Cover Identity | Doctor Sleep Looks Sweet

But seriously, it does.

Doesn't it?

I was already excited to read Doctor Sleep, but now? Now I've ordered a copy of the US edition too, because that... that's cover art!

Though I do wonder whose face I'm supposed to be seeing. Certainly not Danny Torrance's. And I doubt we're looking at Abra Stone either, given that the synopsis says she's only 12 years old.

Actually, hang on. I don't believe I've blogged about the plot before, so here's the blurb doing the rounds right now:

"On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death. 

"Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.” 

"Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil... a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon."

I'm still not sure what to make of this sequel—gorgeous as the cover art is, I'm more interested in the text itself—but you can be sure I'll be there from day one, or as near as dammit I can, to tell you whether or not Stephen King's next novel (after Joyland in June) is worth losing sleep over.

Cover Identity | Tomorrow, Terrain

I loved, loved, loved Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, and though I'm sorry to say no news has been forthcoming about a follow-up, over on LiveJournal the other day, Genevieve Valentine unveiled the cover of her new novella:

Intriguing, isn't it? Though the upper half of Richard Anderson's artwork is, alas, rather bland.

I don't think there'll be a printed edition, but be that as it may, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be reading Terrain on the appointed day. Which is to say sometime this spring, when Valentine's new novella will be available to read gratis on Tor.com. Hooray!

Speaking of which, did you know that there's a free e-book featuring some of the finest short fiction recently published on said site?

Well, there is. And it's brilliant. The 2012 edition of Some of the Best From Tor.com showcases stories from a who's-who of the genre's foremost proponents, including Gene Wolfe, Rachel Swirsky, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Michael Swanwick and at least as many awesome authors again. 

It's available from the evil empire that is Amazon as we speak. DRM-free, even! Grab it here if you're in the UK, and here if you're based Stateside.

That should keep you occupied this evening.

As for tomorrow? Well, please do stay tuned to The Speculative Scotsman. You might not think it to look at the blog, but I've been busier than ever since I came home after the holidays. Relatedly, I have some incredibly exciting news to share with you all shortly... of a new series I've come to consider a sort of spiritual successor to The BoSS, which I know an alarming number of you have a certain fondness for.

More on the morn!

Cover Identity | The Drowning Girl in The Ocean at the End of the Lane

So I see the North American cover art for Neil Gaiman's forthcoming novel has been doing rounds around the internet:

Pretty, isn't it?

That is, excepting the nebulous blue behind the author's name, which is sure to be embellished before the big day.

But this is Cover Identity: art alone - even lovely art like this - is just not enough.

Thus, I found myself wondering what was going on in this picture. On the surface it's simple enough, but look more closely: note that the girl - little Lettie, judging by the following synopsis - is perfectly prone. So is she drowning?

Could she be dead already? A body dumped in the deep sea?

Or has my mind immediately gone to dark places? It's quite likely Lettie could simply be submerged in the otherworld that exists underwater... which sounds awfully like a Neil Gaiman novel to me. Wonderfully, we can all speculate, but who can truly say?

There's blurbage too, though I'm not sure if it contains a clue:

"They say you cannot go home again, and that is as true as a knife..."

A man returns to his childhood village seeking comfort in memories of his youth and the friend who long ago transformed his life.

Once upon a time in a rural English town, an eleven-year-old girl named Lettie Hempstock shows a little boy the most marvelous, dangerous, and outrageous things beyond his darkest imagination. But an ancient power has been disturbed, and now invasive creatures from beyond the known world are set loose. There is primal horror here, and menace unleashed — within the boy’s family and from the forces that have gathered to consume it.

Determined to have their way, these otherworldly beings will destroy a meddling little boy if he dares to get in the way. It will take calm, courage, and the cleverness of the extraordinary Hempstock women — Lettie, her mother, and her grandmother, to keep him alive. But his survival will come at an unexpected cost...

Storytelling genius Neil Gaiman delivers a whimsical, imaginative, bittersweet, and at times deeply scary modern fantasy about fear, love, magic, sacrifice, and the power of stories to reveal and to protect us from the darkness inside — a moving, terrifying, and elegiac fable for every age.

It's been eight years since the mixed blessing of Gaiman's last effort for adults, Anansi Boys, but I don't doubt that The Ocean at the End of the Lane will be brilliant.

