The Friday Face-Off is a meme originally created by Books by Proxy and now hosted over at Lynn’s Books. The idea is to compare the different covers of a book with each week being a certain theme.

This week’s theme is a cover that depicts armour or protection: “ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.” This week’s book is The Gates of Athens by Conn Iggulden.

And the winner is… COVER F!

The stoic nature of the soldier amidst the fog of war is quite captivating. The yellow tinge of the cover adds an ominous threat to things. The images of war in the background finish things off.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my winner, or does one of the others work better for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s theme is a cover that depicts machinery, cogs, gears or even AI: “We can control the future, my boy, just as we wind up the mechanism in a clock.”