Cover Chat #2

Welcome to Cover Chat- this is a new meme that has a slightly different take on the UK vs US cover comparison features many bloggers have. If you want to find out more about why Cover Chat is different, or how to participate, read the “official” Cover Chat Page.

Today, myself and Aaron from Guy Gone Geek will talk about the US and UK covers of The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan. There’s been a lot of praise recently for the book, and myself and Aaron have been quite impressed by it. On Aaron’s blog, he is hosting the other ‘half’ of this as it where- where Aaron and I talk about the covers of The Enemy by Charlie Higson.

The covers:

UK Cover

US Cover

Rhys: The Lost Hero Cover Comparison is quite a hard one to judge, as they are both very good. The UK one is very modern, and manages to capture the idea of Greek mythos in Modern times. The colour and type setting are very well done. The Only thing I don’t like about the UK

Cover is the boy falling (it looks very fake) and the rapid change of colour from the sunset image to the blue/violet skies.

The American one, is a lot more artistic. While it looks like a lot of time and effort has gone into it, it just doesn’t represent the book as well as the UK cover; it doesn’t feel like it’s set in modern times.

For those reasons, I’m going to have to go with the UK cover as the better of the two.

Aaron (from Guy Gone Geek): The US cover of The Lost Hero is hands down better than the UK Cover. Everything about the UK Cover is wrong. It is safe to assume that the guy in the UK cover is Jason because he has blond hair while Leo’s hair is dark, and having Jason and Festus is a complete mismatch; Festus is to Leo and not Jason. Festus is to Leo like Sapphira is to Eragon, Bullseye is to Woody, and Batmobile is to Batman – you cannot have a photo of Superman and the Batmobile without Batman. Like Superman, Jason can fly so the Jason in the cover which appears like he’s falling is a false representation of Jason in the story.

The US cover remained faithful to what the story tells. This is not a book about Jason alone, it’s about Jason and Piper and Leo. They are like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman; they are a trinity and it’s just right to have all of them in the cover. And for the record, I’m a Marvel fanboy, not DC’s. 🙂

Thanks to Aaron for agreeing to take part in this ‘pilot’ of Cover Chat! Be sure to check out his awesome book blog, Guy Gone Geek If you want to get involved in Cover Chat, or have any questions about Cover Chat, email me at mail@thirstforfiction.com

How about you guys? What do you think of both covers?