What? TWO book covers?

I have two book covers for The Wise and the Mighty.

How did this happen?

It’s a long story. Suffice it to say, this is what happens when artist number one disappears, artist number two is brought in and starts from scratch, and then number one reappears and finishes their artwork.

If you stopped by a few weeks ago, you saw what I thought would be the book cover for The Wise and the Mighty, the second book in the Age of Restoration series.

I thought I’d go ahead and reveal the second rendition and ask for comments about which version you all like the best.

Option one is above. Option two is below.

Similar to the cover for the first book, The Foolish and the Weak, these new covers portray a scene that is written about in the first part of The Wise and the Mighty, but it doesn’t really play out until near the end of the book. Those who have read The Foolish and the Weak will have an idea of what’s going on from the excerpt for The Wise and the Mighty that was included at the end.

The scene takes place in a forested area a few miles southwest of Mineral, Virginia. I’m not going to go into great detail about what’s happening there, or why, but a few things should be obvious. The three women in white dresses with dancing white flame represent the story’s three female protagonists, Paz Kirkegaard, her mother, Paloma, and the ever mysterious Paciencia. They are outnumbered by the men in dark suits. A battle has already been fought, and this is more or less the lull between round one and round two.

So, please feel free to leave comments about which book cover you like best.

I’m going to refrain from including artist information for now, because it’s quite possible some of you might know one or both, and I don’t want to prejudice opinions one way or the other.