by James Sanghyun Han (Tay Trefenwyd)

written Saturday, 1 January 2000 © (steal this and DIE ;P)

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(This rant is about artwork that is being proposed as new cover art for the Shannara books, all done by a man named Stephen Stone. TerryBrooks.Net, the official Terry Brooks site which opened on the beginning of the year 2000, has samples of Stephen Stone's proposed covers. The webmaster of the site asked people to send in their opinions of the new art, and the text below is the letter I sent to the webmaster about the art. Unless you've read the Shannara books and have seen the samples of the proposed cover art at TerryBrooks.Net, this page probably won't make much sense. Sorry about that!)

Hello,

Personally, I don't actually dislike any of the covers. I think the technique of Stone's art is a lot nicer in many ways than that used in the art of the current Shannara books' covers.

HOWEVER:

The main problem I have with the proposed new covers by Stone is that yes, although they are quite lavishly done and very beautiful, they seem to me to be a lot less accurate to the books' storylines than the current covers.

Take for instance The Elf Queen of Shannara. Stone's version of the cover has Wren and Triss on the beach of Morrowindl, with Tiger Ty flying down to retrieve them. That's all well and good, but why are there intricate statues on the beach when it is described as barren, black rock beach, and why is there a tended fire on the beach? In the story, Wren and Triss (and Stresa and Faun) make it to the beach during their escape from Morrowindl and only have enough time to fight away pursuing demons and get onto the back of Tiger Ty's Roc - they have NO time to make a fire like on the cover. True, Morrowindl was about to go up in flames, but the fires hadn't reached the beach yet if I recall accurately, and it wouldn't have looked like a tended fire if it had. Furthermore, from the way Wren is described by Brooks she would not be dressed in that long red cloak thing in Stone's cover - she would be dressed more as the Wren on the current cover of Elf Queen is portrayed.

Secondly, perhaps Hildebrandt's work is out of date, or maybe his technique may not seem as good as Stone's, but compare for instance Hildebrandt's artwork for The Sword of Shannara with Stone's. While Stone's is definitely more polished, grand, and lavish at first glance, with that looming castle and the fantasy-esque purplish sky, Hildebrandt's work is MUCH more dynamic, with the Sword of Shannara throwing bright and golden light on the faces of the three men as they stare at it in wonder. Furthermore, that bright glow seems very real and dramatic, and it was painted to look that way. In Stone's cover, the only "dramatic" lighting you see is the beam of light coming from the tower, and even then it's just a special effect one can easily make using Photoshop or Paintshop Pro using the convenient "lens glare" feature.

Moreover, Hildebrandt's cover for the Sword of Shannara is taken from an actual scene in the book, when the men are inside Paranor and they come upon the mirage of the Sword of Shannara in the booby-trapped room, and they're gazing at it thinking it's the real thing. While Stone's artwork is pretty and nice, and is apparently a rendering of Paranor, I can't exactly see what part of the book it relates to other than the fact that it's a painting of a building mentioned in the book. That's yet another reason it doesn't seem as "dynamic"/"dramatic" (to me) as the cover done by Hildebrandt.

The same goes for the cover for The Druid of Shannara. Although I kind of dislike the way Quickening and Walker Boh are drawn on the current cover, I'd still prefer that over the new cover proposed by Stone. The reason? The current cover refers to a specific scene in the book, where Quickening finds Walker Boh under the ruins of Hearthstone and heals Walker's arm - in the current cover, you can see the grayness on his arm, and that's the part that has already been turned to stone by the Asphinx's poison.

However, Stone's proposed cover seems to have NOTHING to do with the storyline of Druid at all. Since when in the storyline of The Druid of Shannara did a bunch of white-robed people gather around a Stonehenge type place, the way they do in Stone's artwork?

Don't get me wrong, I think Stone's artwork is VERY pretty - however, I wish that his artwork actually corresponded better with Terry Brooks' story and vision. Perhaps I'm wrong, and maybe Stone's work DOES match Brooks' vision well - I don't know for sure, as I'm not Brooks himself. However, I had to offer my opinion nonetheless.

I notice that Stone's works are all scenic, "wide-angle panoramic" type shots, and perhaps maybe if he drew people more prominently and also chose a specific scene from the book to illustrate, then I actually wouldn't mind at all if such works became new covers for the Shannara books. But as they stand, I'd have to give a definite no to Stone's work, as nice as it is.

P.S. Besides, I had a puppy crush on Wil Ohmsford when I first read Elfstones at the age of 14, and it was half because of the way he looked on the cover. I'd hate to see that cover go! *g*

Anyway, thanks for hearing me out.

- James Han (webmaster, Jeddy.Org)

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(I posted the above letter at a Shannara message board to start a Shannara-related discussion, and someone replied. Below is my response to that reply; the other person's words are in italics, while mine are plain.)

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>the cover art is fabulous, and you can see the back art also (which is always cool... that way you can see the entire illustration)

Yes! That was a very nice feature of the new art pieces.

