SciFiGuy.ca posted the cover of Jim Butcher’s Changes, the next (12th) volume in the Dresden Files series.
Changes is a pretty dumpy name, especially considering Buthcher’s novels usually have pretty nice titles (The Summer Knight, Grave Peril, Small Favor, etc…), but I certainly can’t complain about another great cover from Chris McGrath. Certainly a huge step up from the original covers for the series.
I just finished Dead Beat last night, so maybe I’ll catch up by the time this hits shelves in April. I like this cover, too. Very suggestive, but Harry’s face looks a bit different.
I noticed that as well, Rob. At first I thought maybe his face had just been shadowed out on the other covers, and we were only just getting a glimpse now. I went back and looked and that wasn’t the case. I suppose it fits the name of the book, though!
I’ve only read Storm Front, but I’ve got the next couple all ready to go and fully expect to stick with the series to the end.
I quite like the title actually- seems rather fitting. I’m guessing that Butcher might be switching up the formula just a bit (though not too much I’d imagine).
Given the background I wonder if large portions of the novel will be set outside of Chicago for the first time. Given the very, very brief bit of plot that Butcher has teased about, it certainly seems possible.
Kevin – That’s fair. I’m looking at the title as, more or less, an outsider to the series, having only read the first book. To me, it sounds like a YA novel about hitting puberty.
As for the setting, it certainly looks like it has a South American setting/inspiration, which gets me excited. I’ve only got 10 volumes to go before I get there, though….
@Aidan – You need to catch up sooner rather than later. Storm Front is the worst of the series, they only get better. I’m actually not caught up right now because I don’t want to be without a reserve Dresden book. As weird as that sounds.
Regarding the title, I would agree it’s not in the same vein as the others (and not very exciting) but it’s also “Changes.” It looks like Butcher is introducing changes of different varities, ranging from the title to the locale and who knows whatelse.
Regarding Dresden’s face the hair/hat looks a little different to me. I don’t have another cover handy to really compare.
Regarding the back ground, it could be South/Central America or it could also be somewhere in the Nevernever. Or could someone be violating the 6th law of magic “Thou shalt not swim against the Currents of Time”?
That’s more or less the same reason I’m not in a rush to read Butcher. I enjoyed the first one, despite its flaws, so I can only imagine I’ll love the rest of the series. I just burned through Storm Front so fast that I’m worried I’d run out of Butcher’s novels too fast. I’m basically saving them for a rainy day.
As for the rest of it, that’s all gibberish to me. But I’m curious to find out about it!
Don’t wait! If you get through them all, they bear repeated rereading!
Have never liked the title ‘Changes’. Good to change the formula though, especially as Harry gets more responsibility, seems to make sense he’d be venturing further afield.
[…] The cover art for the next Dresden Files novel is out! Not only does is it appropriately bad-ass, but after eleven entries in the series, we finally get a cover that includes Harry’s face. […]
[…] McGrath is probably best known for his work on the Dresden Files books, which I was recently raving about. It’s just too bad about the gradient used on Abercrombie’s […]
To me it looks like wherever he is, he’s in vamp home territory. And it reminds me of how through the Never never his mom could be all over the world in moments….I’m kinda thinking that insight he got from her might start playing in, and his control of power change (he’s eventually taking on the council?).
Yeah, that’s the Castillo in Chichen Itza, I think: see http://www.mrfs.net/trips/2006/Yucatan/Chichen_Itza/Chichen_Itza.html. I’m slightly dubious about a twenty-plus length series that *also* includes an enormous over-riding story arc (Grey Council vs. Black Council), though, because of the example of Robert Jordan. Mind you, Jim Butcher gives what are pretty much literary composition theory classes on his website, so maybe the whole thing is mapped out. I’ll be interested to see how far this new book advances the overall plot….