Cover Artistry / Recommended Reading: 'Halting State' by Charles Stross

Via the Orbit Books website, I've just caught my first glance of the cover for the new Charles Stross novel Halting State [Amazon], which Orbit will publish later this month.

And here it is:

I read Halting State towards the end of last year and, although I didn't manage to find time to talk about it at the time (much to my annoyance), I'm jumping in late to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and can recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good crime-solving caper that's simultaneously a bit of a laugh.

It's set in a near-ish-future ~~Glasgow~~ Edinburgh (and bits of Glasgow) in which Web 2.0 Wizardry - of the sort that we're all just about getting used to at the moment, and then some - has become commonplace and largely mainstream and more widely applied. So for instance: your glasses-shaped personal heads-up display will show you a) exactly where the next bus is and how far that would be from the stop you're currently standing at, and b) which of the hoodie-clad teenagers on the top-deck are red-tagged with ASBO warning flags. Very useful, if you ask me.

It's also a near-ish-future in which virtual gaming is big, big mega-business. So when a virtual robbery that takes place within one of the leading commercial game worlds it turns out to have ramifications far, far beyond the theft of a smattering of electronic loot, especially once it's linked to an actual, real, meatspace-murder.

Enter one recently-unemployed coder, one career-ladder climbing e-insurance investigator and the hapless local constabulary, un-aided, obstructed and generally made to feel unwelcome by everyone, from the M.D. of the gaming co that's been robbed, to a passing EU cybercrime special forces unit...

All in all, it's a tightly-plotted whodunnit that rattles along, and is thoroughly steeped in geek culture to boot (Paul R, James B, Ed A and definitely Joe G, you guys should definitely be reading this one if you haven't already). And there are lots of delightfully nerdy in-jokes throughout, although I have to stress that it's far from being a humour novel per se, in the sense that, say, a Tom Holt or Robert Rankin book would be. Rather, it's got the same sort of dry, chuckle-provoking wit that you get from Iain Banks at his best, or from Michael Marshall Smith's early sf novels. Think 'sarcastic semi-sentient domestic appliances', rather than 'demonically-possessed video game controllers' and you won't be far off the general tone.

The thing is, though, do you really get that impression from the cover? Don't get me wrong, having read the book I think it fits the story quite well. But then I've read the book, so I have the benefit of hindsight, and the cover isn't having to work to sell the book to me as a potential reader. I also think I know exactly which potential readers Orbit are hoping to hook with this approach to jacketing Halting State; readers of the likes of Douglas Coupland...

'Microserfs' by Douglas Coupland - Click for ordering info from Amazon.co.uk

'JPod' by Douglas Coupland - Click for ordering info from Amazon.co.uk

...which is a pretty shrewd marketing move if you ask me and one that will hopefully help to flip the book over into mainstream consciousness, with the higher sales potential that's thereby implied and that the book definitely deserves.

Although - and here's what worries me - given that Charles Stross is a well-established SF author, and that bookstores do tend to be fairly anal about the whole categorisation / shelving thing... isn't there a danger that Halting State will just be dumped into the sf section as a matter of course? And that once there, the colourful, cartoonish sprites will give it the sort of Holt / Rankin air that could put off even some readers of Stross's hardcore sf novels? What does everyone else think?

Personally, I hope that the strength of Stross's ever-growing reputation will help carry it forward regardless of placement, and that plenty of general sf readers will read good reviews (like the ones flagged by Orbit), see past the cover - if indeed they do have a problem with it at all - and give the book a go. It's certainly recommended by me, for what that's worth...

And (equally, for what it's worth) if I was in the marketing department at Orbit, I'd be sending a pack of 10 copies to the editorial departments of Wired, T3, PC Gamer and every other gadget / computer game / geek magazine in the UK (and ~~the US~~* Australia as well, assuming an international launch) just to get those guys talking about it on their own message boards and blogs. Because I reckon that's where the pay-off for Halting State is going to be. But then, knowing Orbit, they'll have thought of that one already...

* My bad: the US edition is published by Ace Books, not Orbit...

January 4, 2008 | Filed Under Books, Cover Art | 10 Comments

Cover Artistry: 'The Ten Thousand' by Paul Kearney (Solaris, UK)

A couple of weeks ago, Solaris Books unveiled the cover of the forthcoming (September 2008) Paul Kearney novel The Ten Thousand [Amazon] over on the Solaris blog.

