COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XXIV)

   The Inheritance Trilogy from N.K. Jemisin gets an omnibus edition from Orbit. It will be out 9 December 2014. You can get more information, including the author talking about the included new novella here. I really liked the original covers for the three books (, and the books). But I really like this one too. It's more pared down than the originals, but it still evokes the feeling of the novels. Looking forward to seeing this in real life.

   From Delacorte Press comes the cover for the second book in The Reckoners, it has a publishing date of 6 January 2015. (This is the US edition.) I have not read the first book, Steelheart, so I can't speak to how the cover represents the book. But it looks kind of strange for an SFF book to me, more like a typical Action Thriller. It is eyecatching, and that is what a cover is supposed to do.

   Another sequel, this is the follow up to Robocalypse. This one will be out 10 June 2014 from Doubleday. I think this is a great cover. I've had it on my computer for a while, and it always draws the eye when I look at the folder of book covers. It's not just the green eyes, but they do accentuate the a face that is just a little bit too smooth.

   Following up, Ancillary Justice, and being the second book in the Imperial Radch, this book is out from Orbit 7 October 2014. The art is by John Harris, with design by Kirk Benshoff. As with the previous book, this is traditional Space Opera art. You can find examples of books all the way from the middle of the last century that have similar looking covers. I think that is its strength. I like those types of covers, so I think this is a very good cover.

   Art by Steven Meyer-Rassow is on this follow up to Skulk from Strange Chemistry. It will be released 2 September 2014 in North America and as an e-book, and 4 September 2014 in the UK. As with the first book's cover, I really like the symbol on this one. And I find the building very intriguing. This is absolutely a very good cover.

   This, the fifth Laundry Files novel, will be out from Orbit 3 July 2014. The design is by Crush Creative. This book at first looks cluttered, but a closer look reveals some heavy symbolism in the "blob". I've said before that I like symbols, and this is not an exception. Interesting and intriguing.

   Then we move on to a trilogy of new Star Wars covers on books coming from Del Rey Books.

   The top one is pretty awesome for Original Trilogy fans like me, in that it has Darth Vader and the Emperor on it. You can read more about that one on the author's website.

   The second on is a pretty generic Luke Skywalker in Hero Pose image that anyone who read the comics in the 1980s will be familiar with.

   At the bottom we also have a pretty standard Star Wars image. The interesting thing is of course that it has two new characters on it.

   I am a fan of Star Wars, and I really like all three of these covers. 

   Coming 7 August 2014, with covers by Joe McLaren, the release of these two will complete Gollancz's Collector's Library editions of Discworld books. When I wrote about these releases initially, I said I liked them, and that still holds true. I just need to get hold of £199.80 to get these books.

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XIII)

   First up the cover for the first book in a series coming in August 2014, with design by Lauren Panepinto. You can read more about the book over on the author's blog. I like this cover, it's a very simple one stylistically speaking, but it's an image that is eyecatching to me. The cover alone would make me check out this book more closely.

   This cover by Charles Vess is for a Subterranean Press limited print edition of a novella coming in April 2014. I really like Vess' art, and this is certainly not an exception to that.

   A new series from Strange Chemistry, with the first book being released 5 November, gets a cover with a symbol on it. I like this one, not sure what the symbol represents but it looks like it could be a real symbol for something. It has me intrigued.

   Some of you may have spotted that this isn't a new book. The cover is for Tor UK's latest release/printing of this collection, you can see the old one, and read a bit about the book, here. I haven't read the book, but I may pick it up in the future. I think the new cover looks much more modern and science fictiony, but not entirely sure I think it's better than the old one. But then again that could just be me getting old and nostalgic for the covers of yesteryear...

   This book will be out 24 October from Hodder & Stoughton, the art is by Marko Manev. I really like this cover. It has a Noir World War II Video-game feel to it. (And I hope at least one person understands what I mean by that.) This would certainly make me pick up the book and see what it's about.

   From Orbit we have this cover for book with a March 2014 release. It's the first book in a new Epic Fantasy trilogy. It has a hooded man on the cover, but I don't think that matters at all if the cover is well done. This is, and I like it a lot.

   Also from Orbit, this cover designed by Kirk Benshoff is the cover for the third book in a Science Fiction trilogy, it will be released 22 April 2014. If you haven't caught the first two books yet, it's because they are not out. Read more about them, and see their covers here. I think both the above, and the two other covers, look interesting. I'll most likely be checking out these books when they come out.

