Judging Books By Their Covers | Brandon Sanderson and Tran Nguyen | Five Favorites
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- čas přidán 16. 07. 2024
- Brandon Sanderson and Tran Nguyen chat about their favorite book covers throughout the years. They also discuss how accessible art has become in today's technological landscape, how Brandon discovered Tran, and much more!
Check out more from Tran: mynameistran.com
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Chapters
(0:00) - Introductions
(1:42) - The Hobbit
(3:39) - Dragon Age Origin
(7:35) - Dune
(10:56) - The Book of Dragons
(13:30) - Dragons Bane
(19:32) - Saberial
(23:19) - Fires of Heaven
(29:35) - Room and Boredom
(33:39) - Bone Crier Moon
(34:51) - A Thousand and One Nights of Snowfall - Zábava
Very interesting video. Just a suggestion for the production team on these videos - I have noticed that whenever the subject is some form of visual art it is shown briefly, if at all. I can understand that sometimes you may not feel like you can show it at all for copyright reasons, but in a video like this where you do show it I find it very frustrating that it only appears briefly. In this case you show each cover for a few seconds when it is first being introduced, typically while the person talking is introducing the artist and talking a little bit about him/her. But then as they begin to talk about what they particularly liked about the cover the image goes away. There's no straightforward way for me to get another look at it and then get back to the same point in the video, let alone be able to look at it while they are talking about it. In this video, in particular, I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't have been possible to just leave the cover up for as long as it was being talked about. Please consider making more effort to depict visual art during full time that it is being discussed.
Yes I made a similar comment. (I'm ignorant to such things as copyright--I'd be surprised if an artist wouldn't want more exposure of their cover though...)
I had to go back to when they showed the image pause it and reflect on what they said , then go forward to where I was in the vid, did this about 12 times lol. There's got to be a better way. But very good video I really enjoyed the contrast between what the writer and illustrator found appealing.
I used to select books to buy just by seeing Michael Whelan's art on the cover. Most of the time, I didn't regret the purchase.
I did too! Haven’t regretted a purchase yet 😊 I found it hilarious that I later discovered he painted himself on the cover of Melanie Rawn’s The Golden Key 😂
It’s really a shame that the editors didn’t take the opportunity to make the art fullscreen for at least a few seconds, and then minimize it for the rest of the time while they’re talking about it so that we can reference back to it as they continue to elaborate on it ❤
Fun convo - but note to the editor - this is a video about discussing visual pieces - putting them on the screen only for a few seconds and so small is a really strange choice. Hard to really take in the pieces and connect all the observations they are making at the same time. There should probably be a moment they are full screened at least and it the piece they are referencing should be on screen while they are talking about it somewheres.
100% agree
Considering that this is a video discussing the styles and provides commentary, it is safe to show the works under fair use.
Yeah, they really dropped the ball with the editing on this one. Really frustrating.
Loved Yumi and the Nightmare Painter as a book and its covers!
Favorite secret project cover
@@Shawnbob82 absolutely, mine too.
Adoooonalisum!!
@@be_an_rm stormin right gancho
I really appreciate sanderson’s appreciation for other forms of artwork beyond writing. He really takes the time to digest other forms of media and has a true appreciation for art in so many different forms.
tran nguyen’s style is so distinct that i almost always immediately know if she did the cover. i also love how it’s mostly with asian inspired stories! everything is so beautiful that i always want to check out and read a book she has illustrated.
Speaking of the Dune covers, I love how each of the new covers shows the progression of Arrakis. Like on the cover of the first book, you see these rolling waves of sand. And on the cover of God-Emperor of Dune- in which Arrakis is a green paradise- you see trees, but they're shaped similarly to the rolling waves of sand on the first book's cover. I love that.
Tran is the best! I've been a big fan of her work for years now and I'm so happy that she did a cover for you along with magic cards and now comic book covers!