That said, it's going to be a fleeting pleasure at best. According to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, Gaiman's new book is only 192 pages long!

Size certainly isn't everything, and I hate to sound ungrateful - make no mistake: this is worth getting worked up about - but after all this time I admit I'd been hoping for something... more.

I'll be there day one anyway, which is to say on the 18th of June 2013. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is coming from Headline Review hereabouts, and William Morrow in North America. Mark your calendars accordingly!

Cover Identity | Serene Invasion by Eric Brown

Recently, Solaris unveiled the cover art of Eric Brown's next novel. It's nothing new, but for what it is it's very well done indeed. I'm a fan!

 

 

The evil alien face on the spaceship is a nice touch, too. But it might just be a spoiler, because according to the synopsis, the Serene are supposed to be benign:

It's 2025 and the world is riven by war, terrorist attacks, poverty and increasingly desperate demands for water, oil, and natural resources. The West and China confront each other over an inseperable ideological divide, each desperate to sustain their future. 

And then the Serene arrive, enigmatic aliens form Delta Pavonis V, and nothing will ever be the same again. 

The Serene bring peace to an ailing world, an end to poverty and violence — but not everyone supports the seemingly benign invasion. 

There are forces out there who wish to return to the bad old days, and will stop at nothing to oppose the Serene.

I've had my ups and downs reading Eric Brown's work, all of which I've documented here on The Speculative Scotsman. When he's on, as in Engineman and The Kings of Eternity, hoo boy is he on! But when he's off - see Guardians of the Phoenix and The Devil's Nebula - his prose can be a chore, and that's putting it politely.

 

Still, I soldier ever onward, in the hope of rediscovering the wonder Stephen Baxter speaks of in the quote adorning the cover image above. Serene Invasion could be awful, of course, but it's equally likely to be awesome. I'll be reading it either way... next April.

Cover Identity | The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra R. Clarke

I've had call to talk about Strange Chemistry on a couple of occasions already. For those of you net in the know, it's an up-and-coming imprint of Angry Robot Books with a specific focus of speculative fiction of the YA variety. So obviously, I'm interested in it.

It doesn't hurt that friend of the blog - and friend of the me - Amanda Rutter (formerly of the gone but still not forgotten Floor-to-Ceiling Books) is leading this particular charge. I'm very keen to see, finally, some of what she's got in store for us all, be we young or old.

As of an email from Amanda a couple of days ago, one contender has roundly risen above the others in my eyes. That would be The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra R. Clarke, and not - or not solely - because of Amanda's description of it as an experience alike The Arabian Nights as written by Scott Lynch or Throne of the Crescent Moon's Saladin Ahmed. Though in this case, with a new author, that sort of comparison certainly helps.

As does cover art as appealing as the image embedded above. All sorts of purdy, isn't it?

Truth be told, though, it was a couple of info-nuggets in Cassandra's bio that served to excite my interest. Firstly, foremostly, it was the mention of the author's attendance at Clarion West in the summer of 2010. In the past these star-studded workshops - instructed by writers like George R. R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny and Gardner Dozois - have given an incredible array of literary talent a real leg up in the industry. Amongst the other alumni of Clarion West: Kristine Katheryn Rusch, Rachel Swirsky, Margo Lanagan and Daniel Abraham.

So Cassandra R. Clarke has a lot to live up to!

By now you must be wondering: what's the other thing, then? Well I'll be the first to admit my reasoning here is a bit silly, but Cassandra hails from Houston, Texas, and of all the places I stopped off in during my month in America, I was - entirely to my surprise - at my happiest in Houston.

Oh, for another night out in the Heights...

In any event, what's The Assassin's Curse all about? Well here's a bit of blurbage:

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. And when Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn’t really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. To break the curse, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks — all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic, and the growing romantic tension between them.

The bad news is that The Assassin's Curse isn't due out till the other side of the summer - most of you will have to wait till October to get your grubby paws on it - but would you believe I've got good news, too? At least I do for those of you based in the UK.

Thanks to Amanda, I have a single ARC to give away in early May, which is to say soon, and all you need to do to stand a chance of winning it is riddle me this:

Which popular author will be bringing the

fight to the club at Clarion this summer?

Please send your solutions to thespeculativescotsman [at] gmail [dot] com and mark your subject headers appropriately. I'm going to give you till this time next week to get your answers in.

