CHUNG KUO update

The fifth volume in the Chung Kuo series, The Art of War, is out on 1 March. Unlike the previous volumes, I haven't received an ARC so I'll have to pick it up the old-fashioned way at some point. Here is the Larry Rostant cover art for the sixth volume in the series, An Inch of Ashes:

Corvus's new catalogue confirms that there will only be three Chung Kuo novels published this year rather than the previously-suggested four. An Inch of Ashes will be out on 4 July, followed by The Broken Wheel on 7 November. The good news is that apparently Corvus has reached a deal with Barnes and Nobel in the United States, with the UK versions of the novels being released in the USA via their shops. With no news on a US-specific publisher picking up the series, this should be of interest to American readers. The books are also available via Amazon, with the e-editions also accessible from the USA (though not always on release).

A cover you'll remember

Best cover art of the year? Almost certainly.

This is the cover to the limited edition of Bleeding Shadows, a collection of short stories by Joe R. Lansdale, to be published by Subterranean Press in November. I have no idea what the hell is going on here, but now I want to read it.

Cover art for Christopher Priest's THE ADJACENT

Given that waits for a new Christopher Priest novel are often measured in half-decades (or, in the case of the last one, a full decade), it feels like we're being spoiled with a new book so soon after his previous one. The Adjacent will be published in June 2013 and now has some cover art:

Priest calls this the longest and most complicated book he's ever written, which coming from the author of The Affirmation and The Separation is saying something.

Cover art: Feist and Gaiman

Some cover art for upcoming books. First up is Raymond E. Feist's Magician's End (US version):

Normally I don't post much about Feist (that whole, 'Fourteen years since he last published a good book' thing tends to get in the way), but this is somewhat noteworthy as Magician's End concludes the entire 30-volume saga begun way back in 1982 with Magician, bringing to an end the cycle of riftwars and interdimensional chaos to plague the world of Midkemia. Feist plans to move onto other works and worlds (including an apparent SF series) for a while, which can only be a good thing for the quality of his writing. Magician's End will be published in May 2013.

Meanwhile, Neil Gaiman's first full-length-novel-for-adults in eight years, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, will be published in June 2013. Cover blurbage:

“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.

New Daniel Abraham cover art

Here's the cover art for Daniel Abraham's next two novels: Abaddon's Gate, the third volume of The Expanse (written with Ty Franck under the pen name James S.A. Corey); and The Tyrant's Law, the third volume in The Dagger and the Coin:

The Tyrant's Law will be published in May 2013, with Abaddon's Gate following a month later.

UK cover art for Richard Morgan's THE DARK DEFILES

An early look at the working cover art for Richard Morgan's The Dark Defiles, provisionally due in August 2013:

No, I haven't read the book: it's still being written. The quote is from my review of The Cold Commands and may not be present on the final version of the cover for The Dark Defiles.

Final cover art for THE LANDS OF ICE AND FIRE

The Lands of Ice and Fire - a tie-in map book for A Song of Ice and Fire - arrives at the end of October and the final cover art for the book has been unveiled:

Nothing too surprising, with a map of Westeros and some heraldic symbols forming the front cover to the book (though clearly the Tyrells and Martells annoyed someone).

New WILD CARDS UK cover artwork

The Wild Cards series is being relaunched in the UK by Gollancz with all-new cover artwork.

Wild Cards will be released in November, followed by Aces High the following month. The third book, Jokers Wild, will be released in March 2013. The series will then jump to the newer volumes, with Inside Straight coming out in June 2013. Sales will determine if the other earlier books in the series will be reprinted at a later date.

I must admit, these covers are quite nice. They're not Michael Komarck, but there's some nice understatement to them (er, giant dinosaur aside) and good use of the card motif. It will be interesting to see the covers for the later books.

Cover art for BLOOD AND BONE by Ian C. Esslemont

Here's the UK cover art for Ian Cameron Esslemont's Blood and Bone, his forthcoming fifth Malazan novel.

