09 July, 2010

So... too much fantasy in your Fantasy?

Subpress has just posted some art from Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Far and away one of my favorite fantasy series, I was excited to see what Alex Preuss would imagine the world of the the First Law trilogy to be like. The color plate is beautiful... but is it true to the story? I can't shake the feeling that I am either looking at a steampunk cover or some hard scifi futurism. It just seems like too many straight lines in the architecture of a preindustrial civilization.

7 comments:

Sam said...

I agree and you totally nailed the reason why. It's all the angles that make it look modern. Those shapes just don't say "wood and stone".

Bryce L. said...

Yeah, awesome picture. I seriously love it, but that's nowhere near what I pictured for anything in the trilogy.

James said...

I found myself wondering just what and where this was supposed to be, too, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out.

I'm fairly certain that the thing on the water is a ship, but with one mast all the way at the front of the ship and wings jutting out from the side... I don't see it as being all too effective a form of conveyance.

It's a cool piece of art... I just think the artist may have gotten the books mixed up somewhere along the way.

brainshades said...

I agree with the other comments... no idea where in the story this fits, and it looks way too technically advanced.

I love these books and have this edition on pre-order. Supposedly the artwork has been part of the hold-up on it's release... maybe they can change gears and go a different way. No sense in screwing it up; there's no reason to rush or hurry this.

bloggeratf said...

@ Everyone

Exactly. The only thing that this comes close to - only ship in the book - is when the cripple goes to that city to defend it.

@ Brainshades

Interesting. I didn't know the art was part of the holdup. And yea, no need to rush a book thats already out.

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Hey you guys. I am right there with you. Granted I have not read the last book of the trilogy yet, but I can't place this picture in the story line any where. I was thinking the home where they got the box, then the city they passed through to find the seed or even the place where the seed was. But this is to steampunkish looking to me. Just isn't right. Love the picture, but not for this trilogy.

Rosaline said...

To my mind one and all must browse on it.