Good luck, everyone!

Cover Identity | Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan

I'm disappointed in you, internet!

It's been a couple of days since the great and terrible Margo Lanagan, having been cruelly preempted by Amazon's army of image-monkeys, posted on her blog Among Amid While about the cover art for her long-awaited second novel, Sea Hearts.

Here it is:

And no-one's said squat about it! That is, no-one whose blogs I follow...

Which gives one to wonder: by some baffling happenstance do none of you know about this incredible talent? Because I've been psyched about Sea Hearts - working title Watered Silk - for years. Pretty much ever since reading the delightfully, deliciously dark Tender Morsels, which as I recall came to me by way of a recommendation from Amanda Palmer's missus. (No, not a personal recommendation.)

 

Anyway, what gives, internet? This is big news in my book. And there's a blurb too, which I may have missed:

 

"On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings – and to catch their wives.  

 

"The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And, for a price, any man might buy himself a sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

 

"Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire, despair and transformation. With devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love."

 

*squee* I say.

Right?

 

Courtesy of David Fickling Books, Sea Hearts will be with us early next year - in February is Amazon's to be believed, which let's be honest... it often isn't - and that, in any event, is more than enough time for you all to get caught up on Tender Morsels and/or Margo's triumvirate of tremendous short story collections: Black Juice, White Time and Yellowcake. Really, the sooner you familiarise yourself with this wonderful and criminally little-known author, the better.

 

Here endeth today's lesson.

Cover Identity | Chong Takes Embassytown

As per the Subterranean Press site, the cover art has been released for the limited edition of Embassytown the exclusive publishers aforementioned will be putting out - apparently before the Autumn's upon us. And good Google, is it a sight for sore eyes or what?

Oh, for a high-res image of this lavish wraparound...

I expect a fair few of you will recognise the work as that of one Vincent Chong. Brownie points to you all.

For myself, the small print puts me out of contention: after all, not so very long ago I reviewed a rare art book which brought together some of Chong's most striking work to date. That piece is here, if you please. But though Altered Visions made for a truly impressive portfolio - "a modest but gorgeous collection of the work of one of the most promising new artists to have arrived on the scene in recent memory," I called it - you know what? I tend to think the man's gone from strength to strength since.

Is this his best piece yet? Well... personally speaking, I wouldn't say so, no. But near as dammit.

And that might just be me, because the yellows and browns and blues of the imagery above make for a distinctly different colour palette than that I'd imagined of Embassytown and its alien surrounds. At a push, I'd have to say I pictured deep reds and purples, slick and viscous rather than weather-worn. This seems a touch too Modern Warfare for my tastes.

But all the same, it's a beautiful image.

Beautiful enough I might just have to invest in a third copy of this incredible novel... which, now that I think of it, I should have an extensive review of - in which I make the case for China Mieville as a God of genre literature - ready for you all to read sometime within the next week.

***

Source: Subterranean Press

Cover Identity | The Flames, They Are A-Flooding

In a shockingly fast reaction to yesterday's GRRMblings - among a long and storied history of other such posts, of course - it seems George R. R. Martin and his Stateside publisher Bantam have agreed to unceremoniously kill A Song of Ice and Fire dead.

Many shall mourn - because damn it all, George, you promised us at least two more books! How very dare you?

Some shall celebrate - for at last, an end!

But invariably, others shall discuss poop, and sexing.

So all is as it should be. :I

Thanks to the Yeti What Stomps for the huge scoop, and congrats too to his significant other Jennifer for winning the design contract on the preliminary cover art represented above. Quite the big break there!

Do stay tuned for the UK cover of A Flood of Flames...

...any minute now.

###

Source: Stomping on Yeti

Cover Identity | Bow Before The Magician King

You know, back when I starting out, all I wanted to do with The Speculative Scotsman was talk about Tigana. So I talked about Tigana, at length. And yea, verily, it was good.

However, I realised within a few weeks and a handful of comments that somehow or other, word about TSS had gotten out. And I'd run out of ways to say Guy Gavriel Gay was - is - awesome.

So I bought a bunch of books. All the speculative fiction that'd been clogging up my shopping basket on Amazon - that I'd sat undecided on for weeks, months, even years in a few cases - I bought. Ostensibly so I'd have something to talk about. But mostly because it was a brilliant way of rationalising the purchase of still more fantasy and science fiction as a sort of investment.

