Cover Unveiled for City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs was my and many others favorite book of 2014. Bennett built a richly imagined world with a vivid cast that I'm glad he decided to revisit as this is the first sequel he has undertaken after 5 other novels. The cover of City of Blades carries on the style of the first quite well and it seems as if magic will still be very much involved in the telling. City of Blades is scheduled for a November 3rd January 26, 2016 release and I can't wait to see what trouble Shara and Sigrud find.

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Cover Unveil for Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

Whenever Neal Stephenson comes out with a new novel it becomes a major event and his latest Seveneves sounds like the Space Opera we always knew he could write. I believe this would be a first for him though judging by the description he will surely give it his own original spin. I haven't been excited personally for a Stephenson novel in quite a few years, but this one has me salivating more than a little bit. It seems a bit like The 100 only on a grander and surely deeper scale. Here's the current blurb:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anatham, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years

What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .

Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

Seveneves will be release May 19th.

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Cover Unveiled for The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

After five years of waiting more concrete information on  Paolo Bacigalupi's first adult book since The Windup Girl has been revealed. The title The Water Knife has been floating around for at least the last 2 years as he worked on his younger audience books such as Ship Breaker, The Drowned Cities, and Zombie Baseball Beatdown. Now we have the cover and a description to boot.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up novel by the best-selling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Windup Girl: a scorching thriller born out of today’s front-page headlines that preys on our worst fears about potential catastrophic failures awaiting us in our resource starved future. Think Roman Polanski’s Chinatown as written by Michael Crichton. WATER IS POWER.

In the very near future, the American Southwest is battling for water. Phoenix is covered in dust, desolate, and on the verge of total breakdown. Severe drought has demolished Texas. Nevada, as always, is trying to cash in.

Into the fray, steps Angel Velasquez, a water knife working for Las Vegas water mogul Catherine Case. Case is in the Arcology business, opulent real estate in which lush, luxury living environments are raised out of dry earth. Zipping around in his tricked out Tesla, Angel “cuts” water for Case. Hijacking pumping stations or unearthing long forgotten water rights, he is a detective and mercenary rolled into one. When an informant shows up dead in Phoenix, Angel is sent to find out what has happened. It turns out that a major power play is taking place, and the race is on to find a long-forgotten deed between the state of Arizona and a Native American tribe that grants Phoenix the rights to enough water to rebuild itself but to crush Las Vegas in the process. Angel is not the only one hunting down the old agreement. A shady West Coast conglomerate is watching closely, as is Lucy Monroe, a journalist and Phoenix native, desperate to save her city. Angel and Lucy are natural enemies, but the two realize the only way they may stay alive is by joining forces. The missing piece to the puzzle is Maria, a fifteen-year-old Texas migrant, blessed with street smarts, but burdened by getting herself into something over her head. Pretty soon the body count begins to rise, alliances come in to question, and it looks like either Phoenix or Las Vegas is going down in flames.

The Water Knife is currently scheduled for an August, 2015 release from Knopf. For those who can't wait for more Bacigalupi, his latest YA book The Doubt Factory will be out this October.

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Cover Unveiled for Robert Jackson Bennett's CITY OF STAIRS

Robert Jackson Bennett has steadily been putting out fantastic fiction the past few years. His work has traditionally been first world albeit with his own odd slant on the fringes of society. With City if Stairs Bennett turns his skills to a second world creation. The cover above is for the US edition and with it Bennett has joined the hooded society, which just seems to want every author in their clutches. Here is the blurb:

An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city—from one of America’s most acclaimed young SF writers.

The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world’s new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy.

Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.

City of Stairs will be out this September. There is also a sequel titled City of Blades that will follow in 2015, most likely, which will also be Bennett's first attempt at a sequel of any sort.

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Sam Sykes Finally Gets A Cool Cover in the US!

Sam Sykes is returning to share more of his cynical wit with us later this year. The City Stained in Red will be the start to a new trilogy called Bring Down Heaven that centers around Lenk and his merry band yet again. From the sounds of things they'll be mired even deeper than before. 

Sykes has been plagued by eye popping yet odd cover direction with the Aeons Gate trilogy so I'm quite happy to see that his new publisher in the US, Orbit have opted for something with a darker tone and probably more mass market approach (still no dragonman).

