Book cover art inaccuracy

['thul]

These beings wonder whether other beings here have noticed the tendency in the cover art for fantasy books to reek of inconsistency and show obvious signs of the artist not even having attempted to read the book...

'thul find that many book covers are rather nice in their vast collection of inconsistencies...

Some examples, but beware of spoilers:
[spoiler=Elenium/Tamuli series by david & leigh edddings:]

• The hero is according to the book itself, a knight, dressed in full plate armor (made from steel), with dark hair. On the cover of one of the books, it showed a blond human, dressed in a golden loincloth (and therefore bare-chested).

[/spoiler]

Book 7-8ish of the Deverry cycle by katherine kerr

• One of the heroes, also dark-haired, usually using medieval style chain mail armor, is riding on a dragon, seated in a jeweled leather saddle, wielding no weapons due to the turbulence of the dragon's wings, dragons cannot breathe flames, as that would (literally) burn their throats. On the book cover, the character has bright golden-blond hair, wears a loincloth-like thingy made from what appears to be solid gold, has a golden cape, and wields a spear. The dragon is equipped with a saddle that also appears to be made from solid gold, and it is spitting fire.

These beings have noticed a general tendency elsewhere that while characters in books are relatively sensibly dressed, they are on the covers quite often dressed rather senselessly... Males are generally dressed in some form or loincloth, often with some unnaturally large jewel embedded in it, while female characters have the classical chain mail bikini, or something related to that, with a practical protection of about zero... Physical details like height are often also ignored, from what 'thul can see...

Have any one else noticed the same (or similar) tendencies in the book they read/have read?

[Nuytsia]

Yes I've seen some absolute shockers, although the ones you mention sound particularly bad! I can't think of one where I definitely knew the character was incorrectly shown, it is more usually that I just can't even work out which character it is supposed to be!
I think I have probably seen quite a few books with dragons breathing fire while flying on the cover....

And I must admit I probably wouldn't read a book if it had a guy in a loincloth or a girl in a chainmail bikini on the front!

['thul]

Well, covers do give truth to the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover"...

Anyways, 'thul found this on wikipedia:

Fantasy bikini
A variant of the bikini popular in fantasy literature, originating from the cover-art of Earle K. Bergey (a direct inspiration for Princess Leias outfit), is a bikini that is made up of metal to serve as an armor.
It is sometimes referred to as a "chain mail bikini" or "brass bikini". The character Red Sonja is a famous example of such.
The game Poxnora is another example, in which all the women wear bikini-like clothing.
A term for such usage, where sex appeal is more important than actual practicality, is babes-at-arms (parodying "men-at-arms" for fully armored soldiers).
In science fiction, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi features the notable "Princess Leia's metal bikini". It is worn by the character Princess Leia when she is held captive by Jabba the Hutt at the film's beginning. This particular "bikini" has since been elevated to pop culture icon status, spawning various spoofs and parodies (notably the episode of Friends, "The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy") and even a dedicated fansite — Leia's Metal Bikini.

Source article

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia wearing the metal bikini in the Return of the Jedi (Star Wars: Episode VI) was voted one of the most memorable swimsuit moments of cinema history.

[Image: 220px-Leiabikini.jpg]

These beings know how incorrect covers can be, so they generally judge books more by what people say of them, and if the back cover text makes it sound interesting (as well as the ever-present price)... They would, however, not buy a book just because it has some special type of clothes on cover character...

[joost]

I usually buy the British versions of books. They almost always have better covers than the standard ugly fantasy paintings on US covers.

Compare e.g. Dragon haven UK to Dragon haven US: https://www.theplenty.net/wiki/index.php...agon_Haven

['thul]

these beings have seen much worse covers... but the biggest problem on the US cover is the vastly insufficient wingspan...

[joost]

About the original post: I have the 'Voyager classics' edition of The Elenium: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414AD8XR8AL.jpg That's what I call a good book design.

['thul]

quite simple design...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I don't have all that many covers with inaccurate covers, but Hazezon is a pretty wild case. The characters of the book are pictures pretty accurately, but they're in scenes that don't even resemble scenes from the book itself.

Thul just mentioned Deverry. While I haven't opened his message for fear of spoilers, I did note that the US covers of some of the volumes that I have read are a bit generic. The people-on-horses on Daggerspell and The Bristling Wood really could be on almost any fantasy novel. (Who are the guys on The Bristling Wood supposed to be anyway?) I do quite like the US cover of Darkspell, though- which does happen to be accurate. (But NOT the original cover! I don't even want to be caught dead with that thing!)

['thul]

yes, that original cover for darkspell is rather incorrect...

How far have you read in deverry? If you've read "A time of Justice" then it is quite safe to open the spoiler... (book 8)

[joost]

quite simple design...

Simple doesn't mean bad, and elaborate doesn't mean good. Often the simplest designs are the best, at least for me. I like minimalism.