Posts Categorized: Cover Art

Art by Marc Simonetti

Art by Marc Simonetti

Michael J. Sullivan revealed the cover art for The Death of Dulgath, the third volume in his Riyira Chronicles series, with artwork by French artist Marc Simonetti.

Marc Simonetti is one of my favourite fantasy artists, and his work here is just sublime. It should surprise no one that I’m much in favour of the shift away from the photo-realistic, figure-based covers that Orbit produced for the first two books in the Riyira Chronicles series. Sullivan agrees. “I never felt that the models used for the other pair were a good representation of how I saw Royce and Hadrian. But, by the time I saw them it was far too late to do anything about it,” he said on his blog. “For [The Death of Dulgath], we wanted to keep Royce and Hadrian’s back to the camera and focus instead on Castle Dulgath, a run-down abode on the edge of the sea and the site of the majority of the novel.” Read More »

Art by Richard Anderson.  Design by Christine Foltzer.

Art by Richard Anderson. Design by Christine Foltzer.

I am very proud to reveal the cover for Sunset Mantle by Alter S. Reiss, one of several novellas coming later this year as part of the debut lineup of SFF novellas from Tor.com’s new short fiction imprint. As always, I’m a big fan of Richard Anderson’s work, and Irene Gallo’s art team, including designer Christine Foltzer, has done a fine job of wrapping a cover around Anderson’s work. Read More »

Dragonbonestone-of-farewellGreenAngel

Uuuuurrrrggghh.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, a landmark epic fantasy trilogy published in the ’90s. So, when Hodder & Stoughton, one of my favourite SF/F imprints, announced they’d be publishing the series in the UK with brand new covers, I was appropriately excited. I’m usually a fan of Hodder & Stoughton’s covers, and Summers’ previous work for Hodder & Stoughton is stylish—particularly his cover for Lavie Tidhar’s A Man Lies Dreaming—but these are a big miss for me.

Even in a vacuum, where the series doesn’t already have some of the most iconic cover art, by one of the field’s legendary artists, these just aren’t right for the series. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn might have inspired George R.R. Martin to write A Song of Ice and Fire, but they’re not edgy or dark. They’re bright, expansive, and full of colour—these covers do little to convey the tone and spirit of Williams’ classic tale.

That all said, I do think the cover for Stone of Farewell is the best of the bunch, and is nice in a gritty, punch-you-in-the-face kind of way. Reminds me a bit of Stina Leicht’s (very good) contemporary Irish fantasy, Of Blood and Honey.

What do you think?

House-of-Shattered-Wings

Gollancz revealed the cover art for one of my most anticipated novels today, Aliette de Bodard’s The House of Shattered Wings—a post-apocalyptic tale about warring houses and fallen angels. I love, love, love it.

The cover was created by Gollancz in-house designer Graeme Longhorns. Read More »

the-last-mortal-bond-by-brian-staveley

Tor.com revealed the cover for Brian Staveley’s The Last Mortal Bond, and it’s gorgeous.

Like the first two volumes in the trilogy, The Last Mortal Bond features the artwork of the always awesome Richard Anderson. As much as I liked the first two covers, this one might be my favourite of them all. The blood red highlights and the morass of greys fits perfectly with Anderson’s impressionistic style. It’s engaging and visceral, and, in a sea of same-y covers, manages to use common fantasy cover tropes (wounded soldiers, menacing beasts, blood) but makes them interesting again. Bravo to Anderson and the art team at Tor Books.

“This is hands-down my favorite of Anderson’s three covers for the series,” Staveley told Tor.com. “It captures so many things that are central to the book: the desperation, the camaraderie, and the sheer skull-splitting badassery of the Kettral.”

The Last Mortal Bond is the conclusion to Staveley’s Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy, and wraps up the deadly struggles of the siblings, Kaden, Adare, and Valyn, around whom the series revolves.

The Last Mortal Bond will hit store shelves sometime in 2016.