Originally Posted by Rulavi

We must have read different fantasy novels . I usually have had the opposite experience: if there's a book that speaks to me, it's despite the cover (and any other illustrations) not because of it. And often in such cases it's the content that's "beautiful, mysterious & evocative"; the pictures fail because they are too (and wrongly) specific. Movies similarly, natch, though it's somewhat easier for a movie: it doesn't need to capture it in a single scene and can take longer to get you used to their vision. Two exceptions: many of Pauline Baynes' illustrations for Narnia seemed just right, and the Shire in the LOTR movies was immediately, and continues to be, very satisfying to me.