Here's the cover art, with illustration by Chris McGrath:

I love the overall atmosphere that Chris has created here: the colour, tone and texture of the piece is just terrific, as is the depth of the image; with several layers of action and interaction, giving the impression of an ongoing action sequence. I like the overall design as well: the composition and layout adds to and enhances the aesthetic of the cover; typography is suitably strong and stark, not fussy or over-fancy.

Paul Kearney writes very gritty, often dark epic / heroic fantasy, with very strong military content and I think this whole package reflects that general approach very well; certainly much better than any the earlier covers for his Monarchies of God series, which played up the fantasy elements much more, or his Sea Beggars books, which I think maybe tried too hard to play down the fantasy elements and disguise themselves as nautical fiction.

I will admit that when I first saw this cover - I run Paul's website, and he sent me the cover a few weeks back to have a look at - I was rather dubious about pretty-boy on the right-hand side there. But I'm sure there are all sorts of perfectly valid, marketing-driven reasons why a cover ought to include a jolly good-looking chap like that. Maybe there are particular market segments that the publisher wants to appeal to, or maybe the cover is also intended for use in the US market, where character portraits are much more commonly used.

But still... surely that guy is just too darned pretty to have fought in and survived the sort of conflicts that the hardened mercenary warriors in The Ten Thousand will have been involved in? Then again, I haven't read the book yet, so maybe he looks exactly right. We'll see.

Although, with reference to my previous post, I do think that putting the main character in a full-face helm, like the ones the figures in the background are all wearing, would have been better. That would have allowed the reader to associate more strongly with the imagery; imagining themselves inside that helm, marching into battle on some far-flung field... rather than wondering who the male model is, and how he managed to wander into the middle of a battle without getting his stubble-jawed head lopped off...

So, to summarise: a very good cover indeed, with terrific artwork and great atmospheric effect. Well-designed and nicely laid out; only slightly let down by the portrait effect and the male-model subject matter. But I'm sure I'll get over it, because I've read the first few chapters of The Ten Thousand, courtesy of Mr K, and the story so far is shaping up very, very nicely indeed...

December 1, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Cover Art | 8 Comments

Cover Theory: Putting a Face to it.

Here's a question for you: do you think it's a good idea, or a bad idea, to have character portraits - specifically clear, distinct faces - on book covers?

My current theory, which I'd welcome your thoughts on, is this:

I think I'm right in saying that readers tend (however consciously or subconsciously) to identify with the main character of the novel they're reading. In doing so - by picturing themselves in that lead role and mentally role-playing their way through the narrative - they increase their sense of identification and association with the book. Which is a Good Thing, yes?

But a face is a very strong indicator of personality and individuality. So if you put a face on a book cover, won't that create the sense of entity and persona for that character that's distinct and removed from that of the reader? And wouldn't that be a psychological obstacle to the identification of the reader with the character, and result in the lessening of the reader's involvement in the novel?

In which case, surely publishers should avoid portraying characters on the covers of their books? Particularly if it's one of the principle p.o.v. characters, and definitely if it's the main, first-person narrator of the story. Otherwise there's a risk that readers won't immerse themselves fully in the narrative, and won't form such a strong associative bond with the series, or with the author's ongoing body of work. Not such a Good Thing.

Or am I reading too much into the idea of automatic reader-as-character association?

I do know it's something that I tend to do. One of the (many) reasons I'm such a big fan of The Dresden Files (covers by Orbit, example to the right reflected throughout the series: no characters in evidence whatsoever) used to be that I just knew I'd look damn good in that duster coat... but when I read the last installment, I just saw the guy from the TV series (which creates an even bigger dissociation problem than a character on a book jacket, for obvious reasons) in my mind's eye. I was no longer reading the adventures of me-as-Harry-Dresden; I was watching a new TV episode in my head, instead.

Then again, not everyone will have the same subjective experience when reading a book as I do, obviously. And anyway, isn't the quality of the prose, the degree to which the descriptive writing evokes the sense of character, far more likely to generate a sense of deep involvement than any image on the cover?

I have to admit that it's been a personal bugbear of mine for years; one I do keep coming back to. And for now I'm still on the side of 'faces on covers = bad'.

But what do you think?

November 28, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Cover Art | 6 Comments