Mark Lawrence’s Red Sister has already had a number of awesome covers. If you’re in the US you’ve been able to enjoy the Hunger Games inspired one with Nona holding a sword in a DBZ like stance; If you’re in the UK then you’ve had the more elegant, snowy cover that seems to draw inspiration from dark fairy tales, like Little Red Riding Hood.
Publishers are always looking at ways to appeal to a larger audience though and, despite us readers knowing we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, switching up the cover art is the main way to do this. So, Voyager has done exactly this for their upcoming paperback release. Below you see a huge change from the elegant fairy tale vibe given on the hardcover.
If this cover by Tomasz Jedruszek looks familiar, it’s because Mark Lawrence was sent it as a theoretical cover for Mary Lawrence’s (not a typo) Princess of Thorns. Confused? See here. As such, I’ve seen this image used quite a lot in relation to Mark’s work and I’ve always found it creepy (something about the woman’s eyes that seem to stare into my soul) and I think that’s what the artist and publisher were going for. Mark Lawrence has made his name in the grimdark genre and although I feel Red Sister sits less comfortably under that label and has much more mass market appeal, it makes sense that the second cover seeks to appeal to fans who picked up the book for the dark, disturbing Jorg covers. I really like it and I think fans of Mark’s work who may have skipped Red Sister thinking it was a departure of style will now give it a shot. It’s also going to get picked up by new readers searching for something grim and that’s important too.
Here’s the blurb:
It’s not until you’re broken that you find your sharpest edge.
“I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.”
At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.
But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.
Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive.
The Red Sister paperback is due 5th April 2018 in the UK. You can pre-order it here.
Jennie Ivins
Wow that’s stunning