Games

Some upcoming cover art, courtesy of Jussi at Westeros.org once more: First up, the American cover for Blood of Dragons , the fourth volume in The Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb. This book is due for publication in the UK and USA in April 2013: Next up is the American cover for Great North Road , Peter F. Hamilton's new massive SF epic. This book will be out in the USA in December this year (and September in the UK): The final UK cover art for Iain M. Banks's The Hydrogen Sonata , the latest excursion to The Culture . This book will be out in the UK and USA in September this year: Rounding things off is the UK artwork for The Dirty Streets of Heaven , the first in Tad Williams's new urban fantasy series. This book will be out in both the UK and USA in September as well:

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2143. Detective Sid Hurst is called upon to investigate the unusually violent murder of a North. The Norths are a large family of clones who have forged a powerful, interstellar corporate empire. Twenty years ago another North was killed in the exact same manner on the world of St. Libra...but the woman responsible, Angela Tramelo, has spent two decades in prison, protesting her innocence and claiming that an alien lifeform was responsible.With mounting evidence that she may have been right, an expedition is mounted to St. Libra's wilderness hinterland to investigate further, even as Hurst's enquiries on Earth continue. However, St. Libra, a planet twice the size of Earth circling Sirius, is a difficult world to survey. It's thick ring system inhibits the operation of orbiting satellites and the planet is already under investigation for its bizarre plant life (which cannot have evolved in the short lifespan of the system). The expedition soon finds itse...

Via the Unisphere , we have the final cover art for Peter F. Hamilton's Great North Road (click for larger versions):     The cover art is by Steve Stone and will grace the British edition of the novel, to be published by Macmillan in hardcover on 27 September. Here's the cover with the full blurb:

One of the biggest SFF releases of 2012 will be Great North Road , a stand-alone SF novel from Peter F. Hamilton and his longest novel since The Night's Dawn Trilogy . Cover blurb: In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, AD 2142, Detective Sidney Hurst attends a brutal murder scene. The victim is one of the wealthy North family clones – but none have been reported missing. And the crime’s most disturbing aspect is how the victim was killed. Twenty years ago, a North clone billionaire and his household were horrifically murdered in exactly the same manner, on the tropical planet of St Libra. But if the murderer is still at large, was Angela Tramelo wrongly convicted? Tough and confident, she never waivered under interrogation – claiming she alone survived an alien attack. But there is no animal life on St Libra. Investigating this alien threat becomes the Human Defence Agency’s top priority. The bio-fuel flowing from St Libra is the lifeblood of Earth’s economy and must be secured. So a ...