If you’re a regular reader of my blog than you know I’m a big fan of fantasy stuff. If I’m not sitting behind a computer or busy doing other stuff, I’m most likely reading an English fantasy novel. I mostly read series and the Malazan series is one I am particularly crazy about because I find it a remarkable read. It’s the exact type of fantasy that I enjoy most. Call it ‘high fantasy’ if you like, under which the Lord of the Rings can be categorized as well.
The Malazan series consists of 10 extensive novels, all but one between the 900 and 1.300 pages. I’m currently starting in the fourth and I’ve been extremely hooked to this series since the first. For interested readers: the series takes some getting used to, the way it’s written and the whole Malazan world itself. Steven Erikson also ‘warns’ you of this at the start of the first book. After that first book you either extremely like it or you don’t, so you’d do good to start with the first one before buying the rest of the novels. I could go on and on about this fantastic series, but I will not. If you’re a reader and you like fantasy then I highly advise you to give The Malazan Book of the Fallen a shot, it’s totally worth it. It’s awesome.
The cover illustrations
When my girlfriend is helping me spot potentially interesting new books she always judges them by their covers. Because she can tell by the way a cover looks if it’s a book for me or not, and most of the times she’s right. The cover illustrations for the Malazan series were made by Steve Stone and they are incredible. The illustrations truly add to the books and stories, which is remarkable in my opinion.
Just like with design for music, cover art for books should fit the story and add to that in a uniform way. They’re not separate things, the two of them should form a whole, a singular piece of awesomeness. Steve Stone perfectly achieved that in the illustrations he made for the Malazan series. (For the new editions of Bantam Press that is.) In each novel that I’ve read so far (from this series) I came to a point at which I thought: “Awesome, this is the scene depicted on the cover!”
How great is that?
For more about The Malazan Book of the Fallen or its writer you can go to the website of Steven Erikson, or you can check it out on Wikipedia. More design work from Steve Stone can be found on his website.
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