Monday, January 15, 2024

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By Samantha Shannon, Peter S. Beagle, Stephanie Garber, And James Rollins

Redesigned collector's, anniversary, or author's preferred text editions are a hit right now. At least the latter is true for Samantha Shannon's first four books in the The Bone Season series. Of course, nothing beats original and books published for the first time--and for this type we have Peter S. Beagle, Stephanie Garber, and James Rollins to highlight in this edition of cover reveal news roundup.

The Mime Order (Author’s Preferred Text) by Samantha Shannon

The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon

Synopsis

A stunning new edition of the second novel in the bestselling Bone Season series with gorgeous new cover artwork and updated text, by the bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree.

A fugitive who will not be silenced

It is a dark time for clairvoyants. Scion is in league with the Rephaim, an extraordinarily powerful, otherworldly race that intends to make humans its slaves.

In an unprecedented feat of bravery, Paige Mahoney has succeeded in leading a mass break-out from the brutal camp, Sheol I, where she and other clairvoyants were systematically imprisoned.

Paige is desperate to reach the safety of the London underworld, but the ruthless leader of the Rephaim, Nashira Sargas, is not likely to let her escape so easily.


The Mime Order (Author’s Preferred Text) by Samantha Shannon will be released on May 9, 2024.

The Song Rising (Author’s Preferred Text) by Samantha Shannon

The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

Synopsis

A stunning new edition of the third novel in the bestselling Bone Season series with gorgeous new cover artwork and updated text, by the bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree.

A rebel who becomes a queen

Following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London's criminal population.

But, having turned her back on Jaxon Hall and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilising the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.

Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of Senshield, a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it.


The Song Rising (Author’s Preferred Text) by Samantha Shannon will be released on May 9, 2024.

The Mask Falling (Author’s Preferred Text) by Samantha Shannon

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon

Synopsis

A stunning new edition of the fourth novel in the bestselling Bone Season series with gorgeous new cover artwork and updated text, by the bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Paige Mahoney has eluded death again. Snatched from the jaws of captivity and consigned to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris, she finds herself caught between those factions that seek Scion's downfall and those who would kill to protect the Rephaim's puppet empire.

The mysterious Domino Programme has plans for Paige, but she has ambitions of her own in this new citadel. With Arcturus Mesarthim--her former enemy--at her side, she embarks on an adventure that will lead her from the catacombs of Paris to the glittering hallways of Versailles. Her risks promise high reward: the Parisian underworld could yield the means to escalate her rebellion to outright war.

As Scion widens its bounds and the free world trembles in its shadow, Paige must fight her own memories after her ordeal at the hands of Scion. Meanwhile, she strives to understand her bond with Arcturus, which grows stronger by the day. But there are those who know the revolution began with them - and could end with them...


The Mask Falling (Author’s Preferred Text) by Samantha Shannon will be released on May 9, 2024.

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

Synopsis

Dragons are common in the back-water kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouse-like vermin all the way up to castle-smashing monsters. There are so many of them, the romance is long gone. They're pests, infestations, nuisances.

Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people just call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased father's job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart in part because he likes dragons, feeling an odd kinship with them, but mainly because his dream has always been the impossible one of transcending his humble origin to someday become a prince's valet. Needless to say, fate has something rather different in mind...

Falling in with a beautiful princess who has no desire to be a damsel, and a handsome prince who would rather not engage in heroics, Robert's attempts to grease the wheels of their courtship in exchange for help improving his employment prospects throw him into the way of a far greater adventure than he could ever have imagined.


I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle will be released on May 16, 2024.

Spectacular by Stephanie Garber

Spectacular by Stephanie Garber

Synopsis

Welcome, welcome back to the mysteriously enchanting world of Caraval! Return to the legendary magic and the whimsical wonder with this beautifully illustrated holiday novella.

Snowflakes are falling.
Invitations are arriving.
And holiday magic is swirling in the capital city of the Meridian Empire.

It’s Great Holiday Eve Eve. Scarlett Dragna is planning a spectacular Holiday celebration for the city. Donatella is searching for the perfect gift. Julian is looking ridiculously handsome in green. And Legend...

Well, sadly Legend is not fond of the Great Holiday. Tella is hoping her perfect gift will change his mind. Unfortunately, she hasn’t found this perfect gift just yet. But it is Great Holiday Eve Eve . . . surely there’s some holiday magic swirling around.


Spectacular by Stephanie Garber will be released on October 22, 2024.

Arkangel by James Rollins

Arkangel by James Rollins

Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times master of international thrillers comes the story of a global hunt across the top of world, pitting nation against nation, as ancient myths of a lost continent prove all too real.

The execution of a Vatican archivist within the shadow of the Kremlin exposes a conspiracy going back three centuries--to the bloody era of the Russian Tsars. Before his murder, he manages to dispatch a coded message, a warning of a terrifying threat, one tied to a secret buried within the Golden Library of Tsars, a vast and treasured archive that had vanished into history.

As combative forces race for the truth behind this death and alarming discovery, Sigma Force is summoned to aid in the search--not only for this missing trove of ancient books, but to follow a trail far into the Arctic, to search for the truth about a lost continent and a revelation that could ignite a global war. But Sigma Force has its own difficulties at home after an explosive attack on the National Mall--one aimed at the heart of their covert agency--has left them vulnerable and exposed.

The growing conflict--both on Russian soil and deep in the Arctic--will reignite a centuries-old war between the newly resurgent Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican, while sabers rattle across the nations of the Arctic Circle, threatening to turn those icy seas into a fiery conflagration.

Facing enemies on all sides, it will be up to Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force to unravel a mystery going back millennia--and uncover the truth about a lost civilization and an arcane treasure that could save the planet... or destroy it.


