A big complaint by a small time fan

[Overread]

Ok, I recently (3 days ago) finished my first pratchett book (the colour of magic) and went off to find another to fill the now empty gap in my reading life. However when I reached the shelf with his books on a shock was waiting for me, the origianal cover art which has been with pratchett as long as I remember seeing his books around, and one to which I always associat his works by has been changed to this:
Amazon.co.uk: The Colour of Magic (Discworld): Books: Terry Pratchett

What is this? It looks not only too serious, but the sort of cover you would expect to find on a Ruth Rendal book. Is this an attempt to capture the "adult" fantasy market.

ending rant for now - please feel free to continue rant further

 

[Lenny]

I quite like it. Any idea who the artist is?

 

[The Ace]

It's just not the same, is it ?

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Ok, I recently (3 days ago) finished my first pratchett book (the colour of magic) and went off to find another to fill the now empty gap in my reading life. However when I reached the shelf with his books on a shock was waiting for me, the origianal cover art which has been with pratchett as long as I remember seeing his books around, and one to which I always associat his works by has been changed to this:
Amazon.co.uk: The Colour of Magic (Discworld): Books: Terry Pratchett

What is this? It looks not only too serious, but the sort of cover you would expect to find on a Ruth Rendal book. Is this an attempt to capture the "adult" fantasy market.

ending rant for now - please feel free to continue rant further

these covers were used for (I think) the 25th anniversary editions of 1st Discworld book,and continued throughout the range,I don't like them either.

 

[PTeppic]

It's just not right for "fantasy" (or even humour / satire). The publishers must be trying to change the image of the genre.

 

[Pyan]

But when it really comes down to it, do the covers really matter in this case? I mean, if you're hooked on Pratchett, you'll get them anyway - and I must confess that the Kirby covers, iconic as they are, always made me feel as if the books were being targeted at the 8-14 year old agegroup.

 

[Thadlerian]

I think those new, black covers are brilliant. Like Overread, I associate Terry Pratchett with Josh Kirby's... um... colourful illustrations, but to me, this is not necessarily an eternally desirable situation. I would rather associate him with Paul Kidby's famous-art-lookalikes, or these new, sober covers. Frankly, Fantasy has some serious image problems in wider circles, and I don't see any reason to intensify these problems by having Kirby's quasi-pornographic (some of them come close) fantasies represent one of the supreme best writers of the genre.

 

[Mary Hoffman]

It won't make any difference to me what covers they have; I shall still buy and klove them. And I was always embarrassed by the Josh Kirby covers looking so childish, which did not represent the subtleties in store.

Mary

 

[Marky Lazer]

These dark, gloomy covers look more fit to horror books than to Pratchett's satire, I must say. However, I do like them a lot (as stand alone covers). And they're better than the US paperback covers by a mile:

 

[Overread]

Ok, I'll adjust my stance.
"The new covers are the worst according to the English releases of Terry"

That american cover is horrid - did they even read the book - - wait silly question

 

[Brian G Turner]

I think the Kirby covers are integral to Pratchett's branding, and the publishers are blind to that.

It really meant you could recognise a Pratchett book by its cover, so if you'd been out of the loop for anytime, you could quickly and easily see at a glance if a new book were out, staring down at you from the cover.

You can't attempt to redefine the genre or Terry's writing style by putting gloomy minimalist covers on the front - it's not going to fool new readers, and surely it can only alienate new ones?

 

[Thadlerian]

If you meant alienate old readers, it surely hasn't done so for me. I don't understand what you mean by "redefining" the genre. I just think that the new covers might attract readers who'd otherwise stay away from the series altogether; to have them open the book and find it good, rather than not opening it at all.

Do also keep in mind that the books progressively become more serious, not just the recent ones, but already as early as Mort.
Colour of Magic, Eric, and a couple of other books might be correlative in content to Kirby's art, but as for books like, for instance, Men at Arms, I look forward to seeing the black cover.

The best covers, however, are the Chinese. Someone brought examples in a recent thread, those were glorious

 

[Marky Lazer]

You'd almost start learning Chinese for it, wouldn't you?

 

[Thadlerian]

Nah, I'd buy them to stick them on the wall.

 

[The Curious Orange]

To me they're just too dark for something that's fun and funny.
It seems that black is the new black when it comes to re-branding fantasy.

 

[Nesacat]

I started reading Pratchett with the Kirby covers and for me at least the covers are a big part of the experience. To a very large extent I identify those covers with Pratchett and Discworld.

The covers fit the contents of the books in their complex gaudiness, risque elements and all. The new covers might be considered elegant and 'grown-up' but they are also sombre and not at all reflective of what is inside the books.

 

[Fake Vencar]

I second most of the posts. I have read only 5 Pratchett books so far and all of them have the cover with the funny looking men on them and the yellow trolls. That black one just looks cynical

 

[Marky Lazer]

The black ones look more elitist somehow. Don't show the mayhem that's Pratchett's about to unleash on the paper

 

[Constantine Opal]

The black ones look more elitist somehow. Don't show the mayhem that's Pratchett's about to unleash on the paper

Mayhem. The perfect word to describe the covers of TP's books as painted by the amazing Mr Kirby (RIP). Pratchett books will always be glorious mayhem inside, and so they should still be, without.

 

[Marky Lazer]

I think the people who invented the word mayhem had the name Pratchett floating around in their subconsciousness.