City of Thieves: Introduction

     Back to the old familiar location names, I guess. I do like City of Thieves as a title. It evokes the scum and villainy vibe of back alley stabbings and elaborate heists... but it can also refer so easily to a corrupt local government embezzling the people for all they're worth. Let's take a look.

      Benioff is a new writer to the series, which is always exciting, but the cover really is trying to capture just how different this book is. This time round, no fantasy or sci fi landscapes. No, this time we're dealing with a quest for a dozen eggs during the siege of Leningrad. Of course, you wouldn't know that from earlier covers...

It's hard to test a blade without nerves.

     I don't know if no one was talking to the cover artist or what, but this skeleton with a scythe appears to have nothing to do with the sieve of Leningrad, or to cities of thieves in general. It's like... it's like this is a totally different book... written by Ian Livingstone and not David Benioff...

     Oh.

      So, what are we actually in for?

Scan, I think you're drunk...

     Zanbar Bone... Zan-bar Bone. Zanbar BONE! Yeah, no matter how I say it, it's no Balthus Dire. Nice try. Moon Dogs is also... less than threatening. Why does the motivation keep coming back to cash with Livingstone? It's like the only motivation he can imagine for undertaking a massive project of epic proportions is the cash. Like if he wrote books, he'd just churn them out one after another without serious consideration to how to mix up the formula or expand the ideas and... oh.

     I poke fun, but I still have a lot of love for Livingstone. It's just that that love is more nostalgic than from his quality. So far, Jackson's been far more inventive and exciting, and generally better prose. 

So... we've still got a dungeon, we're just adding a commute? 

      Prince of Night? How do you get a title like that?

      Okay, I confess, it sounds good. Let's do the cover bit first, though.

Apparently there was a vat of acid at the bottom of Darth Maul's plummet.

     As usual the original Puffin print runs have some variation, mostly in where the name goes and what the symbols are, but this one struck me for just being more purple. The dark colors make some good contrast, but I think I prefer the washed out green look of the original.

      Looking at the severed head on a pike and the bloody scythe, now might be a good time to reflect on how FF was affected by the satanic panic of the 80s. The fact that Fighting Fantasy was aimed at about 7-13 or so (I won't lie, I thought it was higher before I started rereading them), and featured not only some gory descriptions but covers like this got a lot of people up in arms. Well, sort of. People seemed far more up in arms that there were monsters in the books at all, which sounds weird from people championing a book full that includes a giant dragon in the sea. There was a book burning in South Africa, the Evangelical Alliance in the US decried it, efforts were made to get the books out of school libraries. This was all rather unfortunate, as the books were proving a successful way to engage certain children with reading who otherwise wouldn't. An objective driven experience, tied to personal success instead of following a fictional stranger, coupled with cool monsters and, yes, evocative covers turned out to be a very effective way to engage children with short attention spans or a lack of interest in traditional stories. By children I mostly mean boys here, but it did tap into something quite effective.

       Anyways, what did Dragon do with the cover?

Hang on, let me just clean the window...

There we go.

      I'm often a fan of colors popping, but this is an image where the murkier image really is better. The bright and shiny version just loses 

      Ah, this nonsense again. Trust me, even if the image wasn't this blurry it wouldn't help.

      Apparently Scholastics is no stranger to playin Toon World. That stuff I said earlier about how engaging Fighting Fantasy could be? Yeah, part of that was a willingness to treat the audience maturely, regardless of the age. Livingstone doesn't talk down, and the art doesn't shy away... this feels like the opposite. Everything made softer, rounder, less overtly threatening. Condescending, really.

      Also, even with foreshortening I'm pretty sure this skeleton has some fiddler crab level arm chicanery going on.

     Maybe the sides of these books look really nice, so they could skimp on the cover. Like the spine just looks so good with a collection stacked altogether. because, otherwise, what are they trying to do?

      Yeah, Ian McCaig, you win this one with the original art. Since you did the interiors as well, the little circle's on you.

       

Gandalf attempts whalesong

      A wizard high as a kite full of dull surprise? Nailed it in one. I'm digging McCaig's line work here. Nice degree of realism with a lot of character on display, coming through even in black and white. I'm also just a sucker for illustrations sticking out oftheir own borders, so staff and pipe both get a thumbs up from me.

      Now, a quick game of spot the Dedication:

      You've got till next post to find it.