Covering Covers: An Early Look at Orbit Fall/Winter Titles

It's a coverpalooza!!! Over at the Orbit Books Blog, creative mastermind Lauren Panepinto provided an early look at 20 new Orbit covers from their Fall 2012 / Winter 2013 line-up. No sighting on the Joe Abercrombie Red Country cover just yet but there are some gems in the line-up, particulary Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere and Jesse Bullington's The Folly of the World. I'm also a huge fan of the Cobley and Sapkowski import covers which manage to stand out while hitting all of the core demographic triggers (swords, castles, and dragons for fantasy / spaceships, planets, and stars for SF). Here are a few of my favorites, hop on over to the Orbit site for the full haul. 

 

American Elsewhere design by Kirk Benshoff

 

  

 Michael Cobley illustrations by Steve Stone, design by Kirk Benshoff.

 Sapkowski illustrations by CD Projekt Red & Massive Black, design by Lauren Panepinto

 

 

The Red Knight illustration by Epica Prima, design by Lauren Panepinto

 

 Folly of the World design by Lauren Panepinto

Seven Kings illustration by Richard Anderson, design by Lauren Panepinto.

I think my favorite is either American Elsewhere or The Time of Contempt. I like Folly of the World a lot too but it reminds me a bit too much of Corwin Ericson's Swell for some reason.

What's your favorite?

Covering Covers: The Dervish House

In the words of the immortal Malcolm Reynolds...ooooooo, shiny. This is a great, great cover. Stephan Martiniere is responsible as usual. I can't count the number of times I see a cover and think to myself, "Wow, I wonder who did that" and then go on to find its a Martiniere. The computer circuitry gives a subtle touch to an image that otherwise appears fairly timeless. I also really dig the text box and the way the horizontal banners and building interplay with the sharp angles of the title and author borders. Sometimes great cover art is ruined by bad font choice or placement. This is not one of those times.

Lou Anders put up this cover over on Pyr-o-mania, where he also gave Ian McDonald's latest a brief overview:

In the sleepy Istanbul district of Eskiköy stands the former whirling dervish house of Adem Dede. Over the space of five days of an Istanbul heatwave, six lives weave a story of corporate wheeling and dealing, Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, ancient Ottoman mysteries, a terrifying new terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet.

If that alone isn't enough to sell you, I've previously read Brasyl and River of Gods which are McDonald's futuristic takes on Brasyl and India. The Dervish House appears to do the same for Turkey. If its as captivating as his two previous cultural excursions, it is not one to be missed.

The Dervish House hits shelves next July

Covering Hypothetical Covers: The Sage King

Yesterday at a neighborhood art fair, I stumbled upon this piece of art by a local artist by the name of Bryan Sperry (SperryArt.com). It's called The Sage King, which is also what the Asian characters translate to. Either that or The Fairy Princess. I don't read whatever language that is, so I took his word for it. But I love the picture and it was the right price so now it's hanging up on my wall.

So why bring it up on the blog? Because I think that "The Sage King" would be a great fantasy title. And I happen to think that this would make eye-catching cover art.

Ignoring the horrible picture I took, what do you think? Would you pick up "The Sage King"? Would this cover art attract your eye on bookstore shelves?

Covering Covers: Galileo's Dream

I saw the cover for Kim Stanley Robinson's Galileo's Dream for the first time accompanying Adam Robert's glowing review at the Guardian website. I grabbed a brief summary of the novel from his review which is quoted below:

Two-thirds of the novel is a scrupulously researched and brilliantly effective historical tale dramatising Galileo's life and times; the remainder is set among the colonised moons of Jupiter in the year 3020. Alien life has been encountered beneath Europa's ice; it may be benign or it may pose a terrible threat to Jovian human society. By means of temporal entanglement (with just a little Robinsonian hand-waving), Galileo is brought "proleptically" forward to lend his prestige to the debate over what to do.

That sounds very interesting and the cover blends Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle with any of a number of Alastair Reynolds covers. Devoted SFF blogosphere followers might recall that Adam Roberts referenced Galileo's Dream in his rant about the mediocrity of this year's Hugo slate as one of the books he's read that he would nominate over any of the actual novels on the list. I'm definitely interested in reading this one but unfortunately it falls into the category of books that are published in the UK with no US release date in sight. I just might have to bend my rule about foreign releases once again...

What do you think of the cover? Any UK readers out there?

Update: Reader Kimon provided a link to the US Cover as well as a US Release Date of December 29th, 2009. There's also another review, this one from The Independent.

Here's the US cover:


I don't know about you but the cover + release date is two votes for the UK edition and two strikes against the US one. Book Depository Free World Wide Shipping, here I come.

