Upcoming Paperback: “The Black Prism” by Brent Weeks (Orbit)

This isn’t an entirely new release, of course (I reviewed The Black Prism back in September 2010), but with the paperback release, Orbit have commissioned an excellent new cover for the first novel in the Lightbringer series. The new artwork matches the style of The Blinding Knife, the sequel. Here’s the synopsis, in case you missed the book’s release the first time around:

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace.

But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals. But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

The Blinding Knife is out now in hardcover, also from Orbit (both US and UK). The trade paperback edition of The Black Prism will be released July 23, 2013.

The Blinding Knife is inching up my TBR mountain quite rapidly, so expect it to feature on here sometime in the (hopefully) near future.

And one more for Mr. Weeks (Orbit)

It would appear that Brent Weeks’ The Black Prism has had a re-design. While I had no problem with the original cover (it matched the style of his Night Angel Trilogy), the new cover artwork is a lot more atmospheric and, now that we know a little bit more about what the novel’s actually about, it seems to match better.

The original, leaked artwork:

And the newer, slightly Prince of Persia-esque artwork:

And here’s the synopsis:

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

I must admit to not being 100% sure about having the protagonist named Gavin, as it seems a little… I don’t know… not entirely heroic. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, though. (What a terrible bias to have…)

Thanks to the excellent A Dribble of Ink for posting about this – otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about it. I have since found the original post on Orbit’s website. Although I do disagree with Adrian – I like this cover quite a bit. It’s simple, and more in keeping with the UK market (as far as I can tell). It’s clear, though, that we have different tastes when it comes to cover artwork, as I personally don’t like the new artwork for Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, which is done in the US style.