What's Wrong with This Picture?

The Winter King (First Edition)

I like the original cover of The Winter King, all muscular action. Fortunately I saw an earlier sketch, where Andrion was depicted holding the star-shield of Sabazel, in time to get Steven Hickman to paint in a generic shield instead. But the image of Andrion carrying the shield stayed with me and led to a major incident in the next book, Shadow Dancers.

The Winter King (Back-in-Print Edition)

Another portion of the Alexander mosaic makes up the new cover--this shows the Persian king, Darius, realizing Alexander has won the battle. But you can always extrapolate this image into one of the battle scenes in the book.