Keeper of the Lost Cities Thoughts

Cover Analysis: Unlocked

First Impressions:

This section doesn't really work for Unlocked because the cover scene isn't actually in the book. I'm not sure how to look at the cover like I haven't read Unlocked yet. Though I will say, if this cover is supposed to depict Sophie and Silveny teleporting, then it shows a scene that's partly in the real world (the characters, the void) and partly in Sophie's mind, (the images of Foxfire, Gildingham, Havenfield, and Eternalia) because Sophie only pictures the place she wants to teleport to. Which is cool.

And there's a little keyhole inside of the "O" in "Unlocked." I love that. It fits with the title, making the "O" look like the lock we get to unlock.

Current Impressions:

Again, because the cover scene isn't actually in the book, this is going to be a little different. I can't explain how the cover is and isn't true to the scene in the book.

Though I can say that Silveny looks more silvery on the Exile cover, and more opalescent on the Unlocked cover. What's up with that?

And Sophie's dress isn't a white ruffly thing, (Nightfall, and Exile, Lodestar, and Legacy arguably) a uniform, or "Nope, she definitely wasn't wearing that in the scene" (Everblaze), so that's nice. But it is a pink, lacy, tulle-y thing that doesn't strike me as something Sophie would wear. Though I do like the effect with Sophie's cape and Silveny's wings. It might make Sophie slightly look like she has wings, but how exactly is that a bad thing? She is the moonlark, after all.

Now, onto the four little scenes in the corners!

I'll start with Eternalia, to the top right. I guess Eternalia is supposed to look gorgeous and impressive, but it looks like a bunch of buildings made out of hard candy to me. Same bright solid colors, same medium level of detail. And, as of Everblaze, we know that, just like hard candy, the buildings in Eternalia are meltable.

This might sound like I'm criticizing the art. No, I think the art is accurate. What I'm critcizing is Eternalia. Like I said in the Nightfall cover analysis, Eternalia doesn't sound very pretty to me. (The exact quote from that chapter, in case you don't want to head back over there, is: "Eternalia sounds like it'd be kinda ugly to me: A bunch of super sparkly buildings in all sorts of colors making up an entire city. Please excuse me to not book a trip there. It would hurt my eyes.") So yes, I do think it's accurate for Eternalia to look like hard candy. (Though I do not think Eternalia tastes like hard candy. If you break your teeth biting on buildings made out of jewels don't blame me.)

Clockwise, the next scene is Foxfire. I think the glass pyramid looks amazing, the towers look pretty neat even though they are awfully skinny (a little origami-y, but I think I like that). Though why is the scene so red? Is Foxfire on fire or something? (One thing I just noticed is that pyramid begins with P-Y-R, the same three letters as...a lot of fire related words.) It's probably just the sun setting.

If we continue clockwise, we reach Gildingham. I can barely remember the description of Gildingham from Lodestar, though I vaguely remember some line about how the goblins don't rely on structures for protection, so I guess the lacy towers are reasonable. And pretty. The solid gold color scheme isn't ideal, in my opinion, but those towers do look pretty nice. Though, why Gildingham? Sophie visited it once, while the other three scenes, Eternalia, Foxfire, and Havenfield, are places she visits regularly.

Finally, we have Havenfield. I realized that every time I said that Silveny is the only non-elvin character to be on a cover, I've been wrong. There's also been these two dinosaurs. Perhaps more accurate would be, "Silveny is the only named non-elvin character to be on a cover," though that's a little clunky. (And I guess that it technically might not be true anymore, considering the Unraveled cover, which looks like it has a bunch of humans on it, some of which might have names we learn. And some adults, so I can't say, "Silveny is the only adult character to be on the covers," anymore. And one ominous shadowy figure but I'm sure it's totally fine.) Other than that, there isn't much to say about Havenfield. We can't even see the house.

Alternate Scenes:

Here, I'll be talking about some alternate not-scenes that could have been on the cover, 'cause this isn't a scene.

Since Sophie only visited Gildingham once, it could have been nice to show somewhere else that's more relevant to the story. Like Lumenaria? (And yes, it did get rebuilt.) Okay, Sophie only visited Lumenaria twice, once to talk to Gethen and once for the Peace Summit, but those scenes were a lot more critical to the story.

Or Elwin's house, because it was so important to Keefe's half of the story?

We could have gotten a "scene" with everyone. Fitz, Keefe, Dex, Biana, Marella, etc. I remember hearing somewhere that Unlocked's cover is supposed to represent Sophie's journey through the Lost Cities, and that's why she's alone, but Sophie wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it wasn't for Tam, Linh, Maruca, Wylie, etc. It's not just "Sophie's journey."

Or, at least, Keefe could've been on the cover, because he got a perspective in Unlocked. Though he is on a lot of the covers.

Conclusion:

This cover is fun, but I have a few complaints. I'd say it's on par with the cover of the first book, making it 6.5/10. (Yes, I know a lot of these ratings are pretty low, so just think of this as 1.5 points above average.)

Now we've got to take on Stellarlune.