It's not a real fantasy novel without...

I don't know who first suggested that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but I think they were wrong. Obviously as a metaphor for life, not judging based purely on appearance is a laudable thing. However, taking it more literally, I quite often find myself drawn in by creative cover work. I cannot be the only one - there is even a prize for it at the British Book Industry Awards. A couple of years ago it was won by one of my favourite books, The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.

Fantasty novels (or at least the ones I always stroke fondly in secondhand bookshops) have the best covers - the dramatic watercolour.

Here are some of my favourites:

Merlin by Stephen Lawhead. All his books are well worth reading, especially if you're going on a long beach holiday!

Song of the Lioness quarter - children's books but still great fun and very easy to read all in a row without stopping for meals.

I have never read these, but the cover makes me think I would enjoy them...

The guy on this cover is clearly on a super important mission. That he would rather not be on, from the looks of things.

This is a really old edition of this book, but it's a good'un.

There are so, so many more, but I should proabably stop now and get back to my real work. However, it's good to have something to aspire towards, and these covers pretty much say it all.

P.S. Whilst looking through top-selling fantasy on Amazon (curse you, Stephanie Myers), I noticed that 1984 by George Orwell is in there. I'm not sure I'd class that as fantasty anymore...