Covering Covers: Darker Angels

I was looking through my Amazon Wishlist's today at upcoming books and I saw that a certain book had updated it's cover profile. To quote M.L.N. Hanover (a.k.a. Daniel Abraham):

"I've seen the cover for the second book, and lemme tell you, it's totally going to fail for you too."

FTW! or is it FTL? We've got the Improbable Top^TM, the Tramp Stamp^TM Wrap-Around Edition, and the Deadly Object^TM. Plus Leather! Who doesn't wear leather? In New Orleans?

I must say though, knowing that I'm going to read this book regardless of the cover makes the Epic TropeFail of this cover almost entertaining. It's laughably bad. The sad thing is that it's actually not that bad for a Urban Fantasy cover.

I expect the story will more than make up for the travestacular cover, just like Hanover's 1st offering, Unclean Spirits, did.

Additional Apologies to Daniel Abraham

When I originally heard that Daniel Abraham was writing Urban Fantasy under the pen name M.L.N. Hanover, I was intrigued. I like Urban Fantasy. I like Daniel Abraham. After a quick google search, I found the publisher’s blurb to be interesting enough to add the book to the Amazon wishlists I use to track release dates.

Then I saw the cover.

I’ve hated the stereotypical Urban Fantasy covers since I started noticing the trend. Attractive girl with a lower back tattoo facing away from the reader while holding a weapon, et cetera, et cetera. While not ever thing fits the exact description, 90% of the Urban Fantasy books featuring female protagonists have covers with at least a few if not all of the trademark clichés. Covers I would be embarrassed to be seen reading. Covers I was determined not to purchase.

So I had a decision to make, either I could succumb to my desire to read the book. Or I could hold out and stick to my principles. I chose my principles.

So I wrote this post, and said I wasn’t going to pay to read Unclean Spirits in protest over the lazy covers, while offering my apologies.

Somehow, Daniel Abraham actually ended up reading the post on my fledgling blog and he very professionally and politely responded:

“Your objection to the cover is well-taken. It is very much an urban fantasy cover, and it ain't breaking any new ground. And if it turned you off the series, I certainly respect that. I've seen the cover for the second book, and lemme tell you, it's totally going to fail for you too.

As far as your promise to never put your money into that kind of cover art . . . well, should you ever choose to shoplift a book, please keep me in mind.”

I thought this was exceedingly cool and we kicked a few e-mails back and forth and talked a little about the book, about urban fantasy in general, and about the covers. In the end, Mr. Abraham ended up sending me a review copy of the book, allowing me to read it without “putting my money into that kind of a cover art.”

YetiNote: It’s also important to note that this isn’t something that he normally does. Please don’t swear off his work in some attempt to get free books from him. It would negatively affect his sales, which would negatively affect his ability to sell more books, which would negatively affect my enjoyment derived from reading them.

So I read it. And I enjoyed it.

I would like to offer my apologies again to Daniel Abraham for judging his book on its cover. He should be proud of the way he was willing to stand behind his work and challenge my opinions in a professional and productive manner. And he should be proud of Unclean Spirits. It's a great read. He’s got one more person who is going to pick up the next installment in his Black Sun's Daughter series.

Regardless of how bad the cover art is.

Look for a review of Unclean Spirits and a discussion with Daniel Abraham regarding the Black Sun’s Daughter and the state of Urban Fantasy in the coming days.

Covering Covers: The WindUp Girl

Over at his website, Paolo Bacigalupi is showing off the cover to his debut novel The Windup Girl. And what a cover! A little digging (i.e. a quick Google search) revealed the cover art was done by Raphael Lacoste (Link) who I don't know if I've ever heard of doing cover art before. But looking at that cover and some of the work on his website, I would like to see more covers from him.

The artwork is fantastic. I love the megodonts (genetically engineered elephants originally referenced in Bacigalupi's fantastic short story anthology Pump Six and Other Stories) and how "Mammoth" they look. The dualism of the trash littered slums versus the futurisitic high rises is a great visual and also ties into some of the themes that were prevelant in Bacigalupi's short stories "The Calorie Man" and "Yellow Card Man" both of which take place in the same future setting as The Windup Girl. Covers that actually echo the content of the book are few and far between in today's publishing landscape.

I also love the title font and it's placement. The two lines seperating the title really make it pop and emphasize some of the background artwork in interesting ways. I'm less entralled with the blurb and the author text but I have a sneaking suspicion that that might not be the final edit. The pixelation and simplicity scream Microsoft Paint.

The publisher's summary is also available on the publishers website (Night Shade Books)

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...

Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of "The Calorie Man" ( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and "Yellow Card Man" (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these poignant questions.

