The Dragons of Heaven: Cover Reveal

Would you deal with the devil to save the world?

That’s the question posed on the back cover of The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms and here’s the rest of what’s on offer:

Street magician Missy Masters inherited more than the usual genetic cocktail from her estranged grandfather – she also got his preternatural control of shadow and his legacy as the vigilante hero, Mr Mystic. Problem is, being a pulp hero takes more than a good fedora and a knack for witty banter, and Missy lacks the one thing Mr. Mystic had: experience. Determined to live up to her birthright, Missy journeys to China to seek the aid of Lung Huang, the ancient master who once guided her grandfather.

Lung Huang isn’t quite as ancient as Missy expected, and she finds herself embroiled in the politics of Lung Huang and his siblings, the nine dragon-guardians of creation. When Lung Di, Lung Huang’s brother and mortal enemy, raises a magical barrier that cuts off China from the rest of the world, it falls to the new Mr Mystic to prove herself by taking down the barrier. But is it too great a task for a lone adventure hero?

But more on that in a minute, we lured you here to see the cover and we don’t want you to use the words ‘false pretences’ do me? So, quick – check this out:

Anyone who knows me will know how much I love dragons (who doesn’t, right?), but this cover is a winner for so many reasons. The silhouette style of art is one I’ve always been fond of and the red and black contrast compliments it beautifully. The dark and mysterious figure is equal parts sinister and intriguing; giving the overall feel of the cover the same feel as the blurb: fun yet dangerous.

Returning to the above cover blurb for a moment, it sounds very much like this novel will have a Dresden Files kind of feel to it but with a younger, female protagonist and an Asian setting. I for one have been glad to see Asian settings become more popular in fantasy and we’ve had some great novels featuring female protagonists in Asia these last few years – Stormdancer and Shanghai Sparrow being two recent examples I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. That said, this novel sounds like it will take a very different path than either of these titles. Indeed, it sounds fairly unique to me and I’m really looking forward to it; I’ll be sure to post up a review when I’m done.

Make sure you stop by Fantasy-Faction tomorrow, because we have the author – Alyc Helms – stopping by to tell us a bit more about why she choose to write about China…

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