Just to ensure that Orbit Books doesn’t curbstomp me, I should make it clear that this is likely an early catalog cover and is subject to change (slightly or drastically) before the book ships later this year. For example, the first cover for Jemisin’s The Broken Kingdoms looked like this, the second (and final) version looked like this.

Phew. With that out of the way, can I squee? I don’t love it quite so much as the cover for the first and second volumes in Jemisin‘s The Inheritance Trilogy (no, not this one), but only due to my partiality towards the colour palettes used. It’s easy to say that Jemisin’s trilogy is one of the most consistent and sharpest looking sets to hit store shelves in years. Designer Lauren Panepinto and artist Cliff Nielsen deserve much attention and back-patting. It’s a crying shame that Orbit never released them in hardcover.

Terry Brooks has been around for a long time. He’s had good covers. He’s had bad covers. By this point, they could write his name in comic sans on a blank white cover and he’d sell like hotcakes. You’re either into Terry Brooks, or ambivalent. This cover’s just another trot around the block for artist Steve Stone. Nice colours, nice sense of exploration and the fantastic. In the end, it looks like a Terry Brooks book, and that’s good enough for me.

Not so very long ago, Eragon—Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider—was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders.

Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be stro—

Oh. Wait.

For a second there I forgot that I stopped caring about Paolini’s series six years ago. Sorry, just a hump-day brainfart.

Three hundred yearsafter the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.

Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice. One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will.

After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

A first glimpse of the cover for Sanderson’s upcoming Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law. I like Chris McGrath, but, and I’ll be honest, I’m getting a little sick of seeing his schtick on the cover of so many novels these days; but, I can hardly begrudge a guy his popularity, right? That small complaint aside, it’s cool to see the Steampunk stylings incorporated into Sanderson’s works, and I love that even though they’ve changed artists, Tor has still managed to nicely tie the cover together with the earlier hardcover volumes of the Mistborn Trilogy.

If a cover serves any purpose, it’s to interest potential fans and excite and established ones. This cover gets me excited for The Allow of Law, so it’s a job well done, I suppose. The synopsis has me even more interested — there are few things that get me so giddy as the exploration of what happens as mysticism and magic collide with science and logic. Sanderson is the perfect author to explore that territory.

Waxillium, however, is a stupid name.

Via Charlton (and The Speculative Scotsman):

I really love the US cover for Spellbound. I mean, for a Fantasy nerd like me, what’s not to like about creamy colours, Todd Lockwood and a Dragon? Okay, maybe that font still sucks, but, hey, it’s a small complaint. In comparison, this UK cover for Spellbound is reserved and, well… kinda boring. The runes are at least an attempt to convey the language-based magic system in Charlton’s novels, but a cryptic diamond makes no promises to the reader about the excitement within.

Still, it’s a huge step up from the original cover for the UK release of Charlton’s Spellwright or the unbelievable French cover art.

*shudder*