Cover Contest For ‘Island at the End of the World’

So apparently the novelist Sam Taylor (who I’ve never heard of, and can’t decide if I should have or not) has a new book coming out in 2009, called The Island at the End of the World. Here’s a teaser plot summary, courtesy of the publisher:

A chilling novel about the near future, where most of the world has been destroyed by catastrophic floods. As a father and his three children begin to rebuild their lives alone on an island, his youngest son Finn begins to question how they arrived there and why they alone have been spared. Finn’s search for understanding takes an unexpected turn when a strange man named Will swims ashore, and he appears to know quite a bit about this family and the circumstances that surrounded the floods. But Finn’s father is determined to keep him silent and is willing to do anything to prevent Will from disturbing his family’s idyllic life on the island. Sam Taylor’s The Island at the End of the World is a riveting post-apocalyptic tale that explores the darkness that lies within the hearts of men.

…Sounds pretty much like a novelization of the show Lost to me, but hey. Anyway, everyone loves to judge a book by its cover, and yet another Penguin Contest has yielded some pretty damn gorgeous covers.

You may remember when I posted on the 2008 Penguin Design Contest, which asked art students to design their own cover for one of a handful of well-regarded books, including On the Road and On Beauty. Following that contest, I reflected that I felt some of the “honorable mentions” and other entries were far better than the three winners. I also expressed surprise that the reward for the winner was not a reprint of the book that used their cover.

This time around, it’s a bit different, and not merely because all the covers are created for one single book (which does make it more compelling, and easier to judge the entries). It’s different because the prize this time is the use of the artist’s cover on the actual book, which makes the stakes high.

Again, however, I don’t love the winning design. That’s right, a winner has already been chosen, but you might want to check out the 25 finalists before you scroll down and see the winner. After all, what makes it really fun is flipping through the images and trying to predict which one beat the others (In case you’re wondering, I picked 5 that were, for my money, the best ones, and the eventual winner was not even in my 5). The winner (by Matt Taylor, no relation to the author I hope) wasn’t my overall favorite, because (again, I obviously haven’t read the book, so I can only gather plot details from the synopsis) I felt it had a bit too much going on. It looks more like a design you might see on a Threadless t-shirt (in fact I feel like I’ve seen that very design before) than the cover of a serious new novel put out by Penguin. Still, it’s a gorgeous creation:

Matt Taylor

Like I said, very well-done… but not the most appropriate cover, I’d argue. My bet is that they picked it because it’s very eye-catching, so it might sell copies out of sheer curiosity. Thus, a marketing ploy. Below are two of my favorites. Check out all 25 for yourself. I just love interesting book covers.

Ben Thomas

John Hobbs

~ by DBR on November 6, 2008.