Games

Via Walker of Worlds , Peter F. Hamilton's superb Night's Dawn Trilogy is getting some new UK cover art, courtesy of new artist Steve Stone: The rejacketing of the books should be complete by the end of the year. To be honest, I'm not that impressed by the covers. Compare them to the existing, original cover art by Jim Burns: If Stone was depicting different scenes - and there are literally dozens of scenes in each novel which could serve for interesting cover art - I could understand the reason for the change. As it stands, he's painted the exact same scenes - the space battle over Lalonde, the Edenist habitats and ships near Jupiter and a Kiint floating city - but in rather less-interesting ways. Totally redundant. At least the cover art for the limited edition Subterranean Press versions (by Tomislav Tikulin) went with different scenes and a different style: Disappointing, and a bit of a missed opportunity, it has to be said.

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...

Peter F. Hamilton has provided an update about his current and future writing projects. His next novel will be Great North Road , a massive (350,000-word) stand-alone SF book out in September. Hamilton has also completed Queen of Dreams , the first in a trilogy called Book of the Realms . This is a fantasy children's book series (not YA, it's aimed at 8-12-year olds) and the books are very short by his standards (the first book is only 52,000 words). He hopes to complete the entire trilogy by the end of this year, presumably for 2013 publication if all goes well. The next project will be The Fallers , originally envisaged as a trilogy but now possibly a duology. This sequence will be set in the Void some time between The Commonwealth Saga and The Void Trilogy . Amongst other things, the fate of Nigel Sheldon will apparently by explored in this new sequence. I suspect we won't see the first book in that series until 2014 at the earliest.

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 ...