Hey, The Force Unleashed has a cover!



This kinda crept up on me. I guess that's what happens when you frequent places without the internet. :-)

Below is the cover* of my first kids' novel, The Changeling, which will be published by HarperCollins March 2008.

Below the cut are the covers to the sequels, The Dust Devils and The Scarecrow.

They couldn't be more different to the wonderful cover and illustrations by David Cornish, which I posted here a while back. It doesn't matter. I love them both. What do you think?

Soon I'll post an excerpt for your reading pleasure, and I'll link to that here.

I am quite immodestly proud of these books. They may be the best things I've written, so far.



( The Dust Devils & The Scarecrow )

* Cover design by Natalie Winter. Cover images all courtesy of Shutterstock.

It's been a great week for covers. Here's what the US edition of the second Astropolis novel, Earth Ascendant, will look like:



Stephan Martinière remains a god. (Thanks, also, to Cat Sparks for doing the techie stuff.) Hurrah!

Trivia: Amanda pointed out the giant saxophone on the left, and now I know it's there I can't see anything else--except for the mega-flugelhorn behind it. And could that be a titanic bongo peeping around the very right-hand edge of the cover? That's one hell of a cosmic combo! :-)

Today I received copies of the French edition of The Resurrected Man, aka Reconstitué. Hurrah!

Here's the cover art by Miguel Coimbra:



(You can see the layout, if you're interested, on the novel's official site at the link above.)

It's published by the most excellent éditions Bragelonne, who have been nothing but wonderful to me, and if you can read French there's an excerpt here.

This calls for champagne!

Thanks to Lou Anders for pointing me to this, which has truly blown my mind this morning. Hurrah!

Countdown to Astropolis: 10 days.

Here's the UK cover of Saturn Returns:



What do you think?

And here's the first review:

Saturn Returns by Sean Williams, Ace, 5/07, $7.99, ISBN 0-441-01493-3
"When I first started reading science fiction, I was particularly fond of the grand tour novel, stories where the protagonist travels through a series of strange worlds. Andre Norton's Galactic Derelict, Gordon R. Dickson's Mission to Universe, Murray Leinster's Colonial Survey all caught my imagination. Necessarily the visits were brief, tantalizing, leaving ample room for my imagination to fill in the gaps. Nowadays authors are expected to fill in a lot more of the detail, and while that makes their imaginary worlds more believable, it is less likely to stimulate my sense of wonder. Sean Williams threads a path between the two extremes in his latest, the story of a man who is reassembled after his death, and who sets out on a voyage of discovery to learn the truth about his past, and what led to his violent, though temporary, demise. This appears to be the first in a promising new series from one of the few writers still producing consistently excellent space opera.:

From Science Fiction Reviews.

I am excited!

Speaking, once again, of covers, a parcel arrived today containing some Russian editions. No dinosaurs this time, I'm sad to report, but the Orphans books (Echoes on the left and an omnibus of Orphans and Heirs on the right) have their own special qualities--for instance, algebraic graffiti on the bald chick's head. I love it!



Also, a reminder to those interested in reading my first new short story in six years: the Summer Reading Edition of the exceedingly respectable Bulletin, also featuring Lian Hearn, Tim Flannery, and many others, is out now.



If you look at the screen with a magnifying glass, you might just see my name on the cover.

I've never tried to paste a picture into my LJ before, so here goes.



This is the final cover of the US edition of Saturn Returns, slightly redesigned from the first version I posted a few weeks back but still featuring the amazing art of Stephan Martiniere.

What do you think?

(If you want a direct link, here it is.)

Well, I'm back at my desk. And whew: it's boiling here in Adelaide. It is, however, quite pleasant with the curtains closed, and I do love to mushroom over the summer months...

While I was away, Rob Bedford posted a couple of items to SFF World, namely a review of The Blood Debt (choice quotes below) and an interview with yours truly. The interview covers everything from balancing SF vs F, writing with Shane Dix, fantasy world-building, the Books of Change/Cataclysm, Astropolis, covers, Star Wars, and more. (Thanks for the interesting questions, Rob, and for the great review too!)

Also, the excellent Darren Nash of Orbit has blown a little secret I've been keeping for months: that one of the major landmarks in Saturn Returns name-checks my very dear friend, Cat Sparks. At her request, I should add, for anyone who thinks the reference disrespectful.

There are quite a few personal references in the book, some more covert than others. More on that soon, I suspect...

( The review... )

The cover of my next novel has just been unveiled to the world, and it's a corker! Stephan Martiniere is a god. I've been extraordinarily lucky with covers throughout my career. Even my foreign covers have been fun.

Saturn Returns also has a draft blurb, if you follow the link.

More news to come.