Cover Art! 'Stormdancer' (Jay Kristoff)

Work is giving me a good kicking at the moment (still prefer it to not being in work though), and I spent a large part of yesterday evening trying to get the little one off to sleep, so todays review becomes tomorrows interview instead. Again, I know... On the plus side, everything is getting backed up so much that there's a time coming when there will be nothing but wall to wall reviews for a whole month at least (maybe). Thanks for bearing with me ;o)

In the meantime... I can't believe that's it been over a year since I wrote this post about Jay Kristoff's 'Stormdancer' being acquired by MacMillan (Tor UK over here, Thomas Dunne over there) and how I wasn't that sure about it. Turns out that sixteen months is more than long enough for me to look past the unfortunate 'Eragon' comparison and focus on the cool stuff instead (like chainsaw katanas, I'll have some of that thanks!) Subject to my being able to get hold of a copy I'll be reading 'Stormdancer' and aiming for something a little faster than my normal tardy reviews... The book itself isn't due for release until around September (although ARCs are starting to find their way to people now I think) which gives me a little time :o)

Until then, have a little blurb and tell me if you'd go for the UK or US cover. This time round I honestly can't chose between the two. Blurb first,

A DYING LAND 
The Shima Imperium is verging on the brink of environmental collapse; decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshippers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, land choked with toxic pollution, wildlife ravaged by mass extinctions.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of the imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary beast, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows thunder tigers have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a hidden gift that would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.
But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

And now, have some cover art...

 The US Cover.

The UK Cover.

I still can't call it between the two, which would you go for?