US Design by Lauren Panepinto

The UK cover was released a while ago and Gollancz too tried something very different and to go along with it here is the blurb to whet your appetites:

Long before he was sent to hell, the Aeon known as Khoth-Kapira was the closest thing to a living god the world had ever known. Possessed of a vast intellect, he pioneered many of the wonders that persist in the world long after he was banished. Nearly every fragment of medical, economic and technological progress that the mortal races enjoyed could be traced back to him. But with his wonders came cruelty beyond measure: industrialized slavery, horrifying experimentations and a rage that would eventually force the world to bow to him.

UK Design by Benjamin Carrè

Now, as Khoth-Kapira stirs, the world begins to shudder with disasters yet to come.The epicenter is the city of Cier'Djaal. A religious war between two unstoppable military juggernauts begins to brew. The racial fury among many peoples of the world is about to explode. Demons begin to pour from the shadows at the head of a vicious cult worshipping dark powers.
And Lenk finds himself in the middle once more, his fate and the fate of Khoth-Kapira interlinked as the demon attempts to convince him of his earnestness.

'Your world is breaking around you,' He Who Makes says, 'let me fix it. Let me help you. Let me out.'

The City Stained Red should be out in early October January 2015 in the US and late August 2014 in the UK. And because my dreams have been answered here is the Dragonman I've been wanting.

French cover to The Skybound Sea by Marc Simonetti

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Cover Unveiled for John Scalzi's Lock In

Fresh off his Hugo win for Redshirts and the commercial success of The Human Division, John Scalzi is coming back with what looks to be another standalone. And it is also his second near-future novel, if you could Agent to the Stars, which I do. Lock In explores a virus that is running rampant and for the most part it is manageable, but for some it turns them into virtually living statues. I'm definitely interested to see how Scalzi's trademark snark work into such a story.  Here's the teaser description:

Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.

One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people “locked in”...including the President's wife and daughter.

Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can restore the ability to control their own bodies to the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, “The Agora,” in which the locked-in can interact with other humans, both locked-in and not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, meaning that from time to time, those who are locked in can “ride” these people and use their bodies as if they were their own.

This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse....

I'm not sure if the cover is final, but currently it seems a little bland for a Scalzi cover though it moves him into the clean look that has become so popular for many best-selling authors. Lock In should be out in late August, but it should be noted Scalzi is still currently writing the manuscript.

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Cover Unveiled for Armada by Ernest Cline

With Ready Player One released just two years ago Ernest Cline created the nearly perfect nostalgia trip to gamer culture of the 70s and 80s. His next work Armada seems to fit in a similar mode though in the real instead of the virtual. Judging from the blurb I'd say this will give heavy nods to things like Flight of the Navigator and The Last Starfighter. Here's the official blurb:

Zack Lightman is daydreaming through another dull math class when the high-tech dropship lands in his school's courtyard-and when the men in the dark suits and sunglasses leap out of the ship and start calling his name, he's sure he's still dreaming.

But the dream is all too real; the people of Earth need him. As Zack soon discovers, the videogame he's been playing obsessively for years isn't just a game; it's part of a massive, top-secret government training program, designed to teach gamers the skills they'll need to defend Earth from a possible alien invasion. And now…that invasion is coming.

As he and his companions prepare to enter their ships and do battle, Zack learns that the father he thought was dead is actually a key player in this secret war. And together with his father, he'll uncover the truth about the alien threat, race to prevent a genocide, and discover a mysterious third player in the interplanetary chess game he's been thrown into.

The cover goes for a early Galaga/Space Invaders vibe which should hit the right market, but this may not be final. Armada will be released in July, 2014 from Crown. I'll be there with book tokens ready to plock down.

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A Few Cool Covers

A fresh batch of covers is making the rounds for Tor's Winter 2014 list. So now we can all salivate over books we can't get for more than six months!

Tor US cover

The VanderMeer's killed it with their magnus opus to strange short fiction with The Weird earlier this year and they hope to do the same with The Time Traveler's Alamanc coming out in March with 800 pages of glorious time jumping stories from over the last century or so. Those in the UK will be able to get it from the newish imprint Head of Zeus late this year, but I think the US wins the cover contest this go around.