I do find it interesting that most or at least many Manga artists are Writer/Illustrators unlike western comics and graphic novels. Sure they have assistants but overall the most famous Manga's were written and drawn by the same person. Oda - One piece, Kishimoto - Naruto, Miura - Berserk, Arakawa - Full Metal, Toriyama - Dragonball, etc etc.
The fact that amano and vampire hunter d gets some love in dragonsteel world warms my heart. I looove vh d.😊🎉❤
Oh, of course!!! I couldn’t figure out who they were talking about. I didn’t know that he had painted Elric. Yeah, he’s amazing. His work was all over my childhood. Iconic artist.
I love Tran's #1, I also grew up adoring his work and was my visual comfort food for a very long time.
I looked through Tran’s covers, and they’re fantastic! What a great style!
I’ve been a writer since I was a teen. I’ve been a digital designer since I was 13. So in the 90s. I will be doing my cover because I’ve been a creative director in advertising for 24 years. So I know I’ve got that piece. I feel like my writing is up there in 70,000 words in so far of my second novel so we’ll see. Cool stuff in this video!
I cant believe BrandoSando and Tran made me watch the entire video without realising it. I thought I was going to watch some intro from both of them I would comment and move on. I cant believe how interesting it was to hear them both discuss the different artwork and critique it so well. 😀 Wonderful video. Loved it ! 😀
This was phenominal!! I've been a huge fan of Tran Nguyen's work for years. She is an incredible illustrator, and I found myself gasping at each cover she picked for her five, because many of them are also my favorites. As an illustrator myself, this has absolutely been my favorite 5 things interview so far.
Michael Whelan’s, “All the Weyrs of Pern,” cemented him as 🐐 for me.
Grate video. Yea shes amazing, favoret art in brandom world. Cant wait to see the 5th secret proyect art. Dragonsteel is just so entretaning.❤
Growing up I had a tendency to really picture everything relative to the cover. And from that, I dream in relative book cover style
As a cover designer, this is my favourite topic ever 🙌 Love Tran’s work SO MUCH 😍
She's amazing, Yumi and the nightmare painter is one of my favourite book covers ever
Two amazing artists!
I just started reading brandon sanderson. Ive also been listening to his byu lectures. Theyve really helped my writing. Thanks brandon
Tran is one of my favourite artists! i love her covers and her illustrations in general ❤
Early stand-out covers I remember - "The White Dragon" by McCafree; "Camber of Culdi" by Kurtz; and "Fountains of Paradise" by Clarke.
I would love to see Brandon's reaction to classic polish (and french If I recall correctly) Dune covers painted by Wojciech Siudmak. They have different style to american covers and interesting surreal style. Not "small human in giant environment", more like poetic and bizarre representation of the books' themes.
Some beautiful covers here for sure. In creating my own, it's a terrifying, exhilirating endeavor. Having trust in your artist is huge. Thanks for hosting Tran and showcasing her talents as an artist! Always love seeing cover art and the amazing talents of artists!
I absolutely adore the Discworld Death Collection by Joe McLaren!! The designs are just so tight and succinct and great representations of what each story is about. And, of course, you can't hate when a set fits together just perfectly :). I'd say out of all of them Reaperman and Soul Music are my faves, I def recommend to anyone who enjoys absurdist fantasy!!
People who are both Authors and Illustrators of their books I find tend to be more common in children's fiction. Chris Riddell, for example, is very very popular in the UK, although he is definitely more of an illustrator than a writer he does do both. I highly recommend "The Edge Chronicles" books by him and Paul Stewart as an introduction to fantasy for kids, in fact even if you're an adult I'm sure you'd appreciate the story and world building - they were my absolute favourites growing up in the early 2000's and I don't think I'd have made my way to Brandon's work without them introducing me to the genre.
Jon Foster’s MISTBORN cover is how I discovered Brandon’s work and is the reason I’m such a fan today. I was later gifted the first editions of the Mistborn hardcovers and they are still some of my most prized possessions.
Loving this series! It was great to get to know Tran and learn more about the artistry behind book covers
Clearly, Tran Nguyen is seriously talented. It must be great getting to work with so many phenomenal people.
