Here's the blurb from Amazon,
Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all - a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she's more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising. But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her... and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power. Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed - a day when, for her king, she has to stand against not only his enemies, but also against herself...
I can't help myself, I'm in. There was enough that was good about 'Graceling' to get me to give 'Fire' a go. Here's the thing though, I was only expecting the one review copy to come through and I ended up getting two instead. What I found interesting here is that while the UK copy weighed in at 356 pages, the US copy was thicker by 105 pages. Both books are the same format so I wonder how that worked out...?
Anyway... I'm only going to read one of the books, haven't decided which one yet, so I thought it would be good to run another 'Which cover would you go for?' post (instead of just ditching the book that I won't be reading and not talking about it at all). Here we go...
Here's the UK Cover
And here's the US Cover
Looking at them both I'm going to have to go for the US cover. I like the colour in the UK cover but... a strong looking heroine with a bow and arrow? I've never seen that on a fantasy cover before... The US cover tells us we're picking up a fantasy book without feeling the need to rub it in our faces and I like that.
What do you think though? Comments please! :o)
21 comments:
I like the US one, too. It's red, which is very eye-catching. Add in the bow and arrow & you have a winner.
Their both cool actually, but UK wins again.
They are both impressive, but I prefer the US cover, this time. The heroine with the bow and arrow is very good, for me.
I like the red US cover..it leaves a little mystery yet by not seeing the entire face..but knowing with the bow and arrow, that it's maybe someone you don't want to meet in a dark alley lol.. but i would love either cover as long as it was on MY desk so I could read it!
(I loved Graceling!.. I hope this one gets a good review)
The US cover goes very well with the US cover of Graceling. I haven't seen the UK cover of Graceling though...
But I'm totally thinking I like the UK cover better.
I love the colour scheme on the US cover, and I like how it jives with the layout they used for GRACELING, but I think I'm going to have to go with the UK cover here. I think the contrast between the woman and the background makes it just a bit more eye catching, even if it is rather standard for fantasy.
The US one is more simple which could very easily be more appealing but I love the UK cover. Like you said, it's something different, the "firey" red color really goes with the book.
UK wins this one
FIRE is good, stronger and better-written than GRACELING with more interesting characters. I still think that Cashore is holding back on her full potential though.
Wow. Two covers that are both not too bad. I vote US though. Normally I think UK covers blow US out of the water, see Abercrombie, but simple yet stunning. So US.
Wow. Two covers that are both not too bad. I vote US though. Normally I think UK covers blow US out of the water, see Abercrombie, but simple yet stunning. So US.
Wow. Two covers that are both not too bad. I vote US though. Normally I think UK covers blow US out of the water, see Abercrombie, but simple yet stunning. So US.
I vote for the UK cover! I love it! Both are cool, thopugh!
The US one is kinda shiny too not holographic but on the same lines.
Though like you I'd like to see what happens, I'm glad that there is a what happens before because the biggest drawback to Graceling for myself was the questions that happened before that weren't answered :)
I like the UK cover by far.
UK
Usually I prefer the US covers (not that strange given I'm a Yank), but this time I prefer the UK's cover. The US forces me to stop & study in order to understand exactly what's being depicted & (imho) doesn't give any clues about the story.
Though I do like the US cover, I'm totally loving the UK cover.
Looks like the UK is winning the cover awards again! lol
I think both are fantastic covers, but the US one wins out for me.
More eyecatching with the red colour scheme, IMO.
The U.K. shadowplay and coloring (especially the rich scarlet of the dress) are phenomenal. I vote U.K., with a very close second with the U.S.
While I am not all that fond of covers that features characters, I have to go with the UK cover. The coloring is excellent and I prefer the typography for the title as well. All together, I feel it gives off an elegant vibe whereas the US version's reddish hues inspires a dull feeling.
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