First, let me state: I have no idea if this is a good book or not. I just want to read it, to find out.The author is Caucasian, and South African, which made me do an auto-flinch and not want to post about this, but I got over that. Judging a book by the author = worse than judging it by its cover.
And yet, what a cover. The artwork is by John Picacio, a World Fantasy Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated illustrator of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
From Mr. Picacio's blog:
Relevant note here -- it's not often that authors have input during the process of making a cover. There are lots of reasons for this, and that could be a whole blog post by itself. The point is it doesn't happen often. In this case, Lauren was very involved, and she and Marc Gascoigne (publishing director) were fun collaborators. It was my first time working with Angry Robot, and a pleasure. They're building a terrific line of books. I'm really excited about ZOO CITY, and am already looking forward to its release in May.
This is out in JUNE in the U.S., and May in the UK. It's ...transitional cyberpunk. It's not YA, but it looks intriguing.
And look at that cover.
Just a little relief from Cover Fail(s) You Might Have Observed.
Via SF Signal.
8 comments:
Gorgeous cover! I don't even read much adult SF&F these days, but if I saw that in the store I would definitely pick it up for a second look.
My best friend is Caucasian and South African - she's used to people forgetting that there are white folks from Africa, incidentally, which would make for an interesting story some day, I think. But I get that that wasn't your point. It's just me digressing, as I do.
Cool looking cover - I'd certainly pick the book up to see what it's about.
Well, consider me intrigued. Cyberpunk can be a lot of fun, when it's not too heavy-handed.
The only YA book I can think of that I've read by a Caucasian South African author was Spud by Jon van de Ruit (I reviewed it here).
I should be clear that my only interaction with White South Africans came from a.) apartheid, and b.) a guy I really couldn't stand in college. Neither or those quite works for a worldview. My moment of "Hm!" had to do with the fact that the woman on the cover is not a White South African.
The dog on the cover was neat - very intelligent looking, making me think of aliens, cosplay, and Men In Black, amusingly. Thoroughly intriguing.
Color me intrigued as well. This is a case of a cover doing a great job - something we don't see that often lately (in any context).
I need to do another good covers post, just to remind me that not all cover designers are lame!! ha!
That is a cool cover. But what is "transitional cyberpunk"?
Isn't Beverly Naidoo a white South African? I've read one book by her (The Other Side of Truth, I think. Or something like that) and have a couple more of her books on hold right now as part of the Southern African fiction kick I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
Beverly Naidoo IS also white South African! I had no idea. I just liked her books.
See? THIS is why I kicked myself for flinching before. You never know. Just read the darned book.
Meanwhile, transitional cyberpunk is like... well, William Gibson started the genre in the late 80's, really, with his books, and then it flowered in the 90's with the movies. It's changing into something else now. (I mean, THE DOG??) It looks transitional to me, and the genre is changing anyway...
Yeah, that was as good an explanation as any, huh? ;)
That is QUITE a cover. So many covers, so little time. At least the ones that jump out like this beg to be opened ...
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