Loved the video! It was Sam Weber's Mistborn cover that first introduced me to Sanderson. I found the book on google books while browsing for something new and I just loved the cover so much that it made me read and subsequently fall in love with Sanderson's books, so the topic of this video is very dear to me :)
Her cover for Yumi is my desktop background and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I adore it!
I understand the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover," but if you're going to spend the time writing a story, why not also give it a beautiful cover? These covers were great choices. Tran is a wonderful lady, and I loved her work on the Nightmare Painter.
I have followed Tran probably from before the covers (since I was a teen) and absolutely loved this selected topic and conversation and feel delighted 🌟
My favorite cover is definitely Way of Kings, and I'm not just saying that because of whose channel this is 😄
But basically, what they were talking about with Dune, with the small character surrounded by a massive world, is something I love. Like, my favorite part of Elden Ring is when you teleport to a preview of the floating castle near the end of the game, and find out the map is 3x bigger than you thought. It was absolutely stunning.
But in the Way of Kings, it does this same effect, which makes sense given the long, grueling journey Kaladin goes on. But his stance is one of triumph. So despite the hopeless setting, he keeps going, and eventually finds hope.
So not only is it a perspective I like aesthetically, it demonstrates the themes in the book, and gives a positive vibe that makes me want to dive right in!
The thing that’s striking about Tolkien’s artwork is how abstract it often is. Like he has one foot in realistic drawings, and the other in stained glass compositions.
Isnt it "Sabriel" not "Saberial" looking at the video chapter notations. Threw me for a moment
Sabriel mentioned! raaaa 🚨🚨🚨
great episode topic, i love book covers so much
The James Bond novel Book covers for the original prints are very cool. Casino Royale bleeding hearts design, Moonrakers artistic fire pattern hint at the plot revolving around rocket development, the Richard Chopping book covers are surreal and strangely organic. It makes sense because Novel Bond is revealed to be much more of a romantic then his film adaption.
I really loved the concept !
Are we going to talk about how he exactly described Szeth at 32:10? 😂
If you tought it was cool at 8 year old it is objectively cool.
I think we hit the peak of art with the Conan the barbarian style book covers
with a muscular man holding a phallic weapon and/or a woman in a bikini armor facing some sort of monster or army.
City of Last Chances and Priory of the Orange Tree have some of my personal favorite cover art.
Negative space is as much a part of a work as the positive space. One of my favorite examples of this are the songs "Maiden in Black" and "The Nexus" from Demon's Souls 2009 (the two tracks for the central hub--the latter of which replaces the former after you've progressed far enough in the game)
Out of the 4 secret projects, Yumi is the most beautiful for me, the art is just incredible, thank yku Tran for such an amazing work
Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman is a heavily illustrated book, if you want a book with Amano's amazing art on the cover as well as every other page.
Excellent!!!
I was not a fan of the rereleases for the WOT covers, as Darryl K Sweet is my favorite cover artist of all time and he is one of the few artists to actually get the fantasy style artwork I like.
Dave Seeley is my current living favorite, but Paul and Stephen Youl are also excellent.
I believe you can judge a book by its cover because generally good covers come from good Publishers and good Publishers don't work on bad books
I love her book covers.
While this would be more for ch2+ of serialized comics and manga, I love chapter covers that progress the story and works well as a poster too.
I also never knew I would have wanted this without it being done, full illustration chapter covers for prose novels
I also adore how children, middle school, and some YA incorporate art into their books.
Hah, I just read Warbreaker for the first time and then I hear you describe Elrics relationship with his sword. This is where the inspiration from Nightblood came from then right?
Also, really fun video with gorgeous art!
In the future, I'd like to see the covers up more of time (as long as it's relevant for that cover). As distinguished and beautiful as these two are (I'll let you choose which is which...) it's not necessary to focus visually on you two talking the whole time. Just a thought, hope it's helpful!
Welcome to the comment section y'all!