The novel is due for release in November this year. Barring last minute delays, that will make for three Malazan novels in one year (following Esslemont's Orb, Sceptre, Throne in January and Erikson's Forge of Darkness this month).

New CHUNG KUO cover art

I've previously revealed some of the cover art for the forthcoming volumes of the 'remastered' Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove. The full cover art for Books 3 and 4 - The Middle Kingdom and Ice and Fire - has now been unveiled:

In addition, a tiny thumbnail of the cover art for Book 5, The Art of War, has appeared on the Corvus website:

The current release schedule for the series is:

Book 3: The Middle Kingdom - 18 October 2012
Book 4: Ice and Fire - 1 December 2012
Book 5: The Art of War - 1 March 2013
Book 6: An Inch of Ashes - 1 July 2013

There will be twenty books in the series altogether, already written by David Wingrove and to be published by the end of 2015. The first two books, Son of Heaven and Daylight on Iron Mountain, are already available.

Raymond E. Feist's MAGICIAN gets a new UK cover

Raymond E. Feist's debut novel, Magician, is getting some new cover artwork, presumably to tie in with the novel's impending 30th anniversary and the release next year of the very last novel in the Riftwar mega-saga. Here it is:

Hmm. Considering that Magician is an epic fantasy war story spanning twelve years, two planets and involving thousands of warriors and wizards fighting one another on a truly vast scale, "Hooded guy holding some keys," isn't really cutting it for me. The new edition will be published next month in the UK.

Cover art and blurb for Guy Gavriel Kay's RIVER OF STARS

Via Risingshadow, the cover art and blurb for Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, his sort-of successor to 2010's excellent Under Heaven.

In his critically acclaimed novel Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay told a vivid and powerful story inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty. Now, the international bestselling and multiple award-winning author revisits that invented setting four centuries later with an epic of prideful emperors, battling courtiers, bandits and soldiers, nomadic invasions, and a woman battling in her own way, to find a new place for women in the world – a world inspired this time by the glittering, decadent Song Dynasty.

Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life — in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later — and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles towards the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.

Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor — and alienates women at the court. But when her father’s life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has.

In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading to events no one could have foretold, under the river of stars.

River of Stars will be published in April 2013.

New cover art for Peter F. Hamilton's NIGHT'S DAWN TRILOGY

Via Walker of Worlds, Peter F. Hamilton's superb Night's Dawn Trilogy is getting some new UK cover art, courtesy of new artist Steve Stone:

The rejacketing of the books should be complete by the end of the year. To be honest, I'm not that impressed by the covers. Compare them to the existing, original cover art by Jim Burns:

If Stone was depicting different scenes - and there are literally dozens of scenes in each novel which could serve for interesting cover art - I could understand the reason for the change. As it stands, he's painted the exact same scenes - the space battle over Lalonde, the Edenist habitats and ships near Jupiter and a Kiint floating city - but in rather less-interesting ways. Totally redundant. At least the cover art for the limited edition Subterranean Press versions (by Tomislav Tikulin) went with different scenes and a different style:

Disappointing, and a bit of a missed opportunity, it has to be said.

Cover art for Joe Abercrombie's RED COUNTRY

The UK cover art for Joe Abercrombie's Red Country has been unveiled:

And the full cover:

The US cover art, which has been previously unveiled:

The jacket blurb:

"They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust…"

The book will be published on 18 October 2012 in the UK and 23 October in the USA.

Cover art for ICE AND FIRE by David Wingrove

The cover art for Ice and Fire, the fourth book in the revamped, twenty-volume Chung Kuo series, has appeared online. As with the first three books, the cover art is by Larry Rostant.

And with the title (and a slightly different image; it is unclear which is the final version at the moment):

The third volume in the series, The Middle Kingdom, is currently scheduled for release (after a slight delay) on 1 October 2012. Ice and Fire will follow on 1 December. The fifth book, The Art of War, has also been provisionally scheduled for 1 March 2013.