   More from Orbit. Coming in July 2014, this is designed by Kirk Benshoff and has an illustration by Raphael Lacoste. It's for a new Epic Fantasy series, and it looks very interesting. In fact I want this book to be out a bit before July next year based on what I can see on the cover.

   This one, also from Orbit, is for the forth book in the Expanse series. Illustration is by Daniel Dociu and design by Kirk Benshoff. This is pretty much what you expect a Science Fiction cover to look like, and I in no way mean that as something bad. I really like Science Fiction covers of this type, and I always check out books with this type of cover.

   Also from Orbit, again. This book will be released on 8 April 2014. The cover is dominated by the long title, but I think it works very well. But that isn't the most interesting thing about this book. According to Orbit,  "Claire North is a pseudonym for an acclaimed British author who has previously published several novels". Someone on Twitter suggested K.J. Parker, and that may be correct. But my suggestion was J.K. Rowling, not because I have any special reason to think so, but I wanted to make that prediction early just in case.

   You have probably noticed that there is a lot of covers from books from Orbit in this cover reveal post. That's because they have recently released covers for their Spring - Summer 2014 releases. You can see them here (UK) and here (US). There are a few differences between the two.

REVIEW: THE KINGDOM OF GODS

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

Cover design: Lauren Panepinto

THE KINGDOM OF GODS

BOOK THREE OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

BY

N. K. JEMISIN

ISBN: 978-0-316-04393-9

Pages: 575 +extras (includes short story)

Publisher: Orbit

First published: 6 October 2011

This edition published: 27 October 2011

On the cover:

For two thousand years the Arameri family has ruled the world by enslaving the very gods that created mortalkind. Now the gods are free, and the Arameri's ruthless grip is slipping. But they are all that stands between peace and world-spanning, unending war.

Shahar, last scion of the family, must choose her loyalties. She yearns to trust Sieh, the godling she loves. Yet her duty as Arameri heir is to uphold the family's interests, even if that means using and destroying everyone she cares for.

   The concluding volume in The Inheritance Trilogy, just as book two, doesn't follow straight on from the previous book, but it does advance the story of the gods in the world Jemisin has created. This time we are following Sieh, a god we first met in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

   Sieh really shines as a main character. His story here is really one of personal growth in many ways. Despite starting out the novel as a god, the strength of Sieh here is how human he is a character. What we see Sieh go through is a journey of discovery that will be very familiar.
   Sieh is of course not the only character, there are plenty of others. And although most of them are actually gods, they are relatable. Jemisin is good at getting you to care for the characters she has created, and that makes it easy to get drawn into what is happening to them.

   There's several layers to this story. Like I mentioned above there is a clear element of growth, and change here, but there is a significant element of mystery here too. Jemisin does create a lot of suspense in the mystery part of the story, she really writes in a way that creates a lot of suspense. There is much that is hidden as the story progresses, but it never feels like it should have been told. That which isn't disclosed does have a reason for being secret behind it.

   The pacing of the story is really an interesting one. The speed at which things progress can best be described as measured, but with some sudden spikes of speed. This works very well in this story, you do get a sense of it going along at its natural pace all the time. When things do speed up from time to time it is because events demand it, and that is especially true of the ending.
   If you want endings that take your breath away, then this really will be perfect for you. There is a lot happening, and it's hard to have any idea of how things are going to end up. Some of what happened took me completely by surprise, but I never felt Jemisin "cheated" to do that. This just isn't your average ending to a Fantasy trilogy, and it is all the better for it.

   All in all I found this a really satisfying conclusion to the Inheritance Trilogy. What begun in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms comes to a conclusion here. Even though we have followed different characters, on a path that has never been completely straight, this trilogy does really come together.
   This really is a great ending to a debut trilogy, and one that shows anyone who has had any doubts that Jemisin is an author to be reckoned with. It's a powerful ending to a great story, and I highly recommend these books to any Fantasy fan.

REVIEWS: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms  The Broken Kingdoms

LINKS: N.K. Jemisin  Orbit

REVIEW: THE BROKEN KINGDOMS

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

Cover design: Lauren Panepinto

THE BROKEN KINGDOMS

BOOK TWO OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

BY

N. K. JEMISIN

ISBN: 978-0-316-043396-0

Pages: 384 (+appendix and extras)

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 3 November 2010

On the cover:

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree's guest is at the heart of it...

   This is the second book in The Inheritance Trilogy.  Set ten years after the events at the end of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms this novel gives us a very different picture of the world this series is set in. In the previous volume we saw the world through royalty, and were mostly confined to one location, here our horizon is greatly expanded. Location wise we are still not travelling much, but we are in a much more diverse location - the city of Shadow, located underneath the palace of Sky from The Hundred Thousand kingdoms.
   Along with the change of location we also get a different perspective on the world. This time our point of view is through Oree Shoth who apart from being blind lives a completely ordinary existence in Shadow. I am not exactly giving away something when I tell you that the story of Oree here is far from ordinary though.

