Everything has gotten so dark…

… Cover art, at least.

Check out these covers, all pulled off various Most Anticipated SFF of 2018 lists:

I am not familiar with these books, by the way. I just happened to glance at some Most Anticipated lists and this really strong tendency toward DARKNESS leaped out at me. Now that I posed a bunch of covers in a row, I’m seeing there is also a GIANT FULL MOON theme, though not as consistently as just DARK DARK DARK. This is by no means a complete set of all the dark covers I saw; I just got tired of copying them.

It’s not that I think these are bad covers. Anything cartoonish or too stylized usually turns me off, so I am not attracted at all to that Scalzi cover. The super-simple Clair North cover does sort of grab me. The cover with the dragon, well, I am pretty much willing to look at covers that feature dragons. I like that Touch of Iron cover. The Giant Full Moon trope appeals to me, apparently — I like every cover up there with a full moon.

But mostly I find myself longing for a splash of color and light. I think these, also off Most Anticipated lists, are going to stand out from the crowd this year:

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