COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XX)

   This anthology series has now moved over to Solaris, and their first will be out 13 May this year. The image is pretty standard for Science Fiction, and especially Science Fiction anthologies. I'm perfectly fine with that, as I like these traditional covers. I must say I'm pretty excited by the names on the cover, especially since I already have an e-ARC of this.

   Another year's best anthology, this one from St. Martin's Press. There are some exciting names here too. The image is if anything even more traditional, in that it harkens back to the Pulp magazine era. As above, I like this one too. The art here is great, and the image makes me curious about the content.

   To finish off a trinity of anthologies, we have this Titan Books reprint of a 2001 anthology (, if my Google-Fu is correct). It will be out 27 June 2014, and it looks like a very interesting anthology. When it comes to the cover, it is again pretty traditional, this time in its representation of Cthulhu. I like it.

   The third Southern Reach trilogy book has gotten its Farrar, Stroux and Giroux (US) cover. The book will be out 2 September. As with the cover for the first book, I really like this cover. It's a cover that will "pop" in the stores, and it is something I'd pick up to look at further.

   This one was actually out from Solaris on 26 March. I'm a bit behind, so I decided to include it anyway. It's also a cover I really like, and the book's description makes me even more curious. I will be reading this.

   This is the US, Random House Del Rey, HC cover for the book coming 8 July 2014. It is very stylised, much more so than I would have expected from a US release. I actually had to check that this was not the UK cover, since they tend to be more minimalistic in their approach. I like it a lot, it's simple in the right way to tickle my fancy.

This is another book that is out already. This one on 27 March from Tor UK. It's the follow up to Malice. This is a really good cover, I especially like the axe. I think I have to get my hands on both this and the previous book.

   From Angry Robot Books there is this cover by Steve Stone. The book has a 24 June release date. As always with Angry Robot we are getting a really good cover. (Although my girlfriend tells me he's holding the rapier the wrong way.) It's one of the top handful of hooded-man covers of all time for me.

   I've previously featured the US cover for this book. The UK edition will be out 5 June, and the artwork is by Jason Chan. This is an intriguing cover to me, and I would really like to read the book it represents. Taking the two (very) different covers together makes me want to read it even more.

   This is also one where I have previously shown the US cover. The difference here is really slight, but it makes for a cover that is quite different to look at. I must say that I like the UK one a bit better.

   That's it for this time. I'll be back with more covers pretty soon, so keep your browsers pointed in this direction if you are interested in these posts.

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XVII)

   Coming from Solaris 29 April 2014. This is a Steampunk novel set in the Far East. I actually feel that information is a bit redundant, the cover has already said that. I must say I find this dragon very intriguing, I really want to know what it is doing, and why. I also think it is a very cool piece of art in itself.

   You may have caught the news that Raymond E. Feist is working on a new series. This is the (US/Canada) Harper Voyager cover for the first book in that series, coming out 6 May 2014. Uhm...it's a sword in a field. I'm perfectly okay with that, but there's really not much to go on here. Either you like this sort of cover image or you don't.

   I've previously showed the cover for the first novel in this new Shannara series here. This second novel will be out from Del Rey 19 August 2014. This is a trilogy of standalones. I really like the cover this time too. It fits very well with the last one, creating a great series feel.

   The second book in this tie-in trilogy is coming from St. Martins Press 4 March 2014. I think this cover is very good. In my opinion it captures the feel of the TV series even better than the previous one. (That I said was book number three. As far as I can see now, it's the first one.)

   From Orbit comes this book, with a 27 May 2014 release date. From what I can see this is a whole new series. I like the cover a lot. It may have the usual hooded figure, but it does something new with it. And it looks -for want of a better word- inviting.

  Harper (US) paperback cover, release date 22 April 2014. Book five in the Watch series. This has already been out in hardcover, but I wanted to show it anyway. This is a series that was huge some years ago, when the movie came, and then it sort of petered out. I don't think I've heard about it since book three was lined up for a release in English. Not really sure what happened with it. The cover is no more than okay and doesn't do much for me. But it's really different from the movie I saw, so I put it up here as curiosa. Did anyone who reads this read the books? If so, please give me a heads-up about them in the comments.

      From PYR, 8 July 2014 this is the fifth Burton & Swinburne novel. I almost posted the cover for the fourth novel, until I checked the release date and found out it was already out. This is done in the same style, and I really like this one too. I haven't ready any of these books, but the covers make me want to pick them up.

