Presented for your viewing pleasure, the full jacket for Sean Williams' upcoming fantasy epic,
The Blood Debt: Books of the Cataclysm: Two. In this case, we made use of the wonderful art and adapted elements of the design from the Australian edition, artwork by
Greg Bridges and design by Gayna Murphy. Our own Jaqueline Cooke - who omits her name from the jacket - does deserve credit for adapting the Australian design on their mass-market paperback to the needs of our hardcover (those foil symbols weren't easy to resize), the wonderful flaps, etc... (Right click the image for a larger view as always)
The most excellent Hal Duncan, whose World Fantasy Award-nominated
Vellum has drawn comparisons to the preceding book,
The Crooked Letter, has this to say: "Williams's mix of grand metaphysical vision, weird landscapes, and wild adventure makes for a great read, but it's the deeply human story at the heart of
The Crooked Letter that really makes it something wonderful."
Hi,
ReplyDeleteAwesome cover; makes me want the book now, and definitely I plan to read both books (Crooked Letter and this one) when it comes out. I am always slower to read fantasy books, especially stranger ones like these 2 and I have another one on tap Scar Night, since they require a different frame of mind than usual (as mentioned I read C. Mieville's PSS and Scar when the second was out, though I owned PSS from publication).
Liviu
Well, Crooked Letter is out now, though if you want to wait and read both together, I won't fault you. Sean's been compared to Mieville, Pullman and Le Guin (for EarthSea), if that helps you triangulate where this lies. I really like the following review too, if you don't mind my quoting it:
ReplyDelete“[E]xplores the nature of life, death, and reality. Big subjects, but with the precision of an archaeological expert, Williams is more than up to the task. There is a lot to admire in Williams's epic fantasy, the wide range of global religions and myths of which his afterlife is comprised, to the characterization of the protagonists. The story has the mythic resonance of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and American Gods, the dark fantasy/horror one might associate with something like Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, the multiple universes/realities of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion mythos, and the strange, weird creatures one might associate with China Miéville’s Bas-lag novels. Williams imagined world is equal part those novels which preceded his, but fortunately, there is enough newness to both the approach and vision to make this the work of a singular vision.... Williams captures what makes a tried and true genre like Epic Fantasy so popular and enjoyable… and spins a tale with his unique voice. This is the type of book you finish and can’t wait to read the sequel.” SFFWorld
Hi Lou,
ReplyDeleteThe cover looks great. Though I admit to being somewhat partial to the back of the book, too.
BTW, I'm sucked into Infoquake right now and all I can saw is WOW.
Hey, that is one nice back'o'book, thanks. I love all those wonderful associations aggregated into one review. Meanwhile, very glad to hear you are digging INFOQUAKE. I'll be anxiously awaiting your opinion when you are done.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI own Crooked Letter since publication (Sean Williams is another author I buy everything original on publication - whenever a book that interests me is announced I put it on my wish list at Amazon.com, and then when Amazon makes it available to ship and I get the 25$ limit to get free shipping I order; it's very efficient and I do not waste time keeping track of what and when a book appears - I remember though the days before Amazon when Dalton had that exploration newsletter in stores every 2 months or so, then it moved to B&N when they acquired Dalton, and now is by email...Amazon though simplified things quite a lot for me, leaving aside that by discounting enabled me to buy many more books than before on the same budget)
Previously I have read several pages from CL and I liked it but until now I never felt in the mood to get into it seriously; seeing this cover for Blood Debt though gave me the impetus so I started it today and I should finish it by Friday.
Liviu
Yes, that cover for BLOOD DEBT really struck me too. It might be my favorite piece Greg Bridges has done, though Books 3 and 4 are pretty sweet. There is a bit of a jump between books 1 and 2, btw, so I'll be curious to see what you think when you've read both.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I grasp your problem with fantasy linked to the modern day, though I suspect Sean will solve this for you when you reach BLOOD DEBT. Glad you are liking it so far.
ReplyDelete