The cover to the next Jim Butcher "Dresden Files" book (Changes) has been posted on a bunch of pages around the 'net, sparking the usual conversations. (So far, I haven't seen anyone say that he utterly loathes it, or that it's raping his childhood, but the day is still young.)I seem to be the only person whose first thought was, "Huh. Guess Butcher is abandoning his previous titling scheme."
You see, all of the previous Dresden Files novels had two word titles, and the two words always had exactly the same number of letters in them. And I may perhaps have been the only one who took note of that, for what it's worth. I'm not sure if that's perspicacity or OCD, but I've got it.
9 comments:
Appropriate then that this book is titled Changes.
There was some discussion over in the comments at A Dribble of Ink.
http://aidanmoher.com/blog/2009/08/cover-art/cover-art-changes-by-jim-butcher/#comments
kingofthenerds: There was a discussion of the book, yes, but I don't see anyone noticing the two-word title thing ending there.
I guess they couldn't think of any six-letter words appropriate for a book about a wizard dealing with the world of faerie.
But I did notice the original title gimmick, and I was even annoyed when they changed the cover design to use a proportional font instead of monospace in two lines with each letter inside a square.
catie murphy mentioned it I think on Magical Words, but it might have been her blog. I would not have noticed whatsoever. She mentioned that it's halfway through the series so with the notion of changes, it signals new things to come in the series. Unless it doesn't. Hmmm.
Noticed, but not noted, perhaps?
Harry looks a little different in this cover, too.
When I was coming up with a new title for my first book, my editor explained that it would be best if each title in the series could have the same pattern "like Jim Butcher does."
I never noticed the number of letters though. That's a little much.
Comment #3 from the aforementioned post:
"I quite like the title actually- seems rather fitting. I’m guessing that Butcher might be switching up the formula just a bit (though not too much I’d imagine)."
I read the "formula" as the title buy maybe I'm wrong.
Also, from comment #5 by YetiStomper:
"Regarding the title, I would agree it’s not in the same vein as the others (and not very exciting) but it’s also “Changes.”"
Not that it really matters.
It's not just the number of letters in Butcher's titles. The titles themselves had multiple meanings within the stories.
When I first saw the new cover, I thought it was a fake.
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