  Out from Tor (US) 20 May 2014. This is the seventeenth book in the Saga of Recluse. I think there was four or five books the first time I became aware of the series. It's one of those that I've never gotten started on. Although the few people I know who have read it talk highly of it. I am actually a fan of this style of covers for Epic Fantasy books. I think this is a really good cover just for that reason. And it is of course also a really good illustration.

   Also from Tor (US), this is the follow up to The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince, and is out 6 May 2014. I think it's a really good cover. But I have to say the background figures reminds me of the (PlayStation) Final Fantasy games. Considering the amount of hours I have spent playing those games, that is pretty high praise.

  Out 13 May from PYR. I started with a dragon, so I thought I'd end with one. This is a more Western type dragon, and in some ways this is a pretty traditional cover. Not that it matters. It's a great image in my opinion, and I'll most likely hunt down a copy of this so I can have it in my shelves.


   If you've read any of my previous cover reveal round-up posts you may have noticed something different this time. There's no credits for artists here. That's because I have taken all these covers from different publishers' catalogs online, and that information wasn't available. I'd love to add that though, so if you are the artist or work for the publisher of these books, I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what credits I can add in the comments or by sending me an e-mail to the address in the top right hand corner. Facebook and Twitter is also fine. I want to give credit to those who have made these covers.

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XIV)

   I'll begin this time with the cover for the third book in Ian Sales's Apollo Quartet from Whippleshield Books. (I've reviewed book one and two.) The cover is by Kay Sales, and it will be available in November. I like this minimalistic approach, it fits very well with both the other covers, and I like the "subtle" hints in the art. This is one I'm looking forward to.

   This one is from Solaris, with art by Jake Murray. The book will be out in December. I really like this cover, the art is great. The perspective is a bit disorienting though, but that is what's really eyecatching.

   Another Terry Brooks Shannara book, this one is coming out in April of 2014 from Del Rey. This is certainly a departure from the last Shannara trilogy's covers (see: here, here and here). I really like this cover, the art is great and it hints at magic. (It also reminds that it's been a long time since I read the original Shannara Trilogy, but that is another story altogether.)

    This isn't exactly a new reveal, but it slipped under my radar. The book is out in April 2014 from Tor/Forge. The cover is by Will Staehle, and you can see different versions of it here. I like this cover, the old style newspaper page layout really appeals to me.

   From Gollancz we have this one, designed by Benjamin Carré, and released in April 2014. I like these simple, symbolic, covers when they are done well. And I think this one is. You can read what Sam Sykes has to say about it, and the book, here.

   The forth Department 19 book has gotten a cover. It will be published 27 March 2014 by Harper Collins Children's Books. (NOTE: It's a Young Adult book.) The cover falls neatly into line with the previous three, and I like it.

   This one I wasn't even sure I should include. The reason is that despite the inclusion of the weapon this isn't really a cover in the sense that it has cover art. I totally understand that when you have an anthology co-edited by G.R.R.M., you want his name prominently on the cover. Dozois is well known for editing anthologies, so he certainly deserves equal billing.

   So, I understand this cover from a promotional standpoint, the name recognition will certainly make people pick it up. But I don't like this as a cover, I prefer art on  my covers. Preferably something that would look good in a frame on the wall if you stripped off the text.

   Here's one with art by Sarah Anne Langton. It's an anthology that will be out at Loncon 3, in August next year. I love this cover, the thoughts the images on it, together with the title, brings to mind makes me want to read the book.

   I'll finish up with four beautiful covers from Strange Chemistry. And SC has really made a reputation for having very good covers. I think the ones in this "batch" are all great. They are different, but still manage to give a sense of belonging together. All of them draw my eye. -I'll just leave it at that and add some info beneath each.

Art by Steven Wood, coming January 2014.

Sequel to Pantomime. Art by Tom Bagshaw. Coming January 2014.

Coming May 2014. Cover by Argh! Oxford.

Sequel to Zenn Scarlett. Art by Steven Meyer-Rassow.

BONUS LINKS:

   There's a couple of cover related posts I want to bring to your attention. One is this post over on Hodderscape, showing off the different covers for Stephen King's Carrie. 

   The other one is about some books that are part of a series curated by Guillermo Del Toro. For some reason that hasn't got much attention. Which is really strange to me, I know there's a lot of GDT fans out there. And also, there are some great classic Horror books in that series.

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (VI)

  Quite a few covers this time, as I'm trying to catch up with some of the covers I've missed in previous posts, and there's some very recent reveals as well.


First two covers for the same book, Terry Brook's Bloodfire Quest. At the top the US one, and at the bottom the UK one.

