And the monster is revealed at last....

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

So the official forum is back up. Unsurprisingly, the hiatus has done nothing to stop the complaints.

Fortunately (or otherwise, depending on your point of view) the reactivation of the forum allows for more rapid coverage of new events, such as the first look at the cover for Micah.

*looks*

Dear Christ and Cheez Whiz, it's ugly. Whoever designed that thing has very little clue as to either a) Micah's appearance or b) basic human anatomy (he's full of HOLES! Th' FUH??). His hair's the completely wrong colour (BLONDOMGWTF?), too short, and not curly at all. He's also way too muscular...Micah's supposed to be roughly Anita's size/build and kinda femmy, yes? While I'm at it, what's up with the positioning of his left arm? It looks so...flat and weirdly fake, almost like it's broken. (Oooh, now that's actually a happy thought!)

And, "An Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel"? So it's officially a full novel, eh? Not a novella or a "novel-light"? (Excuse me--"novel-lite". Half the calories, all of the porn!)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_shadowstalker_/]

It looks like he's trying to climb away. Why is this... person... on the cover?

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

I like to think he's desperately trying to scratch his way out of the book. That or nailed against a wall.

The forum thread that introduced the cover picture had a most amusing photoshopped version on one page (http://forum.laurellkhamilton.org/showthread.php?t=91&page=6&pp=10) with three daggers stuck into Micah's back. :)

Actually, the whole thread's amusing, with one zealous Micah fan--called "Formicah", natch--valiantly defending him against pretty much every other forum member, as they lobby various insults and slurs his way. Laurell, when your fans are constantly deriding your main characters to the point where you're complaining about all the "Die Micah!" reactions, and have to create "Happy Zones" on your forum....

I'm seriously wondering if the sheer amount of blatant hatred expressed regarding Micah, and indeed for the direction of the series, will ever make LKH see the light of day, so to speak. Either the woman is brain-dead or--well, no, that's the only option at this juncture.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_shadowstalker_/]

I like the character of Michah, or would if there really was one, but this cover is just bad. Plain old bad. Why would she stick with it?

[d3athw1sh.livejournal.com]

I actually saw the cover for Micah posted over in anita_blake_fan.

I actually gagged when I first saw it, and now I cringe everytime I see it.

It is just so.... disgusting!

[idkmybffironman.livejournal.com]

Okay. So his appearance is way wrong? I find that amusing, as the one time I saw her (a signing in st louis, in '01, i believe), she mentioned that there were people in hollywood who wanted to make an anita blake movie, but she wouldn't let them because they apparently their actress suggestions for anita were wrong. As in they looked nothing like Anita.

So if she objects to Anita not being protrayed properly, why is it okay that Micah is wrong? *shrug* Maybe she didn't have a say in what the cover looked like, but you'd think she'd have /some/ say. ;) I know I'd be annoyed if I had a book, and the character on the cover seemed to be a complete stranger. lol. Ah well. I won't even try to figure this one out. *shrugs yet again*

[unicornssong.livejournal.com]

oh I do't know. I'd venture to say that she probrably had too much say. In fact, her say is glowing radioactively from that cover.

*points to NIC* I read BROWN where it describes micah's hair. BROWN as in WOOD. *knocks on desk*. And CURLY as in POODLE. Now I see STRAIGHT and RED-GOLD. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. *points at Jon* RED and STRAIGHT as in JON HAIR.

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

*ding ding ding!* A WINNAR R U!

I imagine when consulted about the cover design she just pointed at Jon and told them to go from there.

[dendora.livejournal.com]

Its standard fair to in the early covers of the Terry Pratchett novels to have the characters looking a little 'off'.
I'm a second year media and graphics student and my tutors would have kicked my lily ass out of the University for something like that...
Laurell pay me!! I'll do a much better job than that!!
*
As for Laurell being picky over actresses playing Anite... Thank God!
Though saying that, I wouldn't mind seeing the early novels on the big screen, but my pride has the better of my now, I wouldn't see it just to spite the way the series has gone.

