My editor sent me the cover art for Generation V (out in May 2013)! Check this out!

C’mon, look at that cover. You want to read this book, don’t you? It’s gritty! And cynical!

I am really so thrilled about this cover. My editor really surprised me a few months ago by asking me to put together some information about my preferences for cover art – artists I liked, other covers I could imagine fitting in with the tone of Generation V, and physical descriptions of the characters. I got to see an earlier version of this cover about a month ago, but it was very hush-hush until it got final approval.

But, honestly, it fulfilled all of my major hopes for the cover, in that it:

1: Looks really cool and badass. As my main example of how this could’ve gone wrong, gentle reader, I turn your attention to the awesome book Ariel by Steven R. Boyett:

This is what a badass cover looks like.

Look at that cover. It’s dark, the dude looks all kickass, weaponry is involved, and could New York City look any more apocalyptic? No, short of having Mothra making an entrance on stage left, it could not. This book is the literary version of a guy in a leather jacket leaning against a high school hallway wall and smoking a cigarette. You look at that cover in a bookstore and have to immediately give in to peer pressure and read this book.

Now, here’s what the original cover looked like:

Let us charitably refer to this as “less badass.”

Can you see the difference? For one thing, the guy on that cover looks like he’s about to burst into Disney-levels of song. And while everything on that cover is technically accurate to the book (including the *sigh* happy little dolphins) it’s not entirely stylistically appropriate. For one thing, that unicorn curses like a sailor.

It also fulfilled my cover desires in that it also:

2: Is not something that would make me embarrassed. Namely, it does not feature eroticized shirtlessness. Or the heaving of the bosoms. (not that there isn’t nudity in the book, because there totally is — I’m all about the fan service) An example of this would be like is what happened with the Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake books.

Here’s the original cover of the first book in that series, Guilty Pleasures:

Kind of cool, right? Has the heroine holding a gun, apparently threatening a building, plus the head of a dude with fangs. Kind of covers the main themes of the book.

Now here’s what the re-issued cover looks like:

That’s a cover that has implied theme music. And that music goes bow-chica-bow-wow for five minutes before the moaning gets too loud to hear it anymore.

So, that was pretty cool. Also cool? Well-published authors who were sent advanced copies of Generation V have said nice things about it! You can see the Karen Chance comment on the front – here’s the actual full text on it:

“I loved M. L. Brennan’s GENERATION V. Engrossing and endearingly quirky, with a creative and original vampire mythos, it’s a treat for any urban fantasy lover!” –Karen Chance

Suddenly I’m a bit more impressive, aren’t I? Well, brace yourselves, because here’s another one!

“Full of vivid characters and terrific world building, GENERATION V is a fun, fast-paced romp of a story that kept me glued to the pages to the very last word. Loved it! Bravo, M. L. Brennan, bravo!” — National bestselling author Devon Monk

I’m trying to figure out a faux-humble way to put these quotes on my Christmas cards this year. Which also leads me to the interesting etiquette quandary of, does one send thank-yous for good reviews? I was always told that you can’t say “thank you” for a good review, but that you should say “I’m glad you liked it” – apparently that removes any potential whiff of nepotism in action or something. But I’m also not sure how to phrase that email – “We’ve never met, but you liked my book, so thank you. PS: Loved Dead Iron. XOXO – M. L. Brennan”

Hm. Has possibilities.

In last news of the awesome, Generation V now has its own pages on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble! You can even pre-order it! (hint.. hint…)