Cover Identity: The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

Well, when in Rome...

For the first in what I can only imagine will come to be a worrying regular look at cover art here on The Speculative Scotsman, I give you the newly redesigned Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.

Though the review is still a few weeks off - the posting schedule is, I'm pleased to say, packed to the gunnels with good stuff in the interim - I had a whale of a time with Leviathan a little while ago, so the thought of more Westerfeld certainly has me in, if not fits of anticipation then certainly mild tremors thereof.

But I don't honestly know that I'd have looked twice at the three Uglies books without these striking new covers. Here, have a gander - the new designs are on the left, the old ones on the right:

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Now there's nothing wrong with the old covers of Uglies, Pretties and Specials per se, but I can't help but think the new art will more effectively appeal to the market for these books; which is to say, young adults.

Of course, and I hate to have to stress this every time I talk about YA literature, I don't mean that market exclusively, only that the consensus seems to be that Westerfeld wrote the Uglies trilogy with such readers in mind. If these books are anything like Leviathan, however, they're sure to find an audience among more mature genre junkies, too.

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The back-cover credits don't leave me entirely certain who we should be thanking for what, but between illustrator Sam Hadley and designer Nick Stearn, the three reworkings are each iconic pieces that look just lovely together. They have a sense of continuity that the now-outmoded designs rather lacked. Simple, but sleek; bold, but not boisterous.

Not to mention that the old art looks decidedly like something you might find adorning Chuck Palahniuk's back-catalogue, and these novels, from everything I've read and otherwise heard, are not that - not at all.

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I can't imagine too many parents being pleased to see their kids reading a book with that last design on the cover, in particular. The new designs are certainly much less risque, but I don't think they've lost anything in the transition. They're perhaps a little generic, yes, but they're significantly less sterile than the old alternatives. They speak of action, intrigue and excitement, whereas the previous covers were cold and clinical - although perhaps that was precisely the plan. Certainly that's a notion tied into the subject matter, but I fear if that were the case, a disservice was done to the intended, all-ages audience.

One way or another, I wholeheartedly approve of the new artwork for Uglies, Pretties and Specials. You can expect reviews of these three, radically redesigned novels - due for release on March 4th from Simon and Schuster - as and when the opportunity to read them presents itself.

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Here, opportunity! Wherever could you be hiding?