Knife of Dreams ebook cover art

Irene Gallo posted at Tor.com the cover art for volume eleven of the ebook editions of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Knife of Dreams. Last month, I may not have been fair but I said that Crossroads of Twilight didn't really deserved a nice cover because of the mediocre quality of the book but Knife of Dreams cover is looking great and it's deserved. The scene depicted is Rand protecting Min against Semirhage. The release date for the ebook is August 24th.

Micheal Kormack is the artist behind the cover art (follow the link to his page). I admit that Kormack is one of my favorite fantasy artist these days. With work like the cover for the aSoIaF RPG and the beautifully illustrated Subterranean Press edition of Gardens of the Moon and now this cover, I can only praise the guy. Irene had this to say about the process :

It was time to pump up the action on the covers. I knew early on I wanted to ask Michael Komarck to work on the series but I wasn’t sure which book. After talking to Jason Denzel and reading some of the fan comments, it seemed Komarck’s gritty photorealism would be a perfect fit for this sequence.

At this point in the series Rand’s physical and mental stability is breaking down. Komarck’s tight composition and unconventional angles make the viewer feel that imbalance. Komarck engages you by making you feel slightly uncomfortable, almost wishing you could take a step back to regain your composure.

In an age when a lot of noise is being made about illustration “needing” to become moving images, I would say the beauty of this image is that you are in perpetual conflict—you want Rand to regain balance, but no amount of looking will change his struggle at that moment.

You can see the first ten ebook covers here :

The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos
A Crown of Swords
The Path of Daggers
Winter's Heart
Crossroads of Twilight