Disappointing... - Edit 3
Before modification by DomA at 16/06/2010 11:49:08 PM
That's the weakest of the lot so far.
It's not terrible - the art is nice and all and it works for cover art in a very non spoilerish way (though the fact Rand will cleanse saidin with Nynaeve is not a spoiler for very long in WH), and much better than anything by DKS. It's also a fairly nice depiction of Rand (a bit too nice though - it doesn't convey much his menacing side... which was an important aspect of WH), but as for giving a taste of the Cleansing, it's a big failure.
As a companion to the previous covers, it really fails to show the toll being the Dragon has taken on him by this point. I mean, the idea isn't for people to look at it and say "Wow, Rand's really cute in a red coat".
It does a very poor job at conveying how difficult the Cleansing was for Rand too, how straining this was mentally and physically, how much of a heroic feat he was performing. There's no feeling of the danger involved, or Rand's fears. Rather, it gives you the feeling if you could see the reverse shot, you'd see Rand is just juggling 8 balls of light while his friends are making funny faces to distract him (like the scene when Siuan does something like that that to Moiraine in NS).
It's also a huge thematic failure, IMO. There was IMO no point at all in choosing that scene for the cover unless you included Nynaeve in it. This wasn't just Rand channelling. It was the first time a man and a woman worked together again in 3000 years (and thus in the series), and the first thing they did was to use the biggest amount of saidin and saidar probably ever channelled by two individuals and Cleansed the DO's taint. The whole point of the scene is that Rand couldn't do this without a woman, in a book that dealt a lot with Rand's problems with women and AS. It was a lot about Rand trusting Nynaeve and Nynaeve trusting Rand. Thematically, this scene loses most of its interest and significance if Nynaeve isn't shown. It's a good choice of scene to show a man and a woman working together (and the only one of those involving Rand so far). But to show Rand alone in a heroic moment, it's a poor choice, because this moment didn't belong to Rand alone, and part of his heroism was to have linked with a woman (and vice versa).
Finally, there's just no sense of menace or drama. It's fine not to show any battle not to spoil too much, but there's no sense of the DO's taint at all. It's too... nice, almost meditative.
So basically, that's not the Cleansing, that's Rand sitting cross-legged somewhere in impec clothes, having fun making nice light patterns with the CK, in a fairly nice graphic composition.
A lot of points for the artwork, but a very low score on the concept/art direction (which had been a strength in many of the previous ones).
It's not terrible - the art is nice and all and it works for cover art in a very non spoilerish way (though the fact Rand will cleanse saidin with Nynaeve is not a spoiler for very long in WH), and much better than anything by DKS. It's also a fairly nice depiction of Rand (a bit too nice though - it doesn't convey much his menacing side... which was an important aspect of WH), but as for giving a taste of the Cleansing, it's a big failure.
As a companion to the previous covers, it really fails to show the toll being the Dragon has taken on him by this point. I mean, the idea isn't for people to look at it and say "Wow, Rand's really cute in a red coat".
It does a very poor job at conveying how difficult the Cleansing was for Rand too, how straining this was mentally and physically, how much of a heroic feat he was performing. There's no feeling of the danger involved, or Rand's fears. Rather, it gives you the feeling if you could see the reverse shot, you'd see Rand is just juggling 8 balls of light while his friends are making funny faces to distract him (like the scene when Siuan does something like that that to Moiraine in NS).
It's also a huge thematic failure, IMO. There was IMO no point at all in choosing that scene for the cover unless you included Nynaeve in it. This wasn't just Rand channelling. It was the first time a man and a woman worked together again in 3000 years (and thus in the series), and the first thing they did was to use the biggest amount of saidin and saidar probably ever channelled by two individuals and Cleansed the DO's taint. The whole point of the scene is that Rand couldn't do this without a woman, in a book that dealt a lot with Rand's problems with women and AS. It was a lot about Rand trusting Nynaeve and Nynaeve trusting Rand. Thematically, this scene loses most of its interest and significance if Nynaeve isn't shown. It's a good choice of scene to show a man and a woman working together (and the only one of those involving Rand so far). But to show Rand alone in a heroic moment, it's a poor choice, because this moment didn't belong to Rand alone, and part of his heroism was to have linked with a woman (and vice versa).
Finally, there's just no sense of menace or drama. It's fine not to show any battle not to spoil too much, but there's no sense of the DO's taint at all. It's too... nice, almost meditative.
So basically, that's not the Cleansing, that's Rand sitting cross-legged somewhere in impec clothes, having fun making nice light patterns with the CK, in a fairly nice graphic composition.
A lot of points for the artwork, but a very low score on the concept/art direction (which had been a strength in many of the previous ones).