On the heels of the World Fantasy Award winning The Weird, the next genre-defining anthology from award-winning team Ann and Jeff VanderMeer explores the popular world of time travel fiction 

The Time Traveler's Almanac is the largest, most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this almanac compiles more than a century's worth of literary travels into the past and the future to reacquaint readers with beloved classics and introduce them to thrilling contemporary examples of the time travel genre.

Featuring over seventy journeys into time from Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, Connie Willis, Charles Yu, and many more, The Time Traveler's Almanac covers millions of years of Earth's history, from the age of the dinosaurs through to strange and fascinating futures.
In fact, The Time Traveler's Almanac will serve as a time machine of its very own: the ultimate treasury of time travel stories, spanning the distance from the beginning of time to its very end.

The Unwrapped Sky is Rjurik Davidson long await debut. I first heard about this book more than 2 years ago as the author has published a couple short and entirely weird short stories from the world of Caeli-Amur so I'm eager to see what a novel length work of his will read like. The cover is gorgeous and we'll be able to touch it come April.

A hundred years ago, the Minotaurs saved Caeli-Amur from conquest. Now, three very different people may hold the keys to the city's survival. 

Once, it is said, gods used magic to create reality, with powers that defied explanation. But the magic—or science, if one believes those who try to master the dangers of thaumaturgy—now seems more like a dream. Industrial workers for House Technis, farmers for House Arbor, and fisher folk of House Marin eke out a living and hope for a better future. But the philosopher-assassin Kata plots a betrayal that will cost the lives of godlike Minotaurs; the ambitious bureaucrat Boris Autec rises through the ranks as his private life turns to ashes; and the idealistic seditionist Maximilian hatches a mad plot to unlock the vaunted secrets of the Great Library of Caeli-Enas, drowned in the fabled city at the bottom of the sea, its strangeness visible from the skies above. 

In a novel of startling originality and riveting suspense, these three people, reflecting all the hopes and dreams of the ancient city, risk everything for a future that they can create only by throwing off the shackles of tradition and superstition, as their destinies collide at ground zero of a conflagration that will transform the world . . . or destroy it.>

I had never heard of The Goblin Emperor by the novel debuting Katherine Addison before I saw the cover, but it just looks like all kinds of crazy, which will be unleashed in April as well.

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir. 

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment. 

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend . . . and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne–or his life. 

This exciting fantasy novel, set against the pageantry and color of a fascinating, unique world, is a memorable debut for a great new talent.

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Cover Unveiled for Dangerous Women edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardiner Dozois

Above is the cover for what to me is the most anticipated super-anthology of the year, Dangerous Women. I've already mentioned all the contributors, but seeing many of them listed there does give me goosebumps. Especially knowing how many of these will connect to the novel worlds of many of the writers. While I do like the general look, it looks a bit just too that--general, but then again so was Warrirors which this is a companion volume to. Maybe Tor was concerned with ending up with a chain mail bikini girl so they went safe. Still I would have thought this would have been a good opportunity to show a strong, dangerous woman on a Fantasy cover with out the awkward poses or unrealistic accouterments. Dangerous Women will be out in early December. Get your Christmas lists ready.

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Cover Unveiled for The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan

One of the debuts I've most been looking forward to this year is Brian McClellan's Promise of Blood. It is a meaty looking Fantasy with a society that is working its way towards the mechanical age. You see guns are worked in, but there is still magic in the world. And Gods walk the Earth. This falls firmly in the up-and-coming sub-genre Flintlock Fantasy, which has been starting to come out in the fiction of Abercrombie, Weeks, and Chris Evans, but this appears to be the first to go for it full throttle.  Promise of Blood isn't even out until April, but we've already got a chance to see the cover for the sequel The Crimson Campaign, which won't be out until February next year.

Art by Michael Frost and Gene Mollica, Design by Lauren Panepinto

I'm not always into photo realistic images, but these covers more than work for me. They evoke a beautifully textured and detailed world that knows the dirty side to warfare.  Bravo to Orbit for the attention to detail. Here's the blurb for Promise of Blood since we don't want to ruin things for the sequel this early. Now do we? No, I thought not.

It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.

It's up to a few...
Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.

But when gods are involved...
Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should...