Arkangel by James Rollins will be released on August 6, 2024.

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By Mark Lawrence, Deborah Harkness, And Sarah Dass

The holidays have brought along some nice gifts! This set of cover reveals includes covers of books by Mark Lawrence, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Dass.

The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence

The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence

Synopsis

Two people living in a world connected by an immense and mysterious library must fight for those they love in the second book in a new trilogy from the international bestselling author of The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

The Library spans worlds and times. It touches and joins distant places. It is memory and future. And amid its vastness Evar Eventari both found, and lost, Livira Page.

Evar has been forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover the book she wrote—one which is the only true threat to the library’s existence—if she's to return to her life.

While Evar's journey leads him outside into a world he's never seen, Livira's path will taker her deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.


The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence will be released on April 9, 2024.

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

Synopsis

Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself—and her family history—in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series.

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.


The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness will be released on July 16, 2024.

It Waits in the Forest by Sarah Dass

It Waits in the Forest by Sarah Dass

Synopsis

The very first thriller from Rick Riordan Presents! Drawing from the darkest corners of Caribbean mythology, acclaimed author Sarah Dass crafts a chilling tale of magic, murder, and how far we’ll go to protect what’s ours—perfect for fans of Angeline Boulley and Tiffany D. Jackson.

Unlike the other residents of the small Caribbean Island of St. Virgil, Selina DaSilva does not believe in magic. With a logical mind and a knack for botany, Selina used to dream of leaving the island to study Pharmacology—until a vicious, unsolved attack left her father dead and her mother in a coma.

Now her guilt over her mother’s condition keeps her tethered to the island, relegated to conning gullible tourists with useless talismans and phony protection rituals. But when one of those tourists ends up at the center of a string of strange murders, the truth that Selina has been denying can no longer be avoided: there is evil lurking in the forests that surround St. Virgil. Another thing that can’t be avoided? Selina’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel, newly employed at the local newspaper and eager to put his investigative skills to use.

Desperate to put an end to the killings and claim justice for Selina’s family, these two former lovers race to find answers. But evil bides its time. And as long-buried feelings and long-hidden secrets about Selina’s family’s past begin to reveal themselves, only one answer remains—and it waits in the forest.


It Waits in the Forest by Sarah Dass will be released on May 14, 2024.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Cover Reveal News Round-Up, Including Books By Christopher Tolkien & J. R. R. Tolkien, Anna Stephens, Brandon Sanderson, And Amie Kaufman

Fantasy is on a roll in this edition of cover reveals, starting with new books from Anna Stephens, Brandon Sanderson, and Amie Kaufman and a rebranding of the Tolkien classics!

The Dark Feather by Anna Stephens

The Dark Feather by Anna Stephens

Synopsis

Ixachipan is in flames.

Rebellion rages in every land and across every hill as the Empire of Songs battles to maintain control, but nowhere more fiercely than in the Singing City itself. In the great pyramid at its heart, Shadow Tayan faces the awful consequences of his actions, and their seductive possibilities.

In the city streets, Xessa and Lilla lead their warriors in increasingly desperate battles, their unity riven by betrayal and deception, while far to the north, Whisper Ilandeh discovers the freedom – and obligation – in making her own choices.

But war is fickle, and so are people. Sometimes, the only peace possible is that bought with blood and lies.

And when vengeance sings, the choices made will determine whether the flames of war are fanned – or drowned.


The Dark Feather by Anna Stephens will be released on March 28, 2024.

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

Synopsis

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy―comes this standalone novel showing a rare glimpse of a future Cosmere universe.

Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next.

But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him.

Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun... or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival―but also for his very soul.


The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson will be released on March 5, 2024.

The Heart of the World by Amie Kaufman

The Heart of the World by Amie Kaufman

Synopsis

Magic and sacrifice will collide as lovers and gods, enemies and allies vie for the fate of the world in this heart-pounding sequel to The Isles of the Gods, which Stephanie Garber called "deliciously diabolical and full of heart."

The Heart of the World by Amie Kaufman will be released on July 2, 2024.

The History of Middle-earth (Boxed Set 2): The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth & The Lost Road by Christopher Tolkien & J. R. R. Tolkien

The History of Middle-earth Box Set 2 by Tolkien

Synopsis

Second in a series of hardback boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Includes The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Lost Road, which contain the early myths and legends that led to the writings of The Silmarillion.

The Lays of Beleriand gives us a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth through the alliterative verse tales of two of the most crucial stories in Tolkien’s world – those of Túrin and of Beren and Lúthien. Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days, together with the notable criticism of The Lay of Leithian by C.S. Lewis, who read the poem in 1929.

In The Shaping of Middle-earth the chronological and geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor is spread before us. We are introduced to the hitherto unknown Ambarkanta or ‘Shape of the World’, the only account ever given of the nature of the imagined Universe, accompanied by maps and diagrams of the world before and after the cataclysms of the War of the Gods and the Downfall of Númenor. Also included are the original ‘Silmarillion’ of 1926, and the Quenta Noldorinwa of 1930 – the only version of the myths and legends of the First Age that J.R.R. Tolkien completed to their end.

The Lost Road completes the examination of Tolkien’s writing completes the examination of Tolkien's writing before he began The Lord of the Rings, presenting later forms of the annals of Valinor and Beleriand, the legend of the downfall of Númenor, and the abandoned ‘time-travel’ story The Lost Road, linking the world of Númenor and Middle-earth with the legends of many other times and peoples.

Published together for the first time, these three books comprise a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings on Middle-earth, itself a unique accomplishment that celebrates the greatest invented world in all of fantasy literature.


The History of Middle-earth (Boxed Set 2): The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth & The Lost Road by Christopher Tolkien & J. R. R. Tolkien will be released on March 28, 2024.