Top Ten Tuesday: Did They Change That Book's Cover?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book blog meme now hosted by Jana over at The Artsy Reader Girl!

This week's topic is: Cover Redesigns I Loved/Hated

Ah, cover changes. Sometimes they're for the better, sometimes for the worse (especially when it comes mid-series), but it's always fun to see how cover artists bring books to life in so many different styles. I love posts like these because it's so fun to see how markets change and how publishers decide to rebrand books. There have been a lot of big cover changes over the years, so I decided to just pick a few to share that have particularly stood out to me. How do you feel about cover changes?

The Diviners series by Libba Bray

I'm kicking this list off with a bang because this series' cover changes are my biggest frustration and I can't not bring it up every time this topic is discussed.

This poor series has undergone so many changes throughout its existence. Back in 2012, The Diviners started out with its first cover, which is easily my favorite out of all of them:

Then, for some reason, the designers thought that the series needed an update, so we moved on to these upon the sequel's release..

They're...fine? Nothing special. The typography is alright. I'm very 'meh' on it, personally.

But wait, that's not the last change! 

With the publication of the third book, the publishers apparently felt the need to redesign this series yet again--seriously, this poor series probably has identity issues at this point-and it turned into these....

These are better than the first change and I like that they have a very distinct style. Personally, I wish they had all stayed in the style of the first, but at this point I have no idea what will happen in the future. It looks like we're sticking with the last one since The King of Crows, which comes out 2020, has the same style. I wouldn't take that as a promise, though.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

From what I know, the first two covers appeared pretty close to one another. From what I've seen the first one with our red-haired Kvothe seems to get some jokes for looking like a romance cover (?), but frankly I think it's nice. And I like the second 'green face' one as well! I like the colors and the art style fo the first two. The current one looks like the most cliche fantasy cover, which isn't a bad thing and I don't hate it, but it definitely doesn't stand out much. 

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

 As you may or may not know, The Rage of Dragons started out its life as a self-published book. The first cover is its original cover from when it was first published, and this latter cover is the remake Orbit made. Personally, I think both covers are pretty badass, though aesthetically I'm more drawn to the latter. That being said, I still think that original cover is awesome. 

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence (UK Edition)

When Red Sister was first published, I specifically bought the UK edition because I loved that first cover. The icicles and typography of the title completely called out to me. Fast forward to when the sequel, Grey Sister, was published and the publishers decided to do a bit of a cover redesign for the series. I definitely still love my original hardcover, but the remake certainly has a foreboding vibe to it!

Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

This is one of those changes where it's not a huge difference and the majority of the elements are similar, but it's definitely still a change. The colors seems more vibrant and we have our protagonist with a bit more action. I like these both, to be honest. I prefer the colors of the first and feel a bit ambivalent about the figure of the character since I'm not a huge fan of characters on covers, anyway, but I think overall I'd probably pick the first one? The second does scream 'fantasy' much stronger, though...

The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

This entire series got a makeover, but I have to say I just love the original covers! I get that they do have a slightly dated look to them, though. Despite that, I think both the original and the new ones are pretty solid, so I don't think you could go wrong with obtaining either set!

The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French

This series also started out self-published, so the original cover is from that period and the remake is from when it got picked up by Crown! I personally love both covers and am more than happy with both.

Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson

This is a remake done right, in my opinoin. I absolutely love the new designs on these ones, though I will say that I have a huge soft spot in my heart for the original covers. They are the ones that I remember from when I read this series all those years ago, so I feel a bit of an attachment to them. That being said, if I saw these books for the first time today I would 100%, no questions asked, pick the new covers. 

What do you think of these cover changes? What are some notable cover changes you've noticed?

The Friday Face-Off: A Series That You Love

   

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:
A Series That You Love

 

I opted to skip this week's topic (cover changes) and instead go with the topic from last week (a series that you love) because I actually made a cover change post last year that pretty much covers most of the major cover changes from series I've read, and my opinions about them haven't changed much since then. So let's talk about a favorite series and look at some covers!

There are a lot of series that I love, so I decided to pick one of my all-time favorite series that I don't think gets enough love: The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington!

Aren't they all beautiful together!? These three are all from the Orbit publications of this series, and I've shared some international covers (of the ones available!) for all three books below.