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Covers Unveiled for Lexicon by Max Barry

US Cover, Art by Will Staehle

I've been a fan of Max Barry's since his satirical Sci-Fi winner Jennifer Government, but it was Company that truly won me over with it hilarious views of corporate governance and organization. His last effort from 2011, Machine Man (reviewed here), was quite the twisted view on trans-humanism, but his latest Lexicon, goes after language itself. We've got two covers to gander at. They both do the job well enough, but the type treatment on the US is a bit stronger. The UK cover is clearly going after the style that was done on Jennifer Government. In either case I'm very interested with what going on in the inside. Whatever happens I expect a funny yet intelligent read.

UK Cover, Art by Ben Summers

Here's the blurb:

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or mathematics—at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science .Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as “poets”: adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization’s recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school’s strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell—who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school’s most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he’s done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated tow nof Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry’s most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love—whatever the cost.

Lexicon hits the shelves in June.

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Cover Unveiled for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh by Bradley Beaulieu

Art by Aaron J. Riley.

Bradley Beaulieu's series The Lays of Anuskaya perfectly melds Fantasy with skyfaring Russian and Persian influenced cultures amidst a chain of islands. The art above is for the third and final volume in the series The Flames of Shadam Khoreh showing Nasim at age 18. Here's the blurb:

The Flames of Shadam Khoreh begins nearly two years after the events of The Straits of Galahesh. In it, Atiana and Nikandr continue their long search for Nasim, which has taken them to the desert wastes of the Gaji, where the fabled valley of Shadam Khoreh lies. But all is not well. War has moved from the islands to the mainland, and the Grand Duchy knows its time may be limited if Yrstanla rallies its forces. And the wasting disease and the rifts grow ever wider, threatening places that once thought themselves safe. The Dukes believe that their only hope may be to treat with the Haelish warriors to the west of Yrstanla, but Nikandr knows that the key is to find Nasim and a lost artifact known as the Atalayina.

Will Nikandr succeed and close the rifts once and for all? The answer lies deep within the Flames of Shadam Khoreh.

The Flames of Shadam Khoreh should be out sometime in 2013, but I can't find a firm listing as of yet. Beaulieu is also running a Kickstarter for his first short story collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, which will contain 2 original stories placed in this world. It ends in less than 2 days so get in it while you can.

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Cover Unveiled for You by Austin Grossman

A few years back Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible flipped the superhero story giving it from the point of view of the villain. You, Grossman's latest book looks to give us the videogame experience from the side of the programmers. The cover itself doesn't do much for me as the color is a bit bland, but it does give a sense of the content at least. Here's the blurb:

A novel of mystery, videogames, and the people who create them, by the bestselling author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman.

When Russell joins Black Arts games, the hottest studio in the game industry, he meets an eccentric crew of nerds hacking the frontiers of both technology and entertainment. But when their revolutionary next-gen game is threatened by a mysterious software glitch, Russell finds himself in a race to save both his job and the people he has grown to care about.

The bug is the first clue in a mystery leading back twenty years through real and virtual worlds, corporate boardrooms and high school computer camp, to a secret that changed a friendship and the history of gaming. YOU is a thrilling, hilarious, authentic portrait of the world of professional game makers; and the story of how learning to play can save your life.

Could this be Snow Crash with a funny angle? I sure hope so. You will be out March 26th, 2013. Mark that another as one to watch for next year.

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Cover Unveiled for The Tyrant's Law by Daniel Abraham

Daniel Abraham's The Dagger and the Coin has become one of the most solid Fantasy series over the last 2 years and the covers so far while being quite nice in a traditional yet modern sort of way have so far gone the weapon route for art, but this time for the third book, The Tyrant's Law, Orbit is treating us to some flaming monsters! Magic has been part of the books though not the focus, but stakes certainly seem to be rising in that area. Here's the blurb, but those who are behind in the series may just want to keep it to gazing at the cover:

The great war cannot be stopped.

The tyrant Geder Palliako begins a conquest aimed at bringing peace to the world, though his resources are stretched too thin. When things go poorly, he finds a convenient target among the thirteen races and sparks a genocide.

Clara Kalliam, freed by having fallen from grace, remakes herself as a "loyal traitor" and starts building an underground resistance movement that seeks to undermine Geder through those closest to him.

