As you may have already seen over on Robin Hobb’s blog, we recently released the cover of her brand new short story collection, The Inheritance. As we’ve been having lots of cover discussion recently on this blog, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this cover too. The two gorgeous cats are by Jackie Morris.
Voyager UK is publishing The Inheritance at the end of March, 2011. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is seeing how one author can have two such distinct voices – and this is the first time ‘Robin’ and ‘Megan’ have been blended into a single volume. Anyone interested in the writing process will be fascinated by how Robin switches between writing personas and how a particular story fits one voice over the other.
Tags: covers, Megan Lindholm, Robin Hobb, The Inheritance
I want to underscore my admiration of Jackie Morris’s talent and work, but even after being informed the cats have to do with one of the stories in the volume and coyly plays with the two identities of the author, it still just seems like … “Why cats?” However beautifully painted, at the end it’s just cats sitting and staring at one another.
Terrible of me, I know, but when the author’s name is as large or larger as the central illustrative motif, I can’t help but think that the image is not really intended to pull in potential readers, but just a kind of filler for that terrible blank space between author and title.
Should have been serpents!
Very nice cover! I think it represents very well the Lindholm/Hobb duality.
[...] This post was Twitted by nextread [...]
I honestly can’t think of a better, or more relevant/identifying, subject than “cats” to be placed on the cover of a combined Lindholm/Hobb work. Serpents, as per the alternative given, would be far too limiting. One only has to read her previous works to determine her obviously intense love of implanting many and varied feline elements throughout, even where there is no cat in sight. If anyone who views this doesn’t know what I mean, I suggest a re-read of all Hobb books at the very least. Keep track of the cat references and you’ll soon know what I mean
! It has been suggested that these are all ongoing references to her daughter, Kat…if this has any truth to it, as a mother myself, I LOVE it!!
I agree with Yagiz in that it also represents the duality of authorship very nicely.
So glad you feel that way, Farseer! Cats do play a wicked, brilliant role in the new collection, I hope you pick it up when it comes out
[...] short story collection of works by Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, will be coming out in 2011. The Voyager (United Kingdom) edition will be first, available in late March, and appearing in early April in Australia as well. The US [...]