Dragon Keeper US cover art (spoiler-free)

[redchild]

*continues bad book cover rantings*

I bet that saying of not judging a book by its cover is just an excuse used by incompetent art directors

I don't mind much about inaccuracies depicted in the covers so long as they are designed well. John Howe admitted to some mistakes, but they're teeny tiny ones nobody notices (something about Fitz's eye color.) Michael Whelan's painting for AA features the Fool's long, skinny, aged hand on the edge of the picture. In the story he is actually a young character. However I don't mind it so much because the picture works so well. On the other hand, the audiobook cover for AA looks like a bad ripoff of Whelan made by somebody who just learned photoshop 2 hours ago.

Of course good book covers depend not just on the image but the layout of the design as well. It's awful to have beautiful artwork completely obscured in big solid colored boxes or blocked by enormous, ugly typeface.

On another note I also noticed the US cover for Dragon Haven...

Spoiler

basically gives away the ending! Ugh!