Cithrin bel Sarcour is apprenticing in a city that's taken over by Antea, and uses her status as Geder's one-time lover to cover up an underground railroad smuggling refugees to safety.

And Marcus Wester and Master Kit race against time and Geder Palliako's soldiers in an attempt to awaken a force that could change the fate of the world.

The Tyrant's War will be out in May and like the first two books will be an immediate get for me. Also, Abraham along with his co-conspirator Ty Frank will also be writing a Han Solo POV novel in the Star Wars universe under their James S.A. Corey name though no release date has been announced. This also reminds me I have to get to Caliban's War soon. Maybe it will be my Thanksgiving vacation treat...

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Covers Unveiled for NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Coming early in 2013 is Joe Hill's long awaited (by me at least) third full length novel after Horns, which is one of my favorite Horror novels of the last decade. In the US Hill's latest is being called Nos4a2 though in the UK they appear to be going with Nos4r2. Hill explains why in a tweet:

Joe Hill ‏@joe_hill:
The new novel is NOS4A2 in the US but for reasons of UK pronunciation is NOS4R2 on the other side of the pond.

US Harper/William Morrow Cover

UK Gollancz Cover

Both seem to do the job though the US has the clean "big book" look publishers go after when they don't want to turn anyone off while the UK goes for a nice atmospheric Horror cover. No official description is available, but Hill did discuss the book earlier this year at WorldCon in this video.

The estimated release date for the US edition of Nos4a2 is the end of April though that could change. No word on when the UK release will be, but something close seems likely. Add this is my list of CANNOT wait for titles in 2013.

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Cover Confusion - An International Incident Edition

A couple weeks back Saladin Ahmed unveiled the Polish cover for Throne of the Crescent Moon.

I thought: Not bad. A little too hooded for my likes. And who knew Ahmed was taking a crack at writing the novelization of the new Tron movie? In all seriousness Throne of the Crescent Moon is an awesome book and I can't wait for the sequel. However, a few days later Brent Weeks showed off the German cover for The Blinding Knife.

Notice any similarities? I'm not sure where the image itself originated. It could be a case of stock art that anyone can buy, the same designer reusing art in a different region, or even one of the publishers licensing the art to the other. It definitely falls in line with the style of the Night Angel books which were well used internationally.

Speaking of The Blinding Knife, I finished it just last week and it was just as good as The Black Prism. Probably even better. Man, Weeks knows how to stab someone in the back and twist it. Also, Ahmed just released an eBook short story collection called Engraved on the Eye. Check it out. I know I will.

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Cover Unveiled for The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke

I admit it. I have a thing for Mad Scientists of all stripes. The just slightly crazy ones like Doc Brown where they are a bit silly and barely realize how revolutionary their ideas are to more recent creations like Ian Tregillis's Dr. von Westarp who is the epitome of all the evils that science can achieve. Which brings me to this week's new cover art: The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke, which will be her debut adult novel coming from Angry Robot that was found as part of their Open Door submission period. Although, the scientist in question isn't a the center of things. Here's the blurb:

There’s never been anyone - or anything - quite like Finn.

He looks, and acts human, though he has no desire to be. He was programmed to assist his owners, and performs his duties to perfection. A billion-dollar construct, his primary task is to tutor Cat.

When the government grants rights to the ever-increasing robot population, however, Finn struggles to find his place in the world.

One of the things I like about Angry Robot's style of covers is that there isn't one. They try to give each a very unique look to their books. I may not be a fan of all the styles, but more times then not it is something that is very fitting for the story. With The Mad Scientist's Daughter they nailed it beautifully.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter escapes into the world in February right around the time another Mad Scientist related project is being unleashed.

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Cover Unveiled for The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination

BAD COVER ART CASEFILES

Publisher: We want something that screams shooting rainbows from the eyes from a bland looking guy.

Art Director: Done and done.

Publisher: Oh, and the same figure (clones obviously) should be in the background and they should all be wearing protective head gear.

Art Director: I said done didn't I? Look, I'm a professional. Leave it to me.

Publisher: Yeah, yeah. Just as long as it doesn't cost us much. Is printing the rainbow in 4 colors an absolute must?

