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: A cover that depicts action of some sort.
I’m surprised how hard this theme was! I clearly haven’t been choosing books to read with action on the covers, because I had to go way back to find this week’s pick, and there are only three covers to share with you. Time Salvager by Wesley Chu is a futuristic time travel story with a fantastic hook and plenty of action. The original Tor cover was done by the amazing Richard Anderson (whose work graces the covers of many a sci-fi/fantasy book). Take a look at these three covers:
This is the Tor Books (U.S.) cover, as well as the Angry Robot cover (which might be the UK release?) which I absolutely love. Anderson’s unique style gives these running characters a sense of urgency that fits well with the story. This is my favorite cover, although the next one is a close second.
This German edition captures the same sense of urgency as the first cover, but it’s done in a much different style. I really love this cover as well. I’m a fan of symmetry, and this is one of those rare cases where I actually love that the author’s name is bigger than the title of the book.
The Chinese edition has taken a completely different approach, and while this cover isn’t bad in its own right, it really can’t compare with the first two, in my opinion.
The first and second cover are quite similar in concept, but I have to say that the first one gives off stronger “action” vibes, probably because of the city background and the portrayal of the two running characters…
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I like the first cover the best (although the second one is quite good too) because it really depicts the “action” well. Also, a futuristic time travel story? It sounds so aweosme so gonna have to look into that!
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I loooove the first one! I feel like the other two can’t really match up with this one! I wanna read this book simply based on that first cover!
I love the first one, the light makes it look so urgent and dramatic, no contest for me. I’m not entirely into the actual font of the title, but otherwise I love it
I honestly couldn’t love Richard Anderson’s artwork more – he is such an incredible artist and any author would be lucky to have him produce their covers! I think he will always be my favourite 😀
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The drama and immediacy of the first cover blows the competition away, I think:)). A fabulous choice for this week’s theme, which has been SUCH fun:)).
Cool choice! I kind of like all of them.
You won’t believe it but I very nearly used this book this week and I completely agree with your favourite. I love that cover.
Lynn 😀
Oh this is a great pick! I really like that Tor Books cover, and I agree that Chinese edition really stands out.
I love the Richard Anderson cover. His artwork is just stunning, such a unique and identifiable style.
The first cover is my favorite. Promises so much action.
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This book was actually an early contender for when I was thinking of options for this theme! I had the Tor version in my head, so that’s definitely the winner for me because it’s so memorable.
Time Salvager was pretty awesome and the original cover is so cool. I still need to get to book two.
I love the Time Salvager cover! Did he do Ann Leckie’s covers?
I really love the covers for this series (the original ones anyway) and besides liking Wes Chu, they’re one of the reasons I picked up the books! I think these were done by Richard Anderson iirc, he’s done a bunch of covers that I’ve really liked.
This is a tough topic. I love the cover you chose though and especially that first one. It’s so dramatic and I love that although my eye is initially drawn to the couple, it immediately pans up to everything above them.
Yeah, when I seen what you had to do for this one I thought it sounded like a hard one…lol. I like the first one the best I think. 🙂
I love the Tor Books cover! Then again, there’s just something about painted covers that I’ve always really liked.