Memory of Light Book Cover: The Big Reveal

May 25, 2012 | News

I want to start off by apologizing for the spotty posting on here lately. I had been battling a terrible cold/sinus infection and was just not up to the task. (True story, my cough was so loud and deep it made the neighborhood dogs start barking.) I am back to normal now, so I thought I’d start things off with a bit of news. A few days ago, the cover for A Memory of Light, the final book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time trilogy, was revealed. (Courtesy of Dragonmount, read the full story here.) Since Darrell K. Sweet, who did the previous covers in the series, died last year, I was extremely curious to see what it would look like. I have never been fond of Sweet’s covers, so I was hoping that maybe they would go in a new direction for the last book. They picked renowned fantasy artist, Michael Whelan, to design the final cover. A quick image search will show you how talented Mr. Whelan is; his work is unique, striking, and utterly different from Darrell K. Sweet’s. However, his book cover seems decidedly uninspired compared to the rest of his work.

I would not have thought that this cover was designed by a different artist if I hadn’t read otherwise, I would have just assumed that Sweet finished it before he died. I understand that they probably wanted the covers to be fairly consistent in style, but since this is the last book in the series, I think they could have gotten away with doing something new, something more striking. This is the full version of the cover (I assume it wraps around the back of the book, but I am not sure):

Oh, come on! This is the last book in the series that depicts an epic battle between good and evil, a battle that determines the fate of the world, and this is the image that you want summing everything up? This doesn’t provoke excitement (at least it doesn’t to me).

The UK version follows the same format as the other books:

The UK covers may be a bit boring perhaps, but at least they are not as cheesy as the US versions. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am still looking forward to reading the last book (release date January 8th 2013!!) but the cover could have been so much more. I’d like to see them release a deluxe edition of the series, much like what has been done with Game of Thrones. Maybe then the books will get the cover that they deserve.