The covers for my new SF novel are out in the world. E_______ can now be revealed as Esperance, the first time ever a title of mine has made it all the way to publication. I’m almost as excited about that as I am about the book itself!
I spoke a little bit about the covers last time, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much. A big difference between Esperance and my previous SF novel, Braking Day, is that Braking Day is space opera and Esperance isn’t. It’s very much set on present day Earth: a murder mystery with an SF twist.
According to my publishers, Esperance is what they call “speculative fiction,” which is what I naively think of as SF+. Science fiction for hardcore SF folks plus posh people who don’t generally admit to reading SF at all. In any event, speculative fiction covers tend to be different from their space opera counterparts. Space opera covers tend to be led by big machines and other tech — rockets and ray guns if you like — whereas speculative fiction covers lean toward the abstract. Compare Abaddon’s Gate, by James S.A. Corey, space opera with a vengeance, to Blake Crouch’s speculative classic: Dark Matter. While I was expecting something with fewer rockets and ray guns than Braking Day, the US cover, when it arrived in my inbox, was a real shock. The mosquito! The blood red background! The tiny little sailing ship! Once I climbed back on my chair, though, I quickly grew to love it. By the time they reach the last page, the symbolism will make sense to the reader and the starkness of the cover makes a wonderful visual impression.
Interestingly, the original UK cover concept also led with an animal: in this case, an acid pink barracuda. It may say something about my taste in animals, but I could never get comfortable with it. Arcadia were great and agreed to go back to the drawing board. I love the new cover with the sailing ship front and center amid worlds of multi-layered complexity. Again, I think it’s a cover that will make sense to the reader by the end of the story. Fingers crossed!