We’re excited to share the cover for A Plague of Giants, the start of a new fantasy series from Kevin Hearne publishing this October with Del Rey. When an army of giants invades, the kingdom’s only hope is a new discovery—a form of magic that will call the world’s wondrous beasts to fight by the side of humankind…
Check out the full cover by David G. Stevenson and Gene Mollica below!
Author Kevin Hearne on A Plague of Giants:
Back when I was teaching high school English I became quite familiar with The Iliad and The Odyssey, and always thought it fascinating that the bards of antiquity would perform their works in nightly installments around the hearth, using a lyre and maybe a cup or three of wine to keep the story flowing. I began to wonder if there might be a way to simulate that experience for modern readers, using prose rather than heroic couplets. If I created a bard that functioned not only as a character but as a framing device, perhaps I’d be able to tell the tale of an extraordinary war from many perspectives.
The challenge of weaving together such a narrative appealed to me, and I must admit that the Scrivener app helped tremendously as it allowed me to easily move parts of the narrative around. My geeky structural experiment became A Plague of Giants, the first book of a trilogy called The Seven Kennings.
The cover by Dave Stevenson and Gene Mollica is turbo badass and I love it. The brooding figure you see is one Gorin Mogen, a catalyst for much of the action and one of the personas that the bard takes on as he weaves his tale. Mogen’s people are one of two armies of giants that invade either side of a continent that has been at peace for a long time, and its people must quickly figure out how to stop the advance of forces that seem unstoppable. Some of the approaches succeed and others fail; the bard shares them all.
This story has been simmering inside me for ten years. I created the world and much of its magic system before I wrote the Iron Druid Chronicles, and even wrote a draft of the first volume longer than the finished book you’ll be reading. After writing seven Iron Druid books in a row, I was finally able to return to it. I jettisoned almost all of that first attempt, keeping only nine lines, the bard, and most of the map. (Yes, I illustrated my own map because my inner nerd is pretty hardcore.) I can’t wait for y’all to read it. Whether you’re new to my work or a longtime Iron Druid fan, I hope you’ll give it a try.
A Plague of Giants is available October 3rd from Del Rey.
