More new WILD CARDS cover art

I previously posted the covers for the Gollancz UK reprints of the fourth and fifth Wild Cards books, but Gollancz have now unveiled (via Amazon) the new covers for the sixth and seventh books.

This year's UK Wild Cards publishing schedule runs as follows:

Aces Abroad (Wild Cards #4): 8 May
Down and Dirty (#5): 12 June
Ace in the Hole (#6): 10 July
Dead Man's Hand (#7): 14 August
Lowball (#22): 11 December

New SONG OF ICE AND FIRE covers for the UK

HarperCollins Voyager have unveiled new cover art for the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin.

Click to embiggen.

The new books emphasise landforms and geography, unlike the previous covers which featured military and medieval iconography.

They're striking, but to my mind don't quite capture the feel of the series. In particular, A Clash of Kings featuring (presumably) the Red Waste on the cover is a little odd given that only one chapter takes place there. It's also mildly disappointing that Voyager still haven't recombined A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons into a single paperback volume each, given how many larger or comparable novels out there are available in one paperback volume (The Wise Man's Fear, The Naked God, Atlas Shrugged, The Lord of the Rings, Diana Gabaldon's novels etc). I'm also hoping that the Game of Thrones tie-in note are stickers and not part of the cover, as they are rather incongruous. The current paperback set rather subtly and elegantly notes the GoT reference in a small section on the back cover, which is a better idea.

The new covers will be available alongside the previous ones and will not replace them outright.

Cover art for HALF A KING by Joe Abercrombie

io9 have released the (presumably American) cover art for Joe Abercrombie's next novel, Half a King.The first in a new trilogy aimed at a somewhat younger audience than his previous work, it will be published on 8 July in the United States by Del Rey and around the same time in the UK by HarperCollins.

io9 also have an extract from the novel which is worth checking out.

New Paul Kearney cover art

Solaris have unveiled the cover art for their second reprint of Paul Kearney's opening three novels. The Way to Babylon will be published on 27 May, 2014.

Solaris also have an art blog about the creation of the cover. Please note that there is an error in that blog post: Kearney's first three novels are stand-alones, not part of a longer series (though they do share a couple of thematic ideas). This is the second of Paul's first three, stand-alone novels to be reprinted, following A Different Kingdom (due in January 2014) and to be followed by Riding the Unicorn (due in late 2014).

Paul is currently working on a new novel (and potentially and tentatively a new series) which I think will excite a lot of SFF fans, which he hopes to be able to tell us more about very soon. And no, it's not related to the Sea-Beggars series, which remains in limbo until Bantam USA sort themselves out.

New Terry Pratchett cover art

The cover art for the new Discworld book, Raising Steam, out on 24 October in the UK and 7 November in the USA. Pratchett has moved to a new Amercian publisher, Doubleday, who will be handling his Stateside books from now on.

UK cover art: Tad Williams and Guy Gavriel Kay

Some new cover art for the UK market. First up is Happy Hour in Hell, the second volume in Tad Williams's Bobby Dollar series and the follow-up to last year's enjoyable Dirty Streets of Heaven. The UK edition is released on 26 September.

More imminent is Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, which is already out in the USA (and e-book worldwide) and picking up good reviews. The UK print edition is out on 3 July.

Thanks to Jussi on the Westeros forum for spotting these.

WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE cover art and release info

Bantam have released some more info about The World of Ice and Fire, including the cover art and a confirmed release date of 5 November 2013.

CHUNG KUO update: cover art and omnibus e-books

The cover art for the seventh volume in the Chung Kuo series, The Broken Wheel, has been released:

The book is due for publication in November. The sixth volume, An Inch of Ashes, (cover art here) is out on 4 July.

Interestingly, Corvus are also listing an e-book called Chung Kuo: The Epic Begins for release on 4 July. It appears to be an omnibus edition combining the third and fourth books in the series, The Middle Kingdom and Ice and Fire. Exactly why you'd call an omnibus The Epic Begins and then start with Book 3 is a bit beyond me, but omnibus e-books seem like a great idea, as the individual volumes have been fairly short so far (which I know has put off some people from trying the recast version of the series: £18 for 250 pages in hardcover has raised some eyebrows).

UPDATE: An e-book omnibus of the first two volumes has indeed appeared on Amazon, entitled The Rise of China, which combines Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron Mountain. It is due for release on 2 May.

New Cover Art: Alastair Reynolds & Chris Wooding

Two forthcoming releases have had their cover art revealed. First up is On the Steel Breeze, the second novel in Alastair Reynolds's Poseidon's Children sequence and the sequel to last year's Blue Remembered Earth. On the Steel Breeze will be out on 15 August:

Second is the fourth and concluding volume in the Tales of the Ketty Jay sequence by Chris Wooding, The Ace of Skulls. This book is set for release on 19 September:

Wooding has also provided an update for American fans of the series. The much-delayed third volume, The Iron Jackal, will be published by Titan in March 2014 and The Ace of Skulls in August 2014.