And more books = more happy, right? :)

Anyway, among the batch of books I bought, way back when, was The Magicians, by Lev Grossman. I'd been lurking around the blogosphere for ages even then, and I remembered a few reviewers had adored it, and a few... had not, shall we say? What swung me in the end was the gorgeous cover art.

What I actually got when my rather massive delivery came through was, thanks to the wiles of some shady Marketplace seller, this:

And not even that. That in blue. Pffff.

In any event, the best laid plans and all that, because within a few weeks of launching The Speculative Scotsman the review copies had started coming in, and it was all I could do even then to keep up with them even then. So The Magicians floundered on my bookshelves. I alphabetised it and forgot it, all but: in part thanks to the dreary corridor cover art and in part because in short order I found I had so much else to talk about.

However.

There's a sequel on the way. But of course there's a sequel on the way! The Magician King will be out in September here in the UK.

I've known this for a while.

What I didn't know, before Lev Grossman posted about it on his blog yesterday, was that it'd look like this:

Which, well...

Isn't that just the loveliest cover art you've seen in years? Absolutely beautiful. So very pretty I might just have to move The Magicians from the bookshelves to the TBR tower.

So what do you all think? What are your thoughts on the new UK cover art? And in a larger sense, how about The Magicians, anyway? Will it be up my alley or what?

Bear in mind I kept my grammar Nazi at bay long enough to adore the Harry Potter books quite despite myself, took a real shine to Spellwright, though the last Orson Scott Card - The Lost Gate - left me cold, I confess. Am I even thinking along the write lines? Where if I might ask does The Magicians stand in the scheme of things?

Cover Identity | Homeward Spellbound

Who here doesn't adore Blake Charlton?

Get out!

Because in truth, it's tough not to fall for a man who takes gently self-effacing jokes about looking a little like Peter Andre with all the dignity and humour that latter specimen lacks.

Blake Charlton is an absolute bloody gentleman, I'm sure we can all agree, and a medicine-man in the making with what I can only imagine must be the loveliest bedside manner in existence... but perhaps more to point, as per the stated interests of this blog, his debut, last year's Spellwright - of which you can read the full TSS review here - was such a generously spirited story, with a literally literal magic system which knows no equal, that I've been looking forward to book two in the series from the moment I finished the first.

Which I might add was a few months in advance of its publication - so it's seemed a painfully long wait!

But the time is almost upon us, now. Voyager will be publishing Spellbound here in the UK on August 4th, whilst Tor will have an edition for US audiences sometime in September; on the 11th if Amazon is to be believed (which, as a rule, it isn't).

Anyway. As discussed earlier in the week, a release date isn't in and of itself the sort of news I tend to purvey here on The Speculative Scotsman. But brand spanking new cover art? For a book I can't wait to get my grubby paws on? Well, hell yeah!

Ladies... gents... it gives me really a great deal of pleasure to be able to exclusively introduce to you all today to the very image you'll be seeing on Voyager's TPB release of Spellbound.

Feast your eyes:

So a floaty magic diamond, as opposed to the floaty magic ball of Spellwright's UK PB, as ensconced  above.

Really, there's not a great deal to it, but bah. I'm a fan. It's certainly a bold, iconic image - dazzling even - and so striking in no small part because it's been stripped of the usual fantasy distractions. And of course it maintains an aesthetic lineage between Spellbound and its storied predecessor - an important point: nothing quite rubs this reader the wrong way like an abrupt shift in cover looks. This'll be a perfect fit, sat beside Spellwright on my bookshelves; I can practically see it now...

And surely no-one out there is saying a cover has to have at least twenty vectors for it to be interesting, are they?

Oh, and here's a blurb, too:

Francesca DeVega is a healer in the city of Avel, composing magical sentences that close wounds and disspell curses, but her life is thrown into chaos when a dead patient sits up and tells her to run. Suddenly Francesca finds herself in a game she doesn’t understand—one that ties her to the rogue wizard Nicodemus Weal and brings her face-to-face with demons, demigods, and a man she hoped never to see again.