Art Director: We'll make most of the cover in black, white, and grey. That should keep the colored ink bill down.

Publisher: You're a gem. I didn't want that to get out of hand. Every penny counts. This is just a Sci-Fi book. No need to go the extra mile. Oh, while I'm thinking about it add "A Science Fiction Novel" to the cover. That way people won't be expecting much.


Art Director: Of course. But you already have the words Intergalactic and Stars on the cover brief. You don't think that covers us?


Publisher: These are Sci-Fi fans. They need everything to be as blatant as possible. 

Art Director: Too right. I'll have it for you by the end of the day.

Publisher: That long?

Art Director: How about an hour.

Publisher: That's what I like to hear.

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UK Cover Unveiled for Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

Map by Dave Senior and Daggers by Didier Graffetaption

Joe Abercrombie's next book seems to be officially titled Red Country on both sides of the pond with the UK finally dropping the "A." The cover is very much in line with the style that has been established over the last few books and I can brook no complaints. Well done all around especially with the detail worked into the worn map. Is it October yet? Here is the wraparound and blurb for those who missed it earlier:

“They burned her home.

They stole her brother and sister.

But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust…”

Also, here is the limited edition cover for Best Served Cold for those who haven't seen it.

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Cover Unveiled for Earth Thirst by Mark Teppo

Mark Teppo--long-time friend of the blog--should be familiar to readers as we've covered his first two novels Lightbreaker and Heartland, interviewed him, and he's even stopped by to share some knowledge. So I couldn't pass up the chance to showoff the awesome cover for his next novel Earth Thirst--his take on Post-Apocalyptic Vampires. The art is by Cody Tilson who did my favorite cover of 2011, Seed. Knowing Teppo's work as I do I'm expecting an original take and I had a chance to get the lowdown on the project and the cover from him directly:

I've had the idea for Earth Thirst rattling around my head for a year or so now, but my schedule really hasn't been open enough to write it. After World Fantasy Convention last year, I realized that I probably wouldn't have a clear opening for another year or two and the idea behind the book did have some timeliness. If I waited and then tried to sell it--and then waited another year before it came out--I might miss the best opportunity.

So I sent Jeremy Lassen the pitch and a couple of chapters, explaining that I wasn't sure when I would have time to write it, but that I was very excited about their new books and their marketing efforts. I thought that they would know how to sell Earth Thirst and would get it in front of the right readers.

Jeremy emailed me back later that afternoon and said, "Yes, please, and how soon can I have it?"

I said, "Well, like I said, I'm super busy and . . . "

He replied, "Bla bla bla, writer's excuses, whining, not really listening. How about you get it to me as soon as you can and we'll put it in the schedule?"

(This is somewhat paraphrased, of course, but he and I had recently come to an understanding that the best way to get something on my schedule was to cram it on there and make me figure out how to solve the resultant time management problem.)

I meekly agree. Oh, who am kidding? I was thrilled.

A couple months later, I get a call that they're very excited about the premise of the book, they have a plan for marketing (which is exactly the sort of three word pitch I had been hoping to hear), and they're going to get Cody Tilson to do the cover.

"The guy who did the cover for Seed?" I ask after doing a quick Google search. "The guy who just won a Spectrum Award for Art Direction?"

"That's the one. You good with that?"

"Yeah, yeah, that'll be fine." All calm on the outside, jumping up and down on the inside.

Last week, they send me the cover. I'm still jumping up and down. Now I'm thrilled people will get a hint of what I'm talking about when I say I'm writing an eco-thriller with vampires.

Earth Thirst will be out January 8th from Night Shade Books. Here's the official blurb:

The Earth is dying. Humanity--over-breeding, over-consuming—is destroying the very planet they call home. Multinational corporations despoil the environment, market genetically modified crops to control the food supply, and use their wealth and influence and private armies to crush anything, and anyone, that gets in the way of their profits. Nothing human can stop them.

Once they did not fear the sun. Once they could breathe the air and sleep where they chose. But now they can rest only within the uncontaminated soil of Mother Earth—and the time has come for them to fight back against the ruthless corporations that threaten their immortal existence.

They are the last guardians of paradise, more than human but less than angels. They call themselves the Arcadians.

We know them as vampires. . . .

A Vampire Eco-Thriller? Count me in!

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