Saturday, August 4, 2012

Shelf Candy Saturday #4


This meme where the designer, photographer and/or illustrator of a favorite cover is featured is hosted by A Night's Dream of Books. I loved the idea since I always want to read a book when the cover is gorgeous. Bad habit, I know!

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This week I chose a cover I am absolutely in love with:

Title: Stormdancer
Author: Jay Kristoff
Illustrator: Jason Chan <-- Click to check out his other illustrations. (At least, I think that's him. It looks like his style.) Here is an interesting interview I found at Tor(dot)com about the making of the cover.

What I like about the cover:
I love the colors. If you haven't noticed, *looks around the blog*, I love the combination of black, red and white. I am also somewhat familiar with the Japanese culture, somewhat...on a very, very basic level, I love anime and Matsuda Shota. No? Ok... So, this book certainly gives off that Asian vibe with the Japanese girl in the middle of the cover.

I think it's a nice touch that she's surrounded by red lotus flowers below and the red, hazy, pollution filled sky above which also has a stalking arashitora in it. I'm currently reading the book, so I used the word found in it which names the mythical creature. I also like both the arashitora and the girl's poses. The creature looks like it's preparing itself to attack and she looks like she's preparing to defend herself.

And what I love the most about this cover is that every element in it, even the way the characters are posed, has something to do with the story. It's also such a beautiful illustration which is also a nice change from the same old flesh and blood girls in pretty dresses, not that I mind, I love those too.

Share your SCS with me.

6 comments:

  1. Love this cover. IT's so eye catching! Thanks for sharing! happy Saturday!

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    1. It is very eye catching. The book has two cover versions, but this is the one that made me go "Oh, pretty!" Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Hi, Lis!!

    Oh, I LOVE this cover!! I've seen it on a couple of blogs before, and, even though the color red is not one of my favorites (except at Christmastime, lol) this cover certainly pulls me in!! I think the entire composition is just BRILLIANT. I ADORE bold compositions like this one. Tha girl's hair also plays a part in the design here. It nicely echoes the movement of the girl's arm as she's pulling out her samurai sword. I can see why you love manga -- the Japanese are SUPERB artists, with a great sense of design. (Hmmm...I should be looking into manga myself!)

    Another important thing I love about this cover is the depiction of a kick-butt heroine. That's another thing that ALWAYS sells me on buying and reading a book!

    Thank you so much for participating in this meme! I was sorry to see that FABR Steph would no longer be hosting it, and I'm honored to be following in her footsteps! Also, thanks for commenting on my own SCS post!! : )

    p.s. I'm grabbing your button for my sidebar.

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    1. And I have to say, Yukiko is truly a kick-butt heroine. I always your comments (I've probably mentioned that before...lol).

      Thanks for coming by and commenting!

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  3. That cover is pretty slick! I'm hoping the book is as nice as the cover.

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    1. It is! I love the cover, I would hug it if I could...lol The book for me was good. You'll see my review soon. I'll post the good and the bad. Gracias por tu comentario! Jejejeje, just helping you get back into it.

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