Ten years have passed since Nicodemus Weal escaped Starhaven Academy, where he was considered disabled and where he battled the demon who stole his birthright. Unable to use the magical languages of his own people, Nico has honed his skills in the dark Chthonic languages, preparing for his next encounter with the demon. But there are complications: his mentor suffers from an incurable curse, his half-sister’s agents are hunting him, and he’s unsure how Francesca DeVega fits into the intrigue.

In a world where a misused pronoun can spell death, Nicodemus can’t afford to make a single mistake.

And when you get right down to it, as we all know, what counts in a book - any book - isn't the cover art so much as the narrative art beneath. And in that regard, too, I expect Spellbound will be wonderful.

Roll on August!

Cover Identity | Moon Over Soho, Mofo

With the first book of The Folly, sometime Doctor Who scriptwriter Ben Aaronovitch seems to have made quite the splash. By the author's own admission, Rivers of London has sold more than 12 copies - one might imagine substantially more, given its very respectable sales ranking on Amazon.

In point of fact, Rivers of London (known in the enlightened world, where profits are hewn from guns and explosions, as Midnight Riot) has been such a huge success, if you'll pardon my Glados, that Ben Aaronovitch has been able to enlist the services of one Paul Graham Raven, your friend and mine, to set him up a proper website - where alas, I can't find the button to subscribe via RSS.

Anyway, renowned ganderer that I am, I took a one at the-folly.com earlier, and right there on the Books page, what do you know? Covers for both the UK and the US editions of the follow-up to Rivers of London: the wonderfully titled Moon Over Soho. I presume there will be bums? Here they are:

Once again, you'll note the UK edition borrows from artist Stephen Walter's incredible and incredibly detailed - "impish" I am reliably informed - remapping of London, while the American cover is just more of the same... rubbish.

I'm sorry; it is. We both know it.

Moon Over Soho is currently scheduled to hit bookstore shelves at the tail end of April, from the great Gollancz here in Blighty, and Del Rey in the States.

This is very good news, because Rivers of London was a right treat. You can read The Speculative Scotsman's full review here, or else take a trip through the blogroll, whereupon near-enough every one of my bloggery colleagues have had their say about Ben Aaronovitch's whiplash smart urban fantasy.

Cover Identity: Ysabel & The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay

Late last month - though after my week it feels like a lot longer ago - I posted what I hoped would be the first in a new series of recurring features here on The Speculative Scotsman. For the inaugural Cover Identity, I took a look at the striking new covers for Simon and Schuster's re-issues of The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.

And I think it went well. Reader response was uniformly positive. Moreover, it was loads of fun to write, and it's important not to lose sight of that amid the flood of obligations that arise from publishers and publicity reps starting to take the blog seriously. It's a great problem to have, don't get me wrong - I wouldn't trade all these lovely books for all the tea in China (and this from a gentleman who enjoys his Earl Grey) - but it's nice, nevertheless, to write something I don't feel I have to.

Long story short, expect Cover Identity to join the ranks of semi-regular posts on TSS, alongside the likes of Opinionated Speculations, Castmonger, From Your Blogosphere Correspondent and The Bag o' Speculative Swag.

In fact, here: have another...

***

Recently, Voyager released images of the new cover which will be adorning their April paperback reissue of TSS favourite Guy Gavriel Kay's 2008 World Fantasy Award-winner Ysabel. The old art's on the left; the new on the right.

vs.

Well, I know which artwork I prefer.

I'll say this: the landscape in the background of the new cover is gorgeous, and the distortion effect layered across the sky is spot-on, like handmade paper. The problem - for me, at least - is the lady in the foreground. Now sure, she's cute, I won't deny that, but she just looks too... real. Clearly, the artist has cottoned on to that fact too - the glowing light around her outline is surely supposed to help her blend better with the otherworldly art behind her, but for my money, it's not nearly enough. She still clashes.

All this brings to mind a novel I read not so long ago. The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan, which you can read my review of here, suffered from much the same problem: beautiful cover art unfortunately offset by the presence of an anonymous hottie. Now this isn't a problem on the same scale as say, random hooded swordsmen, but it seems a very common tack to take when designing covers in this day and age; Photoshop something with breasts onto a piece of art and the smart money says it'll sell better. What an indictment of our hypersexualised, phallogocentric society that is...

Thankfully, I already have my copy of Ysabel, and let's face it: in the three years since its publication, the vast majority of Kay's established readership will likewise have bought an edition of this stellar novel.

