Peter Jackson's use of Alan Lee's original illustrated (base) rendering of the Tower of Orthanc from an earlier Harper Collins book cover was so amazing to behold in the LotR films, especially getting to finally see that tower's apex in the films which Lee helped to design too, so much so that I happily purchased a premium Weta sculpture of this Númenórean tower from Weta Workshop here in Wellington, New Zealand.

I'm really looking forward to taking in this upcoming adaptations' versions of places like the White Tower and of Tar Valon, of the Whitebridge, , the royal palace in Caemlyn, the Stone of Tear and even of what they can allow us to see of the Ways themselves, as well as the Stedding (as well as the ogier).? 

And thank you, for writing us this interesting article. 

?o⌛?

I recently re-read Philippa Gregory's "Women of the Cousin's War" (The "War of the Roses" is a later XIX c. appellation. Apparantly it was known by the name in the book's title back in the XVth c.). The book is not an historical novel which Gregory has been known for writing but an actual history book.

What really interested me is Gregory's introduction to this book. Within it she says that women and their hi/stories have been side-lined for the most part in the past because men mostly ruled and held posts of power, the chroniclers were pretty much all men too, and many of them monks too, weighed down with christianity's misogynistic canon regarding women. as an aside if you even look at the name/noun "woman" etymologically it comes from the masculine noun wīfman in OE (wifeman in ModE).

She goes on to state that the later historians, like the contemporaneous chroniclers, have all been men too, and it has only been in the last seventy years that women historians have started to come to the fore, and many of them have searched out the famous women of history (Tracy Borman's "Matilda Wife of the Conqueror" is a fine example). She states how difficult it can be to find their quotidian happenings because of their near invisibility in the historical records. But their histories can be found. 

I have always been interested in the stories of historical figures, of those who held power, and especially the women who held power, because their stories are just as important as men's stories are, if not in some cases even moreso, as a woman attaining power in a man's world takes an exceptional character and intelligence in many cases. This is partly why the Wheel of Time was so engrossing for me to read and re-read: our world where the taint on saidin has rendered women for the most part, across nearly the whole board, more powerful than men.

I also have enjoyed Steven Erikson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen". This is another epic world that gives women an equal footing with its men. Erikson has dragged the fantasy genre [sic] into the twenty-first century. The first book in this vast series is "Gardens of the Moon".  ?

Really, reading some of your commentary makes me yank my beard in anger... hmmmph!

I see you get the usual pithy Mills & Boonesque finger-down-the-throat-and-retch please awful american cover. Thank the gods for the restraint that the UK/AU/NZ covers from the series shew. As for B.S., I don't know what the fuss is all about. He has fulfilled his job admirably to the point where his style is different enough to not be an ape of Jordan's, yet fits in perfectly to the canon. Marvelous!

These covers appear very underwhealming. For instance book one has what looks like Elijah Wood a-hobbitting apon his tree branch but what must be Matrim Cauthon on a boat (posing for Thom?)whilst it sails past the Tower of Ghengei? How does this and the other covers end up in attracting new readers shopping instore or online amongst a plethora of many other canons and their authors all struggling to reach their story out to the buyer. The Sweet Eye of the World cover reached out and grabbed me the first time I saw it, so much so that the picture of Moiraine along with how Jordan writes her reminds me of Kate Mulgrew, and I use her voice when reading Moiraine. When I read that there were new covers I shuddered at the memory of some of the later ones from the series, ones that looked like Mills and Boon romance titles. I hoped we would not see a repeat of that. Yet this first cover does little to alter that perception.

We, or you, are faced with the fact that compared to UK/AU/NZ titles, taste seems to go out of the window with the dishwater when it comes to many US dustcovers. Garish, bold lettering and awful imagery are frequent unwelcome guests on US edition covers. Case in point are the first editions of the US Lord of the Rings books compared to the UK ones. Tolkien found them ghastly and compared to the UK ones they do leave much to be desired. I think these new WoT covers need reviewing. I think sales wil be a deciding factor in whether they keep them or move the books on to something better. Eye of the World in particular, by it's very nature and it's position in the canon needs a complete change. What is it you americans seem to say often these days when finishing a comment online? Ah yes, thats right: "I'm juss sayin'.".

I just want Kate Mulgrew(played capt. Janeway in Star Trek Voyager) to play the part of Moiraine in all the WoT movies that ever get made(down here in new Zealand). That small yet commanding stature. Those cristalline chimes along with those ageless features. I always hear her voice when I read Moiraine. Oh and don't laugh but misery loves company so I think Judge Judy can learn to act so she can join up as Elaida.com. Oh to see her get her just deserts by getting raked by the Seanchan... bye bye bee-arch, have a safe flight on A'dam Air. lool