Cover Art for the limited edition of The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Yummy art? Over-the-top typography? It must be another great Subterranean Press cover! I’ve been waiting for this for a while, and it’s certainly no let down. Sure, it doesn’t have share the stylistic approach of Abercrombie’s general releases (which I still prefer), but it’s a great, moody piece of art that shows a different side of Abercrombie’s series. I’m particularly fond of the deep red font contrasting the cool blue hues of the art.

It’s interesting to see Alex Preuss‘ style veer more towards Fantasy in this piece, given that some people (myself included) felt that the recently released interior artwork felt too much like an image you’d find in a Science Fiction novel. It speaks to a nice diversity, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the artwork.

Opinions? Any guess what the scene of the cover conveys?

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Whether you love it or not, the John Picacio cover for Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City got people talking when it was first revealed. Wrapped inside that cover is a novel that sounds worth the fuss. Pulling on Beukes’ background living in South Africa, Zoo City takes Urban Fantasy from the overused settings of New York City, London or Chicago and drops it down in Africa, a drive for diversity that looks to add some much-needed variety to the genre. Using the widget above, you can get a sneak peak at Zoo City, which releases September, 2010 in Australia and the UK, and January 2011 in North America.

From SFScope:

Peter V. Brett sold a stand-alone novella, Brayan’s Gold, to Subterranean Press, via agent Joshua Bilmes. The volume will be “heavily illustrated by artist Lauren K. Cannon.”

Good news for Brett Fans. Cannon‘s got a great (but slightly NSFW) portfolio, is the original designer of the wards that appear in the series, and has already designed bookplates based on The Demon Cycle. Looks like a good match.

Like The Great Bazaar, it’s likely that Brayan’s Gold will fill in some of the gaps left out of the mainline novels, The Warded Man and The Desert Spear.

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

From Erikson’s Facebook account (via The Wertzone):

GASP! That would be me, coming up for air. How long was I down there? About twenty years, from conception to completion. The Malazan Book of the Fallen is done. Sure, editing and all that crap to follow. But … done. I don’t know who I am. Who am I again? What planet is this? Three months of butterflies … maybe this double whiskey will fix that. Hmm. No. Delayed reaction going on here.

He’s been working on the damn thing for nearly as long as I’ve been alive! For Malazan fans, and the Fantasy genre as a whole, it’s a pretty monumental achievement. Now, whether he’ll wrap it up in a satisfying manner remains to be seen (given the flagging opinion of the later books in the series), but either way, he’s certainly proved to be prolific, publishing near a novel a year (at 900+ pages, no less). Hell of an achievement.

Congrats, Steve!

The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan (UK Edition)

I was, frankly, hoping for something a bit, well, colder, I have to admit. For a novel called ‘The Cold Commands‘, there’s certainly a lot of warm reds, oranges and browns. Still, I like the style of the cover, which takes its cue from the paperback release of The Steel Remains (which, frankly, would better suit The Cold Commands, with its cool colours.) Should look pretty once they print it with nice, shiny foil, like The Steel Remains.