A few days ago I posted a copy of Michael Komarck’s e-book cover for Robert Jordan’s Knife of Dreams. The other covers are worth taking a look at, too. Even the worst ones are better than the covers done for the print books, in my opinion. Which one is your favorite?
Edit: Since my original post, I’ve added the e-book covers for The Gathering Storm, The Towers of Midnight, and New Spring down at the bottom. Thanks to commenter Calamari and Reddit reader Morth for helping with the descriptions the covers.
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t read the books yet, be aware that the descriptions of each picture contain some pretty big spoilers.
Please comment if you have more details or corrections. I will gladly fix them.
The Eye of the World e-book cover
by David Grove
Rand sailing on the river. The tower in the background is probably the Tower of Ghenjei.
The Great Hunt e-book cover
by Kekai Kotaki
Rand with the Horn of Valere. Selene/Lanfear is on left, and Loial is on the right. In the foreground are trollocs. This scene takes place after they came out of the portals, backtracking to catch the trollocs and steal the horn. However, it’s inaccurate because they didn’t open the case containing the horn until safe away from the trollocs. It’s the same scene as the original printed cover by Darrel K. Sweet, and it still doesn’t make much sense.
The Dragon Reborn e-book cover
Rand sitting on the Dragon banner, trying to decide between his humanity (the flute) and the way he thinks he must be (the sword). The artist intentionally chose a scene not explicitly in the book.
The Shadow Rising e-book cover
by Sam Weber
Mat coming out of Rhuidean. This is an abstract scene that’s not explicitly in the book. Mat is carrying the ashanderei given to him by the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. The two ravens are probably representative of the ravens engraved on the ashanderei. In the background is the Avendesora from which Mat hung.
The Fires of Heaven e-book cover
Moiraine, based on the color of the cloak, the bracelet, and the diadem. The papers are flying around, burning, because Lanfear blew up a wagon holding papers in a fight scene near the end of the book. The bracelet is an angreal, almost strong enough to be sa’angreal. However, Moiraine never used it in this scene—Lanfear did.
Lord of Chaos e-book cover
The battle at Dumai’s wells, with the Asha’man (right) destroying Shaido with the One Power. If you look closely at the left-hand side of the wraparound image, you can see Loial (green coat) and Perrin (brown shirt and axe) hacking away. It’s more visible on the larger version posted on Tor.com.
A Crown of Swords e-book cover
Lan rescuing Nynaeve from the water. This is where Nynaeve finally overcomes her block to the One Power.
Path of Daggers e-book cover
by Julie Bell
Aviendha, Elayne, and Nynaeve using the Bowl of Winds to fix the weather. There has been some discussion of who is who in the cover, due to some inaccuracies in the painting. Red-haired Aviendha is on the left but should have shorter hair, and some commenters feel she shouldn’t be wearing such a fancy dress. Golden-haired Elayne is in the center, but her hair ought to be more curly and perhaps with a slightly more reddish tinge. She obtained a ter’angreal dagger in this book, shown hanging at her belt. Her dress looks a bit plain for Elayne. On the right is Nynaeve with the long, dark braid.
Winter’s Heart e-book cover
Rand using the male access key (sa’angreal or ter’angreal?) to cleanse the male half of the True Source.
Crossroads of Twilight e-book cover
by Greg Ruth
Perrin leaving behind the axe before the battle at Malen. Not sure it was actually snowing in the scene.
Knife of Dreams e-book cover
Rand (holding the Dragon Scepter), protecting Min behind him. His hand is being destroyed by fire from Semirhage. (This is probably my favorite. If you like it, check out my post on Michael Komarck’s art.)
The Gathering Storm e-book cover
Egwene standing in a broken gap high in the White Tower, defending against the attacking Seanchan. Egwene’s wand is a sa’angreal she fetched from the storerooms (the same wand used to heal Mat from the dagger). On the right is a Seanchan warrior riding a to’raken.
The Towers of Midnight e-book cover
Perrin forging his new hammer, with Neald channeling the One Power to make it a power-forged weapon. I think the wolf in the top right corner is supposed to represent either Perrin becoming one with his wolf-self (as this scene is a big turning point in his understanding of himself and what he wants), or an image of Hopper that Perrin attaches to the hammer. In the book it’s described as simply ornamentation.
New Spring e-book cover
by Jason Chan
Lan and Moiraine.
My favorites are Knife of Dreams, The Shadow Rising, and The Fires of Heaven—in that order. Path of Daggers, Winter’s Heart, and Crossroads of Twilight are all a bit too cartoony or comic-booky for my taste. What do you think? Are they better than the original covers?
Note 1: If you liked this post, you might like some of my other posts, like this one about people copying Jordan or these three posts reviewing Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series.
Note 2: You might want to check out this post on Tor.com discussing Darrel K. Sweet’s death and showing all of his original Wheel of Time covers for the printed books.
Please take a moment, look around, and leave a comment!