Thursday 3 March 2011

Cover Art and Blurb - 'The Desert of Souls' (Howard Andrew Jones)

Because just looking at the cover art reminds me of all those old 'Sinbad' films that I used to watch on a Sunday afternoon when I was a child. Check it out,

Isn't that gorgeous? Makes me want to go and watch 'Thief of Baghdad' all over again. What? It's a great film... Check out the blurb (for 'The Desert of Souls', not 'Thief of Baghdad'...)

In 9th century Baghdad, a stranger pleads with the vizier to safeguard the bejewelled tablet he carries, but he is murdered before he can explain. Charged with solving the puzzle, the scholar Dabir soon realizes that the tablet may unlock secrets hidden within the lost city of Ubar, the Atlantis of the sands. When the tablet is stolen from his care, Dabir and Captain Asim are sent after it, and into a life and death chase through the ancient Middle East. Stopping the thieves - a cunning Greek spy and a fire wizard of the Magi - requires a desperate journey into the desert, but first Dabir and Asim must find the lost ruins of Ubar and contend with a mythic, sorcerous being that has traded wisdom for the souls of men since the dawn of time.

 I'm in and I'll be moving this into the 'to read' pile just as soon as other books are read first (probably 'City of Ruin' the way things are going). It's also got me looking for my old copy of Tad Williams and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's 'Child of an Ancient City' so you can probably expect a review of that fairly soon as well... What do you think of the cover in the meantime?

5 comments:

Doug M said...

The Cover is gorgeous... and the story's not half and either ;)

Graeme Flory said...

Give me a couple of spare seconds and I'll be right into it! Really looking forward to cracking this one open :o)

Elfy said...

That looks and sounds really cool. Arabian Nights themed stuff gets me in every time. I still have fond memories of Stephen Goldin's Parsina series and Esther Friesner's Mustafa and His Wise Dog. I even loved the Weis and Hickman Prophet of the Rose trilogy.

Jay said...

Makes me think of the old Prince of Persia games, they were so much fun. In a way anything with the look and feel of the Arabian adventure has a way of inspiring a magical feel.

NatD23 said...

My first thought was, Wow that reminds me of Arabian Nights (Sinbad is often included in Arabian Nights, so you could say we had the same thought).
Then I read the blurb and The Big Idea post on Whatever and I knew I would have to buy it, now I just have to stop buying sweet treats when I am out, so I can save up the money.