The Friday Face-Off was created by Books by Proxy, where each week bloggers can showcase books with covers centered around a weekly theme. You can visit Lynn’s Books for a list of upcoming themes. Join in the fun each Friday by finding a book whose cover is based on the theme!
This week’s theme: “Mirror, mirror on the wall.” – A cover featuring a queen.
Despite the amount of books dealing with queens, I haven’t read very many, so I’m going way back again this week to find a book about queens that I’ve actually read. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice is third book in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, and I read it way back in 1988 when it was released. I don’t remember too many details about the story, but I was a huge fan of the series. Here is a selection of various covers over the years:
Knopf hardcover 1988 (US) | Ballantine Books 1989 mass market paperback (US)
Spanish edition 2002 | Portuguese edition 2009
Portuguese edition 2002 | Bulgarian edition 2014
Turkish edition 2010 | Ballantine Books paperback 1997
For a book with so many covers, there are a surprisingly large number of BAD covers, lol! It was tough to find one that was my favorite for that reason. There are two that I really like: I love the understated elegance of the 2009 Portuguese edition, and I also love the over-the-top design of the Bulgarian edition. Between those two, my favorite is going to have to be:
Several of these are fetching. I’m gong with the Bulgarian cover. It keeps drawing me back.
Laura Thomas recently posted…Avoiding The Badge ~ Arizona K9 ~ Tour and Giveaway
You know, I kind of like the Ballantine version. But when I look at it, it doesn’t say vampires to me so I don’t know what they were thinking. It is rather pretty though so I’ll stick with that one. As far as ones which actually connect to the book, I’d say the Portuguese one – any surprise there?
I liked the one you picked or the one with the door on it…lol.
Aw yesssss, QotD. Woot! I really like the one you picked, it has a nice vibe to it without being too busy.
I actually really like the Ballantine Books cover! 🙂
I agree with your choice! But I kind of like the Spanish edition too
Brittany recently posted…Friday Face Off: Queen
Well, I hate to say it, but I kind of like the green, Spanish cover – if, IF, you took the guy out of there – it would have a creepy vibe otherwise. But, that kind of spoils the cover for me so I’d defo go with your choice.
Lynn 😀
I like your choice! It’s very understated, which is nice compared to a lot of the other covers which are so garish!
Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…Friday Face-Off: Queen
Queen of the Damned 2 has a great door on it 🙂 Anyway I like the vampire you chose with the blood dripping from the side of her mouth. Excellent choice!
my two favorites are the two Portugeuse editions 🙂
I just posted something on Twitter the other week about how there are so many editions of the Vampire Chronicles books, and yet none of the covers are good lol. At least, none of the US ones. But that Portuguese one you found is nice! And yeah, I can kind of appreciate the over-the-top-ness of the Bulgarian one too.
I think the Portuguese one is my favorite as well. As you say, some of them are cool in an over-the-top sort of way, but for this one, I preferred the understated cover.
It has to be the Bulgarian edition for me – that gnarled hand spilling the blood as it trembles with longing… Marvellous and completely OTT:)).