A round of covers

The release of Orbit Books US and UK spring summer 2013 sneak peak come with two interesting covers that I wasn't aware of, Brian McClellan's Promise of Blood and Francis Knight's Fade to Black.  You can take a look at the US and UK Pinterest pages for the whole lot.

And then, I stumbled on another new cover that couldn't be left in the dark. Another contender for my "Best cover art with an infamous hooded assassin"!  Falling Kingdoms is a new novel published by Penguin by Morgan Rhodes (aka Michelle Rowen), a Game of Thrones for teens, or so it seems. The cover is the work of Shane Rebenschied.

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April 2013

Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and greedy scrambling for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces. Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail. 

Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should...

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February 2013

 Mahala: a city built in the dark depths of a valley. A city built up in layers, not across – where streets are built upon streets, buildings balance precariously upon buildings. A city that the Ministry rules from its lofty perch at the sunlit summit & where the forsaken lurk in the shadowy depths of the Pit. 

Rojan is a bounty hunter trying to make his way in the city. Everyone knows he’s a womaniser, a shirker of all responsibility, but they don’t know he’s also a pain-mage: able to draw magic from his own & other people’s pain. He’s not keen on using it (not least because it’s outlawed), but when his niece is abducted and taken to the dark depths of the Pit, he may just be forced to unleash his power . . .

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Fall 2013

Sixteen-year-old Cleo has grown up in luxury, the royal heiress to a peaceful and prosperous kingdom. But below the seemingly calm surface lies dangerous unrest, and whispers of war grow ever louder. Cleo has a deeper, more personal concern: she's desperate to locate a magic long-thought extinct. If it's real, it could be the cure that finally heals her ailing sister. Defying her father's orders, Cleo sets off on a secret and perilous journey into a neighboring country—a country that is about to declare war on hers. As Cleo's path entwines with rebel leader Jonas and rival prince Magnus, the only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Can Cleo remain standing when all around her topples?