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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US & UK Covers Unveiled for Neal Stephenson's Reamde

Reamde is Neal Stephenson's first standalone novel in quite sometime. At least it seems to be so far. One never knows with Stephenson. This should especially interest those who loved Snow Crash, but haven't felt a strong enough desire to wade through the somewhat unwieldy The Baroque Cycle.

This cover just flat out confuses me, but it also makes curious. Firstly, there is the title Reamde, which when I first read it months ago I could make neither hide nor hare of. Now that I see the cute play with gradation on the cover the cute trick works well: Read Me. A not so subliminal message perchance from Stephenson? Possible, but it also foretells a story involving intrigue quite quickly. The cover overall is certainly subtly impactful staying with such basic colors and fonts. I'm not entirely sure if this cover is the final or merely a placeholder. Either way it is interesting to take a look at. Stephenson is probably a big enough name now to push for this type of cover given his last 4 books have been New York Times best-sellers although it isn't as if he's been lacking in that department much in the past.

Here is the very scant blurb that has been released by Stephenson's US publisher so far on Amazon, which is a bit heavy on the sales-y references:

With Reamde, this visionary author whose mind-stretching fiction has been enthusiastically compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut, and David Foster Wallace—not to mention William Gibson and Michael Crichton—once again blazes new ground with a high-stakes thriller that will enthrall his loyal audience, science and science fiction, and espionage fiction fans equally. The breathtaking tale of a wealthy tech entrepreneur caught in the very real crossfire of his own online fantasy war game, Reamde is a new high—and a new world—for the remarkable Neal Stephenson.

From his UK publisher we get a bit more depth:

Across the globe, millions of computer screens flicker with the artfully coded world of T'Rain - an addictive internet role-playing game of fantasy and adventure. But backstreet hackers in China have just unleashed a contagious virus called Reamde, and as it rampages through the gaming world spreading from player to player - holding hard drives hostage in the process - the computer of one powerful and dangerous man is infected, causing the carefully mediated violence of the on-line world to spill over into reality. A fast-talking, internet-addicted mafia accountant is brutally silenced by his Russian employers, and Zula - a talented young T'Rain computer programmer - is abducted and bundled on to a private jet. As she is flown across the skies in the company of the terrified boyfriend she broke up with hours before, and a brilliant Hungarian hacker who may be her only hope, she finds herself sucked into a whirl of Chinese Secret Service agents and gun-toting American Survivalists; the Russian criminal underground and an al-Qaeda cell led by a charismatic Welshman; each a strand of a connected world that devastatingly converges in T'Rain. An inimitable and compelling thriller that careers from British Columbia to South-West China via Russia and the fantasy world of T'Rain, Reamde is an irresistible epic from the unique imagination of one of today's most individual writers.

Got all that? Because they'll be a test later on.  Now we have here the UK cover, which is much more in line with Stephenson's previous novels.

Reamde will be released September 20th in the US and the 15th in the UK. Will you be there for it?

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REVIEW | Horns by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Horns is a devilishly funny read that'll make you question the very nature of good and evil. Horns is even perhaps the best Horror novel I've ever read, which I finished in three sittings and nearly didn't go to a friend's party just to get further. Yeah, it's that good.

Now, I'll readily admit I'm not a huge Horror reader so take it for what it is worth. Hill's first effort Heart Shape Box was too unevenly paced and also went off on a few too many tangents for me. The whole ghost standing around all the time just didn't give me a creep factor either, which is why I wasn't expecting amazing things from Horns. Boy, am I glad to have been proven wrong here.

Joe Hill's sophmore effort is without a doubt one of the best books released this year.  I was totally engrossed from the second page in. Horns is dark, depraved, and fiendish in the most unexpected ways yet it is a Horror story with a heart. Two hearts in fact with the angst-ridden Ig and easily lovable Merrin both coming across as endearing and understandable characters whose deep love tear them apart.  Rather than go into the plot here is a bit of the description:

At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.

Ig's powers lead to particularly lurid conversations, which examine the human thought process in dark ways as seemingly everyday people are prodded to say exactly what demented things are on their mind. Multiple flashbacks give insight into many of the story threads including 3 different character's POV for one incident, which worked better than I anticipated.

Horns is a writing exercise in perfect subplots, pacing, and characterization that achieves on every level. This is one of the few books I can't find any fault with in anyway. Well, I did figure out one aspect within the first couple of chapters, but the reveal wasn't any less enjoyable for it, especially as Hill pulled a couple good rabbits out of his hat to make it work.

Hardcore Horror fans may feel Horns doesn't go dark enough, but the story goes as far as it needs to in order to achieve the depth it required, which is quite touching, sly, and immensely clever. Still there are some disturbing parts that'll make some turn away. I give Horns 10 out of 10 Hats. Hill has raised his game to lofty heights and he has now made me an unabashed fan. I can't wait to see what he does next.

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