   Jemisin gives us a story that structurally is a pretty mundane tale, but the depth of the story combined with the worldbuilding transcend any such simplification when describing the novel.
   Gods are an integral part of the story in this volume also. But this time we are introduced to a lot more of them, and we get to learn much more of their history and daily life. It's really fascinating to learn more about the pantheon of gods, and the history behind them is definitely contributing to the depth of this story.
   There's also quite a bit about what those gods mean to the humans they live along, and how they have affected the daily life of humans. This element is very well done, and feels very realistic. Jemisin doesn't just throw the gods into the story, in many ways they are the story.

   We get lots of action in this novel, and it is quite fast paced. But there is also a lot of quieter periods in this book, and I felt that some of them were a bit too slow. Fortunately this was not a huge problem and it is really a very minor niggle. To be honest I don't think it would even be noticeable if not for the contrast to the very fast paced action and revelation sequences.
   Jemisin is great when making revelations that drive the story. There is several "wow moments" that to me came as a surprise, and it's very hard to begin to even guess where the story is going. We get some twists that are really surprising when it seems that the story is on a familiar track.

   The second book in a trilogy can often be somewhat on a let down, but that is not the case here. Jemisin follows up her debut with a novel that in my opinion is even better than the first, and once again shows she is a great writer.
   I'd really recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but I'd advice against starting here. Reading this without having read the first volume will make you loose a lot of the depth of the story. But this is a Fantasy trilogy you really shouldn't miss, so I will highly recommend you get the books if you haven't already.

REVIEW: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

LINKS: N. K. Jemisin  Orbit

REVIEW: THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS

Cover art: Cliff Nielsen

Cover design: Lauren Panepinto

THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS

BOOK ONE OF THE INHERITANCE TRILOGY

BY

N. K. JEMISIN

ISBN: 978-1-84149-817-1

Pages: 398 (+ appendix and extras)

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 4 February 2010

On the cover:

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky - a palace above the clouds where the lives of gods and mortals intertwine.


There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with a pair of cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history. 

   This novel starts  out looking like standard Epic Fantasy, but it doesn't take long before we are introduced to the gods who make this a departure from the standard Epic Palace Intrigue Fantasy.
   The intrigue of royalty is the starting point of the novel, and through the heroine, Yeine, we are introduced into it. That she is both the narrator and an outsider at the palace is a good choice by Jemisin. We get to learn as Yeine does, and this is handled very well. There is never a feeling of Yeine being clueless just to get information across to the reader, and we in some way grow with Yeine as the story progresses.

   The royals are very much linked to the gods, and they are an integral part of the story. Jemisin handles the gods very well, they come off as very realistic.
   Gods aren't really all that uncommon in Fantasy, and you sometime get the feeling that they are carbon copies of the Greek/Roman/Norse pantheon, that is not the case here. Jemisin's use of gods in the story feels very fresh, and they are a very important part of the story - they are in fact central to it. Since they are gods they are of course powerful, but Jemisin has created a nice twist that limits them and at the same time elevates them to more than "just" gods.
   This is probably the best use of gods I have ever seen in Fantasy, and for those that are interested in gods they alone make the book worth getting.

   The story of this novel is a great journey. As mentioned above it starts out pretty traditionally, but soon takes another turn. There's so many twists and surprising events here, that at times it is almost hard to keep up. This is Jemisin's debut, but she comes off as a so well accomplished storyteller it never really comes across as a first book.
   While the story is, mostly, set in just one location it is an epic one in scope. It never feels constrained by the limited setting, and it doesn't suffer from being deprived of the large sprawling world that we get in most Fantasy. Jemisin instead manages to make this a strength, and although we do get quite a bit of history, this is very much focused on the characters.

   Yeine and the gods are very interesting characters, and the focus on such a small cast of characters makes this feel very intimate. The first person narrative brings us into the head of Yeine, and as we follow her journey we become a part of it. The gods are also well developed, and they are great characters in their own right.

   All in all this is a really great debut. It has a different feel than all the Grimdark, and is a very good antidote for those that feel Fantasy is all about the "gritty". For any fan of Fantasy, and (non-monotheistic) gods in general, this is a must buy. As Fantasy debuts go, this is one of the best.

LINKS: N. K. Jemisin  Orbit