Judging A Book By Its Cover: The Explorer’s Guild

This is my weekly post where I highlight and appreciate cover designs and the general physical appearance of books. We all judge book covers to some extent. I can’t say that I’ve ever decided against a book with terrible cover art if I liked the sound of the plot, but I have purchased special editions of books, or multiple editions of books based on their cover art. If book covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t put out so many beautiful editions!

Okay, so if you’ve seen any of my previous Judging posts, I feel like you won’t be surprised that I was instantly drawn to this book. I mean, look at it! What a fantastic cover! (Hello, yes, I know I say this like, every week about every book I post.) This chunky beauty (almost 800 pages), is a sort of novel-graphic novel hybrid and I’m pretty excited to read it. I meant to read it last year, but missed that deadline. Totally intend on reading it this year though (“Yeah, sure Millie,” you say, rolling your eyes). No really! Anyway, The Explorer’s Guild by Kevin Costner (yes, the actor) and Jon Baird was published just last year by Atria books and is illustrated by Rick Ross. ISBN: 9781476727394.  Alright, prepare your eyes for some tasty pictures.