   These are two very different covers. And I don't think there's much doubt that the UK one, with art by Stephen Youll, is the superior one here. (Only too bad we get that annoying "sticker" on it.)
   I like the cover a lot. It's a classic fantasy cover, but it's still not a design that has been done to death. And the creature whose skull that is looks really interesting. The book is out 19 March 2013.

This is the cover to the third Department 19 book by Will Hill, Department 19: Battle Lines. It fits very well with the two previous ones, and I like the style of them. Having read the first book, and having the second on my TBR pile, this is a book I'm looking forward to. It's out 28 March 2013 in the UK.

The follow up to Alchemist of Souls, The Merchant of Dreams, by Anne Lyle. Art by Larry Rostant. Having just read the first book, I can say that this cover very much captures the feel of the world. It's also a book I look forward to getting my hands on.

Another book two, this time The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock. I like the fact that this cover, as the cover to book one The City's Son, is really stylish and simple.

Pantomime by Laura Lam, with cover art by Tom Bagshaw, is out from Strange Chemistry in February 2013. This is a really intriguing cover, and it looks really good. Having been inspired by the cover to read the synopsis/cover copy on the publisher's website, I'm even more interested. So there's no doubt that for me this cover grabs attention.

Another cover from Strange Chemistry. This time it's by Steven Wood for A. E. Rought's Broken. This cover looks really good, although not very original in my opinion. But despite being of a woman in a dress, I think the background and title makes it stand out a bit. And again it's a book I had to find out more about.

Rounding up the trio of Strange Chemistry covers this time is the one for The Holders by Julianna Scott. I like covers of this type, those with a mysterious/magical object and nothing much else. Although I must say that it reminds me of the movie Romancing the Stone. That statement needs a bit of explanation...The Norwegian title of Romancing the Stone is Kampen om den grønne diamant, which translates as The Battle for the Green Diamond.

The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination is a title that really grabs your attention. And I think the cover fits that title perfectly. I'm very curious to see what this anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams and out from Tor next year, brings to the table.

And while we are on the subject of mad scientists, here's the cover for The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke, coming from Angry Robot in February 2013. I like this cover, not sure why exactly but it just sort of calls to me.

From Tor we have the cover for Brandon Sanderson's Young Adult novel The Rithmatist with art by Christopher Gibbs, out in May 2013. Looks very Stempunk-y to me. Not a bad cover, but it still feels a bit meh to me.

This cover for Joe Hill's NOS4R2 is really good, I like it a lot. No information on the novel yet, but the title obviously refers to vampires, and the license plate says 1931, so I'm guessing it will be set at that time.

I've already had a cover for this book up here. I'm not sure if the previous cover is the US one or an earlier version, but this is the UK cover for Banks' new Culture novel, The Hydrogen Sonata. There's nothing really special about it, but it fits in perfectly with the previous Culture covers from Orbit, so I like it.

That concludes a rather long cover reveal post. I hope you find at least some of these covers interesting. And as always I welcome any comments you have.

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (V)

  It's been a while since I did one of these posts. Anyway, here are some of the covers that have caught my eye recently.

   First up, the cover to The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women. I think this is a great cover, it captures the mood of a good ghost story perfectly, and it makes me want to get hold of the book.
   This anthology is edited by Marie O'Regan and is out from Constable & Robinson on 18 October. It contains 20 stories, and there are some great names among the authors.

   These two are the Tor UK covers for Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century novels (, Boneshaker will keep its US cover).
   They are quite different than the US covers, they are much more focused on the characters. And they actually fit better in with the Boneshaker covers than the US ones do. Whether you prefer the US or the UK covers, is a matter of personal taste. I like both versions.
   -You can find my reviews of Clockwork Century novels by here: Boneshaker, Dreadnought, Ganymede.

   This is the UK Orbit cover for David Brin's Existence. I like this cover, it's intriguing, and it makes me want to read the book to find out what is behind the image.
   Orbit are also revamping the covers to some of Brin's other books and you can look at them here.

   Another UK Orbit cover, this one for Act Three Jon Courtney Grimwood's Assassini series. It's a very nice cover, designed by Emma Graves. I like covers of this type in most cases, and I really like this one. In fact the only thing I don't like about it, is it reminds me that I haven't read any of the books, and from what I've heard I really should have.

   And again, this is a UK Orbit cover. This one for the latest Terry Brooks Shannara book. It's unashamedly  a traditional Fantasy cover, but it being a Brooks book that fits very well. I think it's a good cover, and I really like the dragon skull. You can take a look at how artist Stephen Youll made the cover here.

   Do any of these covers excite you, or put you off reading the books? Tell me in the comments.