Life, Interrupted

I discovered the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin with Pauline Ellison's stunning Bantam paperback overs. I remember thinking of the covers like wrapping paper--a beautiful introduction to the books, but with little connection to the actual stories. Only the image of the dragon wrapped around the towers carried through from the cover art.

But I picked up the books and bought them. That is the first requirement of cover art. Get the book in the reader's hand. I would love to see covers similarly lush, but with the true flora, fauna, and people of the Archipelagos across the artwork.

Over at Amazing Stories Magazine at Asni's Art Blog, the cover art from the introduction of the books through the 1970s is discussed. Hard to find the people of the Archipelagos in these covers, except for the first one. Have things improved since then? We'll check back in two weeks for part two, the 1980-2014 covers.

Here's a recent cover. It would be in this post except a half-dozen attempts and Live Journal still won't let me post it.

Here's Part Two.