It’s no secret that Angry Robot Books are amongst Fantasy-Faction’s favourite SFF publishers here in the UK. Having been lucky enough to meet a number of their team at conventions and through the interwebs I know that each and every one of them are true genre fans. And, because they are true genre fans, they know a good book when they read it. Another advantage Angry Robot have over some of the other genre publishers is that they have a connection with fans that other publishers struggle with. This isn’t just because their team is always at conventions and using social media to connect, but also because they are small enough that they can listen to readers and take risks on certain titles that other publishers may shun. And yet they are part of a large organisation with huge distribution channels that mean they can reach global readers. Essentially, as a publishing company, they are in that sweet spot.
One of their latest titles, Waterborne Blade by Susan Murray is a great example of this. It is no secret that there are not enough female protagonists (even characters really) in fantasy that aren’t delicate, warrior-women or ninja assassins. The protagonist of this novel, Alwenna, is a courtly Queen, and has intelligence and strength, but isn’t Cersei. Additionally, Waterborne Blade never quite lets you know the genre of book it is. At first you might think it is a book about growing up in court, then perhaps a ‘quest’ style fantasy book – but it ends up being neither and yet retains the kind of politics and magics that we love from both sub-genres.
Anyway, I won’t spoil the plot for you, but if you’ve read it you are no doubt anticipating the second book and although we can’t give it to you, Angry Robot have kindly allowed us to jointly reveal the cover with them. So, without further chatter from me, here is the second book in the cover for the second book in the Waterborne series, Waterborne Exile (designed by Paul Young at Artist Partners):
Beau-ti-ful, right? I really like it. The white courtly dress contrasts almost disturbingly with the bowl of red liquid (blood?). It asks a lot of questions that a reader would surely be wanting to know the answers to: why is someone wearing such ‘pure’ clothing carrying a bowl of blood? Who is she offering it too? What are those whips in the background? You also have the advantage that it isn’t like many other covers out there. There are no hooded men… no men at all actually. The woman we see isn’t in an action pose. It’s a great cover from Angry Robot as we’ve come to expect. Here is a bit more about the book:
A nameless priestess will stop at nothing to get revenge on the killers of her lover.
In a world of turmoil, the traitor Vasic is struggling to secure his rule over the combined Peninsular Kingdoms whilst the exiled queen, Alwenna, has taken refuge with a freemerchant community whose elders fear her dark power.
Mistrust rules the day with bribery, drugs, trafficking of children, and murder rife throughout the kingdom.
As the priestess’ plot for revenge continues, Alenna leaves to seek the outcast group of loyal kinsman. Marten attempts to restore Alwenna to the throne but as the priestess closes in, will he succeed?
Pre-Order Links:
UK Print & Ebook
Amazon.co.uk | Book Depository | Waterstones | WHS
North American Print & Ebook
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Barne
Global DRM-Free Epub & Mobi Ebook
On-sale 6th August 2015 from the Robot Trading Company
Jennie Ivins
Richard Marpole
Tolkien may well have used Richard 3 to deepen his LOTR characters, but he drew their names from Dutch/German lore. “Gollum” stands for the sound one makes when clearing the throat shortly before spitting In the book, Gollum repeatedly throws up slime. This becomes even more interesting when closely looking at Gollum’s other name, to wit “Smeagol”, written in Dutch as “Smiegel” and pronouced as “Smygel”.. Smiegel litterally means “crawler”. It is directly related to (Eng) “smicer” and to (German) “Schmeigler”. At any rate Smeagol drips with slime and, as a character, needs no further clarification, as neither does Richard 3.. .