>just for the sake of argument, are you sure that they are on the island of Morrowindl waiting to be rescued? What if the picture actually (and still inaccurately) depicts the beginning of the story, when they are at the place where the Wind Elves used to live, what was it wing cove?, and they light the signal fire and Tiger Ty comes with Roc of unremembered name before they even get to Morrowindl?

I thought that at first too, but I thought it was too inaccurate to be Wing Cove - though, you're right, with the statues of the birds that does make more sense than it being Morrowindl! Even though, like you said, it's innaccurate for Wing Hove as well.

>But I do agree that it doesn't look a think like Wren since a) the red cape... entirely unlike wren

Exactly. The main reason I assumed it was Morrowindl and not Wing Hove's area was because I assumed that survivalist Wren wouldn't wear a bright red cloak like that -unless- she happened to have gotten that in the city of Arborlon when she got new clothes and all that or whatever. See, that's why I'm not comfortable with the fact that the art is inaccurate - it's hard to tell exactly what or even who the cover art is referring to. With the current art pieces it's a lot easier to tell what scene the art depicts.

(Slightly digressing - the cover of Elfstones bugged me too, cause Stone drew the Ellcrys in an open space, even though it's supposed to be inside the Garden of Life, which is described as a WALLED garden. Oh well.)

>and anyway b) the long hair. Wren did not have long hair. She was described as having hair that curled around her head somehow, basically like the original cover art depicted.

Yes, it made me wonder if that person in the pic who was waiting for the Roc to land was even Wren. *L* Or maybe she let her hair grow out during her journeys? :p I don't mean to be rude, but I wonder if Stephen Stone even read the books or was just handed some rough outline of ideas to work his art off of.

>(wonderful picture, that... although Garth beside her was not supposed to have elf ears) (and he's too big to be Triss).

Really? I always assumed (after reading the book) that it had to be Triss, mainly cause I didn't think Garth would dress in all that armor and stuff.

>you'll notice that all the girls that are really into survival (ie Wren and Preia and even Matty) have short hair (I include Matty because she was trying to look like a guy). Strange.

So true! And well, long hair is harder to maintain, if you're worrying about survival more I suppose hair becomes a secondary issue. Though, Eretria was a survivalist herself, but I don't think she'd cut her hair. But then again she lived with the Rovers and she was the Leader's daughter so maybe she had people to take care of her hair for her? :p *thinking out loud*

>the new art seems to be trying to depict fantasy-like buildings and the geography around them (like you said... landscapes) but I think it's a good thing because I for one have a hard time sometimes picturing buildings. I can picture (sometimes) a castle, and I can picture geography... but trying to put them together is difficult.

That's true, I have problems with that sometimes as well, and like I said I did like the fact that Stone's artwork took up the entire book cover and not just the front part. Hmm. Perhaps it would be nice to have some landscape/full cover type art, but *also* have people featured more prominently on the front area (and I do like Stone's style in many ways - it'd be cool to see how he draws people more close-up and with more detail). As examples, here would be my *ideal* cover ideas for the Shannara books:

Sword - Leave the front as it is, but maybe have some new landscape on the back, of either Paranor or the Skull Kingdom - maybe it could somehow "merge" into the old cover.

Elfstones - The front seems rather... crowded. Leave Wil and Amberle as they are, but maybe replace Crispin with Eretria. The landscape behind them could be the Garden of Life (they could be inside the walls of the garden *L* :p), with the Ellcrys visible.

Wishsong - Have the landscape be the Maelmord on the front of the cover merging into a landscape of Heaven's Well on the back, with Brin at the Maelmord and Jair at Heaven's Well.

Scions - I like the current cover, but maybe the background could be expanded on, so you see more of the Hadeshorn (and Wren's face could be drawn better - but that's just my opinion).

Druid - I like the scene depicted in the current cover, but I wish Quickening was drawn differently (and with different clothes - who wears a white shift while they're traveling? not even Quickening did, iirc). If not, then Eldwist would be a great background, but it might be boring since Eldwist is all grey. Hum. Maybe you could have Morgan, Walker, Quickening, and Pe Ell on the streets of Eldwist or something.

Elf Queen - Leave as is, with more landscape for the back? Or perhaps have the harsh landscape of Morrowindl with Arborlon shining in a part of the landscape sort of like an oasis amidst the chaos or whatever?

Talismans - I *REALLY* would have liked to have seen two images used as a cover - on the back, Walker can be facing Wren in the dark, and Walker can be holding up the Black Elfstone while Wren holds up her Elfstones. On the front, Par and Coll can stand back to back, with Coll holding up the Sword while Par has his mouth open, as if he's singing the wishsong (but having Par and Coll like that would give a way a LOT about Talismans).

First King - I like the scene depicted, but if it was "zoomed out" so you could see more of the scenery and more of the Druid shades, that'd be nice.

Anyway. *L*

>my mental picture of the Druid Well may make you laugh!

My mental picture is hilarious - it's just a rickety catwalk circling around a bottomless pit. *L*

>well, anyway, this post is long enough (almost longer than yours, tay!)

*g* I like long posts better - they usually have more content, after all.

- James/Tay