More covers of book one, The Shadow of What Was Lost:

2014 Kindle | 2018 Czech | 2017 German

2017 German #2 | 2019 Russian

More covers of book two, An Echo of Things to Come:

2018 German | 2020 Czech | 2021 Italian

More covers of The Light of All that Falls:

2021 German

My choice(s):

I love the covers for the original trilogy. They have a nice mix of simplistic elements with some detail, and I like that each one has a strong pop of color. They're all so similar that they feel super thematic, but they aren't too similar to be boring, if that makes sense?

What cover(s) do you like the most?

The Friday Face-Off: Sorrow

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe. You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:
Sorrow – a cover that makes you feel sad

This topic actually ended up being a little trickier than I expected. I kept seeing covers and thinking "oh yeah, that definitely makes me sad," before realizing that it was knowing what was inside the story that made me sad and not necessarily the cover itself. Eventually, I came across In the Forest by Edna O'Brien and thought that the overarching sort of sadness that permeates the story (in addition to the dark and occasionally creepy atmosphere) matched the cover of the edition I read (first cover below) really well in terms of evoking that sadness. It's a fairly dark book and the entire time I read it I just felt this deep sadness at the entire situation, so it seems a good fit for this week on a number of levels.
I also thought A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World makes me feel a bit sad looking at it, but it only has three different covers so I'm just going to add those on at the end.


2003 US Paperback | 2019 Portuguese | 2003 UK Paperback


2002 US Hardcover | 2002 Dutch | 2003 French


2004 Modern Greek | 2019 Slovenian |  2012 Estonian

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher


2019 US Hardcover | 2019 Large Print Edition | 2019 Czech

My choice(s):

Okay, so I really love the US paperback that I read, but this 2002 US Hardcover version is so beautiful! The design is so detailed and I love the classic look it has. And as far as A Boy and His Dog goes, I just really like the original cover style, the way the title color changes and the silhouette of the dog, the colors, etc., I just think it looks great!

What cover(s) do you like the most!?

Can't-Wait Wednesday: School of Shards by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko & Flashlight by Susan Choi

  

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!

School of Shards (Vita Nostra, #3) by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko, transl. Julia Meitov Hersey
Publication: June 17th, 2025
Harper Voyager
Paperback. 416 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"'The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos’ magical dark academia novel brings the story of Sasha to a revelatory climax as she learns to take control of her powers and reshape the world...or destroy it forever. Beautifully translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey.

The Institute of Special Technologies teaches students just one the magic that allows them to become parts of speech, and in doing so, transforming into a specific piece of grammar (a verb, or an adjective, or an article) so they will be able to shape the world around them. As the new provost, though, Sasha is facing an enormous the students in the world she just created, her “world without fear,” are unable to master the curriculum. Whether it’s the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and become—Speech—is the basis of the material world.

And if she can’t teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist.

To protect the world, Sasha must collect fragments of her former reality. Only three people carry these fragments within her younger brother, Valya, and the Grigoriev twins, Arthur and Pashka, the sons of her former lover, Yaroslav Grigoriev. Sasha must lure these three to the Institute and make them learn—and understand—at any cost.

But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teacher’s desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle.

And one she must break.

To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesn’t break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish.

Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dream—often her nightmare—and she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on."

I had no idea that they were finally translating the third book in this series, so I am beyond thrilled. I absolutely need to re-read the first two books before getting to this one. Vita Nostra remains a favorite of mine (and hopefully stays that way after my re-read, haha). (I don't know why the cover art direction has gone in this direction, either, especially when compared to Vita Nostra's cover, which is one of my favorites ever). I can't wait!

Flashlight by Susan Choi
Publication: June 3rd, 2025
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Hardcover. 464 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise.

One night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the beach. He’s carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later Louisa is found washed up by the tide, barely alive. Her father is gone, presumed drowned. She is ten years old.

In chapters that shift from one member to the next, turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Susan Choi's Flashlight chases the shockwaves of one family’s catastrophe. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, an ethnic Korean born and raised in Japan, lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to the DPRK. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her family after a reckless sexual adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.

What really happened to Louisa’s father? Why did he take Louisa and her mother to Japan just before he disappeared? And how can we love, or make sense of our lives, when there’s so much we can’t see?"

I really enjoy a thoughtful, character driven literary fiction story, and this sounds like it should hit all of those notes--and of course provide an interesting story while doing so. Looking forward to this one!