Covering Covers: The Book of Transformations - Mark Charan Newton

Cover Artist: Unknown

It's not that unusual to have a character make or break a book. Somewhat more atypical is having a character make or break a cover. But that's just what happened on the cover of Mark Charan Newton's upcoming The Book of Transformation. The absolutely stellar final cover is pictured above. But take a glance at what it used to look like:

To be fair it is a draft...

Aside from the Karate Kid, the cover appears more or less the same. This is striking as I would pick the final cover up of the shelf immediately (and consider buying it without reading a word...) but the original cover is so bad that the only way I would pick it up would be to turn it around so I didn't have to look at it anymore.

Here's the blurb for the third book in the excellent Legends of the Red Sun series.

A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur to give the people of the city hope in the face of great upheaval and an oppressing ice age. But when a stranger called Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror becomes rampant.
The Inquisition is always one step behind, and military resources are spread thinly across the Empire. So Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace – the Villjamur Knights. But there’s more to Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities – each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent.

Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the fringes of the Empire, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unravel the fabric of the world. And in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his order are heading back to Villjamur.

And all eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered…

 What a difference a character can make...