Tag: Margaret Atwood

Top Ten Tuesday – Favourite Green Book Covers

On By The Unseen LibraryIn List3 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly challenge that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers creating and sharing lists on various book topics.  In this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants are tasked with listing their favourite books that have green covers in honour of Saint Patrick’s Day.

I always love lists that let me look at cool covers, and this was one of the more interesting ones I’ve had the chance to do.  It turns out that green is an awesome colour to use for book art, and a lot of novels I’ve loved over the years have made great use of green in their amazing covers.  As such, I was left with a huge list of potential covers to feature on this list.  I was eventually able to whittle it down to the very best, and I have included the 10 book covers (plus a few more in an honourable mentions section), that utilised this colour to its greatest effectiveness.  The resulting list is very cool, and I think it showcased an excellent cross section of books I’ve loved over the years with epic and green covers.

Honourable Mentions:

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

A great cover that makes strong use of green instead of the usual red we associate with Margaret Atwood’s books.

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Oaths of Damnation by Robbie Macniven

While there is a lot of focus on the red power armour of the Space Marine on this cover, I personally love the green mist and buildings in the background.  This green backdrop deeply enhances the already cool picture, and hints at the darker nature of these mysterious warriors.

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Colonyside by Michael Mammay

The green jungle really pops in this cool cover.

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The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

A simple but effective green cover that I’ve always enjoyed.

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Top Ten Tuesday:

Warboss by Mike Brooks

Thanks to an overabundance of green things throughout the franchise, there are several Warhammer 40,000 novels that I want to feature on this list, but I thought I would start off with an obvious choice and focus on a cover featuring the dangerous greenskins of this universe, the orks.  There were several ork focused covers I could have used here, but I liked the one for Warboss the most, mainly because it has the most variety and comedic charm.  This is one of the more entertaining covers I want to feature here, although special mention should also go to Brooks’ other ork Warhammer 40,000 books Brutal Kunnin and Da Big Dakka, both of which had great green covers.

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Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

A classic fantasy novel I had to feature here was the fourth and final original Eragon novel, Inheritance.  All four of the series’ original covers featured strong colours corresponding to a dragon from the plot, and this includes Inheritance, which features a cool green dragon.  The great inclusion of a new green dragon, plus the different shades of green around him as part of the cover really stood out to me, and this is one of first books I think of associated with the colour green.

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False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

Another cool fantasy novel that makes great use of the colour green in its cover is False Value by Ben Aaaronovtich.  The eighth book in the author’s Rivers of London series (all of which feature awesome covers), False Value really stands out thanks to its spooky use of green in the urban sprawl that makes up the cover.  The vivid and spectral bright green is very striking, and it also cleverly represents the ghostly nature of the investigation the protagonists are involved with.  An overall great cover that fits this interesting story extremely well.

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Boundless by R. A. Salvatore

I felt that the outstanding novel Boundless by legendary fantasy author R. A. Salvatore is a perfect inclusion here.  Featuring one of the book’s iconic Drow characters shaded in green, and with green colouration around him melding into a dark background, the cover for Boundless is pretty dawn awesome, and I’ve always loved its ethereal and intense vibe.

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Jingo by Terry Pratchett

It’s not an Unseen Library list without a Discworld novel, and for this post I decided to focus on Jingo, which features a gorgeous cover from unique author Josh Kirby (I featured Kirby’s expanded cover here).  While much of the action in this exaggerated cover takes place on brown/yellow ships, the use of green in the roiling ocean below is incredible, and it brings the entire artwork together perfectly.  I love the use of green here, and this cover was some of Kirby’s best work.

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Whisper in the Wind by Luke Arnold

I really enjoy the great mixture of smaller sketches and creatures layered throughout this cover, especially as the various shades of green stands out amongst the black and yellowish green of the boarder.  A fantastic cover that makes excellent use of various shades and combinations of green to prepare readers for the adventure to come.

