COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XII)

   This is my second Cover Reveal Round-Up post this week. I didn't plan it that way, but it looks like there's lots of upcoming releases being announced right now. Also, I decided a couple of weeks ago that I would make one of these posts when I had ten covers to show. I may take another look at that decision at a later date, but from experience that usually means about a post a week. And that is about where I want to be with these posts.
I love seeing new SFF covers, and I want to share that with those who read this blog. I hope you enjoy these posts.

   This is the cover for the first book in The Southern Reach Trilogy. Art is by Eric Nyquist and design by Charlotte Stick. You can see an animated GIF version of this cover here. The book will be out 4 February 2014 from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. I like this cover. It's very different, and the green just makes it "pop".

   From Tor UK we have this one, out 10 October. This is a new version of the cover, and you can see the previous one here. Firstly, I think the new cover is a definite improvement on the previous one. Secondly, I like this cover. It's creepy, and really makes me want to know what is going on in the novel.

   This one is out from Hodder & Stoughton 31 October. I know very little about both the author and the Low-Town series, but this cover grabbed me for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I really like this one.

   With art by Ben Baldwin, this collection will be out 25 January 2014 from Crystal Lake Publishing. I went through a "Japanese period" in the 1980s (thanks to Wolverine going to Japan, Shogun being on TV, and watching Ran at the cinema), and I still find anything Japanese interesting. As such this cover got me interested at once, and the more I look at it the more I like it.

   The third book of The Lightbringer Series will be out in Summer 2014 from Orbit. The cover is designed by Lauren Panepinto, illustration by Silas Manhood and photo by Shirley Green. I don't think this suffers from "hooded man syndrome", I actually like "hooded man" covers - they tell you "this is Epic Fantasy". And this is a really good image, really a cover that almost screams for you to pick up the book.

   29 October will see the release of this follow up to The Lives of Tao from Angry Robot Books with cover art by ARGH! Oxford. This is (of course) a perfect fit with the cover for the previous novel. The silhouettes make a cover that really is busy seem ordered and simple. I must say I really like this style, and it certainly stands out in the SFF coversphere (, yep that is totally a word!).

    This is the sequel to Sea of Ghosts, and it will be out in November from Tor UK. Not really sure about this one. There's nothing really wrong with it,  I just feel it's too realistic - if that makes sense. I also have the urge to tell the character on the cover that the birds he's hunting are behind him. (That could be because I'm writing this early in the morning though.)

   From Orbit we have this cover. Done by Lauen Panepinto and Wendy Chan with a number of Shutterstock photos. The book will release in October. To me this has quite a traditional look, and I don't mean that in any bad way. I really like the castle on the cover, and the sword is very nice and makes a nice border. The eyes of the model are however a bit distracting, a bit too intense for my liking.

   This is for the first book in the Epic Fantasy series Elemental Wars, coming 29 October from Angry Robot Books. It's a type of cover I really like. It's clean and simple, and tells me quite a lot about what sort of book this is, while not revealing anything that will effect what I see in my head when I read the book.

   And finally, we have the UK cover to the final volume in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. This will be published 17 October by Gollancz. It's a simple, stylistic cover. It doesn't really do anything for me in either a direction of "good" or "bad". But it does remind me that it's time I got caught up with The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, I have been waiting for this one to start reading it.