Friday Face-Off: Metropolis

The Friday Face-Off is a bookish meme hosted by Books by Proxy that compares book covers to decide which is best.

This week’s theme:

Metropolis

A cover which features a city

It’s another FRIDAY FACE-OOFFF!!!! 😀 I didn’t have much time to search for a novel that fits this week’s theme so I went with the first one that popped in my head — Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.

Seraphina is a young-adult, fantasy novel set in a world where dragons can take on human form. The story follows Seraphina, a gifted musician who feels conflicted about her identity. Most readers either thought the story was okay or boring, but I loved it on my second read. It’s a slow build, but I love the diversity of the characters and how religion is used in the story. It’s a duology with Shadow Scale as it’s sequel. I recommend you try it. Anyways, let’s get to the

FACE-OFF!

UK cover

I’ve decided to go with the original covers of the book. Though the US cover doesn’t show an entire city, it hints at how clustered Goredd is. The buildings in the forefront are very detailed. I love the line work. And off in the distance, you can see the castle. It’s one of my favorite book covers. I only wish I had gotten a physical copy of the book with this cover. It is from a wood engraving done by Andrew Davidson. Here’s a blog post that features some of his work. Also visit his website to see more of his engravings. He has done some for the Harry Potter series.

I don’t like the UK cover. That floating dragon eye coupled with the dark colors make me think the story might be scary, which it isn’t. The girl, I believe, is supposed to represent Seraphina, but Seraphina wouldn’t show that much of her arm and by doing so, the cover hints at too much. I just don’t like it.

So the obvious winner is:

The book was first published in 2012. Since then, the US cover has been updated to this:

I couldn’t find a larger image, unfortunately; but it’s the same illustration but with a glossy, purple cover. It’s nice, but I much rather the original cover though it’s not as flashy. I can see the line work in the buildings better in the original.

The following covers were published in other countries. I list them based on info I got from Goodreads.

Bulgaria

I like this cover as well though the dragon looks a bit weird to me. I love the colors and the buildings in the background and that Seraphina has her flute.

Indonesia

This one is okay. I’m not crazy about the colors, but I like the dragon fight in the air and the city sprawled below. It fits the theme of this week’s post more than the covers I chose.

Italy

This… doesn’t make much sense to me. I don’t recall Seraphina walking out on a pier, but maybe I forgot that part. I like what the designer was going for with the dress, but it looks kind of awkward.

Germany

This one is okay but I don’t like it much. I like the colors though and the dragon in the background looks cool.

Poland

I really like this one! I like how the figures are drawn: The dragon is just as how I imagine Orma and the tiny figure of the girl, completely covered, is just as I imagine Seraphina. But it’s the colors that really attract me. It makes me think of chalk, for some reason.

I must say, since following Magda at Magic of Books, I’ve realized that Polish fantasy novels have some really cool covers. I wish there was a device that allowed me to understand all languages.

So, which cover do you prefer?

And have you read Rachel Hartman’s duology?