City Without End takes Silver Spectrum Award

A huge congratulations to Stephan Martiniere, whose cover illustration for the third book in Kay Kenyon's ongoing space opera quartet entitled The Entire and the Rose, the forthcoming City Without End, just won the Silver Spectrum award in the book category. All of Stephan's covers in this series have been amazing. Book one, Bright of the Sky,made the Spectrum annual the year it was released, and we're hearing good things about A World Too Near- which just hit shelves this week. (For a look at these two covers side by side, see Kay's website.) And now, unveiled here for the first time, the winning cover of City Without End. This is my favorite of the three "Entire" pieces, and maybe one of my favorite Martiniere illustrations ever.

What do you think?

Meanwhile, long as we're talking about The Entire and the Rose, I've just spotted some very thoughtful, articulate (and spoiler ridden) reviews of Bright of the Sky and A World Too Near up at SF Reviews. Of book one, they say, "If what you crave in your SF is a fresh and dynamic approach to world-building, wed to epic storytelling with believably flawed heroes and vividly imagined alien cultures, and you're frustrated that nobody seems to be bloody doing it, odds are you've been skipping over the Kay Kenyon novels every time you go to the bookstore." Meanwhile, looking at book two, they say, "...it must be said that at the end of the day, this series, exciting as it's turning out to be, is in many ways pure fantasy formula — just tricked out in the most gorgeous production values imaginable. But who cares if it's formula as long as the entertainment value is blowing your doors, right? A World Too Near is sweet, splendid entertainment. Kay Kenyon will have you solidly hooked with this series, and if you've never had her name down on your reading list before now, it's way past time you added it."