Ted Nasmith (along with Alan Lee) defined Middle Earth for me. The images he crafted had as much an impact on my young self as Tolkien’s words, and helped to utterly immerse me in a Fantasy land like few other books have achieved. To say my love for Middle Earth extends beyond the man who wrote the books would be an understatement.

To see Nasmith turn his eye towards Westeros, the world of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, is an absolute fangasm. I haven’t needed a calendar in years, but one this pretty might just find its way onto the wall of my office.

Eerily similar to Chris McGrath‘s covers for The First Law trilogy [1, 2, 3] by Joe Abercrombie, particularly Before They Are Hanged. It makes sense that Solaris would position Kearney towards that same market, but it might have been nice if they had at least asked McGrath to switch up his colour pallet.

My experiences with Kearney’s The Ten Thousand, to which Corvus is a sequel, are well documented (HERE, HERE and HERE), but I’m looking forward to giving him another shot. It also helps that the early synopsis posted above sounds damn good!

Corvus is due for publication in November.

I’m a self-admitted Terry Brooks whore. I recognize at this point that it’s likely nostalgia that colours my impressions of his novels, but I usually enjoy what ever he puts out. That said, I’m genuinely excited about Bearers of the Black Staff and the ways it promises to expand the mythos of the Shannara universe.

I wish I could bring you a colour version, but alas, the first peek at Brooks’ next novel, found in the Random House Fall Catalogue (PDF, right/option click + ‘Save As’), is black and white only. Rather standard for a Brooks cover, but Steve Stone’s strengths lie in his use of colour.

Once I get my hands on a colour version, I’ll be sure to post it.

In SF Signal‘s most recent Mind Meld, we were asked about recent covers that, on an artistic level, blew us. One of my choices was the beautiful cover for Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House. As he usually does, Lou Anders and Jacqueline Cooke at Pyr Books took some wonderful Stephan Martiniere artwork and crafted a sublime cover around it.

Above, you have the UK edition of The Dervish House. It’s nice, and I like that it wears the influences of its setting on its sleeve; but, if you ask me, it’s one of those rare occasions when the UK cover has to work a bit harder against its US counterpart… and comes up a bit short.

Which do you prefer?

I’ve not read any short fiction by Butcher, but something tells me his style would be well suited to the tighter word counts. As always, the art is done by the lovely Chris McGrath.