It’s a weird thing because part of the reason for the cover is to grab your attention so it’s meant to be judged but…. There have been many books I love that the artwork would’ve not captured my intrigue but I’ve also seen some that piqued my curiosity and led me to one of my favorite series. 😅
I love the Sabriel series!
Sachin Teng’s art is just weapons grade awesome.
Let next chapter have a panel at Dragon steel 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I'd be fun be with sustaining actions on big spells, but i win by deny that then casters need something else to do per turn so they aren't just saying "i keep the spell going next"
Tony DiTerlizzi is another author-illustrator. He did the Spiderwick Chronicles and the WondLa books.
Vampire Hunter D! Amano illustrated Vampire Hunter D and they are gorgeous works.
We're you all talking about Amano Yoshitaka? If so, they do all pf the covers for Vampire Hunter D covers, those are light novels.
Isaac asimov and Peter Hamilton, both I started reading their work because of the amazing covers
I love Amano's version of Book of the New Sun
Dragon age? This lady, i like her.
Brandon, if your kids like Kazy Kibuishi, they need to read Ben Hatke! Great author of kid's graphic novels. I honestly think he's a bit better than Kazu, at least with the art (although that's probably not a common opinion lol)
Would a triple threat writer be a writer, illustrator, screenwright?
Also I think Branderson needs to be lightly roasted for his "noo-yen" I mean he tried
oh yeah read abhorsen, sabriel, and I couldn't put them down highly recommend.
Did Tran do the leatherbound cover for Yumi as well as the trade version?
There are thousands more fantasy books now than in the 70s (when there were only 126 fantasy books in existence). With thousands of fantasy books, you need thousands of fantasy covers.
Alan Lee is one of my favorite
Amano illustrates all the Vampire Hunter D books.
No offense to Brandon or Michael Whelan, because both are amazing craftsman. But imo, Michael Whelan does feel like he's on the tail end of the Boris Vallejo style. I don't feel like his style is very modern at all. Not a negative, I think it has a charm.
But compared to the stuff that Tran was putting up, that stuff felt more modern
Struggling to find the third cover picked by Tran. The name listed here doesn't find me anything close. Even correct to Sabriel by Garth Nix. Does anyone have a link?
Thanks!
For future videos if you can include links in the description that would be amazing, also seconding that the art was small and very brief.
Sabriel by Garth Nix. Specifically the Daphne Press 30th anniversary edition, illustrated by Tommy Arnold.
❤
I am tinkering with and reediting my back cover blurb. Is 287 words too long? My science fiction epic is long at about 120,000 words.
Brandon is like the Harry Sheldon of American fantasy.
I’ve never been this early before
Congrats
Adoooonalsium
Noooo, the name changed
@@Slobrojoe we all gotta evolve (also it was there automatically by youtube😅)
It just won’t be the same anymore :(
@@Slobrojoe there is novelty in what comes next
👍🏻
Que oponion le merece la Biblia
Should have shown the covers for longer on full screen. It's hard to appreciate a s piece as you talk about it with only a 5 second glimpse
Being a writer illustrator just takes more time so its hard. Spreading yourself too thin and all that.
Bless Brandon's attempt at pronouncing "Nguyen" 😂
I listen to books via audible , the covers are fine my problem are the narrators , you could see a great book cover but then don't like the narrators voice , can spoil the book for me .
I feel like modern book covers are pretty bad generally speaking. pretty surprised over sanderson's #1 as I feel like it looks rather generic.
Come on Brandon... That very very common Vietnamese name is not pronounced as New-Yen.
oh, so tran nguyen comes from vietnam.
I hope they don't start using AI "art" for covers 🤢🤢
Love the book. Absolutely hate the Yumi cover. It’s literally the only Sando cover I actively dislike.
Oof. I love both covers, and probably love the commercial version even more.
35 seconds and no views bro fell off
''....as j r r tolkien, an unsurprising fact given that he was a seasoned word nerd of the highest order.
czcams.com/video/CMxteVQq1vs/video.html