get to know the world because I think I'll really love it :)
Some trash cover which ironicly made em iconic.
TGS... dude omg😦
I hope we will get new covers with TV show so I can get them 🙄
Donny Van De Beek
Sweet and Whelan are both phenomenal artists.. but damn, some of these covers are so bad lol. Not bad art... but bad like WHHYYYYY
Yeeees. Seems they not read the series
That T-shirt. Yes i know. Destiny is all. Utret from Bebemburg.
Love this video! Can you tell me your Reddit username? I’m very active on Reddit and would love to see some more of your interests and or posts!
Michael Whelan is an amazing artist. He also has done all the stormlight arhive art work just amazing
I’ve always thought that the covers were so bad that they were good. EotW and WH are still my favorite ones though. The colors are what appeal to me the most.
Daniel Greene: Gobliness intensifies
🤔 not sure what this means. Ha.
@@mikesbookreviews he probably thinks you are doing similar content as Daniel Greene because of WOT. I disagree with him though.
@@Morfeusm Or that Daniel ranked all the Darrel Sweet WOT covers, and laughed at the choices. It is similar content - doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
@@mikesbookreviews he did it a time ago..I think this user is just joking. Greene don't own the right to rank covers.
@@mikesbookreviews sorry, I meant he is probably turning into his goblin-self because you didn’t rank everything from WoT as 10/10 lol
The depictions of how old Rand looks in a lot of these always bothered me. My ranking:
1. Eye of the World
2. Memory of Light
3. Path of Daggers
4. Dragon Reborn
5. Shadow Rising
6. Fires of Heaven
7. Crown of Swords
8. Towers of Midnight
9. Crossroads of Twilight
10. The Gathering Storm
11. New Spring
12. The Great Hunt
13. Winter’s Heart
14. Lord of Chaos
15. Knife of Dreams
No real wheel of time fan has any grounds getting mad over this. You were much more lenient on the covers than they deserve. While I like the old school lok of them over all, I'm not blind. Many of them arent very good, and that's coming from a big fan.
Hi
I disagree with Knife of Dreams cover but the rest I pretty much agree
that's caemlyn in fires of heaven not rhuidean
Is it? Huh.
@@mikesbookreviews yes its right after the lanfear incident before the lightning.
Even if they do give you a thumbs down, it will report the same and still help you channe.
I find most of these covers to just be bad, but there’s something I like about it. I don’t know what it is I just do.
Not everyone has better covers. As an example, I prefer the US covers for Cosmere books. Wheel of time has pretty simple covers in my part of the world. Currently reading Towers of Midnight.
The artist who did the original covers is obviously talented, but they don't grab me like a few of these ones do:everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/ranking-new-wheel-of-time-covers/ (namely The Gathering Storm, A Crown Of Swords, Lord of Chaos, Winter's Heart, KNIFE OF DREAMS, THE FIRES OF HEAVEN, TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, THE SHADOW RISING). The last four are capitalized to emphasize their being my favourite of the new covers and simply gorgeous artwork. The new covers are more dynamic and character focused than the originals and that's what I love most about them.
I want that shiiiiirt 😫
Hey Mike! I don't have 1k subscribers yet so I can't tag you on here and I couldn't find a twitter for your channel so I'm just letting you know I tagged you in my Converse sneakers book tag video today. I hope you get a chance to respond, I'd love to hear your story for the tag. Cheers!
As cheesy as they may be I prefer them to boring as hell monochromatic covers for the most recent printings.
AMOL is the greatest book cover of all time
Token comment to help the algorithm.
These are mostly pretty bad. (I'm reading book 6 for the first time now.) I think the cartoonish nature of so many book series really hurts the genre's acceptance as serious literature. When I look at some classic series like Asimov's robot books or McCaffrey's Dragonflight series it seems much more professional than most books now. I would have liked to see what would have been produced if Wheelen had done the whole series. He is a master.
I think the original covers are, overall, terrible. The Whelan cover is awesome, of course. He can do no wrong (or maybe very little wrong). I may not have needed several of my friends to convince me to read the series if the covers had not been so bad. Yes, I do judge books by their covers.
Yeah, not a fan of most of them either! That's why I upgraded and got the Juniper Books covers.
I'd say its unlikely that people get opinionated specifically when you review things and others don't -- it's just you are paying a lot of attention to the comments about your own content. Nothing wrong with that, but you'll miss similar criticisms on other creators works if it's not a "Hot" or "Top" comment most likely.
Knife of Dreams, one of my favorite books but easily the worst cover. Lol.
I like the covers, but I agree they’re really cheesy
It's weird how, nowadays, people consider disagreement to be offensive.. I don't understand it.
People who hate Freedom of Speech, for ‘others people’.