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King’s Enemy by Ian Ross and The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

I’m doing a joint entry here for these two epic books, because both use green in the same way with their covers.  Featuring an emerald, green banner bedeck with a lion, the King’s Enemy and The Wisdom of Crowds’ covers both look very striking, with the green standing out amongst the raging battle and war behind them.  I like these two covers equally, as while the green banner in The Wisdom of Crowds looks cooler, I love the green smoke coming up behind the banner in King’s Enemy.  It helps that both these novels are exceptional five-star reads, and I’m really happy to feature them both here.

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Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The green shaded, ruined world of the cover of Service Model is very awesome, and I think it sets the mood perfectly for this outstanding narrative.  An excellent cover for a hilarious and thought-provoking novel.

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Deathworlder by Victoria Hayward

Another very cool Warhammer 40,000 novel I needed to feature on this list, is the brutal novel Deathworlder, the debut novel from Victoria Hayward.  This cover really fits the dark and desperate nature of Deathworlder’s plot, and I love the cool green colours used throughout it.  The green colouration of the Catachan soldiers are cool at several levels, especially as it highlights the jungle fighting, camouflaged nature of these characters.  At the same time, it also works to show how the humans are no longer blending into the now alien infested world they find themselves on, with the once green plants turning purple all around them.  As such, the green really helps to tell part of Deathworlder’s story on the cover, and it looks outstanding as it does so.

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Green Lantern comics

For the final entry on this list, I really wanted to feature at least one comic cover that used a lot of green.  While I was tempted to highlight some Marvel comics thanks to a variety of green Hulks, I instead went down the DC Comics route and chose some covers that were utilised during Geoff Johns’ legendary Green Lantern run.  There were a ton of awesome covers during this period that were so damn exceptional thanks to their different uses of green, and I ended up deciding to feature a few here as they all looked cool in different ways.  This includes the below cover for the volume, Revenge of the Green Lanterns, which has some subtle green up front and centre, with protagonist Hal Jordan’s ring coming up in front of his obscured body and face.

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I also loved the cover used for another volume of the same run, Wanted: Hal Jordan.  The use of green is a lot more prominent for this volume, and I like how it is showcased with the desperate and damaged protagonist.

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The below cover for the Blackest Night comic is also extremely awesome, especially with the more muted green light from the protagonist’s ring providing some spooky green illumination to the zombie characters surrounding him.

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The final Green Lantern comic I want to feature is from the first volume of the Green Lantern (2011) series in The New 52.  While I’m not the biggest fan of The New 52 relaunch, the below cover was pretty baller with the green smoke and Green Lantern symbols, and it was so cool to see Sinestro in the green again after all these years.  A very worthy final entry for this list.

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And with those amazing comic covers, we’re at the end of my latest list.  I think the above collection of covers came together extremely well, and the resulting barrage of green looks amazing.  Not only are all the books and comics above pretty to look at, but they also feature some great stories that are really worth checking out.  Let me know what you think about my collection of covers below, and I’ll be interested to hear about your favourite green covers as well.

Guest Review: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Drama, Five-Star Books, Guest Review3 Comments

In her latest guest review, the Unseen Library’s editor, Alex, checks out one of the biggest releases of the year, and also sets herself up to do some more reviews for the blog in the future.

The Testaments Cover

Publisher: Chatto & Windus (Hardcover – 10 September 2019)

Series: The Handmaid’s Tale – Book 2

Length: 419 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Unlike the Unseen Librarian himself, who seems to have no problem zipping through several books a week, I tend to buy books faster than I read them. I was very pleased, and not at all surprised, to find there’s a phrase for this in Japanese: tsundoku, meaning one who acquires books with every intention of reading them, but who never gets around to it. Well, it’s high time that I try to kick this habit and delve into my shelf of unread books, beginning with The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.

We received a copy of The Testaments way back in September 2019, before the honeymoon hiatus, but unfortunately the large, heavy hardback wouldn’t have fared well in my suitcase, so although I was keen to read it I was forced to leave it behind. Unfortunately several other distractions (including Eoin Colfer’s The Fowl Twins) meant it wasn’t until the post-Christmas calm that I took the time to finish it off, but I am so glad that I did, because this is a first-rate book that didn’t deserve to wait so long for my attention.

