Frontmatter and Internals

I thought I'd delve more deeply into Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings (for a break-down of the cover art, see this post).

Here's the frontmatter (apologies for the shadow of my camera). I think the page-borders (reminiscent of parchment) are a great way to add interest to what can be a relatively boring part of a book. However, I'm not sure that the mixture of typefaces was the best choice for the title-page.

Moving on to the chapter pages, each new chapter has a page of illustrations (from one of the character's journals) and a very decorative chapter title. The text associated with the illustrations is somewhat difficult to read, but feels hand-lettered, like you really are seeing a real page from the character's journal.

The decorative chapter title seems a little too much, particularly for a small paperback. We have an archway with the name of the chapter, an image, then a quote from one of the character's research notes, then a dropcap. Altogether, this page-spread feels very squashed.

Speaking as the target market, however, I have to say I loved these extra design details when I was actually reading the book. I imagine the layout was less squashed in the hardback edition.