Libriomancer Cover Art
So yesterday, my friend Anton Strout commented that he had seen the cover art for Libriomancer, saying, “Holy Cats it is AWESOME!” Which is great … except that I hadn’t seen it yet! So I shot a rude comment in Anton’s direction (as one does), and e-mailed my publisher. DAW was kind enough to shoot the more-or-less final cover art my way.
The art is by Gene Mollica. My editor and I both independently came up with Gene’s name when we were brainstorming possible artists for this book, which amuses me to no end.
So anyway, meet Isaac Vainio, libriomancer from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and his fire-spider partner Smudge.
I am pleased.
You can click on the image for the extreme close-up, if you really want.
Kathryn
October 6, 2011 @ 9:45 am
Awesome! Can’t wait to get my grubbies on it 🙂
Gavic
October 6, 2011 @ 9:46 am
That’s an awesome cover design.
JRVogt
October 6, 2011 @ 9:52 am
The poor book! What’d it do to deserve getting stabbed? And is that…Smudge?
Love the art and can’t wait for the story!
Jim C. Hines
October 6, 2011 @ 9:55 am
Actually, Isaac is pulling the sword *out* of the book.
And yes, that is indeed Smudge the fire-spider 🙂
D. Moonfire
October 6, 2011 @ 9:56 am
So… pretty…
I bet you’re bouncy after seeing that.
Jim C. Hines
October 6, 2011 @ 10:01 am
I’ve been excited about this one for a while, and am very happy I finally get to share 🙂
Angela Korra'ti
October 6, 2011 @ 10:11 am
Oh wow, that’s gorgeous. 🙂 Looking forward to buying and reading!
Laura
October 6, 2011 @ 10:16 am
Pretty! I love it. 🙂
Jann M.
October 6, 2011 @ 10:18 am
What a great cover!! I would certainly buy that book even if I had no idea who you were!!
James
October 6, 2011 @ 10:32 am
It looks lovely, I was surprised because I thought you had a female protagonist 🙂
Jim C. Hines
October 6, 2011 @ 10:39 am
Not for this one. First-person from Isaac’s point of view. He does have a dryad partner, however, and there’s a decent chance I’ll be writing book two from her point of view.
Amy R.
October 6, 2011 @ 11:32 am
The cover is beautiful…and now I’m going to have to find out what it’s about. As a librarian, it’s great to see one as a hero. 🙂
Jeff Dougan
October 6, 2011 @ 11:37 am
I’m excited b/c I’m a Lansing native. (Great to see hometown folks “make it big” like you & Jef Mallet.) I have to ask where in the UP Isaac is from.
mattw
October 6, 2011 @ 1:29 pm
That cover is phenomenal! Can’t wait.
Jonathan Moeller
October 6, 2011 @ 2:37 pm
Now that is indeed a pretty cover. Congrats!
Though the hero does kind of look like a young Harry Dresden. 🙂
Kat
October 6, 2011 @ 6:31 pm
Love it. Very excited to read this one.
Maxine MagicFox
October 6, 2011 @ 7:57 pm
*Drools* Aww!! IT’S AWESOME!!
:3 If I saw that on the shelf without knowing it, it would be an automatic SNAG AND BUY.
Be pleased, Jim. Though I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. ^_^
Looking forward to the book!
liz
October 6, 2011 @ 11:10 pm
yeah, that’s pretty awesome.
Cheryl
October 7, 2011 @ 2:01 am
Hawt.
Kate Shaw
October 7, 2011 @ 9:11 am
That is indeed AWESOME! I can’t wait to read it. 🙂
Mikaela
October 7, 2011 @ 12:28 pm
Isaac Vainio? Was his ancestors finnish? ( It sounds like a finnish name :), at least to my swedish ears.)The cover is gorgeous!
Jim C. Hines
October 7, 2011 @ 12:34 pm
Bingo. Michigan’s Upper Penninsula has a pretty large Finnish population. And thank you!
KatG
October 9, 2011 @ 4:01 pm
Oh my, that’s pretty. When can we spread it about and what is the release date again?
Jim C. Hines
October 9, 2011 @ 5:40 pm
Release date is August of 2012.
I’m told this isn’t quite the final art — there will be a few more tweaks — but I was also told this could be shared publicly.
Susan
October 11, 2011 @ 11:35 pm
Congratulations! This is a fabulous cover–visually stunning, and glad you think it accurately represents the storyline. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the new series, and return of Smudge.
I do have to admit that since I now do the majority of my reading on Kindle, book covers aren’t as important to me as they once were. Oh, a snazzy cover may still initially catch my eye, but it’s just not as big a factor in getting me to buy the book (or not buy the book). And, once I have purchased the book and it’s in my queue/on my ebookshelf, the cover (if it’s even included in the ebook version) is totally irrelevant.
Wonder if/how e-publishing has changed covers/artwork/presentation?
Jim C. Hines
October 12, 2011 @ 10:52 am
I saw a discussion only yesterday (can’t remember where, of course) suggesting that cover art was evolving in a new direction, and that since places like Amazon and e-book sites display a thumbnail, more art is being designed to be visible and attractive at that postage stamp size.