From the Angry Robot Books blog:
Yum. I don’t even know what these books are about, but I wanna read them. I love that Steampunk’s allowing designers to dip back into early-mid-Twentieth Century art styles. My favourite little easter egg is the lovingly integrated Angry Robot Books logo near the bottom.
The art is by John Coulthart.
Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pagasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.
But its different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.
Pegasus wasn’t on my radar until I ran across it on Iceberg Ink, but damn if that cover didn’t jump out at me immediately. When I bellyache that covers should be attractive, nicely designed and marketable, this is the type of cover I’m talking about. Just beautiful and eye-catching.
Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons—bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.
Arlen Bales is seventeen, an apprentice Messenger in brand new armor, about to go out for the first time alongside a trained Messenger on a simple overnight trip. Instead Arlen finds himself alone on a frozen mountainside, carrying a dangerous cargo to Count Brayan’s gold mine, one of the furthest points in the duchy. And One Arm, the giant rock demon, hunts him still.
But Brayan’s Gold may offer a way for Arlen to be free of One Arm forever, if he is willing to wager his life on the chance.
A nice companion piece to Brett’s other Subterranean Press endeavour, The Great Bazaar. I love the little village in the bottom right corner, just a hint of light that’s easily missed if you don’t look closely.
It’s great to see someone like Brett taking the opportunity to expand his series, and fill in some of the gaps, by embracing short fiction. It could be an interesting trend if it allows writers to explore their stories (the backstory and history of their characters in particular), while at the same time slimming down some of those multi-volume series.
From Tor.com:
It’s more generic than many of the other covers, and doesn’t scream Wheel of Time like some of the others, but still a nice piece of artwork. It’s strange seeing a creature on the cover, given Wheel of Time‘s proclivity towards conflict between humans (or at least humanoids). That said, I’m unfamiliar with the scene in the novel, so it could be an obvious choice to those who’ve read The Gathering Storm.
One thing that always impresses me about Lockwood, and isn’t immediately apparent when looking at his art, is that he’s a digital painter. Unlike many who work in the medium, Lockwood’s art looks like it’s hand painted and avoids that uncanny valley that artists like Jon Sullivan fall into. His use of colour, as always, is wonderful. There’s a great video showing Lockwood’s progression as he works through the painting for The Gathering Storm:
Another nice cover, if not the best in the series.
Thanks to The Mad Hatter for the tip:
I loved the cover when it was first revealed, but it was missing polish. It wouldn’t be an Abercrombie cover without a splash of blood. That said, too much blood can be a terribly cheesy thing.