[harpergrey.livejournal.com]

Though saying that, I wouldn't mind seeing the early novels on the big screen, but my pride has the better of my now, I wouldn't see it just to spite the way the series has gone

I would! So that I could Point and Laugh. *eg* Plus a movie would take up far less time than actually reading one of the novels. ;)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

The descriptions of Micah have him exatly Anita's height and with a swimmer's physique, so braod shoulders and a narrow waist.

Which is why I always think of him as a walking triangle, being so short.

But yes. All weird.

Unless he's Some Guy trapped in the hotel with Anita and Micah, and he's scrabbling at the door to get out. "omg@! plzletmeout!~one!i wanna liiiive!"

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Swimmer's muscles are not that kind of defined. They are long, and kinda slopy.

That cover sucks.

-Dira-

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I just keep thinking of swimmers like Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe - granted, they're well over six feet tall, but they're broad shouldered and and narrow waisted due to the strokes they specialise in. A few of the female swimmers are the same (though not as tall) - and granted, they're olympic atheletes...so...

snuh.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

Which is why I always think of him as a walking triangle, being so short.

...

Unless he's Some Guy trapped in the hotel with Anita and Micah, and he's scrabbling at the door to get out. "omg@! plzletmeout!~one!i wanna liiiive!"


... I just snorted iced coffee up my nose.

Twice.

[nanale.livejournal.com]

You weren't the only one, although; i had the pleasure with green tea.

The cover is as bad as one from a historical romance with a pirat and a faintig lady in a fluffy gown. The hole in the back is more than disturbing and to be honest, what material is the wall beneath him? It looks like a really cheap wood imitate or something like this. The warm colors manage to turn my stomage upside down and scream "idiotic and bad written porn".

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

The warm colors manage to turn my stomage upside down and scream "idiotic and bad written porn".

The "internationally bestselling author: LAURELL K HAMILTON" was what did it for me, personally.


Is it just me, or does it seem whenever the author's name is bigger than their title, Bad Things are brewing?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

As a rule of thumb, when an author's name gets bigger than the title, it means they've finally "made it" and have become popular - it means that people will be looking for the name rather than the book title. Which is why most authors, when they start out, have tiny names on the covers of their books.

It usually doesn't herald d00m, it's just the way the industry works.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of the whole "as the author gets 'bigger,' so does their name font" phenomenon. ;) But I find that, often when that happens, there's a decline in the quality of their work -- usually because now they're a Big Author, and either their work is less carefully scrutinized. or they don't feel the need to listen to their editor, so on and so forth. It doesn't always mean that, but I always feel a touch of trepidation when I see that who wrote it is perhaps given more attention than what is written.

In this case, of course, we know that's all too true.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

... I'm confused by the "first time in print" disclaimer. Isn't that usually reserved for a writer's, um, older works? Non-published works? I'm confused.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it referrs to the fact that this is the first print run of the book - subsequent editions (if it sells that much) probably won't have that.

It's that, or it's because this is a brand new story.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing you're right; it just makes my nitpicking hackles rise. "First time in print" implies it appeared somewhere else before, in a medium that was not print. Which I don't think is the case.

It also smacks a little of last-ditch advertising: "Buy this book! It's, um, the first time it's been a book!"

... I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall when her publishers faced that Amazon.com couldn't sell the hardcover of Incubus Dreams even at a %60 reduction.

[nanale.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing you're right; it just makes my nitpicking hackles rise. "First time in print" implies it appeared somewhere else before, in a medium that was not print. Which I don't think is the case.

It also smacks a little of last-ditch advertising: "Buy this book! It's, um, the first time it's been a book!"

I thought the same. The "first time in print" seemed funny to me, but mostly, because I can't remember if I saw it before on a book. I know, that they print the number of reprints or sold exemplars on some books and that's something I can understand. But this?
Maybe it should make sure, that it's NOT a tome of the AB series but a book with the anitaverse characters?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I like over on anita_blake_fan where someone thought it was "First time in PAINT" - and in all fairness, with that font, it really does look like that.

Any way you look at it, the statement seems redundant - but hey, at least the cover is consistent with what we'll find on the inside!

...though, I'll probably wind up buying it when it's released. Purely for entertainment, though not the kind the author intends.