CHUNG KUO update

The fifth volume in the Chung Kuo series, The Art of War, is out on 1 March. Unlike the previous volumes, I haven't received an ARC so I'll have to pick it up the old-fashioned way at some point. Here is the Larry Rostant cover art for the sixth volume in the series, An Inch of Ashes:

Corvus's new catalogue confirms that there will only be three Chung Kuo novels published this year rather than the previously-suggested four. An Inch of Ashes will be out on 4 July, followed by The Broken Wheel on 7 November. The good news is that apparently Corvus has reached a deal with Barnes and Nobel in the United States, with the UK versions of the novels being released in the USA via their shops. With no news on a US-specific publisher picking up the series, this should be of interest to American readers. The books are also available via Amazon, with the e-editions also accessible from the USA (though not always on release).

A cover you'll remember

Best cover art of the year? Almost certainly.

This is the cover to the limited edition of Bleeding Shadows, a collection of short stories by Joe R. Lansdale, to be published by Subterranean Press in November. I have no idea what the hell is going on here, but now I want to read it.

Cover art for Christopher Priest's THE ADJACENT

Given that waits for a new Christopher Priest novel are often measured in half-decades (or, in the case of the last one, a full decade), it feels like we're being spoiled with a new book so soon after his previous one. The Adjacent will be published in June 2013 and now has some cover art:

Priest calls this the longest and most complicated book he's ever written, which coming from the author of The Affirmation and The Separation is saying something.

Cover art: Feist and Gaiman

Some cover art for upcoming books. First up is Raymond E. Feist's Magician's End (US version):

Normally I don't post much about Feist (that whole, 'Fourteen years since he last published a good book' thing tends to get in the way), but this is somewhat noteworthy as Magician's End concludes the entire 30-volume saga begun way back in 1982 with Magician, bringing to an end the cycle of riftwars and interdimensional chaos to plague the world of Midkemia. Feist plans to move onto other works and worlds (including an apparent SF series) for a while, which can only be a good thing for the quality of his writing. Magician's End will be published in May 2013.

Meanwhile, Neil Gaiman's first full-length-novel-for-adults in eight years, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, will be published in June 2013. Cover blurbage:

“They say you cannot go home again, and that is as true as a knife . . .”

A man returns to his childhood village seeking comfort in memories of his youth and the friend who long ago transformed his life.

Once upon a time in a rural English town, an eleven-year-old girl named Lettie Hempstock shows a little boy the most marvelous, dangerous, and outrageous things beyond his darkest imagination. But an ancient power has been disturbed, and now invasive creatures from beyond the known world are set loose. There is primal horror here, and menace unleashed—within the boy’s family and from the forces that have gathered to consume it.

Determined to have their way, these otherworldly beings will destroy a meddling little boy if he dares to get in the way. It will take calm, courage, and the cleverness of the extraordinary Hempstock women—Lettie, her mother, and her grandmother, to keep him alive. But his survival will come at an unexpected cost. . . .

Storytelling genius Neil Gaiman delivers a whimsical, imaginative, bittersweet, and at times deeply scary modern fantasy about fear, love, magic, sacrifice, and the power of stories to reveal and to protect us from the darkness inside—a moving, terrifying, and elegiac fable for every age.

New Daniel Abraham cover art

Here's the cover art for Daniel Abraham's next two novels: Abaddon's Gate, the third volume of The Expanse (written with Ty Franck under the pen name James S.A. Corey); and The Tyrant's Law, the third volume in The Dagger and the Coin:

The Tyrant's Law will be published in May 2013, with Abaddon's Gate following a month later.

UK cover art for Richard Morgan's THE DARK DEFILES

An early look at the working cover art for Richard Morgan's The Dark Defiles, provisionally due in August 2013:

No, I haven't read the book: it's still being written. The quote is from my review of The Cold Commands and may not be present on the final version of the cover for The Dark Defiles.

Final cover art for THE LANDS OF ICE AND FIRE

The Lands of Ice and Fire - a tie-in map book for A Song of Ice and Fire - arrives at the end of October and the final cover art for the book has been unveiled:

Nothing too surprising, with a map of Westeros and some heraldic symbols forming the front cover to the book (though clearly the Tyrells and Martells annoyed someone).

New WILD CARDS UK cover artwork

The Wild Cards series is being relaunched in the UK by Gollancz with all-new cover artwork.

Wild Cards will be released in November, followed by Aces High the following month. The third book, Jokers Wild, will be released in March 2013. The series will then jump to the newer volumes, with Inside Straight coming out in June 2013. Sales will determine if the other earlier books in the series will be reprinted at a later date.

I must admit, these covers are quite nice. They're not Michael Komarck, but there's some nice understatement to them (er, giant dinosaur aside) and good use of the card motif. It will be interesting to see the covers for the later books.