I was absolutely blown away by the truly epic fantasy debut that is The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley. And so I’m delighted to share the UK cover design for his next book, The Providence of Fire, publishing January 15th from Tor UK. See below for the full cover in all its glory—this book might even be, gasp, better than book one! You might think us editors are lucky to read books before everyone else, but my wait until book three will still seem interminable!
Our in-house designer Jo Thompson worked on the cover for this and she’s done an amazing job in conjuring up the atmosphere of the book, using some carefully sourced images from both Shutterstock and Arcangel images.
A Song of Ice and Fire comparisons are used a lot these days to tempt readers in. But it totally works here, it really does! if you want a tale dripping with empire building, betrayals and intrigue, told from the points of views of a number of utterly magnetic, flawed characters, you’ve found your next read in Staveley’s Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne. Book One, The Emperor’s Blades, was on the list of BuzzFeed.com’s most-anticipated SF/F reads for 2014—and it was also on the Fantasy Faction blog for most anticipated fantasy for 2014. You can read the first seven chapters for free here on Tor.com!
The Providence of Fire is every bit as special. My last words (okay, not really last words on this at all) are read it, read it, read it! Because if book one was a breathtaking fantasy read, you’re going to need a double handful of adjectives to praise book two. Here’s that cover design below…
Check out Richard Anderson’s cover art for the US edition of The Providence of Fire, and join in on Staveley’s scavenger hunt to unlock an excerpt from the novel, “The Last Abbot of Ashk’lan.” Find out more about Brian Staveley in his interview with Tor UK, his Pop Quiz interview with Tor.com, and highlights from his Q&A session on reddit.
Bella Pagan is a Senior commissioning editor for Pan Macmillan’s Tor imprint in the UK, working on out-of-this world SF, fantasy and urban fantasy (plus other subdivisions, factions and associated areas). On twitter as @BellaPagan.
