Keeper of the Lost Cities Thoughts

Cover Analysis: Everblaze

First Impressions:

Again, I am trying to write this from the perspective of someone who hasn't read Everblaze yet.

Honestly, the cover scene of Everblaze doesn't have many clues as to what's going on. There's a purple tower that's glowing really brightly at the top and there are shards and little glowing dots everywhere. And Sophie and Fitz are falling off the tower.

There is a sort of yellowish glow in the background and some smoke, and the book is titled Everblaze. Coincidence?

Overall, it's pretty difficult to figure out what's going on, though it does look like a dangerous situation.

Current Impressions:

I think this cover falls into the category of "I really like it, but it is definitely not true to the scene."

Why?

I recently reread this scene, and I do not remember Fitz holding Sophie. In fact, she'd just pulled Fitz and Oralie out of Oblivmyre (Did I spell that right?) so that she could teleport them to safety. Fitz having his arms wrapped around Sophie's waist doesn't really work for the scene.

Also, if I remember correctly (and I'm pretty sure I do), Sophie and Fitz were wearing the weird fire-resistant clothing in this scene, but they look like they're in normal clothes. I can't remember for sure, but I think that Sophie was wearing two nexuses for most of Everblaze, but she's only wearing one on the cover.

Oralie should technically be on the cover, but I won't deduct points for that because it's really only the teens/preteens that get to be on covers (except for the Neverseen person on Lodestar, though...you'll have to wait for the chapter on Lodestar for my analysis of that guy).

However, I think this cover looks awesome! The colors...this isn't the sort of color scheme I usually go for, but that red and orange and purple combo is exciting. All the bits and pieces flying around makes the scene look dynamic. While dark colors tend to be used to show a dangerous scene, I believe the cover of Everblaze is an example of bright colors showing danger (along with stop signs, poison dart frogs, etc.).

Alternate Scenes:

Everblaze was full of weird/crazy scenes (the quintessence light leaps, King Dimitar, the battle on Mount Everest), but I think that this scene represents the book quite well. Even though it happened sooner in the book than many of the other cover scenes, I don't see how that is a problem. The healing and the consequential inferno really was a catalyst that still shapes the Lost Cities as of Stellarlune.

Conclusion:

Even though the covers of both Everblaze and Exile fall into the "aesthetically nice, but not true to the scene" category, I see the cover of Everblaze as more appealing. I can't completely explain this, but I believe it comes down to two things: The cover of Everblaze is more exciting, and the scene depicted is more critical in the book.

While Everblaze is not my favorite cover (that's...you'll have to wait and see), I like it better than the first two. I'd give it a score of 7.25/10. (Yes, decimals. Maybe I should have done out of 100.)

Next up, Neverseen!