Codex Born

This is kind of cheating, because this cover is actually a pretty good cover (justification below).


Justification:

And now, a word about the cover. Jim C. Hines has achieved some Internet fame by taking a critical look at gender roles of science fiction and fantasy covers, so it seems only fair to examine the cover for Codex Born. First of all, it’s beautiful. Secondly, Lena is wearing a skimpy outfit (midriff baring tank top and cut off shorts), but extra points for the fact that she actually wears this outfit in the book. Third, Lena is described in the book as “short and heavyset, though not obese”. I’m not sure I would define Lena on the book cover as being heavy set (how does one define heavy set?) but she looks like she has actual bones, substantial muscle mass, and even a little fat in the places most women have some (upper arms and belly). She looks athletic, strong, and real, not impossibly toned. She is holding her favorite weapon and my nine year old said she looked, “brave, strong, beautiful, and kind”. So, well done, Jim C. Hines and, of course well done to the illustrator, Gene Mollica. Her leg looks slightly dislocated, but my husband pointed out that it would be natural to have your leg look weird when you are stepping out of a tree. (from here)

The gimmick of this series* is that there are people who can pull objects out of books. I wonder if the germ of the idea was Dr Who's comment "What do you mean we have no weapons? We are in a library!">

*I have the first one on hold at the library.

This is a madly clever and entertaining series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And the justification is all true. She's a tree nymph. There's even a codex on the cover, and the colors are all what you'd see in the wood. The giant spider is Our Hero's pet/sidekick, and he's a loveable character who's important to bits of the plot.

Author is also a nice guy. Don't miss his trying to pose like most of the women on SFF covers here: https://www.jimchines.com/2012/01/striking-a-pose/
(it's probably what got him a Hugo that year, or at least got more people reading his blog)

And in no case miss when he got several other author friends to do this:
https://www.jimchines.com/2013/01/group-cover-pose-reveal/

I can't find the full version online any more, but please note that Rothfuss (hairy guy down left) has his ankles crossed in it.

>2 GSSex-noob: Those blog posts got me into reading his books! A worthy take-down of ridiculous cover trends! Hines is a great guy. I'm especially enjoying the Janitors of the Apocalypse trilogy.

>3 Sakerfalcon: Me as well. I hadn't picked up the 3rd one when it came out, so when I finally renewed my library card it was the first thing I checked out.