The Handmaid’s Tale reported the experiences of Offred, a Handmaid to a powerful Commander in the post-revolutionary United States, the totalitarian Republic of Gilead. The Testaments picks up the story several years later, and features accounts of three women and their own struggles for survival in Gilead. I won’t go into detail about the plot of the book (I’m sure reviewers with better time management skills have beaten me to it), only to say that it was incredibly engaging and suspenseful. Those who enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale will love to see how the world has changed over the years.

I was absolutely thrilled by all of the world-building in The Testaments. The new regime of Gilead is fascinating, but in The Handmaid’s Tale details are limited to what Offred chooses to share in her narrative, which itself is limited by what Offred knows, given the sheltered and isolated life she is forced to live as a Handmaid. The Testaments, on the other hand, with its multiple narrators, presents a far broader view of life in Gilead. The first narrator is an Aunt, one of the powerful matrons who train the Handmaids and teach the children. In fact, she is none other than Aunt Lydia, the indomitable battleaxe responsible for the indoctrination of Offred who features so prominently in the original book. The second narrator is Agnes Jemima, the daughter of a powerful Commander. Her story is recorded after her liberation from Gilead and provides a fascinating insight into the experiences of a child growing up in the regime. The third narrator is Daisy, a child growing up in Canada. From her we get an outside view of Gilead—how the terrible society is viewed by its near neighbours and how the Mayday resistance seeks to help its people. The three tales are each engaging in their own right, but as they become more and more intertwined the story only gets better.

There are elements of the story that tie into the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, but literary purists who have not watched the show will enjoy The Testaments just the same. Since it is a sequel, however, I would say that it will be best enjoyed by those who have read The Handmaid’s Tale or seen at least the first season of the show. The Testaments is a book that was 35 years in the making, but it was well worth the wait.

Waiting on Wednesday – The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Drama, Thriller, Waiting on Wednesday2 Comments

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.

The Testaments Cover.jpg

For this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I take a look at one of the biggest upcoming releases of 2019, The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, the sequel to Atwood’s seminal work, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Released back in 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale told the story of Offred, a woman trapped in the oppressive military dictatorship, the Republic of Gilead. Due to her status as one of the few fertile women in Gilead, Offred has been forced into the life of a Handmaid, breeding stock for Gilead’s leaders. The Handmaid’s Tale highlighted the creation of this terrible nation and followed Offred’s attempts to survive in this harsh new reality. The Handmaid’s Tale has subsequently been adapted into a highly successful television series, with the third season starting just last week. Now, over 30 years after its original publication, Atwood has written a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale that continues its story and looks to the future of Gilead.

Set for release in September 2019, only a few plot details have been revealed so far, but it sounds like this could be quite an interesting read.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her—freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

“Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.” —Margaret Atwood

I think that it is fair to say that The Testaments is going to be a book that a lot of people will be excited to read. The Handmaid’s Tale is massive at the moment. Not only is it a major piece of pop culture currently thanks to the television show but the political and social messages contained within the original book are just as relevant today as they were in 1985, if not more so.

There are quite a few interesting elements in the plot details that have so far been provided. For example, it looks like The Testaments will showcase how the world and Gilead have changed in the 15 years following the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. It also sounds like Atwood is going to explore the inner workings of Gilead, which is quite a fascinating and terrible society, and it will be intriguing to see how such a place could come into existence and remain in place. I imagine that a lot of fans of the book will be extremely interested to see if Atwood will reveal the fate of her original protagonist, Offred. When The Handmaid’s Tale novel ended, Offred had an uncertain future—she was either being rescued by Mayday or being arrested by the Eyes—and the reader is left to guess what actually happens to her. I hope that Atwood will tell the rest of Offred’s story and I wonder if Offred may be one of the female narrators giving testimony.

It is uncertain at this point what role the plot of the television show will have on The Testaments’ story. The events of the original book were all covered within the first season, and the show has since gone off on its own tangent. It will be interesting to see if The Testaments will reflect any of the events that occurred within the show’s second or third season. I am also curious to see whether any future seasons of the show will feature events contained within this sequel book. Either way, fans of the show will no doubt be very curious to check this book out.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is set to be an amazing book for later in the year and I am very excited about reading it. It will very cool to check out a sequel this long in the making and I will be interested to dive into the world of Gilead and the dark stories no doubt contained within.