Cover news from some of my favourite series

During the last week or so, I found some brand new covers for the upcoming books in some of my most favorite series. Take a look:



Hellforged is the second book in the Deadtown series by Nancy Holzner. I loved the first one, its worldbuiling was really strong and the book has a very interesting and sometimes amusing take on zombies plus one sexy shifter. It´s going to be published on December 28th 2010. There´s no blurb yet, but Nancy Holzner shares this interesting bit of information on her blog:

It’s the name of a weapon that Vicky must learn to use to fight a kind of demon she’s never encountered before.

I´m sure as hell (get it, hell?!? lame, I know) going to pre-order it!


Condemned to death for black magic and shunned, Rachel Morgan has three days to somehow get to the annual witches convention in San Francisco and clear her name. If she fails, the only way she can escape death is to live in the demonic ever after . . . for ever after.

Banned from the flight lists, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack, headed for the West Coast for her own mysterious business. But Rachel isn’t the only passanger along for the ride. Can a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy in one car survive for over 2,300 miles? And that’s not counting the assassin on their tail.

A fearsome demon walks the sunlight, freed after centuries of torment to slay the innocent and devour souls. But his ultimate prey is Rachel Morgan. While the powerful witch with nerves of steel will do whatever it takes to stay alive, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.


I guess it´s needless to say anything about Kim Harrison´s Hallows series. Everyone knows and loves it. I find it truly amazing that even after 8 books, she still manages to comes up with something incredible. Judging by the blurb, Pale Demon promises to be just as awesome as all the other books (and maybe someday, my prayers will be answered and Kisten is brought back to life. A girl can dream, right!). Pale Demon´s release date is February 22nd 2011.



Demon Marked is the sequel to Shadow Bound which is always on top of my TBR but somehow I never come around to actually read it. There´s not much about this one except that it´s supposed to be released sometime 2011. The cover is great though. The first book was made in mostly dark blues and black and now a lot of yellow and orange. I´m really waiting for more news about Demon Marked.









Venom is not even out yet and Jennifer estep already tortures us with news and bits about the book after Venom, Tangled Threads. On her homepage, she has released the mild spoilery backcover blurb:

I’d rather face a dozen lethal assas­sins any night than deal with some­thing as tricky, con­vo­luted, and frag­ile as my feelings.

But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assas­sin known as the Spi­der. Hov­er­ing out­side sexy busi­ness­man Owen Grayson’s front door like a ner­vous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my fore­head. Cold-blooded Fire ele­men­tal Mab Mon­roe has hired one of the smartest assas­sins in the busi­ness to trap me. Elek­tra LaFleur is skilled and effi­cient, with deadly elec­tri­cal ele­men­tal magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone pow­ers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t sur­vive this bat­tle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assas­sin to take out my baby sis­ter, Detec­tive Bria Coolidge, too. The only prob­lem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sib­ling … or that I’m the mur­derer she’s been chas­ing through Ash­land for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead …
As if that isn´t awesome and mind blowing enough (Owen Grayson AND her sister!!! LaFleur somehow always reminds me of LOST! Gah!), here is another treat for all Gin Bianco lovers: the first chapter of Tangled Threads.
Release date for Tangled Threads is May 2011.

And finally:


Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She’s never known any others of her kind. Until now.

An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River—one that her father’s people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help…

River Marked is also one of the books I´m dying to get. Did you read this blurb?? OMG!!! When it comes to walkers and weres, there´s hardly anything better than Mercy and Adam.
It´s released on January 25th 2011, still long, but managable.


I hope you enjoyed the news just as much as I did!

Please note that all the covers might not be final and still subject to changes!

America vs. Germany

No, I´m not talking about the football world cup, but about something else entirely.
Today, I spent two hours of my free time with my sister (yes, the surgeon) out shopping. Just like always, I stopped by my favourite local book store and tried talking her into buying a new book.
Since she´s not so comfortable with reading in English, we were looking for the German versions. Luckily, they had the first book in the Kate Daniels series. Here in Germany, it looks like this (in comparision to the original US cover):























The literal translation of the German title would be something like "City of Darkness: The Night of Magic". Here is the original:






















As soon as I was at home, I had to go online and see what the other German covers look like. Here´s what I found:




The literal translation of the German title would be "City of Darkness: The Dark Flood".

















The US cover looks like this:




















The thrid book in the series, Magic Strikes has this cover:


The title means "City of Darkness: Duell of the Shadows".

















The US cover in comparision:




















And finally, the latest one, Magic Bleeds. It´s not released yet in Germany, but the cover has already been published.


The German title would mean "City of Darkness: Magical Blood" in English.
















You probably know the US cover, as I´ve posted it quite a lot lately or maybe it´s already waiting on your own bookshelf, but just to make the series complete:




















Even though I´m not a big fan of the translations of the titles, I have to admit I kind of prefer the German covers. Ok, there is something that looks like spaceships in the first one (you can´t see them in the picture I used, but they are there), but the cover model and the color choice for each one are really beautiful. The woman is very similar to how I pictured Kate Daniels, even before I saw the covers.

So what do you think? Germany or USA? Who wins in the little cover war?

Cover Matters

Does the cover matter? A question that is so often asked. For me, it does.
This is a topic very often discussed in the blogsphere and after reading a similar post here, I felt inspired to share my thoughts as well.

As I´ve already stated in on of my review´s, I´m really not a big fan of the now so often used half-revealed man-chest and tattoos just for the sake of it.

Especially as there are so many beautiful covers and many very talented Cover artits out there.

One of my favourites are the covers of the Mercy Thompson Series, done by the uniquely talented Dan Dos Santos.

















Even though I just picked two random covers, all the others are just as breathtakingly beautiful. There are few books where seeing the face of a cover model doesn´t actually disturb me, quite the contrary. I couldn´t have pictured Mercy any better in my mind. I know that the cover also features tattoos, but Mercy, the main character, actually has tattoos.
I also always love it when you look at the cover after you´ve finished the book and you suddenly discover details that are also featured in the actual story.
Dan Dos Santos also has a great taste in the colors. In his covers, he manages to create an atmosphere which fits perfectly for each book, unlike many other of the seemingly random covers in the Urban Fantasy genre.
All in all, everytime I see the cover of a new Mercy Thompson book, that´s enough to make me want to have the book.

Onother great cover artist is Tony Mauro who has, among others created the covers for Jennifer Estep´s Elemental Assasin Series and Yasmine Galenorn. I´ve already mentioned the Elemental Assasin covers in my reviews for the book, but because I can´t stop raving about them, here´s what I liked most about them: once again, the details. Obviously, I´m all about details. In my opinion, you can judge by the amount of (relevant) details just how much work and thought an artist has put in his or her work. It seems like Tony Mauro has put some serious thought to it. Gin is captured wonderfully and the backgrounds are never random but very well chosen and do matter in the story. Well, like I said, I like raving about these covers.

















These two artists proove that it is possible to create original and destintive covers, ones I´d love to see more often. Other random covers I really like:


















































So, what are your favourite covers? And which one don´t you like at all?
Feel free to share your thoughts!