I came across Jesse van Dijk's work on an on-line forum and I really liked it. Two of his works, shown above, are used on two of the books of the German fantasy author, Alexander Lohmann (unfortunately I don't speak German so I won't be able to comment about Mr. Lohmann's books) and they are outstanding in my opinion.
If you visit Jesse van Dijk's site, you'll see various other book covers and some of his personal and commercial work. Especially where he plays with the light, he can create some amazing fantasy settings (clicking on the images will take you to Jesse van Dijk's site directly):
Update: In case you're wondering about the English translation of Alexander Lohmann's books, I contacted Bestei Lübbe, the German publishing company. They don't hold the translation rights and they kindly forwarded my enquiry to the author himself. I'll update this post when I hear more about this.
Beautiful. I like the German title, "The Day of the Knife".
ReplyDeleteSo Messer means knife! :) I should've checked that. That also explains the origin of the "messer knife" I've heard about.
ReplyDeleteEven though we should not judge books by their covers, it's so easy to fall under the spell of attractive covers when buying books.
any idea if this books are going to be published in English?
ReplyDeleteNo idea really! But I'd be very interested in comments/opinions of someone who's already read the books in German.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I gather from the blurbs, "The Day of the Knife" is a Tolkienesque book.
ReplyDeleteJesse is an amazing artist. I really like his style and his works and I am very happy to have managed to make an interview with Jesse. I am looking forward to see more of his works in the future :)
ReplyDeleteThose book covers are amazing. Wow!
ReplyDeleteI really should just order them and read. I could use the German practice. I agree that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but is it okay if it's in a positive way?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTo add my share to the speculation (after I was informed of Yagiz' query by my publisher) ;-)
ReplyDelete"The Day of the Daggers" (as I would put it if I were to translate the book) is not quite tolkienesque. The Prequel was ("Fellowship of Twilight" - a story about a group of heroes, dispatched by the Dark Lord to regain his priceless artefact. They have to fight against a bunch of good guys determined to destroy the very same precious - and instead they mostly fight against themselves, as creatures of darkness are not known for their teamwork). That should account for the blurbs.
The "Daggers" take place a few years after the "Twilight" and depict a more modern setting - I would call it a "revolutionary fantasy novel". The "Fellowship of Twilight" was a mixture of high fantasy and parodistic reflection of the LotR, the "Daggers" in contrary tell a bleak story: In the aftermath of the events described in the first book, there is a revolution in the "Realm of Evil", and the Dark Lord and his minions are overthrown by the least of their followers, the gnomes, who establish a reign of terror in the Lands of Darkness. I used the setting of this book to contrast the traditional fantasy "Evilness" with the evil we can get out of our own history. And I thought it might be interesting to imagine what might have been if some sort of "french revolution" hadn't been conducted by humans but by and against goblins, trolls, wraiths and other not-so-friendly creatures.
The "Lightbearer", the third of the books, will be published in may and take place another 1.000 years after the gnome rebellion. The scenery will be even more modern and describe a world full of magic and technology alike. In this setting, the dark elve Frafa - whose youth during the revolution is described in the second book and who is an old and powerful sorceress by now - discovers that the Dark Lord is still alive an pulling his strings in the background, leading the whole civilisation into the abyss, as it depends on the very same ressource that slowly destroys it from the inside. As the Dark Lord tries to keep his secrets, Frafa is compelled to flee and to defeat this ancient evil simultaneously and to this end even to ally with the old enemys of her race.
I hope I have all questions about the books answered ;-) I don't know if they will ever be available in english. Time will tell ...
And, yes - I like the covers of my books, too :-) But I fear they will not be the same in foreign editions. But I was very pleased to see the approval the covers find even outside the intended market. Thanks for
your interest,
Alexander Lohmann