Given a little extra time, Michael Whelan, perfectionist, thought he’d go the extra mile and spruce up the cover art for Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance a bit. This is why he’s the Michael Whelan.
Sales schedules being what they are, the covers need to be created well ahead of when the books hit the stands, but when the release date changed to March 4th, it gave Michael a little extra time to retouch Kaladin a bit. So, new wallpapers!
Without text:
2560 x 1600 – for 30-inch behemoths
1920 x 1080 – 1080p
1900 x 1200
1680 x 1050 – WSXGA
1600 x 1200 – Non-widescreen monitors
1440 x 900
1280 x 800
1024 x 768 – XGA
1024 x 600 – for netbooks
960 x 640 – iPhone 4 or newer
900 x 600 – SVGA
320 x 480 – iPhone 3 or older/HVGA (vertical)
With title text:
2560 x 1600 – for 30-inch behemoths
1920 x 1080 – 1080p
1900 x 1200
1680 x 1050 – WSXGA
1600 x 1200 – Non-widescreen monitors
1440 x 900
1280 x 800
1024 x 768 – XGA
1024 x 600 – for netbooks
960 x 640 – iPhone 4 or newer
900 x 600 – SVGA
320 x 480 – iPhone 3 or older/HVGA (vertical)
Check out the process and various sketches Whelan went through deciding who and what to feature for Words of Radiance.
And, in case you missed it, you can also download wallpapers of the amazing endaper art featuring Shallan.
Definitely an improvement!
You know, I thought Kaladin’s face was the only change, but looking at the two versions side to side… Lots of little & big changes!
Kaladin’s whole form is still the major change, and everything was to the better.
Gorgeous! Does the symbol on that shield denote anything special?
Thanks Tor, and Mr. Whelan. I love the fact that not only is the cover retouched, but we also get a version without the text obscuring the beautiful art. You guys rock!
@3, AG R: in book it should be the “Bridge 4” patch, but I’ve not seen the artwork for that yet. Or it could be the glyph that shows he’s part of Dalinar’s army.
@5 I don;t mean the patch. In the full cover under Szeth is a pile of bodies and weapons. One shield in the pile has symbols on it.
@6, Sorry, had to look again. Good question. Top looks like the crossed lighting on Kaladin’s patch. The lines remind me of other glyphs we’ve seen. Might be a question for Sanderson at a signing. Or maybe when they release the glyph “alphabet.”
I’m not a techie-any idea how to set this as wallpaper for my nook hd?
Fantastic art!
This improved version is up to Michael Whelan’s usual standard of quality and worthy to be the cover for Words of Radiance.
Mr. Whelan, thank you so much for not letting us down!
Now if only one of the options was 3840 x 2160 for my 4k screen. Then I would be all set :)
Love it! I love the Stormlight streaming off Kaladin, the accuracy of both the brands and the patch, the look on Szeth’s face… Wow.
@6: Peter Ahlstrom just answered your question about the shield on FB. (I asked.) It’s a monogram Michael Whelan uses on all his artwork to mark it.
Now I want to find it on his other covers.
well looking again, that might just be the AR looking thing. The larger symbols… Um… Still don’t know. Or might not mean anything. Just look right.
Could we also possibly get an 1136×640 for iPhone 5/5S? That would be positively delightful!
@2. I agree, the changes are great, and not just the face, but also Kaldin breaking the ground around him with his stormlight.
Great improvements. I love the artwork that goes into these books.
A few years ago, I got an e-reader. I love it. It’s light; I don’t have to hold it open; I don’t need a bookmark; I don’t have to deal with yucky ink from paperbacks rubbing off on my hands. It’s so great that I decided that once I completed my WOT hard back collection, I would only buy e-books.
I have a plea for the Brandon, Irene, and the powers that be at Tor. For those of us who prefer e-books, could you make an e-book companion for each of the Stormlight books? The companion book would not need to have any new material in it, just the artwork, sketches, maps from the hard cover book. I would love to be able to buy one and have it to refer to while reading my e-book.
Thank you
Jenn
@16
They would have to do this in their own store outside of the Kindle store. The image resolution (dictated in part by the memory limitations of e-readers) of a Kindle e-book would be too low to be worth the bother. iBooks is a lot better for images, but then that limits the reader to iPads.
There is a reason that publishers release companion art as PDFs, not e-books.
@17
I am not talking about a digital companion book. I would like to buy a printed on paper, real, hold it in your hands and turn the pages book that is a companion to the e-book. I prefer to read the text on my Kindle or iPad, but would love to have a little picture book to go with it that contains all the wonderful maps, sketches, paintings, etc. that are best enjoyed on paper.
JennB, there’s almost always a set of higher-resolution images for each book over at Brandon’s site, which helps a little. From his front page at http://www.brandonsanderson.com, select “books”, pick a novel and then look to the right sidebar for the collected artwork associated with that volume.
Unfortunately, that won’t scratch the print itch. The definitive edition for the artwork right now is the hardback. That’s where you’ll see the highest quality of printing (in the paperback we have to strip out or revise some of the texture detail for the sake of the paper stock and smaller size). Eventually I’m sure there will be a finer option for the art fans, there’s a lot of material being collected (albeit slowly). But we have many novels yet to go.
JennB, I agree with you about reading the ebook. The art is the only reason I’ll buy (already ordered) both e-book and hardback. And with the stormlight archive it’s not just the inside-artwork either, but also the book-cover/binding (its color and engraving), as inkthinker and his fellow artists were kind enough to explain (last JCon, thanks again).
I do regret that I only have the paperback of WoK, but I can’t replace it with a hard-back, since my book is signed by Brandon, M.Whelan and I. Stewart’s, only inkthinker I missed somehow :(
I don’t know that Kindle supports this (and don’t know that it doesn’t) but I downloaded the (free) PC and iPad Nook apps, and buy most of my ebooks that way. If I want small and light, I read on the Nook itself; if I want to look at the illustrations, I use my laptop; if I want a balance of the two, I take the iPad. It’s not a perfect solution, but it works for me. (That said, for some books I will always buy the hardcover anyway…)
So much better! Thanks to Michael for the extra effort.
Amazon has The Way of Kings hardback for $11.20. I have decided that I will go ahead and buy it and start a Stormlight Archive hardback collection. I will still be reading it on the kindle, which means I will be buying both. Sigh… Yes, the artwork is just that good.
JennB, I feel your pain. I am doing the same thing, because I am jsut never happy with the art/maps/illustrations on my kindle
no 2560×1080 :(
Once again amazing work?
Do you by any chance have the walls available in 2560×1080. This resolution is becoming more and more common now that 21:1 monitors are lowering in price.
Still going to use the 1080p ones, they are to awesome not to use :)
The link 2560×1600 without text is broken. Should point here: WordofRadiance_new_2560x1600.jpg