The Windup Girl will be available in September. This is a must buy for me for sure. I absolutely loved Pump Six and Other Stories particularly the all-too-real feel of this future world in which calories are cash. If you haven't done so, I would recommend reading Pump Six before The Windup Girl is released.

Covering Covers: Backlash

The cover for Book 4 of the Fate of the Jedi series, Backlash, hit the Interwebz this week.

I really like the stylized covers they've been using for the Fate of the Jedi series. The vibrant yellow color (after orange, blue, and red for Books 1-3 pictured below) with the shaded single character against a Coruscant skyline looks great. Previous Star Wars series have had poorly photoshopped covers of movie characters or ships or generic Star Wars action shots of lightsaber duels and X-wings that have virtually nothing to do with the actual plot. These covers all have a theme to them and it really separates them from the other 50-ish Star Wars books on the shelf at the end of the SFF section. Until they put a character on the cover that isn't even in the book, these covers are full of win for me.


My one nitpick is that I'm not sure who the lightsaber wielding Jedi is suppossed to be. It might be Ben Skywalker (Luke's son for those of you that aren't up to date on the Star Wars present). The face just looks off though and I can almost see Harrison Ford's Han Solo in there. I think Ben is suppossed to be in the neighborhood of 20-25 and this character look older.
It might not be Ben though. If it was a new Jedi not related to the Big Three, I would be happy as a fanboy at a Jar Jar stoning.Omen (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, Book 2), which arrives on shelves next week, features a mysterious tattooed vixen wielding a red lightsaber. Unless Jaina (Leia and Han's daughter) got into some kinky stuff between Books 1 and 2, it's pretty safe to say shes a new character (and possibly Sith).

Also, can you spot the significant difference between the covers of Books 1-3? If you can't, try to figure out which author hasn't written in the Star Wars universe before and then read this post.

I wasn't lying.

My apologies to Daniel Abraham

Like a lot of readers out there, I enjoy Urban Fantasy. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Mike Carey's Felix Castor Novels are two series that I place in the illustrious DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) category. I also enjoy Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Novels and Simon R. Green's Nightside series. I've also heard good things about Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries although I haven't had the chance to try them out. There is a veritable plethora of Urban Fantasy out there, just waiting to be read.

Enter M.L.N Hanover, author of Unclean Spirits and Darker Angels, the first two books of the Black Sun’s Daughter series. If you aren’t aware, M.L.N. Hanover is a pen name for Daniel Abraham, whose Long Price Quartet is extremely well written and equally well covered. I enjoy Daniel Abraham’s books and eagerly anticipate the release of The Price of Spring (The Long Price Quartet) this summer.

I will not read M.L.N. Hanover.

First off, I am ignoring the fact that Daniel Abraham is publishing under a pen name. Different type of book, different pen name. Authors have done it before and will do it again. This one is particularly troubling because the “M.L.N Hanover” moniker is specifically targeted to confuse the targeted reader (i.e. women) into thinking that the book is written by a woman (at least hiding the fact that it was written by a man). Who cares what the author’s gender is as long as it’s engaging and well written? Regardless, that’s not why I will skip this series.













I’m not reading because the cover is beyond terrible.

It's a textbook generic Urban Fantasy cover. If you don’t know what I mean, watch this video:



See?

I made a vow to myself years ago when Urban Fantasy flooded the market. I swore to never buy a book with a cover like that. I refuse to give a single dollar of my money (and I buy enough books to keep several publishers in business) to a publisher who puts out a cover that bad. It’s a disservice to the readers AND the authors. It's saying this book is no different than any of the dozens of others out there and expecting us to develop some Pavlovian response mechanism. Since publishers apparently only understand money, we’ve got to speak to them in a language they can understand: sales. This is a trend that needs to stop.

On Unclean Spirits, I count at least 4 Urban Fantasy Cover Sins.

1. Female character facing away from reader
2. Lower back tattoo (more commonly referred to as a tramp stamp)
3. Leather Pants
4. Weapon at the ready

Throw a moon in there and swap the tank top for a corset and you have a cover so stereotypical it’s sickening.

Now go back and look at the covers for the 5 series I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Each of them has a clear style that repeats from book to book. You could take every bit of text off a Dresden Files novel or a Southern Vampire Mystery and I would know exactly who wrote it and what kind of a book to expect. You do that for Unclean Spirits or any of the covers featured in that video and you get a very uniform result. When I see a cover like that, I expect generic trash. It doesn’t help that any well-earned name recognition is out the window due to the pen name.

My sympathies to Daniel Abraham, I’m sure this cover wasn’t your decision, and I’m guessing the name change wasn’t either. If theses books are as well written as your other work, I’m sure they are some quality fiction. Quality Fiction I won’t be reading. I made a promise to myself a long time ago. A promise I intend to keep.