Random Cover Art Monday! ‘Surrender to the Will of the Night’ (Glen Cook)

Yep, it’s another instalment of the occasional feature where I grab a book (more or less) at random off the pile and either gush or rant about the cover art before I get down to the serious business of reading it. I’m a big fan of Raymond Swanland’s art on the ‘Black Company’ books, and the ‘Dread Empire’ books as well come to think of it, so you can probably guess where this one is going. Check it out…

If only sci-fi/fantasy cover art had been like this when I was a kid, I would have probably kept a lot more of my books from way back then. I seem to be seeing a lot more of Swanland's work around but it never loses it's impact, for me mostly because of the impression he gives of that moment just when mere movement is about to become an awesome display of power (magical or otherwise).

'Surrender to the Will of the Night' is due to be released in November this year which gives me time to finally get round to reading 'Lord of the Silent Kingdom' first (fingers crossed). Here's the blurb to be going on with...

Piper Hecht’s secrets make him dangerous, but his skill and his reputation put him in danger—from his enemies, who fear what he might do, or who want revenge for what he has already done; and from his friends, who want to use his military gifts for their own purposes. His sister Heris and his living ancestor Cloven Februaren, the Ninth Unknown, have made Hecht part of their fight against the return of the dark god Kharoulke the Windwalker. At the same time, the half-mad Empress Katrin wants him to lead the armies of the Grail Empire eastward on a crusade against his old coreligionists the Praman.

Meanwhile, all around them, the world is changing. The winters are growing longer and harder every year, and the seas are getting shallower. The far north and the high mountain ranges are going under the ice, and fast. The Wells of Power, everywhere, keep getting weaker. And the old evils, the Instrumentalities from the Time Before Time, have begun to ooze back into the world...