Cover Artistry: 'The Ten Thousand' by Paul Kearney (Solaris, UK)

Filed by: Darren on December 1, 2007 at 11:05
Filed In: Books, Cover Art

A couple of weeks ago, Solaris Books unveiled the cover of the forthcoming (September 2008) Paul Kearney novel The Ten Thousand [Amazon] over on the Solaris blog.

Here's the cover art, with illustration by Chris McGrath:

I love the overall atmosphere that Chris has created here: the colour, tone and texture of the piece is just terrific, as is the depth of the image; with several layers of action and interaction, giving the impression of an ongoing action sequence. I like the overall design as well: the composition and layout adds to and enhances the aesthetic of the cover; typography is suitably strong and stark, not fussy or over-fancy.

Paul Kearney writes very gritty, often dark epic / heroic fantasy, with very strong military content and I think this whole package reflects that general approach very well; certainly much better than any the earlier covers for his Monarchies of God series, which played up the fantasy elements much more, or his Sea Beggars books, which I think maybe tried too hard to play down the fantasy elements and disguise themselves as nautical fiction.

I will admit that when I first saw this cover - I run Paul's website, and he sent me the cover a few weeks back to have a look at - I was rather dubious about pretty-boy on the right-hand side there. But I'm sure there are all sorts of perfectly valid, marketing-driven reasons why a cover ought to include a jolly good-looking chap like that. Maybe there are particular market segments that the publisher wants to appeal to, or maybe the cover is also intended for use in the US market, where character portraits are much more commonly used.

But still... surely that guy is just too darned pretty to have fought in and survived the sort of conflicts that the hardened mercenary warriors in The Ten Thousand will have been involved in? Then again, I haven't read the book yet, so maybe he looks exactly right. We'll see.

Although, with reference to my previous post, I do think that putting the main character in a full-face helm, like the ones the figures in the background are all wearing, would have been better. That would have allowed the reader to associate more strongly with the imagery; imagining themselves inside that helm, marching into battle on some far-flung field... rather than wondering who the male model is, and how he managed to wander into the middle of a battle without getting his stubble-jawed head lopped off...

So, to summarise: a very good cover indeed, with terrific artwork and great atmospheric effect. Well-designed and nicely laid out; only slightly let down by the portrait effect and the male-model subject matter. But I'm sure I'll get over it, because I've read the first few chapters of The Ten Thousand, courtesy of Mr K, and the story so far is shaping up very, very nicely indeed...

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8 Responses to 'Cover Artistry: 'The Ten Thousand' by Paul Kearney (Solaris, UK)'

Mark Newton on December 3rd, 2007 9:15 am

Howdo, Darren.

Thanks for posting the cover. Glad it mostly does it for you! Regarding the handsomeness of the main figure. With this, we didn't actually feel he was 'overly' good-looking; in fact, the general consensus was that he was fairly rugged. But then perhaps we're all just used to handsomeness in the Solaris office... :-)

Now, Alexander the Great was reputedly a pretty chap. Plus, we were very much inspired by the film 300. And those Greek/Persian historical flavours are definitely in Paul's novel, so we wanted to capitalise that side of things. Hope that sheds a little more light on background to our thinking!

Mark @ Solaris
Darren on December 3rd, 2007 11:15 am

Hi Mark - I hear you, but I still think we're talking 'rugged' in a 'Gillette! The priciest a man can get!" sense, rather than in a "I've slept rough for 22 weeks and killed 18 men before breakfast, me. Damn, I'm rugged!" kinda way.

And I have a sneaky suspicion that Alexander's biog may well have been written within Alexander's earshot, what with history usually being written by the winners, and Alexander being one of the greatest winners in history and all ;)

But like I said, I'm sure I'll get over it. Any day now...
Mark Newton on December 3rd, 2007 11:33 am

Ah now you should have said. What the picture doesn't show is the huge scar on the other side of the warrior's face. We got his good side :-)

You know, I think any thoughts on this being a soft fantasy will soon vanish once readers get into that first chapter...

Mark @ Solaris
Darren on December 3rd, 2007 12:29 pm

LOL :) Good answer!

And yeah, those first few chapters will definitely set the record straight...
Joe on December 8th, 2007 1:02 am

Interesting Mark should bring in Alexander since I was thinking the 'pretty boy' had that sort of attraction that would work on women but also on gay men, bit like Wee Al himself :-) I like most of the cover, but like you I'm not sure about that image of him either - as you say I can see that working better in the US paperback market where that sort of image on a cover is more common, but the rest of it is good and kudos to Solaris for not just going for something generic and boring.
Darren on December 8th, 2007 9:16 am

Well, exactly! As I said right out, I really like the general feel and atmosphere of the cover, it's just a full-face helm would have rounded it off so nicely.

Oh, and apparently that sword should really have been a spear. There's a section in the opening chapter in which it's made perfectly clear that real men use spears. Swords are just for desperate measures, or cutting the throats of the enemy wounded... but still. Swords are more fantasy, I suppose...
Joe on December 10th, 2007 11:51 pm

And a spear means you have a bigger willy to frighten your enemy with :-)
Darren on December 11th, 2007 10:17 am

Ladies and gentlemen: Mr Joe Gordon, tone-lowerer extraordinaire! :D