Maybe I’m a closet sexist, but I don’t see anything remotely traditionally sexist about the character in the art. Hell, I never even noticed the heels - I noticed the bastard sword, the high collar on her armor, that it wasn’t a thin blouse or jacket but what I would expect actual layered leather armor to look like.…

Okay, now he’s just making an ass of himself. These are books obsessed with rape and sexual violence perpetrated upon primarily women, no main female character has avoided being raped, tortured, or rape-tortured, and every single book is filled to the brim with long meditations on the destruction and defilement of the…

Terry Goodkind. The author whose work involves (repeated) rapes and or threats of sexual violence against women (like... I think... every named female character between the ages of like... 15 and 60 is either threatened with or subjected to rape at some point during the SoT series...) and the reduction of a several…

Terry Goodkind is complaining that something is sexist? That’s fucking rich.

Sums it up nicely:

It takes a lot more (or rather, a lot less) than a pair of high-heel boots before you get into 1970's pulp fantasy Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo territory.

“Goodkind, however, asserts Deharme never read a page of his work.” That probably was a request in the illustrator’s contract.

Apparently it’s the boots. If you look reeeaaallly closely, they have heels that are slightly higher than would be normal for riding boots.

It’s not like feminists are reading his books anyway, considering the sexism in his stories. This defense seems so bizarre to me - almost like he’s trolling instead of making feasible excuses.

Contrary to Mr. Goodkind’s suggestion, most cover artists are actually FORBIDDEN from reading the manuscript before submitting the cover art. They are given a few passages and a rough description at best. I know this from years of working with artists at SciFi cons. The Author here is grasping for straws.

Cool, guy whose antagonists always rape women and children to show how badass evil they are. I am sure glad you are taking such a principled and consistent stand against sexism.

More like Conan The Free Booty amirite?

The heels don’t seem ridiculous either - some horse riding boots have heels like that for better stirrup grip, for instance.

I vaguely recall a lot of rape and/or sex being used as punishment for women in his books. I think there was a scene where a woman gained magic by having sex with a demon? But his dong was covered in barbs and so she had to basically mutilate herself in order to earn power?

Don’t come for feminism when it’s convenient, Mr. Goodkind. We see through you. She looks fine. Those aren’t thigh boots, they’re roughly under the knee. And the heel may not be worse than some cowboy boots (which have a “heel” because its convenient for horse back riding). I don’t know if it’s a requirement that all…

I see that he’s taking a page from the “When in doubt, double down” playbook of how to lose hearts, minds, and potential customers.

Uhhh...what? While I’m not super versed on book covers of the genre in the 70s, my idea of them was always that the sexist ones looked kinda like the one below. I honestly didn’t even notice she was in heels. Even if you think the heels are meh, it’s crazy to say that it’s in the same vein as old pulp covers.

I think he’s blatantly trying to deflect attention away from his dickishness and lack of professionalism - smearing the artist on social media at 69 years old is pretty pathetic behaviour - rather than drawing a line and moving on. It’s not really working.

This is the guy who copied the Wheel of Time for his series and then proceeded to claim that readers who didn’t like his version were stupid, right?

He wasn’t exactly getting my money before, but this clearly made up line of bullshit and constant, OBVIOUS lies and attempts to sling mud on the artist and Tor guarantees he never gets another cent.