The new art, then, is not for us. Guy Gavriel Kay fans do not need another copy of Ysabel. But divisive though it may be - and there are certainly some who prefer the redesigned cover - let's take the long view for a moment. There's every chance this new cover will sell Ysabel to a reader who's never had the pleasure of Tigana or A Song for Arbonne. And readers who otherwise wouldn't give sprawling historical fantasy a chance picking Ysabel up regardless is a fine thing indeed, is it not?

Besides, much as I appreciate it, the old cover art was rather abstract, wasn't it? Sort of.. the Mona Lisa's chin smeared in Gothic typescript.

Meanwhile, in the US of A, Roc - the one Penguin imprint to rule them all - have teased new artwork for their reissues of The Sarantine Mosaic.

vs.

Substantially improved, no?

Larry Rostant's artwork for Kay's reissues in the States continues to floor me. In fact, were it not for the incredible clockwork cover of the 10th anniversary edition of Tigana I own, I don't know that I'd have necessarily taken a chance on it last Winter (in the long-lost days of yore, before all this bloggery began).

vs.

For both Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors, Rostant has employed an approach that reminds me of a glorious few intricate, hand-stitched wall hangings I've seen. Or, indeed, a mosaic.

And did you notice? They fit together, too.

I do appreciate that in a series; not only matching spines but cover art that fits together into a singular thing as well as serving perfectly well in its own right.

But that's enough bumbling for one day.

Voyager is publishing the new edition of Ysabel on April 29th here in the UK, while in the US, Roc are scheduled to release the two uber-beautiful volumes of The Sarantine Mosaic discussed above in September and October. I don't know that I honestly have the patience, but I may very well have to consider holding off on getting copies of those much-recommended books till then...

Of course, ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I'd love to hear your opinions on all this new Guy Gavriel Kay artwork. For instance, is there anyone out there who doesn't own Ysabel and might now consider purchasing it - at least in part because of the new cover art?

Cover Identity: The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

Well, when in Rome...

For the first in what I can only imagine will come to be a worrying regular look at cover art here on The Speculative Scotsman, I give you the newly redesigned Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.

Though the review is still a few weeks off - the posting schedule is, I'm pleased to say, packed to the gunnels with good stuff in the interim - I had a whale of a time with Leviathan a little while ago, so the thought of more Westerfeld certainly has me in, if not fits of anticipation then certainly mild tremors thereof.

But I don't honestly know that I'd have looked twice at the three Uglies books without these striking new covers. Here, have a gander - the new designs are on the left, the old ones on the right:

vs.

Now there's nothing wrong with the old covers of Uglies, Pretties and Specials per se, but I can't help but think the new art will more effectively appeal to the market for these books; which is to say, young adults.

Of course, and I hate to have to stress this every time I talk about YA literature, I don't mean that market exclusively, only that the consensus seems to be that Westerfeld wrote the Uglies trilogy with such readers in mind. If these books are anything like Leviathan, however, they're sure to find an audience among more mature genre junkies, too.

vs.

The back-cover credits don't leave me entirely certain who we should be thanking for what, but between illustrator Sam Hadley and designer Nick Stearn, the three reworkings are each iconic pieces that look just lovely together. They have a sense of continuity that the now-outmoded designs rather lacked. Simple, but sleek; bold, but not boisterous.

Not to mention that the old art looks decidedly like something you might find adorning Chuck Palahniuk's back-catalogue, and these novels, from everything I've read and otherwise heard, are not that - not at all.

vs.

I can't imagine too many parents being pleased to see their kids reading a book with that last design on the cover, in particular. The new designs are certainly much less risque, but I don't think they've lost anything in the transition. They're perhaps a little generic, yes, but they're significantly less sterile than the old alternatives. They speak of action, intrigue and excitement, whereas the previous covers were cold and clinical - although perhaps that was precisely the plan. Certainly that's a notion tied into the subject matter, but I fear if that were the case, a disservice was done to the intended, all-ages audience.

One way or another, I wholeheartedly approve of the new artwork for Uglies, Pretties and Specials. You can expect reviews of these three, radically redesigned novels - due for release on March 4th from Simon and Schuster - as and when the opportunity to read them presents itself.

...

Here, opportunity! Wherever could you be hiding?