Fantastical: A fantasy art and books blog

In this article, I’ll take a look at one of my all-time favourite Fantasy books: Dawnthief by James Barclay and analyse the different covers this book has had over its editions.

If you haven’t heard of this book before, fear not! It is my intention to have you furiously scrounging for your own copy of it, and its sequels, by the end of this post. But just in case you’re a pinch wary of heeding a review from some middle-aged dude on the internet (probably wise!), here’s an endorsement by somebody whose opinion you should most definitely listen to.

Barclay writes with power, pace and a wonderful sense of humour. Better than that, he creates novels you want to read again and again.

-David Gemmell

You’ve heard of that guy, right?

David Gemmell introduced me to James Barclay. A lovely and thoroughly hilarious guy called Ee Pin who I used to work with at Angus & Robertson bookstore in Glen Waverley back in the mid 00s introduced me to David Gemmell. I am very thankful to both men.

Heroes For Hire

James Barclay is perhaps the last truly great heroic fantasy writer. While I remain hopeful that this sub-genre will find a resurgence some time in the future, a look at the sorts of fantasy books that are being published today would suggest we are moving further and further away from that likelihood.

Thankfully, we have enough previously published books with actual fantasy heroes in them to fill several lifetimes of reading. Might I suggest you start with this one:

Dawnthief is a spell. One of those potential world ending kinds of spells. It’s up to a group of fascinating mercenaries called The Raven to ensure that the spell gets cast, to the hells with the risks.

As a book, Dawnthief is so interestingly written because it takes very common tropes, including a group of evil wizards who want to turn the world into darkness (I mean, how many fantasy writers built their careers on that trope alone!), but invests so much effort in presenting not only exceptional individual characters like Hirad, the Unknown, Ilkar the Elf and the enigmatic and often unlikeable Denser, but a team dynamic that I’ve personally never been so invested in.

The Raven are highly efficient mercenaries that live by an internal code that fosters a deep sense of loyalty and ‘oneship.’ The Raven fight as a lethal single organism. They are brutally effective in what they do and they charge a high price because of that fact. But when a job comes along that extends far beyond simply earning some gold and turns into a quest to save the world, the team dynamic shifts. The question each of them must ask themselves is, can a mercenary become a hero?

Character Driven, Driven Characters

Honestly, I’ve read so many fantasy books that a lot of them blur into one. I’d be hard pressed to tell you the plotline of some of them, let alone any particular scenes or characters. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy reading each of them, because I most certainly did (apart from the odd inevitable dud, of course), but I like to rate books on their memorability. Dawnthief and its effectively portrayed characters are definitely memorable.

As I mentioned before, fantasy books are trope prone. It just comes with the territory. But like all creative endeavours, it’s what you do with those well-trod paths that defines your work. There’s a million books featuring a character up against a seemingly unstoppable magical force. It’s how you tell that story and the trappings surrounding it that defines the success of a book. This is where Barclay excels.

Magical Thinking

Creating a magic system that is well defined, uniquely designed and integral to a story is no easy thing. Barclay’s world of Balaia is home to such a magic system. In Balaia, magic isn’t as simple as reciting a few words and waving a finger around. It takes extreme concentration and the ability to visualise a spell in your mind to the point of it being razor clear. Not so easy to do with a battle raging around you! Each spell has its own intricate shape and its potency is bound by the clarity of its formation. This makes for great storytelling and intense situations where magic is vital and the pressure is on.

Ultimately, it is the characters that shine through in Barclay’s writing. Their dialogue is always on point and each of the characters never veers from their distinct voice. Intrigue and politics abound, but it is the relationship between the members of The Raven that shines the brightest.

It has been a solid twenty years since I first read this series of books. I can still remember my jaw physically dropping when I came upon a particular scene (Chapter 22, look out for it!) and to this day I still marvel at how fantastically delivered it was, both in the plot twist, and the telling of it.

Tell me, how many books can you say have truly had that effect on you? I would say only a handful for myself. Sam becoming the Ringbearer comes to mind.

Judging a book by its cover

As impressive as Dawnthief is, I’m not so sure I would have even picked the book up if I saw it on the shelf sporting the above cover.

Having read the book several times and grown to be quite familiar with the land of Balaia, I can’t help but feel that this cover does not represent it well. Absolutely no disrespect to the illustrator, Fred Gambino, but this is not how I picture Balaia or these characters at all. It’s all a bit… post-apocalyptic Mad Max/Waterworld-y.

To my mind, the characters of The Raven are closer to something like A Game of Thrones, where armour is practical and common clothing is simple, not like a bunch of extras from the Zardos set.

Thankfully, the edition I first picked up looked like this:

I’m not usually a fan of overly designy covers. As an illustrator myself, I am drawn to covers that feature a good painting. But this cover is undeniably well done too. In fact, for a number of years I was unaware of the previous edition and it’s hard for me to dissociate Dawnthief as a book from this particular cover.

And this is the interesting thing about book covers. Having been a bookseller for most of my life, I can officially confirm that you should definitely judge a book by its cover. Publishers don’t just throw any old thing on the cover, but they are bound by current and forthcoming trends. This can often mean that a cover doesn’t necessarily accurately represent the contents within.

Cover ≠ Book

Fantasy, perhaps more than any genre, is susceptible to this. And it isn’t even a modern occurrence…

While it may not seem a huge issue, I actually think it is. Imagine you could read these two versions of Dawnthief, without remembering you’d read the other version. Do you think your experience of the book and the image of the characters and setting your head would differ? I can’t help but think that it must.

Here’s another example. Frank Frazetta famously read Howard’s description of Conan and basically ingored it in favour of how he thought the barbarian would/should look. But what if he didn’t? What if Frazetta had adhered to the description of the character, Prince Valiant hairdo and all?

Book covers matter. And they have power. They can influence your perception of the realised imagery the text evokes. When reading a book, this is a pretty big factor contributing to the enjoyment of it. Maybe that’s why I like the purple silhouette cover. It gives breathing space for the reader to come up with their own vision of Balaia and its inhabitants.

A few new editions have been published since the one I read, with a more modern feel to them. These covers represent the book far more effectively than the orignal, I feel. While I love the purple silhouetter one, I find these covers just as appealing too. I’d definitely pick the righthand one up off the shelf to see what it’s about.

I highly recommend you do too.

While you’re at it, why don’t you check out James’ website. It’s jammed full of info!

James Barclay Website